Friday Blog Share: Pencil Shavings Studio

I could have sworn I already shared this blog, but according to my posts list, I haven't! Now's as good a time as any...

Pencil Shavings Studio is run by Rachel, also a seller on Etsy. It's a beautiful blog and showcases her business style perfectly and draws in readers with it's bright colors like a moth to a flame. Don't take my word for it though, check out some of my favorite posts thus far...

Project: Gala 85
Primary School
Starry Skies
Color Crush: Mint

Trending Thursday: Geometrics

Triangles, squares, rectangles, oh my! Geometrics are very hot this year, particularly patterns that resemble Native American textiles. The simplistic shapes paired with bold color or perhaps darker tones are hot right now.

Geometric Notebook by Paper Plan Stationery - $13.43

Thank You Card/ Tribal by Shelworks Stationery - $3.75

Geometric Pattern Card Set 4 by Foreshadow Press - $15

What's Happening Wednesday: Revisiting the Old

Sometimes, your brain just can't come up with anything new, or really don't have the time to come up with a completely new design, that's when I go back to older designs and create new color variations. Here are current stationery sets that will soon have other colors to add to them

Many Thanks Doily Thanks Set

Pink and White Thank You Set

Black and White Bride and Groom Thank You Set

Thank You Chevron

I may be going overboard with the Chevron... and honestly I could have sworn I had made a post for my newest creation already, but I think I must have accidently deleted it. So, now, I'm trying to work while I have chattering two-year old leaning on my left arm, making it immobile. Anyway, to the good stuff!

Chevron Thank You Set

It's a design I've had in my head for a while, and now that I have the perfect "Thanks" stamp I was able to make it a reality.

Currently available in Pink and purple

Sorry Folks

I know things have been quiet around here, and my Facebook page and Twitter account, since I've been preoccupied with trying to find a dog for our family; scouring Craigslist every hour, browsing Pet Finder every evening and every social media network you can think of including local rescue websites and visiting shelters. And even though we found our pooch, it will probably remain quiet for a while still. This week, our church is doing Vacation Bible School (Lots of churches do it, it's like a local summer church camp based on a theme, except it's only a few days and you can go home at the end of the day) which I will be helping out with. On top of that, my niece and nephews (all four of them) will be coming in to visit this weekend for two weeks, which means we'll be busy getting the house in tip-top shape for them to destroy (It'll be like having four babysitters living at home with me for two weeks. I'm looking forward to it).

Just letting you know.

I have a dog!

We finally found a dog that suits our family. We adopted him from the Central Valley Rescue Railroad, it's a local rescue here in California. He's an absolute doll, super sweet, calm, and just wants to be loved on and his name is Bouncer

He's a two-year old Corgi and Schnauzer mix and he's such a precious little baby. Do you have a pet? How did you come to own them? We want to hear!

Got Questions?

I've got answers! Unless it's something I DON'T have answers to ;). But if you have questions about me, what I do or something stationery related, please comment below and I'll do my best to answer your questions on Monday.

Happy Friday everyone!

Friday Blog Share: Oh So Beautiful Paper

I found Oh So Beautiful Paper through Twitter (like many of the blogs I follow). The author and editor is Nole Garey and you can find more about her and the story behind her blog here. It's an incredibly beautiful blog featuring wedding stationery and other lovely paper ephemera. I would be honored to be featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper if I ever started a wedding invitation business.

Favorite Posts:
Business Card Ideas and Inspiration #14
Tony+Hsiao's Game of Thrones Wedding Invitations
Tania + Nick's Coral and Mint Modern Wedding Invitations

Trending Thursday: Don't Touch my Mustache

I like the mustache trend. It's fun, whimsical, and brings back that Victorian nostalgia of masculine men, kind of like this guy

So, here are some Etsy faves of stationery stuff featuring awesome mustaches...

Custom Printable Chalkboard Invitation by The Paper Blossom Shop - $12.50

Trendy Stickers Set of 30 Mustaches by Sirius Fun - $4.95

Personalized Notecard Set by CurioPress - $13

So, do you like your mustaches on paper or do you prefer it the old fashion way, on a man?

Chevron Chic

If you can't tell from my blog, I really like the chevron pattern and I'm happy it's become really popular. That's why I'm so excited to share with you today Little Miss Card's latest additions...

