I hope you are all having a lovely Friday! Today I want to share a few tutorials for lovely wreaths, here in the Mountains it almost feels like spring! So I am really inspired to try some out! If you visit this ladies’ blogs, show them some love! they did an awesome job with those tutorials! And if you like wreaths check out my previous roundup right here.

1- Two tone burlap wreath by Stephanie from Fab your Bliss
2- Fabric Ruffle wreath by Kelly Hicks Design
3- Tissue paper wreath by Rebekah from A Blissful Nest
4- Nonna wreath tutorial by Jones Design Company

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, see you next week!
XO

After the re-design of my blog a couple of months ago I knew I needed new business cards so as a part of my preparation for Alt Summit I decided to finally make them. I really wanted a handmade feel to them because that’s what my blog is all about, so printing cards was not really appealing to me in this case. I had so many ideas but very little time to actually dedicate to make them, so it had to be simple and cute. After a few hours of stamping, printing, cutting and taping, here is the result =]

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought about my business cards was the leftover, super cute, wood, handmade ladybugs that were going to be part of our wedding favors, but since we decided to go a different route, they were gathering dust in a box. That’s when there was a bright light that went off in my head! I had about 200 tiny ladybugs with double stick tape on the bottom so you can stick them wherever you want.

My next step was to order a few custom stamps from Jessica of JLMould, she made a couple of stamps before so I knew I wanted her to make these ones (If you ever need custom stamps go to her!) I also got a few different shades of turquoise cardboard, glassine envelopes and gathered my puncher and the Japanese tape that inspired the pattern used in my blog design.

NOTE: Jessica from JLMould was kind enough to offer a 5% off in all stamps for the HowJoyful readers using the code: JLMould – Thank you Jessica!!

My first idea was to make little craft bags the same size as a business card. Even tho to me they looked super cute, it was way too time consuming (the craft paper envelope part), even using a cutting machine. So I only made a few trial ones of those.

I opted for just using glassine bags that were the perfect size. I printed a little greeting explaining that ladybugs are a very popular lucky charm in Chile and punched with a scalloped round punch. Stamped both the card that I cut out of the turquoise cardboard and the front of the glassine bag so I can put one on top of the other and tape the corners.

So in order to get to the ladybug (in the pictures doesn’t really show that you can see the ladybug through the glassine envelope) people have to only un-tape one of the corners, I didn’t tape the glassine bag shut either, because it would have been too much work for the poor people getting the cards hehe. After witnessing people opening the bags and taking the ladybugs out I can say that everyone seemed to enjoy it =] Below you can see what the little envelope contained.

While exchanging business cards at Alt summit, I received very positive feedback and it seemed that everyone loved the fact that it had a goodie in it. And I really loved how the back of the ladybug note has a QR code to howjoyful.com 8] -> Nerd smile!

So there you go! the HowJoyful business cards =]

ps. Amy Butler said that from now on every time she saw a ladybug she was going to remember me – not that she will actually remember me – she will probably think of the crazy girl with the ladybug story that she met at the Alt Summit white party – LOL I think it’s still pretty awesome!

I hope you all have a lovely day!
XO

It has been more than a week since Alt summit and finally I have a little time to actually sit and share my experience with all of you. Better late than never =] Right?

[ Image by b.a.d photography for Alt Summit 2012 ]

I want to start by saying that the coordination of the event was great, very detail oriented (LOVE!) and well designed (duh =] ). I had very high expectations and I was super excited to get to see/hear some of the Alt speakers I really admire.

I did my homework and researched all of the sessions and classes I wanted to take, so I had my schedule and was able to read about the people speaking in each one of them, that way I had an idea of what to expect, content wise, and let me tell you it did not disappoint, not one little bit. I walked across the street to our Hotel every day with my head spinning with ideas on how to improve this little place and my business. I have a super long to-do list (Yes! I love to-do lists!!) and I have to say that I am still a little overwhelmed by all of the big dreams in my head =]

[ Image by Justin Hackworth for Alt Summit 2012 ]

That’s me in the picture above, front row like the little nerd that I am sometimes =] adding to my notes and getting ready for another fabulous session. Continue Reading

When I designed my Peony wrap-around labels to share with all of you, I also designed a few that I could share during different holidays =] So today I want to share the ones I did for Valentines!

Just like the other ones I glue them to my hand-cut-kraft-paper envelopes with a normal glue stick, but if you really want them super secure I would also recommend you a few drops of hot glue.

This time I prepared a single PDF file with 2 different shades of labels, a light pink and a creme, the page holds 4 labels. Remember to not “Fit to print” because it will make the labels a little bit smaller.

As I mention before this is a PDF file, so in order to preview the file you will need to have Abobe Reader installed on your PC or MAC. Without the program you will not be able to download or preview the file. If you have troubles please visit this link, because each browser works different.

I hope you all enjoy this freebie and make your Valentine’s day more special!
I am trying to catch up with work after a wonderful week in Utah for Altitude Summit, so I will share the details as soon as I can =]
ps. I also want to share my handmade business cards!!
XO

* This printable is provided for personal, non-commercial use only.
Check the Site policy at the bottom for further information, Thank you!

Last year right after Altitude Design Summit ended I set in my mind that next year (this year) I was going to go, there were so many Designers/Bloggers/Artist I admired there. It just really really sounds like an amazing experience!

So as soon as the tickets started selling I told Ken about it, he suggested we could turn the trip from California to Utah into a road trip, so that way we could get to spend time together and he could go skiing some Utah mountains while I am in the conference =] I was sold right away!

So we are on our way there and I can’t wait for all of the fun =)there are so many classes I am looking forward to, so of you are going I hope to meet you and if not I will share my experience once we are back next week, so you can have a peek =]
I hope you all have a lovely day!
Xoxo