digital files for sale

I finally did it.  I finally put a few digital files up for sale on my Etsy shop.  This has been a goal of mine for a while, but not a priority.  Changing diapers, feeding my kids, breaking up fights, helping with homework and cleaning the house has been a bit more important.  ;)

A few weeks ago a nice lady who found my blog asked me if I had the digital file for sale for the lollipop angels I made 2 years ago.  This was the motivation I needed to get started.  I obliged and thankfully she purchased it.  Ask and you shall receive.  Kind lady, to you I am...

Available for purchase now are two digital cutting files that will work with any cutter, but especially on a Silhouette.  And two printable PDF files that can be used to make 5x7 cards or framed as artwork.  These are perfect for the upcoming holiday season.  I have more 5x7 scripture art in the works and will make them available as soon as I can.  Enjoy!

A Merry Thankful Christmas to you

Thanksgiving has passed and Christmas is here!! It’s easy to get caught up in the flurry of activities these fun holidays bring. As a busy (and pregnant) Mom, I’m trying to keep things simple, which is challenging! While running between school and church events, I’m trying to focus on the true meaning of the season – that Jesus Christ came to dwell among us in absolute humility because He loves us so much.

This Fall I went through the Beth Moore Bible study, “A Woman’s Heart, God’s Dwelling Place”. The message was clear – since the beginning of man’s sinful choices that banned us from the Garden of Eden, God has desired to dwell among us, to be close to us. In the Old Testament, it was through the Jewish tabernacle. In the New Testament, Jesus is the “tent”, the fleshly tabernacle, His way of dwelling among us. And now, because of Christ’s sacrifice, he can dwell in our hearts until we see Him face to face in heaven. What a precious gift! This makes me want to shout:

This was the Christmas card I designed in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for our family this year. It was a fun typography project, using the font family Champignon. It has lots of fun swashes and curly cues. It’s available for free here.

This year we made some angel lollipop holders for Christmas, in the same vein as our Valentine butterflies. The angel was designed in Adobe Illustrator and cut with my awesome Silhouette SD. It was a nice handout for my kids’ classmates.

I also used my Silhouette SD to cut out some fun gift card “purses”. The shape is available on the Silhouette online store.

And I made this gift card holder at my last MOPs meeting. I don’t know who originally designed it, but it’s super cute! The best part is the handy 2-pocket “file” inside. We used an A-2 envelope with the sides cut off, sealed it, folded it in half and glued it to the middle of the folded card. One pocket can be for a note, one pocket can be for the gift card. Or put dinner and movie gift cards inside for a “date night” package. Such a great idea!

Back to the real reason for celebrating Christmas - can you imagine putting your vulnerable newborn baby in the hands of sinful humanity? Never! And yet, that is what God did. And He does that every time a new baby is born to an imperfect human being, of which I am about to experience again. Our fourth baby is due in January. It’s a boy! For this blessing, we are truly…

My silly daughter wore this to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. They were available on my Etsy shop for a short while too. A custom order for “Thankful” is always available, just contact me through my Etsy shop.

I don’t know how I’m going to juggle four kids and design work, but I know God is bigger than all my shortcomings. I trust that He will surely guide me! As Colossians 3:15 says,

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.”

seeing stripes (and solids)

I've decided to really, finally (hopefully soon) open an Etsy shop. I've been making these little shirts as gifts for my friends' kids for about a year and now I've got a library of designs I can use. My husband thinks I should do it too, so here we go. First I have to build up an inventory, then photograph, figure out my prices, shop policies and all that good stuff. So it will still take some time. At least I'm committed to actually doing it, which means I've been buying supplies for new shirts. It's hard to find time to work with my 3 precious princesses, since I'm their only "lady-in-waiting". But a slow start is still a start.

Pictured below are some of the gifts I've made recently. I design these in Adobe Illustrator, cut them out of heat transfer paper using my Silhouette machine, and then iron them on t-shirts. So far, they hold up after washing several times. The design challenge is creating 1-color designs that have enough line weight for cutting. Adding a scripture reference, if applicable, is very important to me too. The little scripture type can be tricky to cut and peel off of the backing paper, but it's worth it.

I also designed a little tag with washing instructions on the back. Presentation can really make or break a product! I'm grateful that my years of working as a product designer helped me figure out some of this stuff already. Most importantly, I really want my Etsy store to glorify God and shine as a light for Him. To God be all glory!

back in business

Okay, I guess I’m officially back in business. I finally got some business cards printed and put my portfolio online in hopes of picking up more freelance work. We could use the extra income and, quite honestly, I could use the mental “mommy break.” I’m not sure how I will be able to juggle everything. Am I spreading myself too thin? Will my kids wish I wasn’t so busy? Will I regret this later? Can I handle this? Instead of paralyzing myself with questions, I’ve decided to press on and try. I can always stop if things get too busy. And if it’s not God’s will, I’m sure He will make that clear to me somehow. My husband has been very encouraging about it and willing to care for the kids while I work, even though it keeps me up late at night. I have some mom friends who have to work part-time outside the home to help make ends meet. That would be impossible in my situation. So I’m grateful that God has provided a way for me to work at home, even with all its domestic challenges. I have to choose daily to stop worrying and to simply trust Him.


“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

manly designs

Recently I was asked to create a logo/t-shirt design for the men’s group at my church. It’s always a challenge when I have to put on my “masculine” lens and try to design something that will appeal to men. My husband is a great help. He is soooo picky! If he likes it, then most men will. On the flip side, the men’s group at my church is not too picky and usually like the designs I give them. This time, the t-shirt went through a few revisions.

