Hawaiian-themed invitations

A couple of months ago one of my favorite customers, Heather, (who I've previously mentioned here and here) asked me to create some Hawaiian-themed invitations for a surprise birthday party. I've been so excited to see the party pictures, and she just posted them yesterday. Here are a few of my favorites...

more thoughts on balance...

I hope I don't sound like a broken record, but I thought of something this evening that I'd like to share...

As Sarah & Abraham has grown and I've found myself enjoying this work more and more, I've really been letting things slide around the house. I always keep the dishes and laundry caught up, but we've been eating takeout and frozen pizza way more than I'd like to, and my lax attitude about vacuuming, dusting, etc. has become a bit ridiculous.

So for the past week or so I've shifted my focus back to this concept of balance once again. I've been making time for the things that matter and not allowing other things to get in the way.

For example, for the past couple of weeks my daily orders have been about three times my usual average, but I've been making a conscious effort to step away from the computer and make plans with friends and do fun things with my kids. My husband has been working 4-days a week so I can have one full day a week of uninterrupted work, but for the past three weeks I've ended up ditching work on those days to do something fun with him and the kids. I'm also trying to cook at least a little bit more.

Which brings me to this evening... I was in the kitchen making lasagna, watching my kids play in the backyard, and I felt so content. I had several orders that I could have been working on, emails I could have been replying to, and some new product ideas I was really excited to work on, but instead of feeling resentful about my role as wife/mother/homemaker taking up my time, I felt like I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing.

Then this Brian Andreas story popped into my head, and it felt like one of Oprah's Aha! Moments:

Weight Training

This is a giant block of whatever is most difficult for you to carry & trust me on this, you'll carry it more times than you can count until you decide that's exactly what you want to do most & then it won't weigh a thing anymore.

Which also reminded me of this excellent post about balance on Stacy's Inkspot Workshop blog. If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it!

Real Simple magazine

Sarah & Abraham calling cards are featured on page 64 in the May issue of Real Simple magazine!

I've been wanting to share this news since December when they contacted me about featuring my calling cards in an upcoming issue, but I figured I should wait until it was actually in print. I haven't seen it yet, but Sally at Polka Dot Market was kind enough to scan the page and email it to me (thank you!!!)

Real Simple is one of my favorite magazines, so it's a huge honor!

Sarah & Abraham Evites

I'm so excited to finally be able to share one of the side projects I've been working on for the past couple of months... Sarah & Abraham Evites! I'm a big fan of Evite, so when they asked me if I'd like to design some invitations for them, I jumped at the opportunity! I'm always a little nervous about graphic design work like this (how picky will they be? how many revisions will I end up doing?), but these were really fun to work on, and they gave me a lot of creative freedom.

{hooray for} new designs!

I'm so excited to finally be able to unveil my newest products! Here are just a few of the 40+ new items I've been working on:

Invitations:
8x10 prints:
Birth Announcements:
Calling Cards:
And of course I created plenty of flat and folded note cards in all of these designs as well.

The fun part was creating the new products... the hard part was creating all of the digital images for my website and uploading everything. (The thought of photographing all of these new items overwhelmed me too greatly, so I decided that would have to wait!)

My whole "work-family balance" has gone out the window recently as I've been working like a madwoman to get everything posted on my website. I still need to create notepads, postcards, stickers and a few other items using these new designs; I'll start working on those this week.

Of course I'll still offer all of my original silhouette products, but I just love these new designs and am planning to have my website redesigned like my new blog banner. I hope to be able to post sometime later this week when that's been completed.

variety packs

I can't believe I didn't do this sooner! Whenever I give someone a gift of Sarah & Abraham stationery I always put together an assortment of styles and colors. After having this on my to-do list for several months, I finally made this option available on my website... a girl variety pack, a boy variety pack, and a grown-up variety pack.

For the kid ones, you pick the style (flat and/or folded), the silhouette(s), and the color(s). For the grown-up ones you can mix and match flat cards with a name, a couple's names, an initial, or a monogram, and select whichever colors you like.

