Merry Christmas!

So I thought I'd have time to put a picture up of making christmas treats which we did this weekend at the cabin or going to Candylane yesterday.... wrong. I now have to leave for church in 2 hours followed by Christmas at the inlaws where I need to wrap all my neices & nephews presents and put the goodie baskets to gether for all their parents.... and get 1 more gift, ugh! I left lexies "Christmas Jammies" at the cabin so I want to find a new pair to wear up tonite. We leave straight from tims parents. I have to go to wegmans and get fresh meat and veggies for the rest of the week and get home.... wish me luck I need it! As you can see I need a much needed break so the studio will be closed until I recoup next year!!!!!! Hope you all enjoy the holidays with your family and friends.
Merry Christmas Eve,
julia

Still Taking Holiday Card Orders!

Just so you know Monday the 15th will be the last day to place orders for my Press-printed or photo greeting cards to ensure delivery by the 20th. Feeling rushed!? How about sending a New Years greeting or give yourself even more time and send a unique custom valentine to all your friends and family.

I know most of my designs on the website look pretty bright and bold this year so I wanted to point out one I just did that is very warm. Tammy Brinkley photographed this family whose children were in a wedding last weekend so I had to glam it up abit. The client told me she wanted to work with gold so this is what I ran with.

OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY

If you didn't get a chance to stop by today, I'd LOVE to see you tomorrow! I made some of my yummy sugared covered cranberries so it might be worth the trip, ha ha! All holiday card orders are 10% off and can be combined with a discount coupon this weekend only. Any order placed for a 2009 event is 15% off and expires tomorrow!!! Lexie will be here so as always, little ones are more than welcome to come play. P.S. sorry I didn't post this sooner for those who didn't know about it.

The Cabin Birthday Cake

I was poking around on craigslist one day just before my husbands birthday and saw a post about custom cakes that caught my eye. I thought "hey, I don't have time to bake a cake!" and I already got his present (nothing special) so I thought a thoughtful cake would be a nice touch. I contacted Amy and she was very excited to work on my cake. I told her tim liked to fish maybe we could do something with that theme and sent her a picture of our cabin (were we were going to celebrate the day). She delivered it which was a super big help as I am always running around like mad finishing orders the weekends we go out of town so I really appreciated that. And It was SO cute. She did a wonderful job with it. She even stacked little cookies like logs for the cabin and found chocolates that looked like rocks for the pond. It was 2 layers of vanilla with a coconut filling in the center, yum!!!!! My husband really liked it and was surprised to have such a great cake for his birthday. Next time you need a cake instead of a grocery store or fancy bakery cake you should try one of Amy's! Here email is maggnolia420@yahoo.com.

Rhinestone's RD Invitation

I had a mother of the groom bring in a wedding invitation that had a rhinestone on it with the "kids" initials as well as a bridal shower CD favor adorned with one. She wanted to continue the rhinestone theme and black & pink wedding colors on the rehearsal dinner invitations. A snowflake was nice touch for the december event and the perfect backdrop for the rhinestone. I just love how these turned out. We printed them on a thick metallic pink card.

20% OFF SALE!

www.love2bcreative.cceasy.com GRAND OPENING SALE!
Save 20% on ALL online orders placed on my cceasy website in November!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am always looking for ways to better serve my clients and I think you will find my new cceasy website perfect for those occasions where you want affordable stationery and my personalized service. Everything you see on the website is mass produced so there are no design fees (unless you want me to submit some custom artwork) and you can shop directly from the website. I will then review your order with you to answer any questions or concerns you may have before it goes to print. There are items and gifts for EVERY occasion! Below are just a few:
:: Wedding Invitations ::
:: Mommy Cards :
:: We're Expecting ::
:: Photo Holiday Cards ::
:: DIY Invitations ::
:: Napkins ::

New! Stocking Stuffers/Gift Sets

Need something small for a friend, teacher or that family member you never know what to get? How about a set of personalized note cards! Sold in sets of 5 cards w/ colored envelopes for $8 or 2 sets for $15. Can be personalized with a name or initials for no extra charge. See holiday website for more designs and illustrations available.

Holiday Cards have begun!

