Invitation Crush Feature

Good news gang, Swell & Grand, my new etsy shop that sells instantly downloadable DIY wedding invitation templates for Word and iWork was featured today on Invitation Crush!

Brooklyn Bride Feature

I'm beyond psyched to see my new DIY wedding invitation shop Swell & Grand featured today on Brooklyn Bride! All of the invitations can be instantly downloaded and customized in Microsoft word or Apple Pages.  Click here to check it out the post.

Bike Pattern For Paper Source

The bike pattern I designed is now for sale on a variety of Paper Source products on Paper-Source.com

New Minted Submission

How I long for the days when I had time for 3-4 Minted.com submissions per challenge.  Alas, my schedule only seems to allow me one entry every other challenge or so.  Although I have to admit, I tend to only pursue ideas that will take me forever to illustrate, like my newest submission above.  But - why draw one person when you can draw fifteen?  Ooooh because drawing fifteen takes fifteen times as long you say?  Touche. Well played sir, well played.

Recent Work

I've been a busy bee!  Here are some sneak peaks at recent 2012 projects:

Birth Announcements for Cardstore

Save the Date for Minted.com

Summer Invitations for Paperless Post

A Simple Thank You for Avanquest

DIY Printable Wedding Invitations you can Download Instantly!

Whew!  It's been a VERY busy 2012 so far.  I've been freelancing off the hook, and my son has weathered yet another winter by getting consecutive illnesses for three months straight.  That boy sure knows how to keep me on my toes . . . by throwing up on things that are very difficult to clean.  How do you scrub the wall behind the radiator?  I still haven't figured it out.

In the midsts of it all, I've managed to scrape out sometime to set up a little etsy shop that has been in the back of my mind for years now.  Its always bothered me how expensive wedding invitations are.  Don't get me wrong. I know from expirience how time intensive invitations are to produce by hand.  I know that letterpress is a beautiful art form that takes both time and resources.  But I also know when I was getting married there was NO WAY I could have afforded to buy invitations from anywhere.  Even "cheap" ones.  And to top it off I have snooty design sensibilities - I didn't want to pay TONS of money just to have something everyone else had.  So I got down and dirty and went the DIY route.  Although I was pleased with the results - you can find the whole life experience filed under "easier said than done."  In the back of my mind, I've always wanted to help other people cut out the middle man and DIY their own wedding invitations.

So . . .

I'm excited to announce my new etsy shop Swell & Grand, where I sell instantly downloadable DIY wedding invitation templates.   The invitations are easily customized in microsoft word or apple pages.  You can change the fonts, layout, and in most cases the colors of the artwork as well, all from your home computer.

Yep!  You can change the color of the bikes to any color you want. 

My shop has been up for less than a two weeks and I'm excited so far from the feedback and sales.  Right now I'm adding new designs daily.  

All of my designs are laid out to letter size paper, and are easy to trim.

I'm really excited to be the only etsy seller that offers DIY printable wedding invitations that can be downloaded instantly and customized immediately.  I've been getting a ton of emails from other etsy sellers asking how I've accomplished the feat of instant downloads - the answer isn't a secret - I wrote my own program!  Unfortunately, no, it is not for sale at the moment.  I'm not a programmer by any definition of the word.  The code is - embarrassing.  But it works!  I'm the MacGuyver of amateur programming.  The scripts are made out of bubble gum and bent up clothes hangers.  

I can't wait to get my full line up in the shop - I'll be offering everything from DIY business cards to wedding stationery to kids birthday party invites.   The Swell & Grand website should be launching soon as well.  That is, if I can find time between my lovely freelance clients, mommy hood, and daily hour long baths.  Ok, theoretically, I could skip the baths.  But then what would I do, take a shower?  That's just never going to happen. 

Minted Submission

 

Sigh. I wish I had more time for Minted!  The newest art challenge is so exciting, but all the pieces I would want to do would take so much time and I'm slammed with work right now.  At least I had some time yesterday to contribute the above image.  I created it in tribute to my darling parakeet teddy who passed away - it's just not home without teddy!

You can view my entire collection for Minted here!

365 Pillows | Whirl

Over at LeslieHamer.com I've been quietly conducting a daily project called 365 Pillows.  I've been designing a pattern in repeat (or two) each day and showcasing them on throw pillows. I'll be sharing some of them here along the way - to see them all or commission a repeat pattern or placement print from me visit LeslieHamer.com!

 

 

 

 

Paper Source Halloween Kits

It's a little known fact that I do all of the eblasts for Paper Source.  Some are more exciting than others, but I thought I would share this one because those little mustache ghosts with the conductor hats on just kill me every time.  I'm getting a little more excited for Halloween this year because for the first time I have a home instead of an apartment and will have trick-or-treaters!   I can't wait.