Gorgeous chevron and monogram set now available!

You also have the option of black and white!

Is it possible to be in love with stationery?

A nice close up

Tada! Isn't it beautiful. And all embossed. By. Hand. Every line of chevron you see, hand embossed.

Now for the story behind the design. I actually had every intention of using a stamp for  the chevron pattern and I was going to do the monogram differently as well. But it didn't pan out. But I'm glad it didn't, because this came out so much more beautiful. So, stumped with my previous design, I started sifting around some of my supplies and equipment, looking for inspiration when I came across an embossing plate with a chevron pattern. Whaaaat? I HAD this all along? And here I've been waiting for the opportunity to purchase a chevron pattern stamp when I could have been embossing it all along. Oh well. But wait, there's a problem. The chevron pattern isn't long enough to reach all across the paper. What is a girl to do? Use a little ingenuity of course. I embossed the pattern across the paper as far as I could go, but I left the embossing open ended so that I could stagger my the plate along the already raised image of the chevron pattern to create a perfectly seamless zig-zag all across the paper. On. Every. Single. Line. It's more time consuming than other designs I offer, but it's so gorgeous I don't mind doing the extra work.

Be sure to click the captions under the photos to get to the location of these little lovelies.

Friday Blog Share: Becka Bonce

I found Becka Bonce in the Etsy Success Team forums. The author, Rebecca Wilson, was asking for applications from creators on Etsy to be featured on her blog based on a theme. Every week she does a "Becka Bonce loves..." segment, sort of like the Trending Thursday segments here. Here are my favorite "Becka Bonce Loves..." segments. So would that make this "LMC Stationery loves Becka Bonces Loves..."? It's love inception! (I know, it's a bad joke, leave me alone)

Becka Bonce Loves... Coral
Becka Bonce Loves... Foxes
Becka Bonce Loves... Sailors

Trending Thursday: Father's Day

Ok, so it's not exactly a trend, but it's coming up soon and that's all your going to see until it's passed. So here's some of my favorite Father's Day cards off of Etsy...

Father's Day Card by 55his - $3.99

Happy Father's Day Card by Rosemary Paper Co - $4.50

Daddy's Little Girl Father's Day Card by darae art - $4.00

Father's Day Card Printable by Splash of Silver - $0.99

How will you celebrate Father's Day?

What's Happening Wednesday: Chic Chevron

Wednesday's are the hardest days to blog for. Monday's are easy, I just blog about what I did over the weekend. Tuesday's I usually talk about a new product, Thursday's are Trending Thursdays and Friday's I share a blog with you. So what am I to do for Wednesday's? Talk about what I'm working on! Duh!

So today will be the first ever, official "What's Happening Wednesday" post. This week, I'm working on chevron designs and working on getting out another monogram design as well. Here is a teaser photo. Also, if you have a twitter account, you can follow me and you won't have to wait until Wednesday's to see what's happenin'.

Sieze the Day

Yesterday, I told you all about my new journal. But I didn't tell you about the art that it inspired in me. Occasionally, I like to make printable posters in Photoshop. I don't make them to sell, I do it for myself, I like to do it, I love art and typography and I want to surround myself with it. Eventually I want to print my latest creation and put it on a bedroom wall somewhere.

How I did it:

I created a new blank background in Photoshop, measuring 5x7 inches with 1000 pixels per inch. I painted the background a mint green which I sampled from an image I found on Google and created a swatch (I love mint green! It's my favorite color!). On top of the mint green layer, I placed a floral background, which was a free download (for personal use only) from Far Far Hill. I set the opacity for that layer to 22% so the floral background wasn't overpowering the main attraction and so the mint green background I created can show through. Now, the font I used for Carpe Diem is called "scribble" and I found it on 1001 Fonts (for personal use only) and you can find the creator of the font here, at Anke-Art. The frame surrounding "Carpe Diem" is a dingbat font called KG Flavor and Frames which I also downloaded from 1001 Fonts. The image between Carpe and Diem is also a dingbat from the font set called Bergamot Ornaments which you can find on DaFont. The scrolly things at the top and bottom of the frame is from another font set called flower ornaments, also found on 1001 Fonts.

And there you have it, my "Carpe Diem" poster! What do you think? Please leave a comment, I am dying to know!

