a new name and website!

Well Everyone!
I'm so excited to tell you the good news! I've been working on this for months now and hope to get a new website up and running around years end! But for now, you can bookmark the new web address (my old address will work too). I hope to show you the logo soon. The new website will be.....drumroll please...

This will be a website where I can show off my portfolio and a blog that I can talk about design stuff and lots of freebies and tutorials!

I hope that this website will be a lot easier to remember too.

Enjoy and don't forget to visit soon to see more updates on the progress of my new site!

vintage circus birthday invitations

I designed these vintage circus looking birthday invitations for a friend of mine with twin boys. Amy and I have very similar tastes and style. In fact, more than once we will find out that we have both painted our bedrooms the same color or bought the same fabric. So funny! Her twin boys just turned one! So excited for her, and what better way to celebrate than with a party.

If you would like to know the fonts I used here's the list:Rosewood, Lucia, Clarendon, Captain Howdy (free), Falstaff, Chevalier Stripes, Bodoni Poster Compressed, & Plantagenet Cherokee (free).Oh, and on a side note, I got to hear Jessica Hische (pronounced like fish, but with an "h") last week, and she was simply amazing! So thank you Jessica for inspiring me to do better designs. One thing that she said that will always stick, is "Don't steal fonts!!!" How hard it is not to do that. You know the disc that get's passed around from design class to design class with the 1,000 free fonts! I know I still have many of those fonts on my computer. But, needless to say, we can all do better by actually purchasing the fonts that font designers actually spend so much time designing! Let's all support our creative community by making others pay for what we design as well!Good thoughts Jess and again thanks so much for traveling all the way to Utah to speak to us! Amazin

coin purses-artscow coupon code

I decided to order a few of these mini coin purses from artscow. Aren't they fun. I had fun designing them and I hope that the quality is decent.... I'll let you know when I get them. I'm hoping to use these as gifts for my friends and family around the holidays.

Plus with the coupon code MCP499199 you can snag 2 customized mini coin purses fro just $4.99 shipped (reg. $6.99 each), through 9/21/11. And, each additional purse is only $1.99 each. I saved something like $70.00!!!! Awesome!!! And I ordered 8 of them!

fringe leather necklace tutorial with beads

Here's a super simple leather necklace idea.

Supplies:
leather
beads
embroidery thread

Step 1
Cut a thin strip of leather, as long as you want, mine is about 28-32 inches

Step 2
Cut piece of leather that will be used for the fringe. Use free pattern download here {right click to download}. Then cut fringe.

Step 3
Punch holes in leather using a bone folder. And sew fringe onto leather strip.

Step 4
Put on beads. I used my daughters beads, a total of 6. Three beads on each side.

Step 5
Tie around neck using a square knot.



Now isn't that simple and super cute!

shutterfly christmas cards-Petite Lemon

I just noticed that Shutterfly finally posted some of my cards that I designed for them......a long time ago!

Aren't these fun! I just love working with Paula Su of Petite Lemon. She really is a great art director! She speaks a designers language, which is hard to communicate especially through email, but she does it! Love it!

trying my hand at calligraphy

Inspired by Melissa Esplin (of ISLY) and her amazing calligraphy, I decided to try my hand at some of my own calligraphy. Can I just say that it is really really difficult! I went to the library and got a bunch of books and have read some tutorials, but that doesn't make it any easier.

So, in order to make things a little easier, I have signed up for a calligraphy class from Melissa Esplin. I'm so excited. I can't wait actually learn what I should be doing.

I also got inspiration from Ashes&Milk. Isn't that calligraphy amazing? Anyone know who lettered it? There are so many amazing calligraphers out there, and I know I will never be as good as any of them, but hey, it's always fun to learn a new art!

leather journal book tutorial-recover a journal

This is an easy way to recover a journal and make it look pretty unique! I made this one for my brother-in-law, Nick. I hope he likes it! It took me about 2 hours to make. Simple instructions are below with lots of pictures. Feel free to leave me comments if you have any questions.

 

I cut extra straps of leather and wrapped them around the book. I also engraved my brother-in-law's name "Elder Grayson". He's getting ready to serve a full-time 2 year mission for our Church.

I'm glad I could make him something that he will record his experiences in and have as a family history for the rest of his life.

a great deal on a photographer in utah

My amazing friend Darby (who lives in Arizona by the way) is coming to Utah. She is hoping to get at least 4 people/families to do photoshoots with.

The photo session will be on September 17 and is only $130 (if she can get four families/couples/people) . The session will be a whole hour and includes a full disc of images with rights to print. Normal prices are $350, so this is a killer deal!!!

If you want in on this amazing deal, contact Darby at darby {at} darbyelizabethphotography.com

Shutterfly Wall Calendars

I was looking at some of my past projects and realized that I never posted about these fun Wall Calendars that I did for Shutterfly a super long time ago.....

Here's a quick preview of some of the patterns I did. The calendar sets are called Garden Glow, Peek A Blue and Birds & Blossoms.