Oh my gosh. I've been working so long and hard on this last release that this last week I took a break. A break that consisted of me catching up on wholesale orders and organizing to get ready to put new items in the shop. Not so much of a break I suppose. But, never the less I am excited to show everyone what I have been working on these last several months. This is probably the largest release I have done and I had a few failures in terms of some new items but ultimately everything worked out and I am so happy to share these with you.
Releasing new items in the shop is a very anxious time for me. I absolutely love coming up with new designs for items. The brainstorming of themes, titles, colors and then the trials and errors of seeing it all come together. Then receiving proofs for items usually puts my stomach in knots- but 90% of the time it is just a few quick things I need to fix before putting them up in the shop. Putting them up in the shop is a whole other story though- because I know I like the items. And now that I have these awesome girls working with me and can show them peeks of things I am working on I know what they like too. But then it's the revealing of the items and whether other people will like them that leaves me so anxious. And it shouldn't- I think. Because at the least I have made something I love and I know (when I get the time) I will use. But anyone who has ever made anything- even as a child and you lift it up to show your parents. There's that moment when you just are not sure if they will love it and you put yourself out there for other's approval.
Occasionally I get emails from people who have purchased items from the shop, showing me things they have created with the products and telling me they really love everything- and that just makes my day. I love getting those emails. I appreciate every email, tweet, facebook post, message board post- everything. I appreciate hearing feedback- and knowing what types of things you are looking for.
...and I guess that is what is on my mind lately.
For this release I knew Christmas was a given. Christmas is my favorite time of year- although, I told my daughter that really it is this time right now- the time leading up to Christmas. The anticipation and seeing Christmas things go up in stores. Knowing it is coming. I love that part.
I know you guys really want to see pictures- and if you have made it this far in the post I applaud you! Because I am the type of person who would have already clicked over and then I go back to read :) But I wanted to give a bit of background on what I was thinking as I came up with colors and themes for products I guess. I really think things over and each year when I put together Christmas items for myself I have an issue with using the bright reds versus dark reds and the true greens versus the lighter greens. I love all of the colors- but many times in products I see one or the other. And I kinda want my color scheme to be flexible so I can buy products I love and want to use and not have to worry about color ( I know- kinda crazy probably). So, for the Christmas lines I decided to go with that. I wanted bright reds, deep reds, a true Christmas green and a mint green- and I wanted them to work together.
I wanted some blue- I think I am not the only one in love with that turquoise blue color right now. A nice neutral taupe that works well with metallics and there is even a hint of a birch back pattern in some of the designs.
I love using the little flappers I have in the shop. They are probably my most used item. It's so easy to use them with project life and mini-books. But I wanted more areas to write little notes on them so I left lots of ledger type spaces for stamping and writing.
Two different flair button designs for Christmas- plus...
some new advent number flair. I think this would be awesome for an advent calendar.
New number tags. It was time. I have had the same ones for several years now and even though they still sell quite well and people are still asking for them...I kinda wanted something different. The other ones are still up in the shop as a digital file if you are looking for those.
New shape for package tags. I wanted more room to write and length to tuck these into photo pockets and use them as a big title all on their own. I love these.
New flair charms. I debated on these for a while- they have some thickness to them...probably double the height of a regular flair. I love how they turned out though. I think they will look perfect tying off a mini album, dangling from the spine of an album or even on a page tied on some ribbon or string.
And...that is most of the Christmas items. There are more but I want to get to the bright colorful stuff too and this post is already long!
This new line is titled Fact or Fiction. It came about (as a title) because of my daughter who goes back and forth between fiction and non-fiction books (which is awesome!). It came about as a theme because I was thinking about the way we tell stories as scrapbookers, memory keepers and the like. I wanted it to work with project life (because I love my project life album) so there is lots of ledger for writing. I absolutely love this line and how it came out. Seeing these items out on my table right now makes me want to create- and I hope that is exactly what they do for you too.
Because I wanted it to work with project life, I thought it was important to have the ability to print off journaling cards on demand- so I went with a digital kit for the journaling cards on this one rather than having them be a physical product. These are SO fun. I love being able to print these off as I need them.
There's a lot more- including a new color of cardstock that I just love so much, bakers twine by the color, some new days of the week flair buttons (that coordinate with the fact or fiction line) and some new negative tags (in the new horizontal packaging tag shape!) but I really want to get to this...
Custom flair buttons. Why? Because I have been making these for my daughter for labeling things that need a bit more durability and I am switching out all of the labels on my album spines to a piece of monogrammed flair. I want to give everyone an option to do this and have been thinking about this for a while but wasn't sure the best way. I've tried to streamline this as much as possible to make it an easy process. I tried to think up of the most popular things someone would want- monograms, years, symbols...I thought some family names would be good and a few other things. These are SO cool and I am totally excited about these. The colors are lovely and I hope to add more options in the future. If you have some suggestions of things you would like to see let me know- either commenting or in an email.
That was a lot. One more thing though-
If you place an order this weekend I am attaching a little 'December | 2011 button to your packing slip. So check the packing slip out cause you don't want to miss that! This will look great on the side of a December Daily albums- I know I will be adding one to mine :)
*Just to clarify only orders with physical product will receive a December 2011 button. Orders that consist of all digital items won't be included in this offer since I won't be mailing anything.
Thank you again and again for keeping up with my little shop and any support you have given- whether it be just dropping by to see what is going on, sending an email, sharing the site with others, liking us on Facebook or purchasing some items for yourself. I truly, truly appreciate it!
-Kaitlin