Tuesday, June 11, 2013

new to my etsy shop

Graphic design has quickly become one of my favorite new hobbies, (like I really needed any new hobbies).
I recently had the pleasure of designing two cute new birth announcements and some custom artwork for a friend and I just made them all available in my Etsy shop.

I shared many of these pictures in my most recent photography dump, but here is the announcement I made for the Bailey family, including all of Austin's cute little newborn features.

Front:


Back:


This announcement could easily be customized to any color for a baby boy or a baby girl.
I usually use the picture(s) as inspiration for the color, as I did for Austin's.
I also include picture editing and/or black and white conversion with my cards, (as long as you have the rights to the pictures).


I am really loving this fun birth announcement also.

Front:


Back:


(Again, all colors, fonts, etc. can be customized).


Finally, my friend Ryan (his cute family can be seen here, here and here) called me a few weeks before Mother's Day and asked if I would be able to help him design something for Colleen.
He wanted to use the kids' handprints, which immediately made me really nervous because we have tried handprint projects before and they are extremely challenging with two adults so I had no idea how he was going to get handprints from his 6 month old and 2 year old on his own without Colleen noticing.
Even if I were to go to his house and physically help him I was sure we wouldn't be able to pull it off.

So, I got this idea that we would use digital handprints.
I had him take pictures of his kids' hands with his iPhone and measure the lengths of their hands from the tip of their middle fingers to the bottom of their palms.
Then, I took those images into Photoshop and played with them until I had something that sort of looked like a painted handprint and I scaled them to the correct sizes.

Ryan originally wanted one big print with both kids' handprints and some cute saying but I just couldn't come up with anything that didn't look completely cheesy or obnoxious.
He wanted it HUGE to hang on a blank wall in their house, and while I think it is a very creative and sweet idea, I know Colleen's style (very similar to mine) and I knew it couldn't look like a typical Mother's Day craft with a cheesy Mother's Day-ish saying because she would not want to hang that permanently on her walls.

So, after MUCH deliberation, this is what I came up with:


Three prints in separate frames that sweetly work together.
I love the Bob Dylan quote that I ended up finding.

I think these prints are cute for any time of year, not just Mother's Day.

When Baby J 2.0 gets here, I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to make a custom set of these for our playroom.

So, this is a tricky thing to sell in an Etsy shop, but what I have done is create two separate listings.
One is for just the digital file of this 8x10 print with the buntings and Bob Dylan quote in the colors shown (only $3).



The other listing is completely custom.
You purchase the design, take pictures of your kids' hands and measure them for me, then send me all the other specifics I will need to create something just for you:
-kids' names
-colors
-sizes (Jude is really big for his age and his huge hand BARELY fit on a 5x7 page, so the whole design would have to be made larger for older children)

The following images show the original pictures that Ryan sent me to give you a better idea of how they translate into the final digital files:






Etsy can be confusing.
Email me with any questions!

Xoxo.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

photography: april-may 2013

My posts have been few and far between lately, mainly because I am using a lot of my free time to edit pictures.
I am continually amazed that my friends trust me to capture these sweet moments in time with their families.
It is a "business" I didn't intend to start, and it has been a humbling pleasure.

These are some of my favorite shots from my most recent photography adventures.
_ _ _

The Ireland Family

How is baby Cece already six months old?
Wait, no, she was six months old when I took these pictures.
She is now more than eight months old.

It feels like just yesterday that her momma stretched my courage and begged me to take some maternity photos, beginning this unexpected chain reaction of other friends asking me to take pictures for them also.
When Cece arrived I had the pleasure of taking newborn photos, and now look at her!
She's sitting up like a big girl and her big brown eyes are simply irresistible.

I love this family.


This picture makes me laugh so hard.
I said, "Mom and Dad are going to smooch!" and these are the faces I get from Jude and Cece.
Seriously?
Too funny.




Colleen had the brilliant idea of using some of the same props that we used in Cece's newborn pictures.
Recognize the mint blanket, the flapper outfit and the big pouf?







The Smiths

Heather and Justin asked me to get a few pictures of their family while they were still just three.








They didn't know if they were having a girl or a boy at the time of those pictures and I'm happy to announce that Duncan welcomed a new baby brother just a couple weeks later.

I snapped these sweet shots of Emerson James when I went to visit him and his pretty mommy in the hospital.





The Haag Family

Scott, Kelly, Carter and Lilah welcomed the newest addition to their family, a precious baby boy named Bennett, in April.
It is certainly a challenge to get great pictures of a family of five but I think we managed to get a few.

Bennett was a total dream.
He slept through almost everything and let us squish him up into just about any position we wanted to.










Of course the one moment when Bennett decided to cry, Lilah and Carter both looked absolutely joyful and so proud to have a new little brother.
Even with the sad baby, this picture is still one of my very favorites:


Congrats, Haags!



The Appleton Family

Brandon and Sarah wanted some six month pictures of their little guy, Cain, and as I edited these pictures, I just fell more and more in love with him!
He is so stinkin' cute.
I can't get enough of those round, pink cheeks and his gorgeous eyes.









Austin's Newborn Pictures

Remember this cute family?
I was so excited to hear that Brennan had a new baby brother and even more excited when Tim and Archie asked me to come take a few newborn pictures.
Warm, squishy new baby?
Yes, please.





I'll never understand how all dads seem to have this magic ability to make their babies laugh.
Newborns aren't even supposed to be able to laugh yet but Austin is totally laughing at the noises Tim is making here:




Mom and Dad didn't want to be in the pictures but I am pretty excited I snuck this one of Archie showing big brother Brennan how to give Austin a gentle kiss on the head:


_ _ _

So, that's what I've been up to lately.
Thank you again to these wonderful, trusting friends for believing in me and allowing me to practice something I truly love.