thank you notes.

i have my new card for the week! i am glad i found time to get them done this week! i think that fridays will be the best day for me to work on these...it is going to be my relax day i think because i have one quick class in the morning and wednesday and thursdays are just hell. so hopefully fridays will give me a chance to work on cards each week!

this week i actually have a set of 4 thank you notes - which i just finished posting on my etsy shop - stop by and take a look! i again had fun with my new stamps :)

letterpress.

aren't these letterpress creations so cute? i really like when the alphabet and numbers are used to create other images...i think the elephant family and the little french man are absolutely adorable!

you can see one little bird studio's flickr stream here...i wish they had more animals.

cards.

i have found that every year when i go back to school - for many different reasons - i don't get a chance to create any cards. it annoys me because then by the time i am done with my semester i have pretty much gotten out of my card making routine and then forget about making cards for a few months. well this year i decided to bring more of my scrap booking supplies with me to school in order to keep my brain in card-creative mode (because obviously when i am at school i am constantly working on design projects, but it is definitely a different kind of design). so i am hoping to start something new on my blog: i am going to try and post a new card design every week!

i am really hoping that i will be able to keep up with it this semester. i actually have a very hectic schedule this semester...so closer to graduation i probably won't have as much time to do this. i have recently been starting to submit my card designs to different card magazines and i think that will help me to keep designing! here is my first card for this week:

i found a couple new stamp sets from papertrey ink (say it with style - which i absolutely love! and polka dot basics) so i wanted to experiment with them in this card...and i most likely will be using these a lot in the next few weeks. there are so many different things that you can do with them! but the polka dots just come in a couple strips, so you have to stamp them over and over to make a pattern and it actually came out nicely...i was concerned they would be crooked or unevenly spaced! hope everyone has a nice weekend!

melbourne.

i love tennis - i especially love watching my fav andy roddick play...but that is besides the point. i have been watching the australian open a lot this week and i always end up noticing the melbourne logo that is displayed on each of the courts. i like how it is set up in layers and i think it looks great in color and in just the white. its simple...but memorable.

i initially had a hard time finding the logo online because melbourne has another logo and i think this is technically the logo for melbourne park...but anyway i eventually found the designers, who are the cato partners (you can find their website here).

oh and just in case anyone was wondering...andy won last night! woot! <3

green.

just some color inspiration today -----> my absolute favorite color: GREEN!

1. green apple, 2. green, 3. wildlife from singapore♫, 4. queen of green, 5. green snake, 6. some like it green, 7. chocolate mint cupcakes, 8. green machine, 9. green on green, 10. green m&m heart, 11. behind the green door..., 12. dew, 13. this is my life, 14. go green!!!, 15. in deep of greens, 16. lápis de cor verde

stretch bag.

i really like the idea of recycling...i may not be as hard core about it as some people...but i try to do what i can. this bag is one of the coolest ways that i have ever seen something recycled!

the bags are made of old vinyl billboard signs. i honestly never really thought about what happened to old billboard signs...so i find this such a great idea! these bags are die cut out of the vinyl and lay flat but when you lift up the handles it creates a large bag that they say can hold up to 33 pounds! i guess you just have to make sure you don't put anything too small inside or is might fall out!

i really like all the different colors that they have...you don't really get to choose but from the images above, any of those colors would work for me! you can order this bag at this website - i am definitely planning on getting one for myself!

note-pads.

these are so clever...they would look so cute on a desk. i just wish they weren't $40 each!

you can find them here.

apples and oranges.

okay - so...people are gonna start to think that i am obsessed with bras...hahaha...but this packaging is so cute - i knew i needed to share it! the brand is entitled "fruit fit". i love how the bras protrude from the packaging to create the shape of the fruit!

this is what the designer, tiffany shih, had to say about her design idea:


"this is a concept for a "repackaging" assignment in which i chose to repackage bras. the packaging was inspired by a kbg commercial in which a young man asks how to tell his girlfriend's breast size. the answer was to simply relate them to a piece of fruit: "are they apples, oranges, or grapefruits?" i thought it was a hilariously cute ad and decided to create a line of bras whose packaging corresponded with the appropriate fruit sizes. a cups are apples and b cups are oranges and etc. since the concept was very "fruity" in nature, the dingy hangers that lingerie normally came on seemed no longer appropriate as i wanted something light and playful."


