One Year

I cannot believe that it's already been a year. I'm beyond words. The year has been filled with so many memories - from our rainy honeymoon & carbon monoxide problem, to the candle-lit dinner my husband surprised me with just a few days ago. I can only hope the rest of our lives are filled with as much love, joy, laughter and learning as the past year has been. Happy Anniversary, my love!

Thanks A Million! Minted Submissions

As I mentioned in my last post, Minted has been having back-to-back challenges to keep us designers super busy. One of the challenges was the "Thanks A Million!" thank you card challenge. Thank you cards have always been one of my favorite things to design, and they were actually some of the very first items I had for sale in my Etsy shop.

It was a lot of fun creating these designs - I tried some new techniques and really pushed myself out of my comfort zone by using new fonts, textures, hand drawn elements and different type layouts. At the end of the day, I love the designs I submitted and am proud that it's such an obvious sign of growth for me as a designer.

handy, dignified, gratitude, curled, opaque, petite gratitude, sky high, steele

Voting is still open for the Thanks A Million challenge, so please head on over and tell Minted what to sell! 

Smoldering Business Cards - Now for Sale on Minted!

My "Smoldering" business cards are now for sale at Minted. Head on over and check them out!

"Smoldering" comes in three different color options and has a variety of options for the backer. they are the perfect new business cards for the upcoming hot summer!

Recent Design Work - Oh, Hello!

Oh boy! It's been over a month since my last blog post - I'm contemplating reintroducing myself! Just kidding, hopefully you remember who I am ;)

If you've been following my blog for a long time, you might have noticed a trend where I really seem to back off blogging during the months of December and May - if you're wondering why, it's because that's the end of the school semester (don't forget, I go to grad school at night!) Towards the end of the semester my evenings are filled with school projects, papers, finals and registering for the next semester. Not much time for blogging.

But, just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean my business has been idle. Believe Notes has been  launching new items, submitting to Minted challenges, and working on some wedding invitations to add to the shop. I have also been looking into new business adventures, and cannot wait to share some of the fun things that will be happening in the future.

Oh, and I've been buying fonts. Because, as I've said before, some girls buy shoes when they're stressed - but this girl buys fonts. Although, this past month has been a month of shoes and fonts - I guess that means I've been uber stressed??

Minted has been having challenge after challenge after challenge. It's been hard enough keeping up with that, let alone everything else going on! One recent challenge that I'm waiting to hear back about winners is the Cheers! Wedding Party Invitation Challenge. The designers were asked to come up with designs for engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, and bridal showers. Minted often has "special categories" for their challenges where they ask designers to design for a specific theme, and one of the special categories was for a tasteful lingerie shower. I always try to have a few submissions that cater to the special categories. So, without further explanation, here are the designs I submitted for the Cheers! challenge:

 Into the Sunset, Embraced, Best Necessities, Barely There, Antique Flora

Hope you head on over to Minted and vote on the recent challenges! Your vote always counts, so head on over and tell Minted what to sell!

Font Lust :: Spring Finds

I've got the itch again...the font buying itch.

There are have been so many lovely new fonts coming out, and I've been working on some beautiful custom designs which make me want to use beautiful fonts. I love fonts.

Here are some fonts that I'm swooning over right now.

Brownstone is a popular, fun, sans serif that is on sale for only $83. Not only do you get the font, but you get all of the amazing frames as well. Or, if you don't need the whole package, by the pieces separately for under $25 each.

Air is a fun new font. I love the big, round letters, and could totally see it on a birthday party invitation. It's now on sale for $63 for all 5 fonts.

Jacques & Gilles is all the rage right now. It's a brand new calligraphy font from Emily Lime and is only $17! Emily Lime always releases fonts for super great prices before they go "main stream". Usually fonts start at $70+, so run over and catch this one before it hits the big time!

Reina is a beautiful typeface that blends calligraphy with bold, serif type. I love that I can't pinpoint the exact style, which makes me feel like I could use it in a variety of designs. It has TONS of buying options, with prices starting at $22, so do some research before figuring our which one will suite you the most.

Enjoy your font shopping everybody!

Minted Design Challenge - Deck the Office Business Holiday Card Challenge

I know, I know, it's only April! But it's Christmas in full swing over at Minted. As designers we have to start preparing for the holidays way in advance, so the Minted holiday challenges are always in late spring/early summer. 

The most recent design challenge is the "Deck the Office Business Holiday Card Challenge" which had asked us designers to come up with some non-photo holidays cards that would be perfect for businesses to send to their clients. You can go vote on all (593!) of the fabulous designs here.  

Please go and vote on my designs to tell me what you think of them. Here are my two submissions for this challenge:

Snowy Man

Starry Night

I've always admired the designers that can use textures and colors in their designs. For some reason I always thought it was something I couldn't do, but a few weeks ago I started trying to learn the art. There's definitely a lot to learn, but I love the way these two designs came out! Hope you like 'em too! 

From Humble Beginnings - Easter 2012

This year my family strayed from our Easter tradition and spent the day with my husbands family. Some of you might be gasping - the in-laws? all together in one place?! uh oh! - but no, our families are not like that.

My husband and I have been together for almost nine years now, and our families have grown together. My parents and his parents, my grandparents and his grandparents, my cousins and his cousins...in fact, I've never really thought of it as "his" family and "my family" but it's very much always been "our" family. And yes, I absolutely know how lucky I am to be able to say that I love my in-laws, and that my husband loves his in-laws as well!

We took a family portrait (good call, Emily!) and I'm glad we did! It captured the day, the crowd, the family I cannot wait to see what our family looks like next year (and the year after, and after, and after, and after).

After dinner my husbands grandparents and my grandparents shared stories of "the old country" (Italy and Argentina) and talked about where they grew up, where they came from. They came from humble beginnings, and I think they got a little sentimental talking about where the family is now.

"From Humble Beginnings Come Great Things" - I found this quote and think it's perfect. If you want to  purchase a print, head on over to Help Ink, who donates the proceeds to a fabulous cause. They have absolutely studding prints & are worth the small cost.