eye candy from the nss

Why I have not been reading ALL of the blog posts about the National Stationery Show is beyond my thinking right now. My mind has been doing flip-flops trying to finish up my website, designing my booth, and tying up all of my last minute odds and ends. Did I mention that I was couldn't fall asleep until 4am on Saturday night/Sunday morning? And not because I was being constructive and working on the show, but because I could not tell my brain to stop thinking about it!

I read TSJ Photography's blog quite frequently, and she was featured on Paper Crave. Tracie (remember, my best boss ever?) posted some gorgeous photos from the show this year. I was not able to attend but seriously wish that I could. And so, all I can do is drool over all of the photographs that I can find on-line.

I have my booth design pretty much squared away, but it never hurts to keep looking!




{image from Brooklyn Bride}

I absolutely LOVE these cards from Dutch Door Press and love the buttons they are hung on just as much! The baker's twine adds a super cute touch!





{image from Oh So Beautiful Paper}

Two Trick Pony's booth is still my favorite! I have settled on chocolate brown curtains for my walls and am thinking about doing wood panels just like these, but with a lighter stain. I also love the scallops on the bottom part of the curtain. So many things about this booth are very similar to what I have in mind...but on a totally different color scheme. Think chocolate and pink for my booth.

I'm crossing my fingers that the Dallas Finds show will be a hit so that maybe emilee rose will be at the NSS in 2010!

yummy cupcakes!

I have learned that making cupcakes makes me super happy. One of my mom's friends was throwing a bridal shower and needed to buy cupcakes. Who buys cupcakes anymore? They are the simplest thing to make! So, my mother offered that I could make them for her. Thanks, mom.

They turned out super cute. I used some cupcake liners from Hey Yo Yo for the mini cupcakes and simple white liners for the larger cakes.

I cheat on the cake part and use a mix. I really try to make all of my recipes from scratch, but for some reason, every time I make cake from scratch I fail miserably! Cookies and pies from scratch...I can rock that. But I do make my own icing. I took the Classic Buttercream Icing recipe from Wilton and made some slight variations:

• 4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter (softened)
• 4 tablespoons of vegetable shortening
• a pinch of salt
• a couple of splashes of milk

I start by mixing all of the dry ingredients with the butter and shortening in an electric mixer. Then I add a splash of milk to start to bring it all together. I alternate from pouring milk and mixing until I get a nice icing consistency. It is delicious!

2009 catalog on issuu!

Check it out here!

christmas in may

The Dallas show is about a month away! I have finished up all of the emilee rose everyday collection (catalog of that is in the works...) And the only thing left to finish is the emilee rose's holiday collection. The holiday collection consists of Halloween greeting cards and imprintable invitations, fall/ Thanksgiving cards and invites and Christmas/ Hanukkah cards and invites. As you can see, I've been painting some precious little pumpkins, scaredy cats, and ghosts. Since I am so on top of blogging, this photo was actually taken a couple of weeks ago. All that is left is to finish the Christmas designs.

And how do I find joy in designing holiday cards in 90 degree weather? I watch Elf! It is one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies and is totally putting me in the Christmas spirit!

waste not...a dream come true!

Guess who's getting some colorful new envelopes from Waste Not Paper? I am, of course and I couldn't be more excited.

The designing is pretty much coming to a close, just a couple more baby announcements and holiday imprintables to finish up. From there, I still need a catalog, a website, and booth decor...

and with only ONE MONTH to do it!

stationery show booth envy

In between my super designy mode and (sort of) panicking about my product line, I am taking a break to think about the decor of my booth. While I love illustration and stationery and card making and such, my degree is in architecture...which means that my true love lies in all things design! Especially interior decorating...


So these are a few booth pictures from the New York Stationery Show that have caught my eye:




I am loving the whole booth of Pie Bird Press! The flags are adorable and I like the simple shelving to house her cards. The booths at the NSS and the booths at the Dallas Finds show both come with gorgeous white curtains. I would like to build some walls to hang shelves on, just like she has done here. Wall making tutorial, anyone?




Artful Sentiments. I particularly liked this one. I have been planning on driving to Dallas and it has recently come to my attention that the van I was going to use, probably wont even make it to Dallas! And it doesn't have any air conditioning...talk about a hot and sweaty drive! So I have been looking at other designers that have just used fabric. I like the cards hung on the fabric. Though, I need to remember to bring an iron!



Pink Loves Brown. Can she ever do anything wrong?! All of her furniture is from IKEA, which means that it can all be assembled on site!



Egg Press. I have been able to find some iron-on transfer paper so that I can print out my company name and logo and iron it onto the fabric. I also like how egg press has printed their booth number directly on the fabric.



Magnolia Moonlight. I want to know where they got those skinny tables! I'm thinking maybe get some LACK shelves from IKEA and make some simple legs?



Paper + Cup. Again, simply stunning design.



Two Trick Pony. This booth could very well be my favorite. In a close up, I saw that the brown fabric is actually burlap. They somehow attached metal clips to the fabric. I think I could use that and hang my cards with wooden clothes hangers?

new logo

As I am getting ready for the show in June and finishing up all of my products, there is a website that it in the works! For the time being, it will just have images, contact information and things of that nature. Eventually, my little bro is going to turn it into an e-commerce site. Ooh lala!

While designing the web site, I've come across a lot of great e-commerce sites. And one thing that I noticed was their logos! The emilee rose logo needed a fresh start. What I love about this one is that it looks fun in every color!