kiss + tell cards blog

the early bride special is back!

2011-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

kiss + tell cards' biggest sale of the year is back! This year, I'm offering 15% off all invitation orders, up from the usual 10%. This sale applies to all invitation orders placed by the end of February for weddings taking place in May 2011 or later. If you're on top of your planning, this is a great way to save some cash on your wedding invitations! Orders don't need to be completed and shipped by the end of February, just a deposit is required. Visit the shop to see all my current invitation designs, and check the blog for new products in the coming weeks. This sale also applies to custom orders, so don't hesitate to contact me with your ideas and to get a price quote.

new stamps!

2010-08-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

I recently got busy and added 7 new stamp designs to the shop, and listed all of my stamps as self-inking as well as wood handled. Pretty exciting! I love the self-inking stamps, it's super easy to get a great, clean impression. Check out all the new designs here:
kiss + tell rubber stamps

catching up

2010-08-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yikes, I've become that girl who never updates her blog! If anyone is still checking in, thanks to you, and my sincere apologies for the lack of updates. Summer has been busy with work and fun, and here's a bit of what I've been up to...

It was a good summer!

end of hibernation

2010-03-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

Spring seems to have arrived in Southeastern Wisconsin. The mountains of snow have melted, I have pretty purple crocuses cheering up the backyard, and a pair of morning doves are furiously building a nest in my gutter. And with spring comes weddings!

It has been a busy few weeks at kiss + tell (please excuse the long blog absence!), lots of orders have been shipping out, and a few new designs have made their way into the shop. I recently made an exciting Etsy purchase:

Japanese masking tape! This stuff is so fun, who knew tape could be so pretty?! Mine came from prettytape and is being used to package up rubber stamp orders. If you buy one of my custom rubber stamps, it will arrive prettily packaged in a kraft box with tape and a sticker.

More news to follow soon, but here are some of the exciting non-work things that have been happening:
- garden planning
- CSA signup
- repurposing of/decorating with Goodwill treasures

Happy Monday!

found on the interwebs

2010-01-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

It's always exciting to find a random blog feature you weren't aware of. I stumbled upon this through google analytics this morning. Thanks Glamour Weddings!

Show above are two new items in the shop, the overlapping circle invite and overlapping circles button magnet save the date. I love a nice, simple pattern, don't you?

sale!

2010-01-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm very pleased to announce kiss + tell's annual "early bride special!" This is a great sale for the organized bride who has all her locations and times worked out and can order invitations a little bit early. The sale applies to all invitation orders placed for summer weddings (May 1st or later) and includes both flat printing and letterpress (for reals). Contact me with any questions about the sale, or to get started on your invitation order!

recent views in the studio

2010-01-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

I really love perfectly cut piles of paper. I like to fan them out, admire them, and stack them back up so I can fan them out again. I like to flip through them quickly while I count the cards. I do this so quickly, in fact, that my husband often doesn't believe I was actually counting. I'm usually so eager to get orders out the door and into the client's hand that I don't take time to photograph them, but here are a couple of orders that recently went out. The holiday cards were a largish corporate order that I worked on in December, and the honeycomb invitations just left for Australia today.

two thousand and ten

2010-01-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

(a totally unrelated picture, this quilt was a gift I gave this Christmas)

Happy new year, friends! I'm really not one for "resolutions," they just seem so destined for failure, but the end of the holiday season and start of a new year always puts me in a retrospective, hopeful sort of mood, and I do try to think about my goals for the coming year.

The biggest personal goal is probably training for and running my first half-marathon this May. I've only recently started running, so this is quite the challenge for me. My older sister is running it with me, and although we live too far from each other to train together, I'm glad to know I'll have someone to help me get through those 13.2 miles on race day.

For kiss + tell, I plan to introduce new designs to the shop, as well as some new products that I hinted about recently. As always, I look forward to the upcoming wedding season and all the new clients I'll have the pleasure of working with.

christmas is a-coming!

2009-12-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas preparations have begun in earnest around here! This time of year, I notice a little slowdown in new orders and in communication with current clients. We're all just a little too busy with other things and let everything but the holidays slack for a bit. I've just begun buying presents (yes, I'm a procrastinator) and working quickly on the few handmade presents we'll be giving this year. I've also been scrambling to get our holiday cards designed so they can go in the mail this week.

So, as I've been designing these:

sewing this:

and thinking about baking these:

(image courtesy of www.marthastewart.com)

I've been listening to this. The music is so beautiful, I can listen to it for hours and not get sick of it. I hope you're enjoying your holiday prep!

works-in-progress

2009-12-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've been working on lots of projects lately - a few invitation and save the date orders, new products, and a few personal crafty projects. The third picture is a sneak peak of a new product that I'm super excited about.

Have a great weekend!

new from the studio

2009-12-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

I've designed and added a few new stamps to the shop today. These are of course eligible for my "buy two, get one free" custom rubber address stamp sale. These have been a nice design change of pace for me from working on wedding invitations, and it's so fun to see the finished product!

thanksgiving report

2009-11-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

I hope you all (in the US) had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was quite nice, it was the first time we've been able to spend the holiday with family in 4 years. One of the perks of moving closer to our families is that Thanksgiving is no longer a holiday for two!

Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures during the making of the meal, although I did note how beautiful the stuffing and cranberry sauce were as they were coming together. As you can see, I did make the pumpkins I mentioned in a previous post. They don't have stems yet, but still made a very cute centerpiece.

