Leah's New Blog

This week I'm showing you my latest logo and website designs!  My sister, Leah, really wanted to start another blog and her fans are so happy because she is an amazing writer!  I helped create a banner for her last blog, On Thai Time, so this time we decided to do something a little more easy going to start with.  I literally wrote out her blog title in permanent marker in my hand writing and scanned it in and edited it to become her title.  It is really fun to do a smaller project with a lot less pressure to it, maybe I will start creating more work with just my handwriting.

Read more of Leah's work over on From Bowl Cuts to Vodka Sodas.

Bobo's College Graduation Announcement

In excitement of my baby sister's college graduation, I thought I would share the graduation announcement I made for her.  She is graduating from University of Utah's Business Marketing program.  She wanted to use a photo from some time we all spent in Utah as her background, I added her name in calligraphy over the image and added some details on the front side. The back side gives all they information about the commencement and some of her future persuits.

See my other sister's graduation card here.  And more information about purchasing and designing your own card here! 

Snippets

 

 

In an effort to take a break from social media, I am focusing my energy on the every day around me and trying to better myself- make myself more whole.  Some of that includes reading, working on puzzles, bible studies, hoping to take a watercolor and photography course, more conversations and less tv, launching a new business, vacations, trying new things. I hope to post photos every now and then in an effort to remember the days that seem to fly by so fast around us.

> We traveled back to Montana to visit family this past week and I was a nervous wreak flying out of Kentucky, we even saw a UPS plane that slid off the runway... and we still took off!
> There was an epic snow storm in Lexington while we were gone and Wes was in heaven, that North Dakota dog loved it.
> I took a quick day trip to visit my cousin at my alma mater
> Saw a beautiful sunset in Big Sky Country
> The boys went hunting and I found it kind of comical watching them filet their birds on the kitchen counter
> Spent lots of time with family and all the boys wearing buffalo plaid
> We were delayed in Louisville for a couple hours waiting for my brother to get in so we decided to grab a coffee and check out Churchill Downs (aka the Kentucky Derby). We walked around the grounds and gift shop and met the sweetest hours Puddin
> Spent the weekend with my brother having a winer bon fire on our deck while they drank Kirk Light with clean snow as ice- real classy over here.

#AMEinreallife Mightier Print

It is always so fun to see my work in it's home it was intended to be or bought for.  The original person I designed the 'mightier print' for was Scott's cousin.  She was going to use it in her son's big-boy room which is nautical themed.  Since we got a chance to go to Charleston and visit them, I finally got to see my work in it's home! So flattering!

The print is one of my best sellers and is available for purchase here in my shop.

Thanks for looking! -Amy

Custom Wedding Invitation Suite

My cousin got married over the weekend and I thought I would share the beautiful wedding invitations we designed for her wedding.  She had a small fall backyard wedding in the hills of Southern California and has always dreamed of decorating with succulents.  I did her and her husband's name in calligraphy and added watercolor peony and succulent motifs to the sides of the cards.  We also added some faux gold foil dots to help tie the whole card together. 

This is a close up of the main invitation. We printed it on a thick shimmer white card stock and tied the whole group together with gold and white bakers twine.  It really helped tie together the faux gold dots, shimmer and gold in the twine (pun not intended).  On the back side, of the main invitation we included a small succulent with where they were registered underneath.

The other two inserts were a map and rsvp card.  The map was also printed on shimmer card stock and on the reverse side we included directions from the north and south and also a pointer about dressing for a garden wedding.  The RSVP card was printed on the thickest card stock available since it was meant to be sent through the mail. The reverse side had one succulent and the return address listed below it with s tamp in the corner.

Please understand that I love working on every project, but since I am not classically trained my work sometimes continues to surprise me in how amazing it turns out.  I love this invitation suite and am so proud of it. Lots of love to the newly wed couple!

If you are interested in your own invitation suite, please check out my shop. Thanks for looking!

High School Graduation Announcement

Hi guys! I'm so excited to share this project I did earlier on in the spring for my cousin's high school graduation announcements. She had these amazing photos taken around Las Vegas and sent me some of her favorites to create an announcement.  She sent so many amazing photos that we paired with my calligraphy and had a seriously hard time narrowing it down to just a few options.We decided to send out two different options for the front and kept the back the same for both cards with one exciting jumping picture (third picture shown up above)... because she is sooo excited to attend college up at Carroll College (my alma mater!).  In fact she just moved up there this last week and school starts today! I am so excited for her and can't wait to go back and visit. We printed the cards on 130# crispy white card stock and the photo and calligraphy couldn't have come out better. Thank yo again Sam for letting me create these for you!   

