Merry and Bright

This year I had the assignment of creating a holiday greeting card for an electrical company. I knew the greeting card would be hand delivered as an insert in a box of See’s Candies® so I decided to eliminate the option of an envelope allowing for something a little more unique, like a light up reindeer nose. One of the requirements for a holiday light up greeting card is adding text such as, “May your holiday season be merry and bright”

My inspiration for this job came from the Throwies campaign which my husband introduced me to a while back. After a little computer graphics and printing work, each greeting was assembled by hand using 3mm red LED lights and 3 volt batteries.

I hope your holiday season is as merry and bright as a LED reindeer noses!

For the Nerds Like Me

In one of my typography classes in school I had to purchase a little book called, The Mac is not a Typewriter and it pretty much changed my life. Well, maybe not, but it did change the way I type. Even though I am old enough to have actually had to use a typewriter, I am convinced that even those who have never used a typewriter are following outdated typewriter rules like I was, (and sometimes still do.)

Did you know that you should NEVER double space after a period? Now that we are no longer using mono-spaced, mono-sized type like we once did on the typewriter the double space just becomes an unattractive giant gap. Okay, you probably knew that one but I didn’t when I first read this book which was not all that long ago!

Re-reading this book again reminded me why it is one of my faves even up against a few pricey deign books I own. This book also includes things like using the right type of dashes in the right places, widows, orphans, proper quotation marks, the no-nos of underlining and a bunch of other exciting stuff for a nerd like me.

I am now realizing that I probably just totally turned you off from ever reading this book but seriously, you should at least check it out from the library. I wish I had the cash to purchase a copy for everyone I know!

P.S. The PC is not a typewriter either so this book applies to all computer owners.
P.S.S. I am exempting myself from having to follow every rule of type on this blog. So, if you do read it, please don’t consider me a hypocrite.

Ms. Julia Pott

The "My First Crush" animation was my introduction to artist and animator Julia Pott. Much later I saw these awesome temp tattoos in her etsy shop and then in October she released her animation for the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone-White Corolla video and I was more than pleased. Considering I have watched it a hundred times, I just can’t get enough of Julia Pott.

Faux Forest

Sometimes, when my to-do-list is lengthy, I become suddenly enticed to go on a cleaning spree. When I have downtime, I am much too exhausted to do any house tidying! I also have a talent for becoming magically motivated to create meaningless projects when I have a million important things to get done. This is why I was able to fabricate a little homemade wallpaper project that I have been meaning to put together for the last few months.

My inspiration came from a birch tree wallpaper by Cole and Son that I saw in a kitchen of my dreams a couple years ago. As a temporary alternative to being the owner of the imaginary forest, known as "Woods Wallpaper", I substituted wallpaper with wood-grained pattern contact paper. Not quite the same but an improvement nonetheless. I am thinking about adding a little woodland creature peeking out of the branches, perhaps an owl, what do you think?

And the winner is...

Congrats to the Kindred Family and Conor for winning the "squishy heart" giveaway! You will be recieving your postcards in the mail shortly!

Listening is an Act of Love

As you may know I am a huge fan of the StoryCorps project which is why I really wish I could go to this book tour which will be in Bolder tonight. Maybe if I get a million things done today I can reward myself by attending! Anyone want to come with?

Baby Shower Invites + Thank You Cards + Feel-Good Tunes + Giveaway!

This little baby shower invite was inspired by the mother-to-bes’ love and talent for origami (see origami paper background) and baby room colors of lavender and light green.

Being quite fond of origami myself, I decided to create a thank you card mimicked after the invitation. This is what brings me to my first GIVEAWAY of what I hope will be the first of many! TWO little lucky ducks will win a set of 5 "thank-you from the bottom of my squishy heart" postcards and as a bonus I will also include 5 envelopes just in case you'd like to convert postcard to note card.