So I am working on my 1st order for the season for my friend and favorite Mary Kay gal, Aly Johns. She sent me a great family beach photo as well as 2 snapshots of the kids. I will be uploading them to my holiday card site where you can see all the designs she had to choose from! Here is just 1. I had tons of ideas and my creative wheels just kept spinning!!!

Happy Halloween

We are off to HesheyPark in the Dark! Be back monday. Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

My little Butterfly

well lexie wanted to be about 5 different things but luckily when it came to trick-or-treat nite she was happy to wear the butterfly she wore last year! I put on some wings too! She filled her whole bucket and we had a fine nite together, beats being at work!

Favor Stickers

Melissa works across the street from my studio and stopped in to ask about favor stickers and drink menus to match her colors. Here is what we came up with. I LOVE the final product these favors look awesome she did a great job! I also designed her thank you notes with the same theme and photo. I will post a photo of them tomorrow b/c my husband has my camera and the digital files just aren't the same.

Metallic Business Cards

I just printed some business cards for Elaine, who was one of my "first brides" for her family roofing company. They specialize in industrial roofing and do a lot of custom metal roofs so I really like the metallic paper for these!

Memory Blankets

I've had an wonderful opportunity to work with Michelle from Willow Creek Studio on a brand new image for her business. So far we have designed a logo, business cards, stickers and hang tags for her one-of-a-kind products..... memory blankets & military totes. She makes them out of the clothing you send her and they are awesome! What a great gift idea for the upcoming holiday season! I've already given her a bunch of my grandma's dresses that I saved when she passed away with the hopes of "making a quilt someday". I thought to myself if I don't just give them to Michelle I will still be saying that 20 years from now. I am in the process of deciding which clothes I want to use for Lexie's blanket. I have everything laid out. A huge pile of pink, 4 pieces of yellow and a few lilac & sage. I can't make up my mind!!! So I asked my friend Colette to bring her daughters blanket over so I could look at it. Colette took a lot of time color coordinating the pieces and the blanket turned out great. To me looks like something you'd find in Pottery Barn Kids! Here is a close-up of Savannah's blanket. If you'd like a blanket of your own contact michelle@willowcreekbaby.com!

Photo Shoot with Jen

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So I met up with Jen Baltgalvis today at Aschcomb's for some pictures of lexie to inspire some of my upcoming holiday card designs and capture lexie at age 2 1/2! It was a beautiful day outside and lexie had fun playing with Jen's kids. If you haven't scheduled your pictures with Jen yet this year be sure you do before the holiays so that I can use them on some really great keepsake cards to send to your friends and family! My holiday card website is nearing completion and Jen will be listed as one of our preferred photographers!

I promise I will start posting everyday I'm in the studio. I want you to read my blog and I know it is boring when there is nothing new to see! I will put up a few more posts since I have been back from vacation almost 3 weeks now and "starting" to feel caught up!

HOLIDAY WEBSITE COMING SOON!

I am working out some kinks but my holiday card website featuring custom photo & non-photo holiday greetings as well as note cards and photo stamps will be live sometime next week! Stay tuned as I will be having great specials for the months of oct. and nov. Here is a sneak peak at the current home page & gallery!

P.S. The studio will be closed this monday as I will be away for our "anniversary weekend".

CLOSED FOR VACATION 9/25 - 10/2

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm headed to the beach for my "mommy&me" vacation the 25th - 2nd and will not be checking my email or phone messages. It's time to take a break and recharge my battery! I will be back in the studio friday, oct. 3 from 11-6pm and saturday 12-4.

I also want to apologize to all the brides I met at the brial show at the holiday inn on the 14th and haven't had a chance to follow-up with... I haven't even unpacked from the show yet so I haven't done my drawing yet for the note cards. Stay tuned as I will announce the winners when I get back!

Fall Portrait Promotion Announced

I have once again teamed up with Tammy Brinkley at Stolen Moments Photography to offer beautiful keepsake holiday cards for your friend and family to cherish. Be sure to call Tammy (303.1777) to schedule your families portrait so we may begin designing your personal and unique holiday card! New this year are Photo Stamps from Stamps.com!!! Now your envelope can be as personal as your cards! Stay tuned for the release of my '08 holiday card collection (and special offers) featured on it's very own website to be released on October 15th.

