happy new year! now i can finally show you...

Hello everyone!

I started this post before Christmas, but for obvious reasons I couldn't post it until after Christmas. Since October, I started working on Christmas gifts that I had been brainstorming about pretty much all year long. I love giving a thoughtful gift. I know it takes a lot of effort, but for some reason I just enjoy thinking and thinking about good gift ideas for loved ones. It doesn't have to be handmade, but this year, most of my gifts on Caleb's side turned out to become diy projects. They took a lot of time and effort, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Next year I may not work so hard. We'll see.  

For my sister-in-law, Shannon, I designed four prints of quote art by Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (I can't quite remember if that's the full name of the school). Shannon is by far one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I know. She has a whole pinterest board dedicated to things "Harry Potter." I love Harry Potter as well, but I don't think you get initiated into the club until you've read each book in the series at least five times. I've got a long way to go. :) 

I got the idea from this etsy listing. I thought of hand lettering it myself, but I felt that designing on the computer would be cleaner and faster, and I would get to use more colors if needed. 

Anyway, so this project allowed me to explore the world of print design and the wonderful unending world of fonts and colors. There were so many different possibilities. I went through multiple drafts and mediums and I ended up with this:  

Did you recognize any of the quotes? Super fun project. I'm beginning to realize how much I enjoy design. The idea is to hang them on the wall together as a collage, but really you can put them anywhere.

As for Josh, we actually knew his gift way before anyone else. It all started with going to a moving sale, and we found some vintage fly fishing flies.

Looks pretty junky huh? Well, you just need to visualize. I could have done more with this, but since I'm working on a budget, we had to keep it simple.

I had to cut out all of them from the original cardboard if I wanted to keep the cork. It was tedious, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Once again, I carefully chose the color, fonts, and paper. I have some leftover flies that were not used so I will give those to him in a separate bag. 

Now for their son, Phoenix, I had to be really thrifty since these two gifts took most of the budget. What better way to go than by making puppets! Felt is super cheap at the store, and puppets don't take that much material. I scavenged pinterest for ideas and was immediately drawn to the three little pigs. Classic story for any child! These took forever to make, but I really like how they turned out. I made another set for my other nephew, Deacon. 

He loved it!

How was your Christmas? I'll be blogging about ours next!

Hugs,

Jessie

Merry Christmas 2014

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Do you like the gold confetti background on the blog? Just thought it would be a nice festive touch.

One of these days I will actually send out cards. This was last minute and I was experimenting again with yet another print design project. I've seen some really cool Christmas letters and wanted to try and make our own. I know the print is small. It would have been more readable if I actually had them printed, but oh well. I emailed it to family and friends who will be able to enlarge and read it. 

I am grateful for this time of year where we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. My church came out with a video that is very touching and a great reminder of the true gift of Christmas. This is the whole reason we celebrate this holiday. Check it out! :

There have been some awesome tunes that have come out as well that I have absolutely come to love! Pentatonix came out with two that I can't stop listening to. 

Mary Did You Know?

Silent Night

I thought this one was cool too. It's not Pentatonix, but by some guy I never heard of. 

This last one is old, but very entertaining. I really like a capella groups if you can't tell.

This one is Straight No Chaser's "12 Days of Christmas."

We are going to Ohio on Saturday! Woohoo! It's going to be great because everyone will be there and we get to talk to my missionary brother-in-law on Christmas! And this will be our first Christmas with my new sister-in-law! So we get to break her in with lots of pranks and jokes and find out her deepest darkest secrets.

I kid. Seriously just kidding. I would never do that. Ben would kill me.

I am super stoked though. I'll get to share my enthusiasm about girly things with her.
Caleb is gonna love her a lot.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

i like me some good design

Hey there, I think it's about time I blog some more. To say the very least, I've been busy...which is good! Then I can tell you all about it. I have a lot of projects going on right now, but there is one I'd like to show you. It's hot off the press. Come see. 

I am throwing a baby shower (why do you say "throw?") for one of my good friends here. I am collaborating with some other ladies in the ward to make it happen, but I'm basically in charge. So far so good, but there is still a lot to do. 

First things first...the invitations...

I have discovered that I am a lover of beautiful writing, fonts, print design, fancy paper, and even fancier pens. Anything that involves paper and ink, it somehow attracts me. So I made a project out of the invitations. Normally in our ward at church, someone sends out a mass email to the entire ward inviting everyone to the baby shower, but I decided that I wanted to go more traditional. Karissa liked the idea of inviting women that she knew personally, so all the more reason for me to make the invitations and use my design skillz...

Here's what came to fruition:

 I'm pretty proud of them, I'll just be honest. But don't they look so good?!

I gathered some ideas off the internet, but made some changes here and there and I chose the colors, fonts, and paper.

I'm just having way too much fun with this. I'm going with theme colors of cream, blush, black, and gold. Pretty classy in my opinion.

I then proceeded to address the envelopes using my calligraphy skillz...

I'm not made of money, but if I were I would have had these professionally printed. I bought the cardstock and nice envelopes from a store called The Paper Source. When I'm in there, I feel like a child in a candy store. It's a really fun store, but really expensive. However, they have a good selection of paper, and I have yet to find another store with this same variety. There may be a better store further into Ann Arbor, but I've only been there once and parking was atrocious...so I never went back. Maybe I will try to go again sometime.

At least they give you a cool paper bag. :)

Pretty cool huh? I haven't used my calligraphy pen in a while, so it was nice to break it out.

And by the way, I absolutely love love love burning candles. 

The one in this picture is "warm apple pie." Love it!

Happy weekend!

<3 Jessie