print your own

Sometimes there are a million little design ideas floating around in my head, and just not enough time to bring them into reality! Well, this little idea has been pestering me for a while now, and so the last few days I've been working on some Print Your Own PDF files for personalized note cards. I love the look of fruits and botanicals done in letterpress, but since I don't have one, I've tried to recreate the look digitally. After much searching, I found some great images and by making them monochromatic, I think I've come pretty close. I'm hoping that this will be a low-cost way to get a high-cost look of personalized note cards!

100th Etsy Sale!

macro mode

Yesterday I finally had a good chunk of time (thanks to my wonderful husband who watched the baby and our new puppy for me!) to take photos of some of my new cards, as well as retake some of my old designs. I have been trying to figure out how to get better pictures, and after reading some good how-to's on Etsy's blog, I discovered "macro mode" on my camera. It is perfect for taking close-ups and something I wish I would have discovered ages ago.

holiday cards

Things seem to have slowed a bit, now that the holiday season is rapidly approaching. Up until now I have been kept quite busy with holiday cards and invitations.



With the slowdown, I am trying to devote more time each day to designing new products. Yesterday I did two thank you cards which I think fit well with this time of year and will come in handy after Christmas is over. I just added them to my shop this morning.

advent calendars

Wow, ok, so it's been an insanely long time since I posted anything here. Since my last post, Nouveau Designs has sort of exploded - and in a way that I didn't expect. I started out hoping to do lots and lots of wedding announcements. For months I walked my fat pregnant self around Rexburg, Idaho (where my husband was finishing up school) putting fliers on apartment doors and posters in student housing lounges. And do you know what I got? 1 design job. But it was great and I enjoyed it and we were moving soon anyway so I couldn't be too bummed.

Next I find myself in Nashville (husband still going to school...does it ever end?!) with lots of time to design. I started selling quite a few of my baby memory books in my Etsy shop, and then I started designing cards and invitations. Since then, things have been selling like mad! It has been wonderful, but crazy busy at the same time, especially since I just had my baby in October.

This past week I have had lots of orders for advent calendars. It has been a fun project, but sometimes I wonder if I have created a monster because of all of the orders I've been getting! Good thing I enjoy making them. Here are some photos of several that I sent out today, barely making it to the post office 4 minutes before they closed!

my wedding announcement

So I had the toughest time getting a good picture of my wedding announcements I designed a few years ago...maybe because the cardstock has a bit of a sheen to it. They were a tri-fold invitation with four small black and white photos of us on the inside flaps.

paper & envelope color choices

Click on image to enlarge.