besottment by paper relics

Design: Vintage Girls

There is nothing better than helping people's visions come true. Working with a client is always fun for me - my goal is to try and infuse as much of their style and essence into a design.

I was thrilled to get an email over the holiday from a local client who just had the logo we developed made into a sign for their storefront. I love seeing my work in 'real life'. If you are in the area you really need to check this store out - these girls have quite the eye for their shop!

Vintage Girls
8086 Main Street
Historic Ellicott City, MD 21043

Stay tuned for a blog and website for them coming soon!

The Posies Are On Parade!

I love having local clients that also happen to be good friends... so when it is the day thier site is due to go live, I can go over and make it happen in person! And that is what is on the agenda for today - I just made Kelli's site live - you will not beliece the goodies she made! Visit Posies on Parade by clicking HERE.

Here are some of my favourites:

Paper Relics Design Stuido Portfolio Updated

I just updated my Portfolio... with about 10 projects I have worked on over the last few months! Some you may have known about, others perhaps not... here are a few

Now if only I had time to redo my portfolio site all together. Oh well. Click HERE to check it out all the new editions. I have a few more projects in the works now that I hope to add next month.

MOO Cards

I just ordered some MOO cards to bring to Silver Bella this year (I know it is early - but I DO have a wedding a month before Silver Bella so these little things need to get done now). The photo of my journals is acutally by Kari, so I cannot take all the credit for these...

Inspired by Indian Designs

I have been attracted to Indian inspired designs lately and wanted to share some of them with you.

Necklaces from Presh made with snippets of antique saris under glass (the ones below can be purchased at Fragments).

Wrapping papers from Bungalow (via House Martin)

Rubber stamps from Paper Source

I loooooove this wedding (via 100 layer cake, photography by Marie Brenny)

Speaking of weddings, I adore this invitation designed by Love Made Visible and printed by Studio on Fire

Inspiring Card Company: Kamal

I never really did post much about attending the National Stationery show in May. It was interesting to go and walk it this year rather than exhibit (not nearly as exhausting!). One of the new card lines I loved was Kamal. Kamal herself was in her booth handing out coasters (my favorite freebie from the show by far) and was such a sweet person.

I was so thrilled to see that she has opened an online boutique - and of course I already ordered some of her beautiful cards. The designs are so refreshing and inspire me in a way that I am unaccustomed - these designs seem to speak to me and inspire action, change, balance in my life and my search for - inner peace - I suppose, for lack of a better word. I find inspiration in so many places, but never before like this.

Her line is amazing - the patterns, the colors, the paper - but my favorite part is that some of her cards are "embellished with vintage beads from far away".

Anyway - please, please, please take a moment, click here, and pop over and see her cards (and she does custom work too - I wish I had found her a year ago to do my wedding stationery - maybe I can commission something with new married name on it). All images from onkamal.com.

The History of Paper Relics

Here is a follow up to my recent Evolution post about my collage work, now it is time to take you for a walk stroll the History of Paper Relics.

Here are my business cards from when I started blogging, in 2003, though now.

1. The Soul of Hope was my first blog that I started back in late 2003 - and I was just discovering my eye for photography so that card is the only one with a photograph on it. If you look closely you can see a small version of the blog banner I hired Penelope Dullaghan to make it for me.

2. I started sharing my new love for collaging under The Collage of Hope in 2004

3. I decided to open an online shop since I was getting lots of requests for prints - I called it Paper Scissors Soul and used a pink bird as my logo that I cringe to see now!

4. www.paperscissorssoul.com was hard for people to get, so I renamed it to Paper Relics

5. Paper Relics started off with a girl from a collage I had made as the logo paired with a font I made from an old type I found in an 1800's magazine.

6. Then I started making greeting cards, and introduced my black and white line, calling them Paper Vignettes (that is the black and white card)

7. Slowly you can see the original paper relics logo with the fairy start to evolve over the next couple of years into something more clean and better designed

7. Around now I started offering design work for others, and so I have a couple of those cards in the first photo too.

8. Eventually in late 2007, I had a whole new look for Paper Relics - cleaner and with a simple logo.

9. And since then I have streamlined it even more, to be a crisp, clean site that allows for the focus to be on the product designs rather then the website. I have yet to make a new business card design to compliment this new look.

I wonder where Paper Relics is headed next! Let's hope this Fire Starter session I am taking next month will help me figure that out...

I think now may be a good time to mention that I had some very talented girls by my side from the start - back in 2004 when I had no direction and was going though a dark time, that are still there for me today. Without them I do not think Paper Relics would exist! Dawn (aka Dawn Falcone Lifestyles), Giao (aka The Walrus & The Carpenter), Jes (aka Junque Revival), Kath (aka Liquid Sky Arts), Leslie (aka The Paper Princess) and Yvonne (aka Yvestown) (who got me to start a blog thanks to our mutual love of Orla Kiely!) Thank you girls!!

There have been many others along the way as well, so thank you to all my far away friends, local girls who put up with me more regularly, customers, clients, wholesalers, fans, blog readers, tweets ... all of you helped make me and Paper Relics who and what we are today. Okay, I am getting mushy now.

Hope out. (does not sounds as cool as Lemon Out though does it?!)

I love it when a plan comes together!

To quote my favorite childhood show "I love it when a plan comes together!" (Free Paper Relics collage sheet of your choice to the first person who comments with the correct show I am referring to!) That is how I always feel when a site I have been working on goes live.

This morning we launched the new Jim & Nena's Pizzeria site - and I have to admit that I have been craving pizza every minute I worked on this project! Luckily it is only an hour away so it looks like I will get to sample their pies sometime in the near future.

Take a peek at what we came up with - (you can see the real thing by clicking here) and if you are local - be sure to stop by and sample the pizza in person!

Gabrielle contacted me to do this site for her family, and she has her own beautiful blog and will be joining those of us attending Silver Bella in Omaha this fall.

and we also did matching business cards - I cannot wait to see them printed (for more on the cute couple shown on the back - click here)

Look who is blogging now!

My dear friends, and fellow Silver Bella's Elizabeth & Carol. I first met Elizabeth through Catherine Moore, who invited us to be in a nature study group with her. She is an amazing artist. When the line of Paper Relics rubber stamps launched, we had Elizabeth make some samples for us - here is one thing she made that I adore (you can see more by clicking here)

Then I had the pleasure of meeting her in person the first year I attend Silver Bella in 2007. I got to meet her sister Carol then too and we have been great friends every since. I just adore them both!

They sent me some photos of themselves as children holding parasols and wearing maryjanes - and I created this banner for them based on them - isn't it cute! I love how they worked their childhood into the theme of their blog.

Be sure to stop and welcome them to the blog world - click the banner above or here to visit them!

Our Save the Dates

As some of you may know, I am getting married in the fall (can't wait!) to the most wonderful guy. I thought I would share the save the date cards I sent out a while back.

I threw the card together in photoshop using the following elements:

Hand lettering by Crystal Kluge of Tart Studio
Illustration of us by Kathleen of Liquid Sky Arts

Then I had them professionally printed on linen paper stock, then I gold tipped the edges with a metallic Prismacolor marker (i looooove how the metallic ones smell). Accented with some Strawberry envelopes from Paper Source ... and ... Viola!

P.S.

Many people have emailed me telling me they have purchased the Style Statement book I mentioned several times and are working on finding their statements... so if you are one of them - please be sure to let me know your findings! I hope the book resonates with you as much as it does for me.