For my first pass, I found some vector clip art that I was able to pull elements from and combine for a unique design. (I would love to say that I created this all from scratch, but with the reality of caring for 3 little kids I use all the shortcuts I can get.) I also referred to C28 shirt designs for reference. I wanted to use the “grunge” style that is so popular right now. This is what I came up with:

At first, the feedback was great. They loved it. Shortly after, they asked for thorns instead of “grass.” That makes perfect sense – it’s more manly and reflects the crown of thorns that Christ wore. I’m a bit embarrassed to share this, but I found a clip art of roses with thorns to replace the grass. It was a lazy solution, but, hey, I’ve got enough to do already! This was the next draft:

You can guess what the feedback was at this point: it looked too much like branches from a rose bush. I needed to make the thorns bigger, like they really hurt. There was no point in delaying the inevitable. The shirts needed to be ordered ASAP, so I stayed up one night and pulled the points of each thorn, editing curves in Adobe Illustrator. I altered the artwork until it was truly my own. This is the final result:

A lesson learned once again – when I am flexible and allow myself to be shaped, the result is much better than I could have come up with on my own. I started with cloudy vision for this project, but with input from others, it turned out to be just right. It’s the same in my life. I need to be in community with others. And I especially need to let the Lord speak to my heart so the fruit of my life turns out better than I could have made it on my own. That takes vulnerability and flexibility. Sometimes I’m embarrassed and sometimes it hurts. But it is always better!

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17

Thank you, Lord, for always teaching me. Thank you for caring enough about me to speak to me when I need to hear You. Thank you for people who influence me for good, for Your glory. Make my heart soft so You can use me.

I won!

I was so excited to learn that I won the Silhouette Design Trading contest! (See my post on February 16.) I don't know how many people entered the contest...I'm figuring not too many? The best part is that I get $50 that I can use for new supplies for my machine. I need some new cutting mats and I want to try some designs with vinyl, maybe even their new heat transfer for fabric. Can't wait to create more things!

Thank you, Lord! You send little blessings my way every day. Please open my eyes to recognize them and especially the One who gives them.

amazed by technology

I have to confess that I’ve been spending way too much time on my computer lately. The reason? I recently discovered digital scrapbooking and free “digiscrap” kits that can be downloaded. For a while, I was checking almost daily to see how many free downloads I could get. I found the best ones at Digital Freebies and Shabby Princess. Then I use the pre-made elements in Photoshop to create layouts in a jiff. I could create the elements myself, but why? With 3 kids ages 5 and under, I have an abundance of digital photos and a serious lack of time (not to mention sleep). This whole new industry has amazed me. We have come so far with technology advancing at an exponentially fast speed.

By trade, I am a graphic designer. I’ve been designing on a computer since 1992. I started on a 286 PC creating my own clip art for Print Shop. I didn’t have a mouse, I just used the arrows on my keyboard and the enter key to turn pixels on or off (see above). From an artistic standpoint it was crude, but so cool that I could make something digital that could be printed over and over again, even if it was with a dot matrix printer. Then I got a mouse and a new 486 PC. Wow! I was amazed by Windows. I think I spent hours changing the color scheme for the desktop. In college I learned how to use a Mac. In a typography class we worked on those tiny 4” screens that make you feel like you’re looking out of a submarine. For my first job in the real world, I worked at a magazine publisher. We still did paste-up with x-acto knives and a wax machine, but we designed on Macs and used the new super duper Syquest 44MB cartridges to back up our work. Then the Iomega 100MB zip disks came out and we used those to transfer clients’ files back and forth. In time, we were burning the whole magazine onto a CD (which took about 2 hours) to send to the printer. Now, you can just export them as PDFs and email/upload files to a printer. I can also download an 80MB digiscrap kit in about 30 seconds. It takes longer to warm up a frozen burrito! All this change in just a span of about 15 years. Amazing!

That said, I hope I can jump on board and become a digiscrap designer someday too. I have the Photoshop and Illustrator skills, now I just need the time! LORD, please multiply my time so I can create things that are pleasing to You, according to Your perfect timing and will. In Jesus name, Amen.

Here are some things I've made using my free digital scrapbooking elements...

Trading for love

The Silhouette blog is having a design trade contest right now. You can submit a die cut design and then get one from their online store for free. I decided to try it and see if my "LOVE" design ends up on their store. I think I'll submit my butterfly sucker holder too. From a money standpoint, they are making way more off of free submitted designs than the price of a $1.99 download. But, it's my first time trying this out so I don't mind. One lucky person will be picked to receive a $50 gift card to their store. That's what I really want! I found the cutest little strawberry box design on there as my trade. I'm not sure when I'll use it - maybe for Valentine's day next year.

Speaking of "LOVE", Valentine's Day has always been my favorite holiday. Maybe it's because of all the pink and red (my favorite colors) sprinkled around. There's not much to it, just a simple day of showing love to the people in your life. And if you have a special someone to share it with, that makes it much more fun. I have a friend who calls it "Single Awareness Day." LOL. But when you look at the holiday with childlike faith, you realize that God is the one who loves us each one of us without abandon. He longs to be our special Valentine. This year I gave my kids simple Valentine hearts with "Jesus Loves You" and 2 verses on them...

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for His friends." John 15:13

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

I want them to know the Biblical definition of true love. And that love has been perfected in Jesus Christ. When I allow myself to be a vessel of His sacrificial love (not my own imperfect love), my family is happy, I am happy and God is glorified. Now that's what I call a real design trade - trading human love for God's love! Surrender your imperfect love today and let God perfectly love others through you.