Friday Footnotes

Ever have those weeks that are just slow enough that for half a heartbeat or so, you start to question whether you’ve headed down the wrong path? That was me last week. That was me just this past Sunday. My Etsy shopped slowed from the frenzy of commuter hour to a nicely paced drive in the middle of the country. i.e. it didn’t even stop. But it slowed to the point where I had the mini-est of panic attacks, questioning whether or not this could really be for real. That the craziness of these past few months were over and that it was all a big joke that God was pulling. Well, all those doubts flew right out the window on Monday and we’re back to the juggling always multi-tasking day-to-day frenzy that my life has become. I must admit, I kinda missed this frenzy.

Soooo…. another week with no Internet finds for my footnotes. Uh, this may be like week 3 of me missing them, so let’s take a moment to see what I’ve been up to. Just a few sneak peeks…

1. Embossing [Anything I Can Get My Hands On]

A few months back, a very dear friend of mine asked me to design a bridal shower invitation. The theme involved the lovely color of gold…. so I asked her if she would want to try embossing the invitations. Something I have been wanting to add to my shop for sometime (but did I mention I hadn’t tried this technique in over a decade??!). So we get the invite design, rubber stamp made, and we plan a day to get together to create 50 invitations. Ugh, let’s just say, it didn’t work out like we hoped. But since I had all the tools now, I wanted to put them to good use—plus I discovered embossing pens where I can straight up right and turn my writing to embossed amazing-ness—which led me to embossing wedding table number cards, greeting cards, and whatever else I could get my hands on! Let’s just say, my hubby came home from a weekend of BBQ to a kitchen lightly covered in glittering gold dust. I snapped some photos and just listed these babies in my shop this week. Let’s see what happens next shall we? Whether they sell or not, I sure had fun making them!

Whew, after that long story, you may still be wondering what embossing even is…. using rubber stamps and a embossing ink pad or a pen that emits the special embossing ink, the ink impression is dusted with powder and then heated which creates that raised embossed link.

2. Hand Lettered Hang Tags

Another semi-new product to my shop are hand-lettered tags that can be used for gift tags—and personalized for name cards too! I love listing new items just to see what happens. After listing a set of 4 tags that would be for the everyday use with sayings like thanks, cheers, happy birthday, etc… I had a few custom orders come in with personalized tags for a bachelorette weekend, and then by a couple brides who wanted their bridesmaids names written and another just wanting their bridal party roles written out. These are the days where I can’t believe I’m getting paid to just write someone’s name on a tag. Humbled and shocked and feeling so blessed about this!

3. Full Calligraphy Stamp

I’ve also listed a few new rubber stamps… seriously, I really used this little slow period to get a ton of new products going! I had listed a full calligraphy address stamp some time ago but was never truly happy with the look of the design…. and then comes another amazing Etsy customer who specially requested the stamp and I really love how theirs came out! Using a kinda funky and whimsical writing…

4. Merry Christmas Rubber Stamp

Another rubber stamp just added to the shop is a Christmas one! Is it really that time of year already?? Okay, I may be a little ahead of myself, but I just started doodling and trying out the lettering and loved how the y in merry crossed the t and dotted the i! So I just couldn’t wait any longer! View the listing here.

5. Church Re-Brand

And last but not least, a non-Etsy related project, finishing up the big branding overhaul at my church. Well, semi-finished. Here’s a web banner, that we’re not even using anymore (don’t want to ruin the surprise of the new website!) just to give you a peek as I still need to photograph all the rest of the printed pieces. A time consuming, but oh-so-fun-and-worth-it project!