HOLIDAY CARD RETURN ADDRESS STAMPS

If you're sending out holiday cards this year, you're probably in the thick of planning right now.  Some of you may be completely organized and may already have them sent out (I received my first one this week!) While others may still be trying to take the perfect picture.

For those of you still in the planning stages,consider making your holiday cards even more festive with a cute holiday themed return address stamps.  I'm selling a whole bunch of sweet ones in my shop.

If you're still shopping for cards, check out Minted.  They are offering 15% off orders over $150. Offer ends today so don't delay!

IN THE SHOP: PACKAGING THE GOODS

Phew! It's been busy in the shop.  I'm thrilled to report that my address stamps and wedding favor stamps have been flying off the (virtual) shelf!  While I was prepping orders to be shipped last night I grabbed my camera (forgive the bad lighting, it was late) to take a few shots.  I thought it would be fun to share as a little behind the scenes into my packaging.

The address stamps are shipped out in hand stamped muslin bags.  Perfect for storage or gift giving.  The wedding favor stamps are a little too big to be squeezed in to the muslin bags so I pack them in a cellophane bag with a hand stamped tag tied with twine.

Stamps aren't the only items being shipped out.  My party invitations and social stationery designs are also being sent across the country.  I package those similarly to my wedding favor stamps - cellophane bags, hand stamped tags and bakers twine.

I've been researching other packaging ideas that I may implement soon. I'd love to hear about any packaging that you've gotten from a shop that you loved or packaging that you use in your own shop.

Have a great Thursday!

THE PERFECT WORKSPACE - 99U ARTICLE CAME AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME

EINSTEIN'S OFFICE, PRINSTON, BY RALPH MORSE 1955

I'm so happy to report that my little shop's growth for August has been incredible. I've sold more items this month than I have in several past months combined. My studio's growth has been exciting, challenging, fun, and fulfilling!

It has also taken up a boatload of space.

As a result, I'm quickly outgrowing my designated home office space.  I've mentioned Mr. Squareview's obsession with organization in the past and quite frankly, my little office gives him heart palpitations every time he's near it.  Something has got to give.

Luckily for me, I ran across a helpful article from 99U that will help me get moving in the right direction.  It starts:

The spaces we occupy shape who we are and how we behave. This has serious consequences for our psychological well-being and creative performance. Given that many of us spend years working in the same room, or even at the same desk, it makes sense to organize and optimize that space in the most beneficial ways possible.

Check out the full article here.  Happy office organizing, everyone!

HAND LETTERING WITH SEAN McCABE

IMAGE FROM SEAN'S SITE FOUND HERE

I'm super excited! Why you might ask?  I just enrolled in Sean McCabe's Skillshare Class called Digitizing Hand Lettering: From Sketch to Vector.

I've been secretly tinkering around with a sketchbook for the last few months in an attempt to improve my hand lettering.  I'm making progress and it was time to up my game and move what I put in the sketchbook into the computer.  I searched  the trusty interwebs and ran across Sean's class.  I've been a huge admirer of his work for a while now &  I can't wait for his Obi Wan Kenobi like lessons.  Squee!

If you're interested sign up here.

NEW IN THE SHOP: WEDDING FAVOR TAG STAMPS

When I was planning my wedding a couple years ago, I was obsessed with maintaining the theme or brand throughout the day. I wanted everything to seamlessly transition and look effortless.  I remember it being such a struggle for me to find items that worked cohesively.

As my last two shop posts have shown, I've been focusing on stamp designs recently. During one of my recent brainstorming sessions (I wonder, can it be called brainstorming if you do it alone?) it occurred to me that my new favorite shop item didn't have to stop at making return addresses look pretty.  I could design something that would help brides like me create a cohesive look.

I'd like to introduce you to my newest addition to the shop: the favor tag stamp.  No need to stop at favors though, oh no.  The options are truly limitless. Programs, napkins, place settings, thank you cards, oh my!

