More die-cutting fun

(This post began back in May sometime....guess I'm not so good at keeping up with this blog.)




This die-cutter has been a god send and a pain in my butt. There's a new one on the market that has features that make me swoon and I can't wait to get it. It's not available for Mac users until sometime "late summer" they tell me. Which, here we are in fall and they now tell me "early in 2011". I keep sending the company e-mails to ask WHEN?! and hopefully make them crazy enough they'll pick up the pace on production. Hey, I know...long stretch, but I can dream can't I? I mean, it'll cut chipboard. CHIPBOARD?! Anyway, I can't wait.
In the meantime, I've been abusing the one I have. Which, works 80% of the time. The other 20% is just weird random freakouts that I can't predict and are resolved by turning it off and quitting the die-cutting program. So, this latest project has really put it through it's paces.
It's a baby shower invite for a good friend of mine. Together, it looks like a strawberry. Pull up on the stem and out comes a baby & the shower information. It's all neatly tucked into an envelope on the opposite side of the strawberry. I made some custom gingham plaid envelopes to mail them in which will coordinate with the homemade goodies to be given as gifts at the shower.
Everything was printed using the trust Xerox Phaser 7750, then die-cut using the unreliable Sillouette (there has since been an update to the software that I've yet to test, so maybe it's better now).

Slackin' on the blog already...I know

Last week I put together an invite for a co-worker/friends son's graduation party. It's her oldest child, so first graduation and she's really excited about the party. I wanted to come up with something clever and fun to announce the event. I also wanted something really simple to that we could use paper and printers that we had on hand and customize it to incorporate his school colors.

And no, her son is not named Ella...I've changed the information to respect her privacy. Any of you who know me will get a kick out of the thought of Ella actually graduating. Technically, she's almost old enough, but I don't think she has the brain capacity or language skills to pass kindergarden—she's my cat!

Ta da! (I really need to work on my photography skills. My pictures are the worst!)

So, once again, I put the die cutter to the test! First, I cut the scroll and holes on some nice, bright white, recycled 80lb cover stock. We ran the invites through the laser printer. Quick and easy! The 2010 charms were an ebay score and we were so happy to see they were the perfect size. We found some nice metallic red envelopes to coordinate with the red bow and put it all together. She's so happy with the result and I can't wait to hear what kind of response she gets!

Wrasslin' with a Die Cutter

So I have been wanting a die cutter for some time. I've done a number of custom invitations and I tend to do quite a bit of hand-cutting. I kind of enjoy doing it and consider myself quite the master of the Xacto, until I get to the 20-something invite when my hand is cramping and the cuts start getting bad. It never works out that I get paid for the time it takes either, so I figured a die-cutter would speed up my production time as well.

As Mac user, my options are limited, so I went with the one that *claims* to be compatible with a simple plug in. Simple? Right....I won't' get into all of that. Let me just say, when it works, it works great. :)

Anyway, my mom had asked me to design some cards for my aunt. An avid knitter, my Aunt Maryann goes to a variety of craft shows and sells her creations. Mom thought it would be nice for her to have something to hand out. The second my mom asked, this idea popped into my head.

Good excuse to buy myself a die cutter, right?

I printed these out with my inkjet on some nice white card stock. Ganged them 8 up on a letter size sheet, then ran them through the die cutter. 5 minutes later....a perfect stack of custom cut cards!

Helpin' the Kit-tehs!

Friends of mine are huge, I mean HUGE, animal activists. They never fail to foster a stray, find forever homes for a litter of kittens, help a runaway find it's owner, or provide instruction and assistance to someone who needs it when it comes to the care and health of their pet. I give them MAJOR kudos for getting in there and doing what I myself wouldn't be able to do. (I'm too scared of getting bitten to help a stray on the street, and too big-hearted and weak-willed to volunteer at a shelter. One, I couldn't stand to see all those poor animals and two there'd be no way I could walk out without a new pet every day.) So when they came to me for some design assistance, how could I say no? This is the perfect way for me to help a great cause without ending up with a basket of kittens. This 8.5x11 tri-fold is chocked to the gills with info, so my design is relatively minimalist and clean. The kitty logo is inspired from some vintage artwork I found at a flea market years and years ago.

Project Kitty Connect is a non-profit organization that seeks to reduce stray and feral cat overpopulation through the method of Trap-Neuter-Return, as opposed to the dire trap and kill. They are trying to reduce the stray cat population in the most humane way possible—adopting out tamer animals to new homes and letting ones too wild to be pets live out their lives in the habitats that are familiar to them. There are a lot benefits to this method and if you or someone you know has the issue of excessive amounts of strays in their neighborhood, then I encourage you to give them a call or look for them online.

Kick Out the Blogs!

Yeah, yeah...FINALLY, a post!!! Sue me. I've been struggling to come up with anything blog-worthy. My brain is at a loss for ideas, but I figure I need to get moving on some things. This blog being one of them. Having recently discovered a few blogs that I've found very inspiring, I'm going to make more of an effort to get mine going. Originally, I intended for this site to feature some of my design work. But, I think it'll end up evolving into more than just an online portfolio...but to what end, I can't say. So hang on and we'll see where we end up.

Having said that, let's kick off this post (pun intended) with a recent project—Packaging Design. My buddy Vic is one of the best clients I have. He's the owner of V-Male Detroit Vintage in Dearborn Heights, MI. The thing about Vic, is he gives me full creative freedom—something that I don't always get in the 9-5 corporate world that I'm usually designing in. We share a love of all things vintage, so it's the best of both worlds to me: design and vintage clothing! Vic has a variety of exclusive products in his shop, the most recent being a line of seamed stockings, which he called upon me to do the packing for. Here we have it! The final design!

The image comes from Vic's personal collection of pin-up artwork. He thought it would be perfect and I couldn't agree more. Another fun aspect of designing for Vic is that everything is done in smaller quantities with extremely small budgets, so I love to find ways to do things the most inexpensive way without compromising style and effectiveness.

Originally, we intended to get custom lingerie boxes printed. Once we learned the minimum quantity to order was 4,000, our plans changed. At slightly over $1 a box, not only was the upfront costs out of the question, but finding storage for that many boxes would be impossible. So on to the more cost effective Plan B.

Vic ordered a small quantity of the plain white lingerie boxes, I picked up some full sheets of Avery labels and ran them through a Xerox Phaser 7750 laser printer. After cutting them down to size, I affixed them to the fronts of the boxes and voila! They're perfect! I am so pleased with the result. If you didn't know better, you'd think they were printed. Added bonus of doing it this way? We can change the labels as needed, depending on size/style/color...whatever he wants, it's a simple click and print!

Best part of it all? He's incredibly happy with the results and it didn't break the bank for him!! YAY!!!

If you want to pick up a pair, you can find them at V-Male Detroit Vintage, 23902 Van Born Rd., Dearborn Heights, MI. He's one of the original vendors at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender, so be to check him out there if you're at the show.

Still working up to an actual post! Stay tuned :)