Larry & Mary's Wedding

Larry came and picked up the seating chart and bookmarks today for their wedding this Saturday. It was 24x36 and looked amazing. I got a quick shot of it before he took it home. Also shown is their invitation.

The Soda Truck

I just had to post this b/c I never knew just how much of an impression a logo can make. I must also mention that I am not a soda drinker (lexie thinks soda is seltzer water with lemon) and my husband only drinks Coke. In fact we only know 3 people who drink Pepsi, Aunt Lisa, Grammie & OP so I was very shocked when on the way to work lexie exclaimed... "Look Mom, the soda truck!" I had to take a picture to show you what she saw when she said this.

New Fall Studio Hours

Lexie started dance class today at The Studio, so I will be changing my monday hours from 12-7 to 12-4:30, tuesday and thursday hours will remain the same 2-7. Fridays I will have regular hours of 11-6. Most saturdays I will be open 12-4.

The Picture on the left is at HersheyPark yesterday, it was the favorite one I got from the day which was appropriate cause when daddy asked her her favorite ride she said "the ponys!"

My first website is done!!!

It's so exciting after tons of hours hammering out the design and details of the Kadoodlezinc.com website I finally have my first website (that's not my own) under my belt! It was so much fun to design and a great learning experience. I am now working on a price list for anyone else who may be interested in website design, so if you are just ask!

Destination Save the Dates

Today I met with Kelly and her friend and wedding planner Jamie who I love working with. Kelly found invitations online she was madly in love with but at over $1,300 (and she only needed 35) they were way over her budget so she figured she'd have to make them herself. They come in a box adorned with a starfish so she found ribbon, starfish and boxes but just needed the actual invitation and a matching save the date so Jamie brought her to me. Together we achieved exactly what she was looking for for WAY LESS including her save the date postcards which are shown below and I think are absolutely sophisticated and adorable!

Ava's 1st Birthday Invite

Remember the time capsule 1st bday cards I designed for Ava? Well, here is her 1st Bday invite and the response I got from her mom when she received her order. I just wanted to share b/c I don't have my testimonials online anywhere.

Hi Julia-
I got the invitations today and am so happy with how they turned out! Everything is absolutely perfect! Thank you so much for the adorable stickers (so cute!) and for adding our return address (yea, less to write)! I really appreciate all the work you did making them so personal for her first birthday!
Take Care,
Katie

Lexie won't watch fireworks

We had our annual family reunion last saturday and my husband and nephew, curtis set off the fireworks that my mother-in-law bought when we went to the bridal show in SC. We set ours off on July 4th and lexie wouldn't watch them then either. I had to get a picture b/c it was just to funny. She would not open her eyes and look at them but when they are done she cheers and says "yeah fireworks" and tells everyone she saw them. I try to keep this blog just for business postings but I figure all the work I do for my clients is so personal so it's nice to share a little with you when you share so much with me! So you will find these scattered here and there.
P.S. don't you love my new glasses I got them in Hershey at Goepfert Eye Associates.

Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

I just had 2 orders for rehearsal dinner invitations so i wanted to show you one of them. It was so simple yet elegant. They found a set of flowers from another invitation on the wall and I turned it into a monogram. The groom's mom said bride was all about "hand picked" looking flowers so that was the inspiration.

Sibling birth annoucements

My friend Suzanne was in town and wanted to stop by and see my studio. She also hasn't gotten around to doing her son's birth announcements (he's 5 mo. old yesterday). For you busy new moms who feel it's "too late" I say "better late then never!" So we took off his shirt since his sister didn't have one on for hers and I snapped a photo of him right in his car seat (I loved the green background) and wahlah we finally had his birth announcement designed just like that! She wanted them to be the same so she can frame them next to each other... what a great idea! So that was my excitement for today, meeting baby owen in person! I promise I am going to get better at this blogging thing so you keep coming back to see what is new b/c something always is!

Time Capsule Happy Birthday Wish Cards

I was so excited when a former client of mine whose daughters birth announcements I did last fall ran an idea by me.... She wanted to do a time capsule with little note cards that guests would fill out on her daughters 1st Birthday that she would keep and present to her on 10th Birthday! Here are the samples I came up with to run by her. We are going to put them in hot pink envelopes.