This one is influenced by my top selling Thank You note (below) and I just love it.  What do you all think? 

NEW IN THE SHOP: CUSTOM NAUTICAL ADDRESS STAMP

NAUTICAL ADDRESS STAMP FOUND IN THE SHOP

I'm very excited to introduce you to my newest address stamp design.  Just like the last stamp I featured, this was influenced by a favorite spot in Georgia.  This one is called St. Simons as I was channeling the beautiful island of St. Simons, Georgia when creating it. I intended to mirror the classic elegance found throughout the island and with its clean & classic look, I think I hit the mark.

This stamp would be a perfect addition to your nautical themed wedding suite as well as any everyday correspondence you may send from your boat, tropical island, or anywhere else that needs a little nautical infusion.

SNEAK PEAK: CUSTOM ADDRESS STAMPS

Custom Address Stamps are in the shop and I'm excited to introduce you to this one.  She's called Savannah.  Just like her namesake city, this stamp is elegant and timeless.  

Why should brides-to-be have all the fun?  While wedding stationery looks fabulous stamped with a custom return address, so do party invitations & thank you notes!

Hop on over to the shop and check Savannah out.  If ink pads aren't your thing, upgrade to a self inking stamp!  

LESSON LEARNED: I'M NOT A WEB DESIGNER

PHOTO CREDIT - SPACE NINJA

I learned a very frustrating lesson yesterday, web designing is not my friend.  To sum up, my squareviewstudios.com site's registration was about to expire so I decided that it was time to take the bull by the horns and purchase a platform that offered me more customization.  

Long story short, after 9+ hours of banging my head against my laptop, I'm left with a .com site that went from plain jane but serviceable, to one that  looks terrible!  I walked away from that mess bleary eyed in the wee hours because I simply couldn't look at it anymore. 

Lesson learned - don't jump in and change something without some sort of back-up plan.  

The worst of it is I couldn't even figure out how to get back to where I started.  My second lesson learned through all this is get back on the horse and try again.  That is my game plan for today.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to at least the plain jane but serviceable look.

I think it my be time to hire a professional. Anyone have any suggestions?

CLIENT PROJECT: MOVING ANNOUNCEMENTS

A dear friend of mine just bought her first home. A beautiful (and huge!) condo just a handful of blocks northeast of mine in Chicago. She wanted to share this wonderful news with all her friends & family so she asked me to design an announcement for her.

We came up with the idea to highlight the front of her new building in the design.  You can't really tell from these photos, but we used a gorgeous watercolor effect to add just the right amount of whimsy to the photo of her condo building. That coupled with the simple note of "home sweet new home" and her announcement was complete.

The entire suite looked beautiful when assembled. And, I'm not at all ashamed to say that I talked her into the envelope liner - it made such a difference.  I hope all the recipients of her announcement take care as they open their mail as not to destroy the full effect - I truly believe letter openers are the devil!

HOW TO COMBINE MULTIPLE PICTURES IN ONE JPG FILE

As I mentioned yesterday, I was trying to figure out a way to quickly update my existing .com site using the tools that I had at my disposal.  In a series of short sited decisions, I chose to set the site up using wordpress.com instead of wordpress.org and as a result, my options were a little limited.  My first priority was to create some sort of slider to showcase several of my designs to display at the top of my site. I didn't have a slider plug in at my disposal, so I had to find a creative way to utilize the header instead.

In trying to solve my dilemma, I remembered a little Photoshop tutorial I ran across that helped me create the below for my Memphis City Guide post (found here).  

Now, I realize this baby is a little all over that place.  So if I used these same tools, I'd have to be much more purposeful in my design.  As Jess Lively would say, I would have to implement my design with intention.

I realized there would need to be a common theme to unite all the pictures so I came up with the idea of the category badge (custom personal stationery, birthday party invites, etc.)  This badge and a common picture height and width setting was all I needed to get started editing and creating my photo files.

