Thank You Card and Some Odds and Ends

I'm getting back into a crafting groove after a couple of weeks off since finishing the big custom project for Elizabeth Loupas.  Who, by the way, will be having another giveaway this week of her new book, The Flower Reader, along with one of the bookmarks I made for her!  Be sure to check her blog for details on how to enter!

I might have mentioned while I was doing that project that I decided to get some new business cards.  The ones I have been using were ones I made myself with some of those perforated sheets that you can get at office supply stores.  They were ok, but I was ready to upgrade to something a little more professional.  I have had the idea floating around in my head for awhile for a logo- actually, I have had the image in mind since I started my shop nearly 2 years ago now.  But I am no graphic artist, that is for sure!  However, I do know one, and I enlisted (begged for?) her help with this.  Kindra is one of my coworkers, and does a bit of graphic design on the side.  I showed her what I had in mind, and she ran with it, and several versions and much patience on Kindra's part later, I have a logo of my very own!  And none too soon- I got my new business cards printed up the same day that I shipped the big custom order to Elizabeth!  She graciously offered to include my cards with each of the bookmarks that she is giving away, so I really wanted them to look nice.  I'm very happy with how the logo looks on the cards.  What I'm not so happy with is how Staples printed the cards offset to the right- I had everything perfectly aligned in the center in the template on their website, so I don't know what happened there.  In any case, like I said, I got them the day I was shipping Elizabeth's order, so there was no time to ask to have them redone.  I guess next time I will go somewhere else to get cards printed.  Anyway, have a look:

I think it's very cute, and it's just what I had pictured in my mind!  Now I just need to figure out how to get it onto my shop banner and stuff like that!

To thank Kindra for her efforts, I made a thank you card for her:

I saw this paisley paper at Michaels, and even though I am an admitted paper addict and really should not have been buying more, I HAD to!  I love the color combination, and the design is kind of fresh and springy, and boy am I ready for spring!  In any case, Kindra certainly deserves thanks for the great job she did and especially the patience she had with me and my revision requests.  I also happily offered to pimp her talents and graphic design business, so here is where you can find Kindra for all of your graphic design needs: http://www.designsbykindra.com/

I haven't done too much else lately- I did make a birthday card for my dad yesterday, so I will post that next time.  Still need to do one for my cousin Trina, but may not get to that until next weekend.  I'm having a spring cleaning sale in my shop- use coupon code SPRNGCLN12 at checkout for 15% off entire purchase through the end of March.  And I am still working on a concept for the wall art that my friend Sandra asked me to do for her office.  I have a plan, but it is a bit slow in coming together.  Thankfully, Sandra said she can be patient with me!  I am looking for some materials and having a hard time finding what I am looking for, so may have to figure out a plan B, but I'm not ready to give up yet!  And yesterday, I took a class at Michaels where I will use what I learned to create this project.  That's all I'm going to say about it for now!  Finally, I am going to begin work on some new bookmark stock for my shop in preparation for Mothers Day, so look for some of those designs soon!