Birth Announcement...

I designed these a while back. It took me some time to actually get them printed. Once they were printed they sat on my desk for way too long. I finally got most of them out just before we left for the summer, with a few stragglers still sitting on my desk. That my friends is the difference between the first child and the fifth child!

Thank you...

Having a baby can be a tough adjustment. It's like hopping on a merry-go-round for a good solid 10 rotations, then jumping off and running as fast as you can in any direction. There's a good chance you'll stumble, throw-up and then you'll most likely end up on your back, nauseous as the clouds and sky continue to circle above you. If you're lucky, you might be able to perform this task with grace and make it look easy. But no matter how graceful you try and make such a difficult dismount - it's doesn't change the fact that you spent 10 rotations on the merry-go-round - essentially jumbling every single aspect of your life. And it takes some time laying on your back before the clouds start to slow and you start to see straight again.

Unfortunately, the whole time you're laying on your back getting your bearings straight - life is still moving on around you. Laundry still has to be done, dinner still needs to be cooked and children still need to get to and from school. It's all a little overwhelming.

Luckily, the effects of a merry-go-round are typically temporary. I finally feel as though I'm not on my back anymore. The clouds and the sky have slowed in their spinning. The dizziness has subsided. I'm thinking more clearly and I'm overcome with gratitude for all those that stepped in to help us out.

Countless friends, neighbors, family and church members have served us over the last two months. They've taken our kids to play, made dinner, dropped off gifts, came to visit, given us words of encouragement - all of which was deeply appreciated. On more than one occasion their acts of service were a direct answer to my prayers in a time of need. People are kind and giving and supportive. The load on our family during this time was significantly lighter thanks to all those who offered unsolicited help (because we all know it's hard to ask for help sometimes!)

Thank you.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Stay awhile...inexpensive artwork...

I've mentioned before that winter in Arizona is amazing. (It's what gets us through our toasty summers!) And every winter we get a crew of visitors escaping their winter weather. Our door is always open for visitors. We love it. Our kids love it. The minute someone walks out the door our kids are asking who our next visitor is.

This winter we've had an abnormally high number of visitors. When my mom was here, we were naming off all the friends/family we've been able to see. We crunched the numbers and figured since December 27 through my mom leaving on March 15, we had someone in our guest room for 49 out of 79 days. The longest visitor was my brother who was here for a week with his family right after Christmas and three additional weeks (although not consecutively) for work. When we say we love visitors, we really do mean it.

I even changed out some artwork in the guest room to reflect our love for visitors.



Looking for inexpensive artwork?

Grab a 24x36 frame from Hobby Lobby.

Print out a saying at Staples as an engineer print. (There's plenty of Etsy shops that sell digital files to quotes and sayings if you don't want to design one yourself.) The print will cost you less than $4 for black and white.

It's cheap enough that when we grow tired of visitors we can change the saying!

Nautical Baby Shower Invite...

We've definitely got baby on the brain over here. My good friend is supposed to have her first baby just 5 weeks after we have our fifth! Our husbands have been best friends since they were young and she has become my wood working partner in crime. I have no doubt our little boys will share a bond as well.

In celebration of her new little boy, her sister-in-laws threw her a nautical themed shower and I was happy to provide the invite.



We've taken several pictures together over the course of our pregnancy - these two pictures are from her shower and they are our second to last pictures being pregnant together. (The last one was taken tonight when they came over to watch Survivor with us. It's a pretty funny series of pictures - I'll have to get my hands on them from her phone!)


It won't be too long before we're taking pictures of our growing boys together - much more fun than belly photos!

2016 YW Theme; Free Printables...

The 2016 theme for the Young Women and Young Men for our church is “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20).

Every year I design printables around the new theme and this year I ran into a dilemma. I've really been liking some watercolor floral prints lately - which is not usually the case. So I designed the theme with this in mind. I completed the theme and sat with it on my computer for almost two weeks without touching it again. Although I really liked it, it just wasn't me no how matter how hard I tried. It's official. Floral prints still aren't my thing as much as I like them. I even tried buying a floral print shirt I saw on someone else and loved it on them. I put it on and promptly removed it. Not me.

So I reworked the theme to more of a geometric pattern which is 100% me. But the work is done on the first design so I offer you two options this year!

Free downloads include a binder cover, 5x7 print, 4x6 print and the stand alone logos. Feel free to use as you please (personal use only). Enjoy!





Find previous years here, here, here and here.

Download All 2016 YW Theme as a ZIP file (Geometric Design)
Download All 2016 YW Theme as a ZIP file (Floral Design)

Download 2016 YW Theme Binder Cover (Geometric Design)
Download 2016 YW Theme 5x7 print (Geometric Design)
Download 2016 YW Theme 4x6 print (Geometric Design)
Download 2016 YW Theme Logo (Geometric Design)

Download 2016 YW Theme Binder Cover (Floral Design)
Download 2016 YW Theme 5x7 print (Floral Design)
Download 2016 YW Theme 4x6 print (Floral Design)
Download 2016 YW Theme Logo (Floral Design)

Always learning...

I love learning. I have a list a mile long of things I want to learn. With the kids going back to school I was ready to go back-to-school as well - as much as one can with two kids still at home.

I've always admired people with great handwriting and I love the idea of using my own handwriting more in my graphic design work. I follow a guy on instagram who posts the most beautiful brush pen calligraphy videos. And recently he posted that he had a class on Skillshare.com. I immediately went and signed up for the class and started going through his two hours of videos. I purchased his recommended brush pens from JetPens.com and as soon as they arrived I started practicing. Although it's not an extremely difficult skill - they sure make it look easier on all those videos than it really is.

I have a feeling it's going to take way more practice than I anticipated, which is okay by me, I really just want to learn. Although the videos were very informative and easy to follow along - I was missing a basic principle; how to old the brush pen.