All you have to do to compete is to name your favorite feel-good song as a comment. Any ol’ song that gets you going and pumps you up. For instance, my feel good song is Billy Idols “Dancing with Myself” I love to blast this little number when I am cleaning the house, going for a run, and of coarse dancing.

You will have until 1pm MST on Wednesday the 29th of October to post your song. I will then randomly select the two winners and the prize will be all yours. Good luckie!

I Just Can't Get Enough: Fancy Window Displays

One of my favorite things to be inspired by is a smart and fancy window display. I suppose any display really, with or without the window. The fun thing about a window display though is that it is like the package design for something you can open and then actually walk into. In fact, one of the things that I anticipate most about opening my own real life, three-dimensional little boutique, (paper boutique most likely), is that I will get to create my own store displays on a regular basis. Because the only thing I like more than being inspired by the perfect display is to create one myself with the hope of inspiring someone else.

(portfolio show display-when I discovered my love for displays was not just a crush.)

Blog Lazy

I looked in my reader the other day only to discover that I am 1,000 plus posts behind in being caught up with all my blog subscriptions. This really depicts my blog laziness as I barley have more blog subscriptions than I do fingers and toes. I apparently have a lot of catching up to do which will most likely mean hitting the “mark all as read” button. Actually I think being blog lazy is an understatement as my own blog probably doesn’t recognize me anymore! Sometimes I think of things that might make a nice post but then I just let the thought breeze right on by-along with summer.

Sorry blog for neglecting you. I will try to be better.

Beautiful Jared: Inspiration Pages

Jon and I met Jared a little over 5 years ago as he stood across the counter from us as an Aaron Brothers employee. We eagerly watched Jared’s careful hands remove the brown kraft paper from a newly custom framed “cloudscape theory”, an art piece Jon and I had purchased on our honeymoon. At the reveal, Jared complemented us on our purchase.

When chit chat over the surfy landscape became sparse our conversation shifted topics to that of an object sitting on the table-top near the three of us; a red fabric covered journal which had been personalized with large black-sharpie colored stars. As the owner of the book, Jared described the journal as an on going personal project that he took with him everywhere. In reaction, Jon boldly asked if we could look through the “project book”. I was a bit taken back by Jons audacious inquiry and would have interjected halt to the idea to relieve Jared of a response but my curiosity kept me quiet.

Jared allowed us to take a closer look at the journal and what I saw next changed me and inspired me. The book was alive with images and words that represented Jared’s current journey in life. Each page was adorned with notes, doodles, intricately cut images from magazines, secret doors and pockets for prized objects. Items that had been abandoned and trashed by their original owners had become treasures in this magical book from the moment they were pasted to one of the pages. This unexpected treat swelled with significance as Jared told the story behind each clipping and photo. Receipts and old clothing tags became momentous as they no longer represented a purchase but a human life. The book was indeed an extension of the man that was standing before us.

In the midst of repeatedly trying to find the right expressions of gratitude to Jared for letting us experience this great book, he respond plainly, “You guys can have it.” Confused, we initially declined his offer as it was too great a gift to give to perfect strangers. Knowing we were puzzled by his donation he explained, “if you guys really appreciate my book as much as you have expressed and aren’t just spewing words to please me, mock me, pass the time or to make me feel good then I would want you to have it” At that, although still feeling undeserving of such a personal treasure, the beautiful book became ours. It was at that moment that Jared became a hero and role model to us as he was as inspiring a person as were the pages of the book he created.

Introducing Avi Jude

Only 4 months behind schedule I decided to put forth the effort to make Avis' birth announcement and send them off to long-distance loved ones. The upside to waiting until a babys four month birthday to send announcements is that they can really grin it up for a photo. To be perfectly honest I didn’t really care how late these were as long as they got done at all so somewhere down the road Avi isn’t looking at his older brother’s announcement of arrival, wondering what happened to his.

For quite some time I have had a little crush on the Matryoshka or Russian nesting doll for their nostalgia-meets-kitsch image. It was because of this crush I thought it would be fun to hand illustrate our family in nesting doll form for Avis’ announcement.