Carpe Diem

Last week, before leaving for Bakersfield for the weekend, my Mom sent me upon the task of finding a journal/notebook set for our Pastor for her birthday, who goes through notebooks like my daughter goes through underwear (we're potty training). So I went to Target where they have the most gorgeous journals. I didn't find anything I thought our Pastor would like but I found a few that I wanted for myself. I didn't buy anything for me that day. But my mind kept going back to this one.... It was the most beautiful journal I'd ever seen. It was...

That's right, the Carpe Diem journal. And I love it. The whole purpose of it is to help you stay organized so you can reach your goals.

And it has pages in it to keep you motivated. The inside is just as beautiful as the outside! I'm really excited to have it. I've heard the phrase "Carpe Diem" before, but never actually knew what it meant. Now I do, "Seize the Day" what a perfect name for a journal about goals right?

Say Buh-bye!

Before I left for the weekend I got an order from someone in Australia for this particular design. It wasn't a large order, and shouldn't have taken too long to make... In theory. After all, I had no problems making the prototype, but I was wrong. I have never had this much trouble making a set before. The paper kept tearing or wasn't cutting all way through for whatever reason and took twice as long to do than it should have. And on top of that so much paper was wasted. So, I'll be pulling this design from production and hopefully I'll have a new design or two to replace by the end of the week.

I'm Back!

We're not moving, but this is what it feels like when traveling with a toddler

Oh my, who knew I could get so far behind on things when gone for one weekend? No matter, I'll catch up.

So, how was your guys' weekend? I actually left town Thursday instead of Friday and came back Sunday morning. Thursday was my brother's birthday, and Friday's was my Mom's and every year we drive to my brother's down in Bako to celebrate their birthday's. And we ALWAYS eat too much. I always have fun down there but it's nice to be back in my house and in my bed.

Going out of Town

I'm going out of town today for the weekend and won't be back until sometime Sunday... I think... It might be Saturday (I'm not the one planning this so I have no clue). So, posts may be scarce this coming week since I do most of my blogging on the weekends and then schedule the posts for the week. It also means I may not have a whole lot of new items available in the shop either since I do photos on the weekend (bummers). So I'll see you guys when I get back!

Friday Blogshare: Wild Ink Press

Wild Ink Press is actually a letter press shop in Chico, California. I first started following them on Twitter and then decided to check out their link, which led me to their shop...

Which led me to their blog (which has been added to my Feedly). Here are some links to posts that I most enjoyed.

New at the Show: {Quotations) I love the uniqueness and quirky fun of these cards
A Little Bit of Business {cards} I enjoyed this post because I love looking at the different business card designs
Our Letterpress Studio I love their studio! It's so pretty and spacious.

Trending Thursday: The Stationery Place's List of Trends

Just last week, the Stationery Place posted on their blog an article about the latest trends that were popping up all over the National Stationery Show...

NSS 2013: New Stationery Trends

...One of them was even the nautical theme which we covered two weeks ago here

How to Write Inside a Greeting Card

You know what's funny? I make cards. I am a stationery artist who cannot come up with a nice sentiment to save my life. Occasionally I get lucky and come up with something good that will bring tears (happy tears). Other times I just awkwardly come up with a joke that probably won't make sense to the receiver (actually, I'm better at the jokes). It also doesn't help that I have horrible handwriting that makes it look like I have rheumatoid arthritis, but that's another matter. Anyway, I came across a pin the other day on what to write inside of a card (Where was this when I was filling out thank you cards for my baby shower?).

I know that right this minute your trying to fill out that sympathy card to the new parents... I mean... congratulations card and here I am, giving you the link to the holy grail of greeting cards. You can thank me in the comments :)

What to Write in a Greeting Card

Congratulations Card in Silver and Black - $5.75

 Tada! Ain't she a beaut'? Yes, I said that with an Australian accent. But isn't she? I am thrilled at how this came out. I nearly had a heart attack when my 2-year old snatched it away from me and immediately started working at tearing the bow off and refused to give it back. But, it came away unscathed.

 I used black and silver card stock and silver embossing powder to bring out the silhouette cameo and "Congratulations!" I felt it was still miss something though...

So I hopped on over to Wal-Mart and chose a pretty grayish, silvery ribbon and made an itty bitty bow using this tutorial from this pin on Pinterest...

