Coolest Valentine's Day Cards in Town!

Valentine's Day is only a couple weeks away....do you have your cards yet??! Well we have some of the coolest V-day cards around. Forget the girly cards and get one that will rock his/her socks off!

Visit our Etsy shop to see all our LOVE cards!

Card featured: 'Axe Valentine'
inside greeting: 'I want to axe you to be my valentine.'

Blogs I'm Loving

This weeks awesome blog is Mixed Plate! Mixed Plate has been a favorite of mine for a long time now. They were also one of first blogs to ever write about Cracked Designs! But Liana truly does a fabulous job for Mixed Plate, she features lots of cool indie finds, from paper products to fashion and everything in between. I always know I'm gonna find something totally rad when I visit her blog!

We've been Published!

Check out the fabulous book, '1000 Handmade Greetings: Creative Cards and Clever Correspondance' It's a great picture book that features a whole lotta awesome cards and of course two of ours! You can get it here on Amazon.

For Your Eyes Only.

So I have been insanely researching the world of vintage spy detectives lately in preparation for our newest product...the Double Agent Daybook. I've been looking for inspiration for the cover and have found these very cool Vintage Book Covers that have provided me with lots and lots of creativity! I'm thinking our super secret daybook should be released in T-minus one month.

Luggage Lust

I've been a huge fan of the luggage & bags in the shop of GetReadySetGo for a while now. Their Etsy shop is stocked full of awesome vintage luggage customized with screenprinted and painted images. I love vintage suitcases to begin with, but these go above and beyond awesome. Just seeing these great bags makes me want to go on vacation...now. Check out their shop...they seem to update it with new stuff often!

Check out the new journal, mate!

So our newest edition of our Journey Journal is out...the AUSTRALIAN EDITION! It's perfect for your trip into the outback! It is of course super cool and a great new member of the Journey Journal collection! Check it out on Etsy. Have a very happy weekend!

Stay tuned for lots of new journals to come.... a Journey Journal-SPRING BREAK EDITION, a Journey Journal-WORLD EDITION and the oh so mysterious...Double Agent Daybook!

Indie Fixx Galleria

The fabulous JuJu Gifts in Milwaukee is participating in this months Indie Fixx Galleria, which is a little online market for awesome handmade goods. JuJu was awesome enough to feature one of our cards in their shop! Check out their awesome shop on Indie Fixx as well as all of the other great artists/designers!

And for everyone who lives in Milwaukee, I once again highly recommend visiting JuJu in the Third Ward!!

Dharma Inspiration

So, I am a huge LOST fan. And as many may know, the long awaited season premiere was last night, and well, it was awesome. Besides the millions of reasons I love LOST...I love all of the Dharma Initiative logos scattered in the show and on the island. They are oh so vintage and nostalgic. Something about them screams mystery and I love it!

I am currently working on a super secret 'Double Agent Daybook' (...which will be out very soon), so I have been looking for a lot of 'secret agent' and 'mysterious' inspiration. And while I was watching LOST last night, I realized that those awesome Dharma logos fit in quite nicely with the look I'm going for. So thank you LOST for not only blowing my mind, but for providing me with a little inspiration.

Blogs I'm loving

The blog I'm totally loving this week is the one and only, Design for Mankind! This blog features tons of awesome artwork & great design. Not only does this blog feature some amazing art, it also produces Mankind Mag. Mankind Mag (newly re-vamped!) is a monthly magazine that showcases talented and emerging artists/designers and of course, great design. You can either download it for $1.99 or request a print edition. If you haven't checked out Mankind Mag, or Design for Mankind, you definitely should right now!

Ode to Gig Posters

As some may know, one of my obsessions is gig posters. I love everything about them. I love the word 'gig' too. Ayways, I've always wanted to design gig posters, but since I don't (yet, at least...!), I just drool over other amazing gig posters. Here are some of my recent favorites. These super talented designers/artists are totally making me love gig posters even more.

on top: CricketPress, 'Yonder Mountain String Band concert poster'
middle: The Bungaloo, 'SeaWolf Gig Poster'
on bottom: Never Sleeping Design, 'Broken Social Scene screeprinted concert poster'

Coolest Co-op in Riverwest!