Once I had all my photo files prepared, I went back to review Liz's (from Say Yes to Hoboken) wonderful tutorial - found here and I was off to the races. I'm super pleased with how it turned out, if I do say so myself.

Happy photo editing everyone!

BLOGGER VS. WORDPRESS

I've made it a priority for 2013 to build out a sad little project that I began in May 2012.  I'll admit, I was pretty short sited when I started this project as I was purely focused on the blog (my sweet little shop wasn't even a glimmer in my eye!).  Now, I have to rethink my plans and I wanted to share that process with you.

I was a newbie to blogging and was under the impression that the only way to have a .com blog (not a .blogspot.com one like I have now) was to use the blog templates from Wordpress.  This is completely untrue, you can actually use Blogger and for a small fee upgrade from a .blogspot to a .com).  Anyway, I went ahead and signed up for a Wordpress site, paid my fee, and voila! www.squareviewstudios.com was born. 

That's when things went a little wonky. When I went to write my first blog entry on my brand new site, I logged in and quickly ran away screaming with fright. Wordpress was a bit advanced for me in the spring of 2012.  Blogger was definitely more my speed.  As a result, my .com site sat there unused for months. 

When I opened the shop in October of 2012, I knew I needed to better utilize my .com site.  Honestly, that opened a Pandora's Box.  Should I convert my Blogger site to Wordpress?  Should I buy a theme or will one of the free ones work for my needs? Should I host on Wordpress.com or move to Wordpress.org?  The list goes on...

I'll address each of the decisions individually in future posts, but I wanted to share with you some perspective.  Blogger is great (and for the foreseeable future, my blog will remain where it is), but it has its limitations.  If you're looking for a personal blog platform, it can't be beat.  It's easy to understand and it's completely free.  But, if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, Wordpress and specifically Wordpress.org, would have been my choice. 

With that said, I've found ways using the current tools via Wordpress.com to make progress on bringing my .com site back from the dead.

First stop, I created this custom slider to mimic the ones you find on other Wordpress themes.  It's not officially a slider, but it gets the job done for now.  I show you how I did it in tomorrow's post. Stay tuned! 

FRESHLY MINTED - CLASSROOM VALENTINE

I've got some great news to share today.  News that I've been sitting on since before Christmas and I can't tell you how tough it's been not to blab!  So here it goes - I am super pleased to announce that my design You Rock was picked as a winner for Minted's XOXO Valentine's Day Challenge and it is now available for sale! Yippee!

I've designed 3 different colorways for this classroom valentine.  Each are modern and bold.  Perfect for any little girl or boy to give to their classmates.  

FIND IT HERE

FIND IT HERE

2013 is off to a great start, if I do say so myself.  Have a great weekend!

SQUAREVIEW STUDIOS IS ONE!

  

Source: myparadissi.com via Amanda on Pinterest

It was a year ago today that I posted my first entry to this little blog.  Oh how times have changed!  It's been an incredible year and I'd like to thank you for all the encouragement along the way!  

I'm so looking forward to the next 12 months and beyond.  Exciting things are in store for Squareview Studios!  Thanks for coming along for the ride! 

REINDEER PARTY INVITATION

Holiday party season is right around the corner and the planning is in full swing.  I thought it would be fun to have a reindeer themed party so I was off to the trusty interwebs for inspiration.  I came across all these gems and just had to share.  Cute, no?

Cocktail // Modern Reindeer Cookies // Cute Reindeer Cheese
Reindeer Beer // Classic Reindeer Cookies

I think a perfect way to kick off your reindeer themed party would be to send off my Classic Reindeer Party Invitation now available in the shop.  The invitation has a cute reindeer illustration with a jaunty holiday scarf  that is sure to set the tone for a fun and fabulous time at your gathering.

Happy party planning everyone!