such a clever design - it would be sweet if they actually used these! here is the website where i found the design.

with love.

i loveeeee this ad campaign from gophila.com. i first saw the first ad below when i was driving on 95 and thought that they were so clever...definitely a good way to get a second look...

here is a link to the website where you can check out more of their ad campaign.

xoxo

drop cap a day.

hese fancy drop cap letters are so beautiful! now this kind of thing wouldn't normally be something that i would be drawn to...but each letter is just so different and intricate it is just hard not to be impressed by it - especially since all of these are done in illustrator with out any scanning!

i actually found these when i was looking for new fonts for my identity package i am working on...more about that in a bit...but these designs are by jessica hische - who actually calls herself a typographer and illustrator. she had an idea to create a different drop cap letter (like the 'T' i have included above) for each day and has been working on this since september '09.  i really wish that i could make type as beautifully as she does! these below are just a sampling of all of the letters she has done and also just a couple of my favorites:

here is the link to her website/blog, but you can also view each new addition to her drop cap a day here. you should definitely check out all the different things she has on the website - between the typography and the illustrations i could spend all day looking at her stuff...these being some of my favs: boston and spca!

but back to the reason i came across all of this! i will be graduating this may (woo!) which leads to the fact that i will need to be getting myself a job...which also leads to the fact that i need to update and rework my resume and portfolio. overall i really like the layout of both but two things have been bothering me: 1. the fonts and 2. my somewhat non-existant logo. so today i started trying to figure out what new fonts i wanted and i found the two perfect fonts! while you would think i would be excited...i am not because in order to have these two fonts it would cost me at least $400...and that would only be for part of the complete set of the fonts...grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

this is something that drives me absolutely insane! i understand the amount of time and talent it requires to create such amazing fonts - and these two fonts would be perfect - but it is so unaffordable for the average person. some websites let you buy a couple versions of the font for a good price...but the website where i found these [Hoefler & Frere-Jones - who have some amazing fonts btw] only lets you buy them in sets...and the prices range from about $150-$400. so anyway that is just something that was on my mind today! but once i get my redesigns done (which might not be for a little while) i will definitely post them for everyone to see!

olympics.

i totally keep forgetting that the olympics are starting soon! the winter olympics are my favorite - so i am very excited that they will be on in february!

one thing i have always been interested in is the different looks/logos that they have for each year of the olympics...i even did a project on it for one of my graphic design classes. i recently came across some of the ads for the upcoming vancouver olympics and i really enjoyed looking through them - i think mainly because of the color selection and shapes they used...

these were designed by vanoc, a canadian design company. and you can find more of their images here.

the one thing i have never really understood with the olympics were the stupid mascots they come up with for each year...and these are no exception!

color.

i love color. and i don't think that i have ever seen it displayed as beautifully as in these images below.

these are all pages from better homes and garden magazines, all from different months this past year. i love the use of the paint can lids and the other objects that represent the different colors. plus i love monochromatic color schemes! beautiful! enjoy!

i will definitely be looking for these every month - hopefully they continue to do this in the magazines! look out for more images of these from me in the future!

avocados.

i saw these ads all over the christmas food magazines i looked through this winter. i just thought that they were interesting for two reasons: one - i have never seen avocados advertised before and two - i love how they played around with the shape of the avocado to make their point. the first two are my favorites (the light bulb and the exclamation point) - i saw a few others that were similar to the third ad below, using slices of avocados, but i wasn't able to get a photo.

the tag line on this one reads: vitamins, minerals, & great ideas.

the tag line on this one reads: your recommended daily allowance of WOW!

the tag line on this one reads: cut out saturated fats, not flavor

and i apologize for the bad pictures - hopefully you can get the idea from these photos...these were taken with the camera on my cell phone and it was hard to make everything fit as well as getting the photo to not be blurry! i was hoping to find some good images online...but none were to be found!

balloons.

what an interesting way to use balloons...i just wonder how long they took to make!

and this last one i just find funny...

i found these images here. there are a lot more images at the site, but a lot of them are more like costumes and i didn't like them nearly as much as the dresses above, which actually look like they could be worn somewhere...not saying that i would hahaha...but they could be...