For those with oodles of leftover turkey, I recommend this Ina Garten recipe. I originally saw this on Posie Gets Cozy, tried it, and loved it. If the amount of butter called for in the stew seems obscene, it is. I cut it in half and have great results. I haven't messed with the amount of butter in the biscuits, cause that's riskier. Let me know if you try it!

new products and a sale!

2009-11-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

I am crazy excited about the new product I'm going to be offering in the shop starting today...dun da dun:

Custom rubber stamps! Pretty exciting, right?! To celebrate, I'm offering a special on all rubber stamps purchased by December 15th (just in time for Christmas): buy two get one free!

All stamps are laser cut from high quality red rubber and range in price from $18-20. These make excellent gifts for the crafty folk in your life, especially paired with an ink pad and a set of stationery. Watch the shop all week for new designs!

thanksgiving decor

2009-11-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

As the holidays approach, I usually see a bit of a slowdown in custom wedding orders. Brides are putting wedding planning on the back burner and focusing on time with family. This is fine with me, as it means I get to put work on the back burner and enjoy the holidays without the stress of orders hanging over my head! The slowdown has begun, so I've been thinking a bit about how to decorate our new house for our first Thanksgiving. We'll be hosting my parents, so it will be an intimate and cozy holiday, but I'd like to add a few touches of autumn to the decor. So far, I'm loving all of these ideas:

This acorn wreath was featured on Bloom, a blog I'd never seen before but found via Made. I love love love the simplicity of the wreath and will be going acorn hunting as soon as the weather clears up.

I also love these darling fabric pumpkins. Design*sponge readers will probably recognize these, the full tutorial can be found here.

And although I haven't knitted in years, I'm considering taking it up again to make these darling knitted pumpkins, found here. They can't be too hard, right?

new from the studio

2009-11-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

I added a few new items to the shop today, the "modern orchid save the date" and the "honeycomb wedding invitation." I made a couple of changes to the save the date since I posted it here previously. I rounded the corners of the calendar to match the rounded corners of the paper and added a third orchid. I seem to have quite the fascination with yellow and gray lately, it's modern, muted and makes florals seem much less feminine.

new from the studio

2009-11-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

I've been working on lots of new designs and product ideas over the past few weeks, and here's one that will soon be available in the shop. The "modern orchid save the date" coordinates with one of my most popular invitation sets, the "modern orchid invitation," and features a little calendar and basic event information. This save the date can be customized with your colors, or even different graphics.

milwaukee misc.

2009-10-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

Although I'm from the Midwest originally, our recent move brought me to Milwaukee, an area I'm pretty unfamiliar with. I've just started exploring the city, and today discovered a little gem of a paper shop! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I've borrowed a couple of pictures from their website, www.broadwaypaper.com

It was terribly cute, had lots of great product, and the staff was nice and friendly. I was just starting to miss my regular trips to Paper Source in Cambridge, but I think Broadway Paper will be a great way to provide my pretty paper "fix." If you're local, and you haven't been there yet, check it out! They seem to stock several local designers, and it always makes me happy to see local stores supporting local artists and designers instead of just stocking the big national brands.

ginkgo leaf gatefold invitation

2009-10-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

I'll be updating the kiss + tell shop soon with a brand new design - the ginkgo leaf gatefold invitation. This wedding invitation features original illustrations of ginkgo leaves in silhouette on a sage green background all housed in a pretty, shimmery navy gatefold.

At our old house in Massachusetts, there was a big, beautiful ginkgo tree that I would walk by on my way to the library and post office. One day I picked up a few leaves and took them home to draw. Those digital illustrations have been patiently waiting since then to become the focus of an invitation design, and their day has finally arrived. This design can be customized to suit any color palette, contact me with questions!

invitation sale ending soon

2009-10-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

The kiss + tell invitation sale will be ending soon, at the end of the month. All invitation, save the date, and program orders will receive 10% off the regular price if placed by the end of the month. This is a great deal, so come and take advantage of it!

fall centerpieces

2009-10-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I just love this idea for decorating a fall wedding! Painting the pumpkins a color from your palette will make them seem less "halloween-y," and the stencil options are pretty much endless. I'd love to see monogram pumpkins, wedding date pumpkins, even bride and groom silhouette pumpkins.

Mmmm, so many possibilities, I may need to pass up on carving my pumpkins and do something a little more chic instead...

(pictures from Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens)

new designs in the shop!

2009-10-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some new floral designs here in the studio. The "watercolor orchid" design is now available in the shop, and the "watercolor poppy" will be just as soon as it clears up enough here for a photo shoot. These are original digital illustrations, and as usual, all colors can be customized to coordinate with your color palette. These were a lot of fun to draw and paint, and who knows, maybe more flowers will be added to the series...

holiday cards are in the shop!

2009-10-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Holiday cards are now listed in the shop! Prices range from $10-$12 for sets of 8 and 10 and feature non-traditional original artwork. I particularly like these cheeky "partridge in a pear tree" cards, they were our 2008 Christmas cards and I felt they were certainly cute enough to offer up for sale this year. These are extra snazzy, since the tree topper is a shimmery Swarovski crystal.

invitation sale continues

2009-10-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

The reopening sale continues! Visit the shop to view invitations, save the dates, and programs that are all 10% off through the end of October.

hello, blog!

2009-10-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the kiss + tell blog! Here, I'll be giving sneak peeks of new designs, sharing project ideas, and announcing sales and giveaways. Thanks for joining me here!