Horton Hears a Who party pics

Wow! Heather posted some pictures on her blog from her daughter's Horton party that I mentioned a few days ago.
The menu included fresh strawberries, elephant-shaped quesadillas (!), 'clover' cake, and Who punch.
I've got to learn how to make these gorgeous paper flower balls for my daughter's next birthday party (luckily I've got 10 months to figure it out!)

UPDATE: Here's a link to directions for making the paper flower balls... thank you Heather!

ooh la la!

Another one of my super creative customers recently asked me to create some invitations and party favor stickers for her 2-year-old granddaughter's pink-poodle-themed birthday party. I'm so thrilled she shared some pictures with me from the party! The stuffed animal above was a party favor along with these take home cookies...
and these dog bone cookies from the "Where's your bone?" game they played at the party.
Poodle ears for the guests to wear:
And a gorgeous cake:

so clever!

How cute (and clever!) is this invitation to a Horton Hears a Who-themed birthday party?! One of my favorite customers, Heather (supermom-crafty-chic-and-party-planner-extraordinaire), asked me to create some invitations with an elephant trunk so she could add a green pipe cleaner and a pink pom pom. I absolutely love how they turned out, and it was so nice of her to send me a picture!

She has previously used my favor stickers for a bug-themed birthday party...
and a beautiful baby shower:
I just love seeing pictures of my products "in action"!

Cora's: the shop

Jessica McClenahan (Cora's mom) is planning on opening an Etsy shop soon, with all proceeds going to Cora's Playground. I was so happy to be able to help out with the banner, avatar, tags and stickers, and I love how everything turned out! I think polka dots and multi-colored lettering will definitely be making an appearance on some of my new items!

Cora Paige Benefit Sale {Update #2}

I just read a beautifully written Storque article on Etsy, which has apparently inspired over 40 additional Etsy sellers to join the Cora Paige Benefit Sale, bringing the total to 120 Etsy sellers participating! I decided to conclude my fundraising when I reached $500, but the event will continue until Cora's birthday, March 5th, at which time we'll all donate our proceeds online.

As of yesterday 32 sellers had reported their sales totals to the organizer, Heather, and the total amount that has been raised so far by those sellers is $5,600! I'll let you know what the grand total ends up being at the end of the event.

One of the comments posted on the Storque article was that "crafters are such nice people"... I couldn't agree more!

Cora Paige Benefit Sale {Update}

This has been such an interesting day... last night I added some 8x10 prints and postcard sets from my Etsy shop to the Cora Paige Benefit Sale, and so far I've raised $290! It's been so rewarding seeing this project come together because I couldn't have donated that amount on my own, but donating the prints and postcards is no problem at all.

I'm so excited to see what the grand total ends up being from all of the Etsy sellers who are participating (there are currently over 300 items for sale!)

Cora Paige Benefit Sale

The McClenahan family has been on my mind all week since I learned about Cora, their beautiful 11-month-old daughter, who was diagnosed with cancer just a few short weeks ago and passed away on Sunday, February 8th. They've been so generous to share their journey and their faith through their blog. And now the blogging/Etsy community is coming together to pay tribute to Cora's memory through a benefit sale to help support the building of the Cora Playground.

Please take a moment to browse through the items that are being donated by over fifty talented and generous Etsy sellers. (The fabric flower brooch above is one of the purchases I've already made from Sunnypond.)

Donations may also be made directly to the Cora Playground here.

funny

We were in the car yesterday after I picked up Jack from kindergarten, and he was telling me about a box that another kid brought to school. I asked him how big it was, and he said, "it would probably hold about 30 or 50 note cards." What a nice boy to put it in terms I would understand!

design inspiration

I worked an average of 14 hours per week in January (just filling orders and not doing anything else - no marketing, no new products), and it felt just right. I'd been planning to continue working this way until the Fall when Jack starts 1st grade and Emma goes to full-day preschool 3 days a week, but then I started looking around at blogs and websites and got an overwhelming urge to create new designs.