INTRODUCING: HOLIDAY PHOTO CARD COLLECTION

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... That includes in the Squareview Studios Shop too!

I'm so excited to be offering Holiday Photo cards in the shop.  I had a great time designing each and every one of them and, quite frankly, I'm having a hard time deciding which one Mr. Squareview and I will send out ourselves this year!

Sending a beautifully designed custom holiday card to loved ones this year is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. Order a listing from the shop
2. Email Squareview Studio your family photo and names to add to the card
3. Print your gorgeous custom card and send. Voila!

Originally, I was only planning on only offering these as a digital file that you could print your own, but after a ton of very helpful feedback, I decided to also offer professional printing. I'm happy to say that even with the additional printing costs,  the prices continue to be very reasonable which upholds my mission statement nicely - beautiful design at a reasonable cost.

Now, I'm off to try and find a cute picture for our holiday greeting.  Maybe that will help me narrow down my choices.

Here is a sampling of the collection.  Take a look at the full collection in the shop!

Isn't my model a cutie?  That's our little ring bearer ages 1-3.  It's great to have friends that get professional photos every year!

UGLY SWEATER PARTY INVITATION DESIGN

I'm not sure if this is just a thing in the Mid-West, but folks round here love them some ugly sweaters during the holiday season.  The more horrific the design the better.  Think Cliff Huxtable on steroids.  Truly, I'm not sure what possessed the makers of these gems to even sew them, they are so ugly.

We like to celebrate these monstrosities by gathering together over a cocktail or two and showing them off.  Personally, I don't own an ugly sweater (well, at least not on purpose) so I don't really partake in the fun.  However, that didn't stop me from helping others enjoy themselves by putting together this little design (just posted to the shop).

Let the raids begin on Granny's attics everywhere!

Homestead Typeface (by LostType - found here) perfectly showcases how good ugly can look with it's yummy layering options.  The combination of teal, orange, and green never looked so good. J

What kind of holiday party are you planning to celebrate the season?  Ugly Sweater anyone?

INTRODUCING: CUSTOM STATIONERY PRINTABLES

I've spent the last couple months in a designing, photographing, & editing whorl in preparation for my custom stationery collection launch.  Boy oh boy, am I excited to announce that the collection is now LIVE in the shop!

I've put together both custom correspondence card and thank you notes that offer clients a modern & fresh way to send their greetings through the post.  All of which are printable so clients can print as many and as often as they like.

Here is a sampling of the collection.  Take a look....

That is just a little taste - there are more designs in my shop if you'd like to take a look.

Phew!  All that has made me thirsty!  Good thing Mr. Squareview is going to take a crack at brewing the beer we bought during our Beer Camp this weekend (yes, I know, that was in AUGUST.  I wonder if a Hefeweizen will taste as good in January as it does in June J ).  

Happy Friday All!

INTRODUCING: THE THANKSGIVING GREETING COLLECTION

I'm excited to announce a few additions to the SHOP today - The Thanksgiving Greetings Collection.

I've created three new designs that can be customized to send out Thanksgiving greetings to friends and family.  Like my other designs, these are digital files that can be printed at home or using professional print services - the perfect solution to get your DIY groove on.  And if DIY is not your thing, stay tuned.... Printing options may be on their way!

THE DESIGNS:

I love the color of the leaves changing this time of year and had to showcase my adoration with this little gem that I call Maple.   Its clean and classic design will bring warm wishes to anyone who receives this greeting.

The whimsy really comes out in my next design, Gobble. I love the rustic but modern look of the wood grain and the contrast of the light on the front and the dark on the backer of the invitation.  One of my favorite type faces and an acorn element round out this design.

What's a greeting without a chance to show off your family?  I know folks love to send family pics so I had to include the chance in this design called Thankful.

I'd love to hear if you think more photo card designs are needed.  I knew I needed at least one option, but can definitely get cracking on more.

Can't you just taste that turkey now?  Yum!  J