Kadoodlez Inc - Logo Design

We have a winner! Thank you to my team of interns who worked so hard on this with me to give artist Ashley Jones the perfect identity to her company specializing ind decorative children's art and hair accessories. I met Ashley at the Kids & Baby expo in York. Her hair bows caught my eye and I was hooked. Just so happened Ashley was looking to take her marketing materials to the next level so we teamed up. I have a 2 year old little girl with crazy hair that needs bows and headbands and she needed a graphic designer, it was the perfect match. Our first step was to brand Ashley's image with a logo. Next we will be working on a website (kadoodlezinc.com coming very soon) where you can see her work and even place custom orders, business cards and packaging!

Petal Fans have arrived!

Our paddle fans with the wooden sticks have been very popular so I was excited when Heather mentioned the idea of doing a program on 5 pages that fan out. What a memorable keepsake for all their guests in addition to their photo save the date magnets and invitations! Photography by Amanda Kraft.

July 4th Party Invite

So what kind of invitation does the "invitedesigner" do for herself? We didn't host our semi-annual christmas party this year so we thought it would be nice to invite our friends to our cabin for a july 4th bash... especially since I bought a whole bunch of fireworks in SC! Somewhere I must have taken these photos b/c I found them in my iPhoto album and they were just what I was looking for to set the tone as should any invite you send out! I also did little direction cards with other misc. notes on them.

Bachelorette Party Suitcase Invite

Here it is! The most unique invitation I've done yet. This was a collaboration with Megan and the results were fabulous! The actual one we used for the bride was pink. We were told they were going for a "Sex in the City" theme for their NYC getaway so we took the idea and ran with it. This invitation was actually done FREE for Andrea (the brides best friend) as a thank you gift for the many orders she and the bride, Marlynn have placed with love2bcreative. It's been great working with them and I look forward to seeing what event they celebrate next! And a thank you to Jen who took this picture and many others I plan to use on future promotions!

Fall Wedding Invites

I am currently working on a several fall wedding invitation designs but wanted to showcase 2 of my favorites from last year that you fall brides that haven't ordered invitations yet might like! Of course everything I do is 100% custom so yours would end up looking slightly different. I love to add little details like the falling leaves on the direction card...

My first GIRL TWINS birth annoucements

Sorry I am behind posting. I've got lots of good stuff to get up here so I will have to back track but today I just printed Courtney's twin daughters birth announcements. It was so much fun working on them and she liked everything we came up with so she asked for all 3! I made magnets of my favorite one which I will have to begin marketing cause they are so darn cute and only about the size of a business card. We spare no details so I'm also including a picture of the order as I prepared it for shipping cause it was cute too. Courtney was a winner of one of my $25 gift certificates from the Kids & Baby Expo. I gave away 25 certificates and only she and another gal emailed me... the other 23 of you where are you?

Summer Internship Opening

First of all a super big CONGRATS to Megan Hobbes who graduated last weekend and already landed a great design job outside of Philly! Megan was a huge asset to love2bcreative eagerly taking on anything thrown her way. She's the reason there now is an entire portfolio online to view! She also collaborated with me on our coolest invitation yet... a bachelorette party invite with a tiara and it's own little suitcase. I will post an image soon! I wish Megan the best on her new post-college adventure and was so glad I could be here when she found out she got a job that was really exciting.

I welcome aboard Tom Jablonski of Shippensburg University and Eric Peifer of Etown College who are interns for the summer. Melissa Mueller of PCAD hopes to log some hours outside the studio while she attends summer school and works. So you're probably wondering how do you have room for another intern!? Well one of my problems is I have trouble saying the word "no", if any of you are a client of mine you have never heard me say it! So when these great kids come to me looking for experience I just want to help get their feet wet! Which reminds me I also forgot to mention Steve Cook, an ambitious high school sophmore who joins me on Saturdays when I am here. Anyway, I'm flexible, so are my hours and the students who intern with me!

P.S. A new welcome to Brianna Cooney of PA College of Techonolgy who will be joining me Tue+Thurs this summer. Brianna has a great portfolio and I'm looking forward to seeing her creative juices in action. She has already come up with some nice senior announcement samples using Jen's pictures which we will be introducing soon!

