What we've been up to.

As I write this, I feel like my eyes are actually going googly, because I've been staring at a sea of Journey Journals and intricate custom drawings for what seems like a bajillion days.

New New and more New

"What the hill...?" - inside greeting: "Congratulations!"

We have, what I like to call a "butt load" of new cards in the Etsy shop right now! We're really excited about them all. Find all 5 of them in the Etsy shop now! What's your new favorite?

"Beefcake" - inside is blank

"You're an unbelievable couple" - inside is blank

"Hairy Christmas" - inside is blank

"You're Unbelievable- Jackalope" - inside is blank

Our travels: Oregon & Washington

We got back from the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, and like I had mentioned on facebook - we have never been so happy to be back in the midwest! We came home to sunny skies and high 70's, ahhhh! Despite the terrible weather, unreal traffic backups, Crater Lake being entirely covered by dense fog, and our flights being canceled on us TWICE.....we did have a fun trip! Here are some highlights...

On Vacation

Hi everyone! As I posted about here, we'll be taking a much needed break over the next 10 days to the beautiful Pacific Northwest! We will be putting our Etsy shop on vacation starting tonight until Sunday Sept. 29th. Then we'll be back at it and post more about our newest cards!  If you have any ideas or suggestions of cool places to go while we're out in Oregon and Washington - tweet at me!: @crackeddesigns

Fingers crossed that we see Big Foot!


(Above image of the glorious game: Oregon Trail)

Vintage Aviation Graduation

I've been waaaay behind on blogging about some of my custom projects I've worked on this year, so bear with me here. This past spring I designing some very cool high school graduation announcements for Mr. Jayce who is going on to study aviation in Washington. I was stoked to design these right from the start...

Wedding Design: Katie and Jim

Oh man, these invites I designed for Katie and Jim who got hitched back in June were sooooo cute and fun to make! Here's the story...

Sneaky Peaky

Sometimes at the end of summer, I have a little work down time. I usually try to work ahead and design fun new stuff - but I usually procrastinate and end up watching "My So-Called Life". Let's be honest here, who can't get sucked into Jordan Catalano's eyes?

But despite my love for all things 90's pop culture, I have been drawing up lots of awesome new stuff - new cards, prints, and brand new non-paper items! Oh the suspense! It's killing you, isn't it? I know, I'll feed you, but not yet.

Stay tuned for new stuff popping up in the Etsy shop and more photos on Facebook!

The dream of the 90's is alive...

We are planning a trip out to the Pacific Northwest in a month, and I have been a researching machine on all things big foot, grunge music, craft beer, coffee, Paul Bunyan, Twin Peaks locations and all other glorious things the Pacific NW has to offer. But what is my real dream to see while out west you ask? To see Carrie Brownstein but of course! Does this seem like a stalker thing to say? Yes. Am I a question talker today? Yes.

I have been spending perhaps too much time watching "Portlandia" lately, and "Sleater-Kinney" has been playing in the house just a little more than usual. Adam just doesn't get it, but I have had a serious crush on this girl ever since my ears first heard the sweet sounds of girl angst on my walkman, a million years ago. What's not to like? She just oozes coolness.

Well anyways, I'm looking forward to drinking insane amounts of beer and washing it down with a damn good cup of coffee! (Agent Cooper, anyone?) Does anyone have any off the beaten path suggestions? Cool places to visit/see in Washington or Oregon? I'd love to hear, we're always up for an adventure!

Cheers to Boxing Rock!

There are only a few things we love more than greeting cards, and one of them is definitely beer. Cheap beer, fancy beer, you name it. We especially love craft beer from craft breweries, so we were so excited when Boxing Rock Brewing Co. from Nova Scotia Canada loved our "Brewing between us" card. All of our Canadian friends can now enjoy not only a tasty brew, but a cool card as well! Get our original "brewing" card, as well as the same design in a bunch of different greetings at Boxing Rock in Shelburne, N.S. (Isn't their logo cool!?)

Visit this brewery here.

Hello? It's Chatter Phone!

One of my favorite things is being able to design something and have all the creative power up to me. So when Saoirse's mama asked me to design some birthday invitations, inspired by vintage toys, I was pumped. I adore anything vintage, especially kids toys - they just don't make 'em like they used to!

While I was brainstorming what to design, Beckett and I were playing with his beloved chatter phone and then BAM - it hit me! The bright colors and fun demeanor of the silly little chatter phone were perfect for a 1st birthday. I drew up the little guy and hand drew the big font as well, for a playful invite that is as cute as the birthday girl herself!