It was so easy, and fun! I hope you enjoyed today's post and please be sure to comment your thoughts!

Chevron Bandwagon

So, you may have read my product review yesterday, and if not here it is for you. As an effort to redeem myself (financially) I will be selling some craft stuff that I have been meaning to get read of since the beginning of time (it's stuff I don't use anyway). Also, so I could still execute those designs I've had spinning in my head, I allowed myself to order some supplies. In case you haven't been following my Twitter feed, here's a sneak peak for what I plan on doing with those new supplies...

 I actually made some changes to this one after taking the photo. See that monogram right there? It won't be oval, it will actually be a stamped doily, with a letter stamped on the inside. For now, it will be available in pink and gray and possibly blue and gray, but I need to test the gray ink on the blue paper. I WANT to do pink and gold but I don't have the right ink for it, also, I'd like to do blue and silver, but again, I don't have the right ink.

This one, the "scalloped" frame you see, is actually a window, and on the inside is where the silhouette will be stamped, and underneath that on the inside, where it isn't visible on the outside, I'm going to use a "Thank you" stamp in a french script. Oh, and there'll be an itty bitty bow attached to the front, how friggin cute is that right?

In case you can't tell from my blog, I LOVE the chevron pattern and I'm really excited that I'll finally have the ability to incorporate that pattern into some of my designs.

Cricut Cuttables Embossing Folder

What!? I didn't know you could make your own embossing folder with a Cricut! My poor Cricut... I haven't been letting it live up to it's potential.

So, in case this is news to you, I found a video on YouTube that show's you how to create your own embossing folder for your Cuttlebug

Product Review: Cricut Stamp Kit

It sucked. Basically.

If you don't already know what it is, I'll explain. It's a kit for your Cricut machine, it comes with four acrylic mounting blocks and one sheet of 6"x 6" stamp sheet and vinyl case. I got it new off of eBay for $12.88. For this kit, you also have to have the deep cut blade and housing, which I also had to buy in order to use my kit, which cost me $12.95. That's over $24 for this thing.

So, I waited all week for my deliveries, dieing in anticipation to make stamps so I can execute all the big ideas I had in my head. My stamp kit arrived, but I had to wait two days for my new blade before I could do anything (I was dieing inside!). So it finally get's here. THEN I have to wait for my 2-year old to go to sleep so I can get down to business.

Before I did any cutting on my stamp sheet, I did a test run to figure out what I was going to cut and what size. After that was done, I switched blades, put my stamp sheet on the cutting mat and away we went! Everything appeared to be going fine. I decided to cut out stamps of the entire alphabet, capital and lowercase, with an ampersand and I had space to cut a border stamp. I removed the letters, and realized the smaller details didn't cut very well, but I thought, "It'll be ok" but the more stamps I removed and noticed how badly it had cut the more disappointed I became. I placed all my stamps on an acrylic block, which was another disappointment. The stamps where so flimsy it was hard getting them onto the stamp straight. I then stamped it onto some paper. That was my biggest disappointment of all. The ink didn't set well on the stamp so I when I stamped it on the paper it looked.... wrong. It looked like I had used a cheap ink and cheap stamp, NOT professional at all like I had hoped. And, the letters looked warped because I couldn't get them on the stamp correctly. It just looked so cheap.

I do not recommend this kit at all. It was a waste of money and effort. I should have spent that money else where. I give it four thumbs down.

Feedly Fun

I've started following some blogs again now that I've started my own. There's lots of ways to keep up on the latest posts; bookmarking, RSS feed, email... But I personally like Feedly. It's great. Just make an account, copy and paste the URL from a fave blog into the search and save it and voila! The next time you log into Feedly, you'll find the latest blog post from all your blogs. Do you follow Feedly?

Another "Many Thanks"... But in Pink

Pink and White Thank You Note Card Set

This is the same design as the other's from this week (obviously), but in pink!

Put Your Stamp On It by Brown Pigeon

Etsy has every kind of creative artist you can think of in their thralls repetoire, even writers! I found this book at Brown Pigeon on Etsy. Check it:

Put Your Stamp On It by Brown Pigeon

I would really enjoy reading this book, particularly the section that shows you how to hand carve stamps. Anybody else lusting after this book?