I'm not sure how long it'll take this time around from the initial concepts to product photographs that I can post on my website and share here, but in the meantime, here are a few of the designers that I've been inspired by recently...

Japanese artist, Shinzi Katoh:
ISAK home accessories by designer Sandra Isaksson in England:
Isa Form, a Swedish company run by designer and illustrator Isabelle Norman Sällström:

Real Simple

I rarely ever think to check my Google Analytics, but I had a couple extra minutes this evening and took a peek. Imagine my surprise (and delight!) when I saw that I've been getting visitors from a mention on Real Simple! I'm a HUGE fan of Real Simple, and was absolutely thrilled to see this!

paper ball ornaments

How cute is this ornament?! I can't get over that I actually made these! And it was pretty easy! Every once in a while I try to be crafty, but until now none of my projects have ever turned out the way I expect them to. A few days ago I came across directions for making paper ball ornaments on DesignSponge, and I just love how they turned out!
If you head over to Design Sponge for the directions, I just have few tips of my own to add...

• I used 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper from Archivers, and I think something a little thinner would have worked better. But you'll definitely want paper that has a design on both the front and back.

• While I was at Archivers I used their 3" and 4" circle punches to cut out the circles - much easier than cutting out each circle with scissors! And I really like both of those sizes.

• I tried using mini glue dots, but because of the thickness of the paper, they didn't hold the paper together. So I bought 1/2" glue dots, and those worked perfectly.

• Before stapling the circles together I folded a ribbon in half and placed it on top of the crease, stapling it along with the circles in the middle and at the top.

It's probably hard to tell from these pictures, but the above ornament is made with 3" circles, the rest are made with 4" circles.

This last one is my son's favorite, made with the dinosaur paper he picked out.

handmade goodness

I've been meaning for a while now to post about some of the Christmas gifts I found on Etsy... I had so much fun shopping for handmade gifts this year!

I'm not sure if I'll be able to part with this cuckoo clock and a pink one just like it... probably the orange one will end up in my office and the pink one in my daughter's bedroom.

These felt cookies from nanaCompany for my daughter, Emma. She's going to love them!

I fell in love with this skirt and was so bummed out that it was too small for Emma, but it made a great birthday present for my friend's daughter who just turned two last week.

A superhero gift set personalized with the letter "R" for my nephew, Ryan. If he's anything like my son, I have a feeling this will get a lot of use!
A couple of Monster Kittys... I haven't decided yet who these will go to, but I'm sure I'll have no problem finding loving homes for them!

Emma's been doing a lot of this lately, hugging my legs, and generally being a lot cuddlier than she was as a baby... I'm loving every minute of it! I just had to get this print from L.J. Ink for myself, and one for my friend who this reminds me of as well.

A personalized long-sleeved onesie for my nephew, Shane. I love how clean and simple they are (surprise, surprise!), and it turns out this Etsy seller lives just down the road from me!

a tutorial: making notepads

Over the past year I've gotten a lot of requests for personalized notepads, which I always thought I'd need to have done at a print shop, so I never offered them. But a few weeks ago I learned from the very kind and generous Kelli at The Hootie Coo Card Company that I could make them myself (easily!) so I began offering them on my website.

They've been selling pretty well, and today I thought I'd photograph the process and put together a little tutorial. So here's what I do...

First I cut an 8.5" x 11" chipboard sheet into fourths for the backs of the notepads (my notepads measure 4.25" x 5.5").
Then I print the design 4-per-page on 24-lb 8.5" x 11" paper and cut those into fourths.Next I stack 40 sheets of paper on top of each chipboard sheet and top each notepad with a blank page (so the top page doesn't get messed up).

I had considered buying a padding press like this one, but I decided to just use some heavy books or something similar to weigh the pads down until I see how well these sell.

Next I just brush on a couple of coats of padding compound, letting it dry completely in between coats.

Once the final coat is dry I gently peel apart the notepads and peel off the blank top sheet...

add a Sarah & Abraham sticker to the back...
and package them in a clear plastic sleeve... easy-peasy!