Heaven has bumper stickers

A couple of things first:
- I've been severely neglecting this blog lately, which makes me sad. So, I really want to get back in a groove and start sharing more fun/weird/random stuff that's been going on in the world of Cracked Designs. Because of my lack of blogging though, I have been working on lots of new stuff, both new products and custom designs that I'm excited to share in the weeks to come!

So anyways...
The CD crew went out on a little road trip last week to South Dakota. It. Was. Amazing. It was like I had died and gone to souvenir heaven. We basically struck (black hills) gold out west and came home with tons of new tacky souvenirs to add to our rapidly expanding collection. I'll introduce you to 'Boyd', the Jackalope we adopted, in another post.

Maker Market Milwaukee

Wow, long time no post. Sheesh. Just a quick reminder to all Milwaukee peeps that we will be participating in the "Maker Market" at Alterra in Bay View (Milwaukee) tomorrow, Sunday July 7th from 10Am-4PM. It should be a killer market with lots of local goodies. You can also get your hands on one of our "Bay View" prints or the brand new "East Side" print OR the "Dueling hoods" note card set, which has one Bay View and one East Side note card. Word to that. See you all tomorrow!

Holding on for dear life

The conversation started a while back, but it went a little something like this:
Adam: "Hey, what do you want for your big 30th birthday!?"
Me: "A mother frickin' Delorean, so I can go back in time and re-live my 20's."
Adam: *silence* (with a frightened look on his face)

I'm turning 30 tomorrow and I just can't shake this feeling of dread. I know I am being a complete wuss, and no matter how many people tell me that "30 isn't old",  I still can't help feeling like I'm gonna barf. I continue to watch the gray hairs dominate my head, and listen to my knees crack while I go up stairs. ugh.

My 20's were good to me - I married my best friend, I started a company that I adore, I became a mom to the coolest kid on earth, I traveled to amazing places, I finished college, I had the best times with some of my best friends. So, I can't help but think: "So, what now?" The 30's are a mystery to me, and I don't know what to expect, which is why I'm dreading letting go of my 29 year old self.

But, since I can't stop time, I have no choice but to accept turning 30. And by "accept" I mean get totally plastered. I'm going to spend the rest of today and tomorrow being completely nostalgic and bump some Ace of Base and other awesomely bad 90's music.

A 3D Birthday

As most of you know by now, I absolutely love planning birthday parties for my son, Beckett. Do I go a little overboard? Yes. (As seen here and here.)

Well, this past weekend we partied it up, and celebrated his 3rd birthday in 3D style. (Get it...3-D) So far, this party was my favorite theme yet, and I think it turned soooo cool. I'll post all the pics this week, including the radical invitations, but first, here are some of my favorite pics from the fun-filled 3D party!

Stay tuned for more pics from the party this week!

Mummy and Pops

front: "From Womb to tomb... You'll always be my mummy" Inside: "Happy Mother's Day!"

front: "pop, you're cool!" inside: "happy Father's Day!"

We've been working hard at designing lots of new fun cards over the past weeks, and we're especially excited about these two new fun ones! Blow your mom and dad away this year with these radical new cards! Find them both in our Etsy shop now.

Emergency!

I'm real excited about our newest product! Our new "Emergency" Pack, is a 6 pack of our favorite greeting cards that can be used in your everyday events! Ever been in a bind where you need a greeting card for a special situation that you kind of forgot about? Well, no problem! Get this sweet ass pack of greeting cards and never be without a perfect card again!

The pack includes 1 belated birthday card, 1 regular birthday card, 1 thank you card, 1 get well card, and 2 congratulations/good job cards. And best of all it comes packaged in a nice little canvas bag, so you'll never loose these suckers. score!

Find the new Emergency Pack in our etsy shop now!

Flashback: Jaime and Teri

Today's custom invitation suite is from Jaime & Teri's September 2012 celebration! I had so much fun designing this, and loved getting to work with Jaime and Teri and bring their unique vision to life!

Jaime and Teri had the idea of taking a theme like, "The classic story of boy meets girl" and switch it up to redefine the term "classic".  Using the "story" concept, I illustrated this invitation set with a pile of books outlining the invitation text and used girl silhouettes to create a type of logo for the front of the booklet style invitation.

I created a unique RSVP card as well, that kept in style with the rest of the suite. I loved how it turned out!

I always love a challenge of coming up with something totally unique, and this invitation set was especially fun to design!

Flashback: Sasha and Ryan

I have another "flashback" wedding invitation suite to share today, this one comin' way back from 11/11/11!