We're back!

We ended up getting back so late monday night that I never got to bed before I had to be on the train to go to NYC... but hey I'm a mom and a designer so pulling an all-nighter is not foreign to me! Kelly grabbed a coffee and I a choc. chip muffin on our way to the show and we didn't take a break til 1 which doesn't sound bad but when you are carrying 25lbs of business cards and promotional products  and only running off a muffin you get worn out! By this point we were probably only 1/4 through the show and we only had 5 hours left! We did manage to make it through all the booths and have 45 min. to spare waiting for the train were we could finally sit down again. Penn Station was pretty intimidating since we are not used to using mass transportation and there is no where to sit down and wait. We're guessing cause everyone in NYC is in a hurry... chairs would just get in the way! So we finally figured out that you have to stare at the board and wait till your track # pops up then you run to that track. Seriously it was like a swarm of bees every time a track # was posted. I can't imagine doing that everyday, but I guess you get used to it! Anyway, back to the show! We met some super nice designers (one all the way from Australia) and vendors showcasing some really great work. It's so inspiring to see so much passion for graphic design in one place!!! I thought there would be more booths with things to use as a designer and I did find a few really cool finds but mostly it was al lot of people doing what I do (all in their own unique style) looking for buyers to pick-up their line of work. So I guess my next move is to have my own booth at the show so retailers nationwide can offer love2bcreative invitations & annoucements!

Going to the National Stationery Show

I just picked up our train tickets today because tuesday we are headed to NYC for the National Stationery Show! What an exciting venue I can't wait!!! This will be my first year attending and I'm not sure what to expect other than lots of great inspiration and products to make my business even more unique.

Baby & Kids Expo Raffle Winner

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth on Saturday and took time to enter our raffle! You could still be a winner.... I have given the hospital 25 additional $25 gift certificates to award as door prizes for those that registered at the main desk.

Unique Gift Idea

My niece, Kristi, just celebrated her confirmation and I wanted to give her something unique. I found a Willow Tree figure and made some personalized note cards for her and put them in this cute little suitcase. She LOVED it!

Beautiful Photo Jewelry

I am happy to announce I am a retailer of kibra studios custom photo jewelry! In honor off all mothers I will be offering 15% off ALL ORDERS placed in May.

I had a photo charm bracelet I got from an inexpensive jewelry party but what I really wanted was a solid sterling one that I never have to take off. I found EXACTLY what I was looking for at kimbra studios. Their jewelry is "Tiffany" quality, solid sterling and completely waterproof!

new business cards... A or B?

So I designed some postcards (with special discount offers) to hand out next weekend at the Kids & Baby Expo in York and came up with a new direction for my next batch of business cards. Each time I order new cards I do a new design to keep them new and exciting for both me and you! This time I just can't decide if I like A or B for the one side so I thought I'd ask for your opinion! I like my name up the side in red or the website in red but I tried combining both and that didn't work. You can post a comment here or email it to me. I appreciate your input!

New Blogger In Town!

My very first post… WOW! I am a blogging virgin and totally overwhelmed right now. I have spent all weekend being a DBA (data base administrator) which is totally foreign to me but I think I have finally got everything up and running. Now I get to play around with the design of my blog, but I have some projects (that I can’t wait to show you) I have been neglecting so we’ll just stick to the flower artwork for now.

I have a confession the first paragraph above was my first post to my wordpress blog that I spent 20hours creating and still can't figure out how to change the colors of my text or make the heading bigger. I am so mad I could just cry for wasting all that time and now I am using blogspot as I refuse to waste any further time trying to wrap my hands around my dang wordpress blog from h*ll!!!!!

Yesterday I did my first “real” photo session with Jen Baltgavis. She met our family at Messiah to take pictures for several reasons… #1 my newphews birth annoucements, #2 my mom wanted a family picture and we’ve never manage to all be looking at the camera at the same place at the same time before #3 I wanted some 2 year old pictures of lexie. There is a sneak peek on her blog and I can’t wait to see the rest. She is an AMAZING photographer. I just love her eye and color that she brings out in all her photos, they just sparkle with personality.