I did more research and came across a great blog, Pieces Calligraphy that filled in all the blanks and even offered some informative videos for free. I've bookmarked this site and have referenced back more than a few times when I need a little extra help.

At this stage I'm practicing my letters and at the pace I'm going I'll be done with the alphabet within the year! Practice, Practice, Practice!

Finished product...

I do a lot of design work. Corporate. Church. Families and friends. Most the time I send the artwork to the printer and the finished product ends up being delivered to the client without me ever seeing the final product. So when I do happen across my work out in public it's always fun.

I was at Walmart yesterday morning in the check-out line. The lady in front of me turned around and I recognized her shirt as one that I designed for a Stake girls camp in the area. I had never seen the shirt complete and I loved the way it turned out. I complimented her shirt and then in full-disclosure told her I designed the shirt.

Later that evening we were out and about and from a distance I saw another shirt that looked familiar. I recently designed a family reunion shirt and although I couldn't be positive, the front looked familiar. Sure enough the back sealed the deal. I liked it better printed up than I did on my computer screen.

I love what I do - especially when I see it finished!

Retro Superhero Party...

History says my kids get their first birthday party with friends when they turn four. I had all intentions of doing the same for Bennett but we got busy. Steve was finishing up school. We were out of town. Steve was out of the country. We had visitor after visitor. And before I knew it his birthday had come and gone without a party. And I was okay with it. On his birthday he kept talking about seeing his friends (luckily we saw one of them). Two days after his birthday he asked when his friends were coming over for a party. I'm not sure what kid reminded him that he hadn't had a party yet but it was enough to make me feel a little bad.

Bad enough that I threw a party together in no time and it was just as fun as the ones I spend weeks planning!

The best part is we didn't tell him until the morning of - just two hours before his friends arrived. You can't tell that kid anything too early or else you spend days fielding the same exact questions, he's relentless. Even two hours was questionable but he was so excited it was more funny than annoying!

For the invites I took a picture of Bennett and drew it on the computer to turn him into lineart.












Steve led the superhero training. They learned how to fly.


They learned how save people. We froze superheroes in blocks of ice and they used water guns to free them.





I used the same drawing from the invite and printed a large poster (engineering print from Staples for $4) for a party game.


We colored and decorated superhero journals with their own emblems.





How great is one of his friends that brought a superman balloon guy. That's talent!



Sources:
Gift bags from Amazon
Round stickers used on drinks from Amazon
Cake toppers - Used a paper punch, attached round stickers attach a toothpick
City background made from cereal boxes wrapped in black paper (I found the paper at a teacher supply store)
Blank journals from Hobby Lobby in a pack of six. I printed an emblem for each kid on a sticker and put it on the cover.
Invite - designed by me
Comic pennant made from old comic books from a local store - they sell old comics for 25¢ each.
Cape for Bennett (he received for Christmas) from TJMaxx
Blue and Yellow tablecloth from Target several years (Used first at one of Hallie's parties)

Ridge Run 2015...

Each year since moving into our neighborhood we've looked forward to the annual Ridge Run.

For the past 6 years, the Ridge Run shirts have had an illustrated road runner. (as can be seen in these pictures) I was asked to give the shirt a little spruce this year. I clarified if "sprucing" meant I had to keep the road runner and fortunately I was given creative leniency. After surveying a number of neighbors, the consensus was to keep it simple. And simple it is.

Everyone was more than ready to retire the roadrunner and I was happy to have a shirt I would wear again.

We walked as friends and neighbors through the neighborhood; in strollers and wagons and some on bikes.


In year's past we've had a breakfast but this year it was a little later in the day and we had a BBQ lunch in the park. Having it later meant it was significantly warmer and the kids poured water on their heads to cool off.


It was a week before Easter so they threw a bunch of eggs in the grass and let the kids "hunt". Thank you to the genius behind putting candy in only a 1/4 of the eggs and trinkets or pennies in the rest. Our dentist thanks you.







I look at this picture and I just smile. I think we have a picture of these two every year at the Ridge Run. They're not so little anymore!

Rock the block logo...

I was asked to design a logo for our annual block party - everyone throws in their talents and an amazing party is produced!


I sent the logo to the neighborhood committee and didn't know how they would use it. When I showed up to the party this weekend it was fun to see the logo displayed large front and center. I'm just mad we didn't make t-shirts with it! There's always next year.


Party details to come...

2014 Christmas Card...

As a graphic designer, Christmas cards are something I look forward to and plan far in advance.

This year's card idea hit me in September when we were contemplating Halloween costumes. We were the Incredibles on our card one year, why not be Lego people this year?! But if I was going to go to all the effort in creating the time-consuming costumes, the card deserved a little extra punch.

Here's the front and back. "Everything (at Christmas time) is Awesome"


And the inside - a pop-up lego family. "When you are part of a team. Merry Christmas from our team to yours."



The whole idea driving this card was the pop-up, its what I was most excited about designing. And as I started pricing dies out I saw my vision being slowly squashed due to price. But the printer I usually use tipped me off on a search to finding a laser die cut service and I found a great one. If anyone is looking for affordable die cuts - smartpress.com was awesome - so much cheaper than traditional dies.

And because these questions were asked time and time again after we sent out our card:
Yes, those lego people are really us.
No they are not photoshopped on.
Yes, they were slightly uncomfortable and somewhat hard to see out of.
No, I will never make one of these costumes again!
Yes, I am keeping them. They're currently wrapped in plastic in the attic for who knows how long before we pull them down and revive the Lego family.
Yes, we were a hit at the neighborhood Halloween party and basically ended up posing with every family for a photo op. And most predicted the Lego family would make the Christmas card.

I've said this before but it's my favorite card to date!