Sasha and Ryan had a "two hearts, one love" concept they wanted to incorporate in their celebration. So I decided to design a sleek and simple invitation suite for the two. My favorite part was the little two hearts combination with their new monogram, "S". Something about those two little hearts make me smile. The tri-fold design was complete with the "11-11-11" paper band that held the invitation together, forever locking that special date into each guests' mind.

I loved how simple, yet visually striking these suckers turned out to be, and the blue and black color palette was a nice choice for the wintery November Wisconsin wedding that it was!

I have one more "flashback" wedding I'll post this week, and don't forget, Indie Wed in Chicago is THIS SATURDAY! Boy, that sure came up quick. We'll be on the first floor again, eager to talk with all you cool brides and grooms.

New Love

"Let's Grow mOLD together" (inside blank)

"I pick you..." (inside: "to be my valentine!")

"Be my valentine..." (inside: "and nobody gets hurt.")

We have 3 new cards in the etsy shop right now! Two are re-designs ('Pick you' and 'Gun valentine') of old favorites, and the other is brand spankin' new! We love makin' love cards that are a little different than the average lovey dovey card, and these 3 are no exception- complete with nose picking, guns, and moldy cheese. Check out these 3, along with the rest of our awesome love cards!

Flashback: Dorota and Adam

So, in preparation for Indie Wed in Chicago (coming up on Feb. 2nd!), I've been going through my archives of wedding invitations, and stumbled upon a few designs that I've never shared on the blog. Including this invitation from waaaaaaay back in 2010, which coincidentally is one of my favorites! It's no surprise I totally forgot to post about this suite, considering I gave birth shortly after I finished designing it. It's not like I had anything else better to do. 

This wedding invitation suite was terrific to design, because it was really different than anything else I had ever done up to that point. The bride and groom had specific visions, and I had the challenging and wonderful task of bringin' it to life! The end result was so fun, and I love how vintage/modern/simplistic is turned out to be.

Dorota & Adam wanted a detailed outline of the events of the day, and wanted to convey just how fun and not-so-traditional the day was going to be. Dorota loves books and Adam loves music, so they asked for something that portrayed those elements. The RSVP card was designed as a library card and the "info" card was designed to reflect an old school billboard chart. We stuck to the chic black & white color palette, by pairing the white cardstock with jet black envelopes.

I absolutely adored the old school vibe Dorota & Adam stuck to.  These puppies are definitely unique, and remain one of my favorite designs!

Watch for more "Flashback" wedding invitation suites in the coming weeks as I prepare for my 4th Chicago Indie Wed!

Hello 2013.

I spent the last 4 weeks frantically preparing for Christmas, a stellar holiday party, and continuing the long excruciating process of our home remodel. And finally today, I'm able to sit down and take a step back and remember all the awesome-ness that was 2012. It's funny to look back at things I wanted to accomplish in 2012 (as seen here.), and I realized that you'll never know what a year will throw your way and how your resolutions grow and change as each month passes.

CD had a fantastic year, and each year I grow this little company, I'm always handed new surprises. This was the first year that I started to feel like CD was actually work, hard work actually, and was torn by what that meant and how I could fix it. Feeling stuck in a rut is never fun, but I think it's a necessary evil in being an entrepreneur. It forces you to gain the strength to overcome challenges, and grow stronger.

2012 was definitely a learning year. I had the pleasure (and fear) of going outside of my comfort zone and attend Alt Summit, twice! The experience in Salt Lake City and NYC was tremendous, and I spent all year thinking about what I learned and gained from the conference. My experience at Alt pulled me in all different directions, and I'm still trying to organize my thoughts to this day. Even though I was crazy ass nervous about attending both conferences, at the end of the day, it was extremely beneficial, both to Cracked Designs, and personally.

I'm looking forward to 2013 (despite the fact that I'll be turning 30...) and I'm intrigued by what curve balls I'll be thrown this year.

Some highlights of 2012 include:
-The Journey Journal makes it debut on Urban Outfitters online!
-I had the good fortune of traveling a lot this year. (Hawaii, Nashville, Salt Lake City, NYC, Phoenix)
-My son turned 2, and may have went a little overboard on the invites...
-We are finally in the home stretch of finishing our massive home remodel project!
-I had the pleasure to once again display at Indie Wed in Chicago, and Milwaukee too!
-I did my first craft fair in 3 years in Dec. (Urban Garage Sale in MKE), and boy was it nice to get back out there.

Again, thanks to all the CD supporters out there. I couldn't do it without you. Cheers to making 2013 super terrific!