Christmas freebie

Last year at Christmastime I got really discouraged by the number of people who were sending me very rude e-mails asking where their etsy orders were, completely out of their minds with worry that their presents might arrive late. As any internet seller can tell you, we do our best to get our orders in the mail as quickly as possible, but once we pass the package into the hands of the post office the delivery date is out of our control. Instead of getting unreasonably upset about snail mail living up to its name, this year how about we all just take a deep breath and enjoy the season of goodwill. Let's be kind towards one another and consider the feelings of everyone we come across during our shopping adventures -- be kind to the cashiers, the clerks, the baristas, the internet sellers, and keep in mind that our loved ones will appreciate the sentiment of our gifts whether they are given on the 25th or beyond.

I made this free printable & I'm including links to it on my invoices -- if you're an etsy seller or blogger I hope you'll consider passing it along, too! Way too many people let themselves get so overwhelmed by the stress of shopping that they forget the reason they're doing it to begin with -- to show love and appreciation for another human being. You don't need to do that on December 25th, you can do it on December 29th or January 2nd. You can do it every day of the year! :)

new new new

I have some new items I've made recently that I'm really excited about! First is this printable Halloween card.. it's blank inside so it can be used as a greeting card or party invitation, or it can be framed for seasonal decor! :) It's available as an instant download here.


I'm VERY excited about this one! I've been wanting to do some silent movie title card inspired items for Flapper Doodle for the longest time..  it's such a perfect fit for my 1920's artwork! This printable Halloween banner was hand-lettered with a white art deco border and grainy black background to mimic 80-year-old-film. I have all kinds of related ideas.. birthday banners, note cards, calendars, the possibilities are endless :D For now though, there's just this one little banner.. available as an instant download here.



Voila! The first drawing for my 2014 calendar (coming soon!!) I had to release this one early since it's just so perfect for October! It's available as a print here.


One of my best friends, Sarah, recently moved into a new apartment so I made this little card for her housewarming gift! I liked how it came out so much that I had to make it into a printable, too! ;) The download comes with files for printing it as a note card or an art print, and it's available (you guessed it) as an instant download here.



Last but not least, a digital printable blog planner! This year I got really off track with my blogging schedule and felt like I needed something to get organized, so I created this kit and decided to share it as a printable, too! It includes sheets for keeping track of giveaways, product reviews, deadlines, brilliant ideas and more. It also includes two different perpetual calendar designs that can be used for blogging or just keeping track of a busy life :) It's available (drum roll..) as an instant download here.

ps. I took the photo of my Happy Halloween banner at my new apartment! Words can't describe how exciting it was to finally have access to a plain white wall for product pictures. yay!! :D

the vintage bedding sequel

Earlier this year I made a vintage bedding inspired digital paper pack and I've been itching to do a follow-up ever since! This one is a lot bolder than the last, but I love all the colors! I'm currently using the pink and yellow pattern in the top row as my desktop background, and I think once I'm caught up on some other projects I'll put together a pack of computer background files as well! The kit is available here The patterns are also available as Project Life cards too, here!



While I was at it, I also uploaded all of the patterns to society6 so they're available as iphone covers, laptop skins, pillows, note cards, what have you. I'm not sure why but I absolutely love uploading things there and then looking at the preview images. They just look so cool to me!! If any of the society6 stuff strikes your fancy, you can get free shipping through 6/16 via this link!

friday favorites

I love this Jurassic Park poster from Jeff Langevin on etsy.



This is a super cool and incredibly easy DIY to make a classy dinosaur knick-knack!



This neon dinosaur planter from crazy couture on etsy is so awesome!  

Are you beginning to sense a theme here? ;)



This DIY toothbrush holder for kids is fantastic. Hopefully I'm not the only one who saw this and thought "um, for kids? what about for me?" ;)



Dinosaur track cookies! Yum!! Recipe here.



A Jurassic Park tank top from forever 21! I'd probably size down and wear it tucked into a skirt with a cardigan... of course.



Mental Floss has a really neat article about developments in what we know about dinosaurs since Jurassic Park came out. I think it's interesting that the producers of the next JP movie coming out next year are choosing to go with series continuity over scientific fact. In my opinion, adding feathers to some of the dinosaurs would be in keeping with Dr. Grant's theories, so updating the dinosaurs would actually be more faithful to the original film.



This is such a cool art print! Right now the only dinosaur they have is the Stegosaurus.. I hope the artist eventually does a whole series, I think it would make for a really neat art display.



A T-Rex pen. You write with his tail!!



Going to see Jurassic Park at the movies just wouldn't be complete without some dinosaur accessories right? I'm planning on wearing this T-Rex fossil necklace from sweet and lovely :)



Pin the tiny arms on the t-rex! I've had this in my ideas notebook for the longest time but finally whipped it up this week, seeing as how it was so time appropriate ;)



If you search for dinosaurs on google like 90% of the top results tend to be for kids. Which is totally okay, I just wanted something to pore over that didn't have a cartoon dinosaur helping me to decide what facts to excavate next. This mini-site on the BBC has tons of information, artwork and links to even more information and artwork. If you have some time take a peek, if not it's definitely worth bookmarking to look at later!



And this is just ridiculously cute.

sweet and lovely update

I've wanted to keep busy lately, adding lots of new products to sweet and lovely, flapper doodle and kitschy digitals. You can view my latest flapper doodle updates here. For sweet and lovely I've added a lot of new jewelry and sweet and lovely versions of some of my flapper doodle best sellers- best friend items and bridesmaid cards. You can view all of the new products in my shop here!

