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!