our apartment is for sale! spread the word!

if you have been following me for a while, you will remember when we moved into our new apartment. we love this place -- it was the first place we owned, it is our daughter's first and only home, it is a great space. we love the building and we love this apartment.


but we have recently realized that we may be able to get a small house in brooklyn now. with interest rates as low as they are and prices down, we can move into a home that we can just grow with and stay in for a long time. i can have an office at home. everything that we eventually want.

so we're selling our place. it's bittersweet, but the right move for our little family.

if you or anyone you know is interested in buying a place in brooklyn, spread the word and let me know! it's a great space, and you can't beat the price for the space and layout.

my promos, and the step-by-step process behind them.

if you follow me on twitter or facebook, you know i've been working on promos for a long time. the concept was to highlight for the recipient that i am an artist as well as a designer, and that my strength is putting ideas down on paper (quite literally). so i decided to make a "sketchbook" of sorts that featured my work, a personalized note and a catalog of work shown. the remaining blank pages are a gift to the recipient to sketch their own ideas.

i found out that i could easily make these sketchbooks myself. yep, glue and all. how cool is that?!

i began by laying out all my pages on the table. every promo contained different pages and a different personalized note. so i needed to assemble them one by one.

after compiling the pages for each book, i put them together with a cut chipboard backing and a few pieces of cardstock on the front. this was because i was clamping the books together for gluing, and i wanted to make sure that there were no imprint marks from the binder clips on the paper. i took a synthetic paintbrush and used it to brush on quick-drying paper glue. finally, i added a third clip in the center and waited for each book to dry. after dry, i would take off the cardstock from the front (often with the help of an exacto to make the process neater) and add another thin layer of glue. then i would let those dry.

finally, i took another piece of paper to make the cover. i measured the width of the dried sketchbooks, and used that to determine how long the cover should be to wrap around the top to the back for gluing. i also added in scoring marks so that i could score the covers to fold easier. before gluing, i stamped each cover with my logo in white.

finally, i added the covers and glued them much the same way as i glued the rest of the book, adding cardstock onto the front and back of each book and clamping them down.

the finished sketchbooks had a note on the front for the recipient, hand written, tied to the books alongside a golf pencil.

this was a very fun promo to put together. i hope my recipients loved it as much as i did.

sneak peek: promos!

i can't show you the whole piece yet, but here's a sneak peek of the promos i've been working on. they'll be going out this week. =)

my studio-mate

i haven't posted about my spirited daughter, anna jae, in a long time. but i thought i would let you know what we're up to in the studio... we are in the middle of a decor overhaul, because she has moved in. =)

our girl loves to draw. and, not to sound like a bragging mom, but she's GOOD. see those marks on the picture above? she made all those. with care. she takes her time, she looks at what she does, she enjoys seeing how she can change things up. anna has even started to draw with two or three crayons at a time to see what happens. this kid is an artist.

we are painting at least the smaller wall with chalkboard paint and hanging up her work on the walls. i'm looking forward to it! 

have you heard? sale!

hey guys!

as we all know by now, the california supreme court has overturned proposition 8 and ruled it unconstitutional. which means freedom without bias to all couples, straight or gay, to get married. woohoo!! well, at least in california. but it's a start.

to celebrate the end of prop 8, i'm having a sale on custom wedding invitation suites for same-sex couples. 15% off my design fee (which starts at $700 for custom illustrated invitation sets). printing not included in discount. this sale ends at the end of september, so get on it!

more celebratory sales at soyoureengayged.com.

new sneak peek: park avenue invitations

i'm not ready to show you all of this set yet, but just wanted to post up a sneak peek of my latest custom invitation suite. the couple is getting married in a landmarked building on park avenue, and is having a "dessert and dancing" reception. i drew a classic view of park avenue, and added in a fun detail...

i'll let you know when the whole set is available for viewing!

think i'm a "leading mom in business"?

two things are most important to me in life. one is my family. the other is my career. i work hard to keep up with both these days -- as a full-time mommy and a full-time businesswoman, i admit that i don't sleep much, but i love what i do. i hope that i'm setting a great example for my daughter, since one of my main propellants is how she sees me. i want her to be proud. (and isn't she just the cutest thing ever?)

well, startup nation is running a competition for moms who are also businesswomen, and i would love your vote!

the competition is ranking the top 200 mom-owned businesses in the country. i would be proud just to stand with these women. being a mom is the hardest job on earth, i think anyone could agree -- and it's not made any easier when you also have to run a company. but honestly, having my career helps my sanity instead of hindering it, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

so come on everyone! all it takes is a click of the mouse. and you know, you can vote daily! so send yourself an email reminder on startup nation and vote every day if you believe in me. =)

new happenings at the nic studio

life continues to be busy here at nic studio!

firstly, i got the latest custom set in from my offset printer. how fun are these? it's a custom pocketfold with 2 enclosure cards. the inspiration for the set was seville, spain. the clients wanted to really spotlight seville oranges, so we decided on oranges and orange trees as the imagery. the exterior of the pocketfold is illustrated with orange trees in a grove, while the interior is full-bleed color with an illustration of cut oranges.  the RSVP has oranges on branches. finally, the website card is a full-bleed bright blue, the compliment color of the whole orange-and-white set. isn't the blue spectacular?! i want to do an entirely blue set now in this color. it's amazing.

second, the first letterpress samples of my "scenes from a brooklyn wedding" invitation suite came in. they are so beautiful i want to cry. my letterpress printers, peter kruty editions, did an amazing job. i am seriously in love.

the 2010 marriage collection is for sale!

well kids, it's official. my collection of wedding invitations is available at lion in the sun! i delivered the book on tuesday afternoon. you can check out pics below. i'm getting samples of one invitation set letterpressed late this afternoon, and another should be delivered over the weekend, so i'll be adding those to the book after they are received.

my website will be updated tonight to include new photographs and prices.

sneak peek! new invites fresh off the press...

can't give you guys all the details yet. but i just got these back from peter kruty editions, and they are FABULOUS. they just look better than i could have imagined.

can you guess the setting?