The Riverwest Co-op in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood is the most recent store to carry Cracked Designs cards. I recently visited them this past weekend (for the first time!) and was really pumped and inspired by their mission and the overall feel of the store. It is quite awesome to see a successful store run on almost all volunteers and a store that gives back so much to the Riverwest and Milwaukee community. Their dedication really shows, and I am so honored to be able to sell our cards here! If you're in the Milwaukee area, you should check them out. They have a vegan/vegetarian friendly cafe and most of their goods, including their food, come from local businesses. So not only will you be supporting this amazing co-op, you'll also be supporting Milwaukee based vendors-like us!

Poladroid Please!

So I discovered this awesome site, thanks to the awesome blog, Sfgirlbybay, called Poladroid! You can download software to turn your regular boring ol' digital photos into Polaroid images! It makes them look all old and awesome and heck, just beautiful. I may just turn all of my pictures into Polaroids now. Now there is no reason for people to not buy our Polaroid Journal! Holla!

New Cards Alert!

Check out some of our new cards on Etsy this week, as well as all of our Valentine's Day/Love cards! Show your love this Valentine's Day with donuts, guns, axes, and squirrels, among many other things. Check 'em out!

Cards featured: on top: 'I'm falling for you' on front: Timber!' inside greeting: 'I'm falling for you.' on bottom: 'Burger Love' on front: 'Delectable' inside greeting: 'You look good enough to eat.'

Blogs I'm Loving

So I thought I would dedicate one day of the week to awesome blogs out there. I've been finding more and more rad blogs out there, and I thought it would be neat-o to share them!

Pret a Voyager, is a wonderful blog that focuses a lot on travel and design...two of my favorite things! She has some great photos on the blog from her travels as well as awesome design finds. You should check it out.

Team Zissou

I recently received the 'Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' Criterion Collection, and must say that this movie gets better each time you watch it. Wes Anderson movies are so inspiring, the way he creates a world that is just beyond reality. I always say how I wish I could live in one of his movies. Anything with the combination of Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, stop motion animation and Bowie songs in Portugese-has got to be something really special. I am the biggest Wes Anderson fan on the planet by the way.

If you haven't seen this movie, do it...now. It is a beautiful and unique film

Cyclelogical

Jeryl from Cyclelogical emailed me this past week and ever since I have been totally diggin' their biker friendly t-shirts. What's even better...all their shirts are super eco-friendly made from organic cottons. Check 'em out yo. http://www.cyclelogicalgear.com

You are Beautiful

I'm loving this right now. Especially the You are/I am books. Check out more at: http://www.you-are-beautiful.com/

A Few New Cards

We just posted a few new cards on Etsy this week to celebrate the start of 2009! They are pretty rad. We will be releasing a bunch more new cards this month and dare we say it...but they will be some of our best yet!

Schwartz-ified

I forgot to post this a while back, but a few weeks ago I was stoked to find out that probably my favorite actor in the world purchased some of our Christmas cards on Etsy. I have since been watching Rushmore on an everyday basis. Awesome.

Old School

I have been obsessed with profile silhouettes for some time now and am trying to come up with a new card that can incorporate this. Our Christmas card this past year used our dogs silhouettes, which I think turned out quite rad.

Etsy Finds

I keep falling in love with Etsy over and over again lately. I keep finding new sellers and products that are awesome. My two newest purchases are a fabulous wallet from Quietdoing and a super cool winter hat from Superjennylove. Oh yeah baby.

A Fabulous First Year!

Happy 2009! I can't believe 2008 is already over, and I couldn't have asked for a better year. I never could have imagined Cracked Designs being as successful as it has been this past year, and I want to thank everyone who has supported CD in our first official year, from my friends & family, all of the folks on Etsy and all the wonderful retail stores that carry our cards. I can only hope 2009 will bring just as much success and I am excited to keep designing even more awesome products and make CD even better in 2009!