From the illustration I was able to hand print each card using a gocco printer causing no one card to be exactly alike. It is two-color, double sided and although it folds like a card, by sealing the open end with a clear mailing seal I was able to avoid envelopes and send it like a postcard.

Hope you enjoy!

Just can't get enough...

I just can’t get enough Across the Universe movie and soundtrack, (not to mention Jim Sturgess). Listening to the soundtrack makes me want to watch the movie and watching the movie makes me want to listen to the soundtrack.

However, today I have exhausted the soundtrack and I don’t actually own the movie so I have to result in watching youtube video clips and trailers to get a visual fix.

Obvious Advice:

If you are like me and like to lollygag when you are visiting the library, my advice to you is not to forget your car is in metered parking. The poopiest part of this scenario is realizing you could own at least one of the books you checked out with the amount of money you now owe for a parking ticket!

Story Corps in Denver

If you don’t already know, Story Corps is a project dedicated to celebrating human life through story sharing and listening. This project enables willing participates to step into a Story Corps booth to record memories from their life. The participant is then given one of two copies of their recoded accounts. The other copy is archived in the Library of Congress for future generations.

Lucky for me and every other Denver resident, the Story Corps mobile booth is here today and accepting reservation for recording sessions tomorrow at 10 am. I am so excited for this experience, I can’t wait.

I love the fact that everyone has a history that matters and everyone is important. You can participate even if there is not a Story Corps near you, just go to their website to find out how.

Goober

I was a kid when I first saw Smuckers, “Goober” in the peanut butter isle at the grocery store. I remember thinking that the combination of peanut butter and jelly in a jar was a genius idea and secondly, that I really, really wanted to own one for my sack-lunch sandwiches, (which I don’t recall ever happening). When I saw this same product as an adult I thought, “That’s actually a little disgusting” and it was then promptly scratched off the list of “things I will buy when I am a grown-up” list. Now that I myself am a parent that occasionally takes 12 hours road trips with my husband, toddler and baby to visit family, the convince factor of this product magically turns grossness into not so bad and even maybe a little bit pleasant. So congratulations Smuckers from a fan once again…even if just on road trips.

Lee/Orndoff Invite

This project was a wedding announcement and invitation to an evening reception. Kaisa and Kyle, the couple, wanted their invitation to be unique and appealing without being over the top funky. They wanted their guest to expect a fun and inviting celebration come wedding day.

Beyond trying to integrate this feeling in the design, I incorporated their wedding colors which were berry red, a slate/charcoal color, white and a hint of teal. The main inspiration for this invite though, was from the brides’ modern-meets-vintage wedding dress which had a beautiful lacey overlay, (hence the doily-like graphics), on a contemporary cut gown.

The printing process was 4-color off-set and also involved a custom dye-cut in the finishing process. The dye-cut was needed to create a rounded corner fold out panel with two slits in the flap which was the housing for an insert and/or a wallet size photo.

Sharing = Caring

Fantastic design in any form makes me giddy but sometimes I find it easier to really experience design when I am touching it. This is why I usually prefer reading an old journal entry or an idea from smeared maker on paper rather than through typed words on a monitor. Words just seem to have a smidge more personality that way. Don't get me wrong, writing and creating in any form is better than not at all and keeping record of it is even better. This is why blogging is so lovely.

Another loveliness to blogging is that it promotes sharing life with people you love and, if you’d like, people you don’t yet love. I will admit that I am sometimes not that generous when it comes to sharing. For instance, giving up the last bite of ice cream from my own bowl is a bit of a challenge for me at times. So here is my non-private blog in an attempt to be a better sharer/carer, even if just in my mind. Besides that, I really have a fondness for organizing, especially with bins and labels, and blogging is just that only in digital form.

And here begins a record of my insignificant-important things, what I love and what I don’t love, a collection of random morsels with perhaps a few projects sprinkled about here and there, an assortment of “giant bits” if you will.