And to celebrate Jurassic Park's return to theaters on April 5th, I'm offering 5% off plus free dinosaur temporary tattoos with any order! Just use code "rawrrrr" at checkout ;) This offer is good through April 5th. You can view all of my dinosaur products here!



home sweet home locket necklace



wooden cat brooch



ice cream cone earrings



ladybug earrings



pink lips earrings



red lips earrings

best friend art print set --- available as shown here, or customized here. In the custom sets you can change hair colors, add glasses and even add cats and dogs!



My new bridesmaid cards are SUPER customizable. I have four different dress options for each girl, countless hair color options (including fun ones like pink and blue and purple!) oodles of dress colors and 10 different hair styles. You can choose between thank you cards or "will you be my bridesmaid" they're available in my shop here.



I just re-listed the birthday version of the book fair kit! I had this available back when the book fair was its own shop, but for some reason I never listed it when I transferred the products over to sweet and lovely! The birthday version of the kit includes all of the items in the regular one, except the pencil says "happy birthday" on it and it comes with this cute BSC personalized card!





I also added two new digital kits to my Kitschy Digitals shop! These scalloped kits include patterned papers, scalloped borders and scalloped frames. They're perfect for digital scrapbooking or use on your blogs and websites. They're available here.

clarissa explains it all paper dolls!

I am so so so excited about my newest project! It's a Clarissa Explains it All paper doll! ah! It's no secret that I am a massive Clarissa fan -- I even had a Clarissa Explains it All Week here in 2011, and she was the subject of my first Style Idol post. Her style and outlook on life greatly influenced who I am and what I wear. While I don't necessarily have a closet full of cut-off jean jackets and neon t-shirts, her security in marching to the beat of her own drum and dressing differently gave me the confidence to do the same, in my own particular way.

Anyway! I thought her offbeat 90's style would be a fantastic subject for a paper doll! The main outfit is from the opening credits and it also includes 11 other clothing pieces to mix-and-match plus a choker, earth earrings and Elvis of course! ;) I posted this on instagram yesterday and someone pointed out that I left out her ant pajamas. Those were one of my favorites (and probably the instigator for my massive patterned pajama collection) and I can't believe I forgot to include them! So I'm probably going to make a set of extra clothes you can get to add on later. Kind of like Barbie only flat and made out of paper.

They're available here! All of the clothing pieces actually fit on the doll so you can choose to play with it or frame it, it's up to you! ;)

slumber party kit!

My first project for 2013! yay! It's a digital slumber party kit! It includes everything you need to throw a nostalgic sleepover (minus pajamas and pizza, of course.) It has printable invitations, MASH cards (you know, Mansion Apartment Shack House) and a fortune teller printable (with assembly instructions in case you forgot) so you can find out for sure whether or not you'll ever marry JTT. Once the sleepover is finished you can scrapbook your photos of the fun event with the digital embellishments included in the kit! It's available here.

I'm also working on a physical kit, which will also include a mix-tape (well, mix-CD) friendship bracelet materials, popcorn and more! Those will be available a little later this month :)

I originally came up with this idea because I'm always thinking about how much I'd love to have a slumber party with my online friends who live far away. I thought it would be a fun thing to send to someone who you can't *actually* have a sleepover with. I also thought it would be fun for young moms to share some of the slumber party traditions from the 80's and 90's with their kids! :) Every child should know how to fold a cootie catcher, right?

what's old is new again

For the last year or two I've been obsessively collecting vintage bedding on etsy. Usually pillowcases and fat quarters (seriously, search for "vintage fat quarter sheet" on etsy and prepare to get lost in the awesomeness) so I treasure those little snippets of mid-century design like you wouldn't believe. I'm so hesitant to use them since they're soon going to be in short supply. I hate the idea of these gorgeous colors and patterns disappearing over time, which they're bound to do as they're used up for craft projects and quilts and (in my case) pillows. And that's where I got this idea -- digital patterns inspired by vintage bedding.

I poured over my collection of swatches and picked some of my absolute favorites to base my first batch of patterns on. About 200 hours later (or at least it seems that way) Presto! A collection of 10 digital designs for my first vintage bedding paper pack! Hooray! The kit is available in my shop here! It includes all of the designs as 12" x 12" papers at 300dpi.

I also uploaded the designs to my society6 store, so they're available as laptop covers, pillows, iphone cases, etc. I especially love how they look on the iphone cases!! These three are my personal favorites!

drum roll..

Today is the grand opening of Kitschy Digitals! It's a brand new marketplace where you can buy all kinds of digital wares like embroidery patterns, scrapbooking materials, fonts, blog embellishments and more. I am so incredibly excited to have my designs available for sale in this new digital wonderland, and just to be a part of something so cool! The best part is that the items are available for immediate download -- just pay and you're all set! Or don't pay... there are LOTS of freebies on the site too!! I have two freebies in my shopfront, right here! :)

Oh, and as if the freebies, immediate downloads and general digital awesomeness aren't already enough, there's also a sitewide 15% off sale going on to celebrate the grand opening! Use code "GrandOpening15" at checkout!

And if you have a minute, please hop over to Danielle Thompson's blog! This website was her brainchild, and she deserves heaps and heaps of congratulations, compliments, and virtual confetti (and cake!) for all of her hard work!

a little teaser..

Just a tiny little teaser for some pretty exciting news I get to share this coming Monday! ;D
*the graphic was designed by Danielle Thompson!