2013 Year In Review

This has been such a fun year for me. Over the past year I have seriously developed my skills and business into something that has been even surprising and exciting for me. Remember when I just recently posted about my Christmas cards and snuck in an example of my cards from 2013? Well, that card is the one that set off my business. A friend of my sister saw that card and asked me to help design her wedding invitations. Wow! such trust and encouragement she had in me and for that I am so grateful to her! Shortly after that, another friend asked me for a stamp design (which she wanted me to hand carve) but I had a better idea! I would try calligraphing it and have it made onto a stamp and that set off my most popular item this year. Those people near me who believe in me to help create something for them before I even believed that I could are some of the most important and treasured people to me. Now, my mind has bigger dreams and goals and I am a lot less scared then I was this time last year.  Here is some of my most proud work and my round up for 2013! (top photo from the first invitation I designed- it is amazing to see how my work has developed over the year)

The stamps were my most popular item this year and probably one of the most fun things to design.  I have had such an amazing time working with all my clients come up with something that they will love and most likely keep as heirlooms.  All of the stamps are made out of laser carved rubber and attached to a piece of wood that is engraved with the design on the top.  They also have an option for wooden handles which I think is the best part!  That stamp there in the lower right was the very first stamp I designed and am so grateful to that good friend of mine to ask for it.  You can see a feed of the stamp posts here. 

Earlier last year, I had a goal to calligraphy something every week to help practice and produce work.  I got a few quotes done but I will say it was all still a success and plan to calligraphy some more quotes through this year.  I did a quote my dad always says (pictured above); one from another favorite blogger, Meg Fee, who writes some of the most touching posts; and a lyric from a song my dad always used to sing me when I was young.  Here is the feed for a couple quotes I did.

I also got to design a bunch of cards and invitations.  Like I was saying above,  my first invitation suite to set everything going was Camille's (upper row on the right).  It was such a pleasure to work with her.  I learned so much and will forever be grateful for her believing in me.  Some of the other designs I did were: Brittany's Christmas Cards, Hadley's 1st Birthday Invitation, Our Christmas Cards, Randi and Michael's Wedding Invitation Suite (including two inserts), Camille's Wedding Invitation Suite (including three inserts, a program and a thank your card), Erin and Chris' Wedding Invitation Suite (included 5 inserts- one of which was a map!), Breanne's Bridal Shower Invitation, Leah's College Graduation Announcements and Lauren's Baby Shower Invitation.  Not pictured is Elise's Christmas Card.

One of my most proud projects was being approached to design a logo for a photographer (Jennifer Wanicki Photography).  I also designed a logo for my other shop that sells antlers (AME Antlers) and helped my sister redesign her hilarious blog, On Thai Time.

Speaking of good friends who believe in me... My friend Elise asked me to help design a couple signs for her wedding. Some of the big projects I did were a welcome seating sign (pictured above), a photo booth sign and my most proud was the cocktail sign.  I also worked on some smaller projects and more personal signs that were displayed throughout the wedding. 
Towards the end of the year, I started working on painted calligraphy chalkboards.  I was inspired by a gift we got when we were married almost three years ago.  I thought it would be a nice wedding gift to offer our family and friends that was personal and useful for them while also helping me practice my calligraphy in a different medium.  Those three gifts set off a chain reaction and by December I had 5 additional orders! It was so great! The first couple, I blogged about here. The last few I just finished up blogging about here. One of my favorite boards was the initial wreath I painted here.

Another fun project toward the end of the year was collaborating with Ally from Gifts By Allyson. She specializes in carved wood pieces and is able to transfer my calligraphy onto beautiful wood piece.  We made pieces for Christmas, gifts for friends and even pieces to be displayed at a wedding.

I also finally attempted calligraphy envelope design!  I have been so intimidated by it (and truthfully still am a bit) but decided to dive head first in and write out all of our friend's and family's last names on the envelopes that held our Christmas cards.  I plan to still play around with more envelopes because really they are so fun!

On a personal note, Scott and I had a great year also! We had family visit early in the year, took Wesley on his first bike ride,  took a huge road trip over the summer, did some modeling for Flora Pop!, taught Wesley to pray before his meals, made the best batch of chili over Halloween,  froze our butts off this winter, and lots of other fun things you can check out here. 

Overall this year has been so fun and inspiring. I have learned that there is no better time to start then now. Even though it is hard without a lot of emotional support, I learned that you have to believe in yourself and just go for it. Make the call, reach out, put it out there and you will learn what people are drawn to. The quote "You are going to wish a year from now you started today" couldn't ring more true to me and I am so happy that I started this journey. I do see everything developing and changing a lot over the next year, I mean it is so fun to see just where my work has come in one year.  I am so thankful you have joined me here in this space and followed along with me. Thank you! Thank you! 

Stay tuned! Because I have BIG news coming.  Like a couple more stamp designs, a giveaway and a new website and portfolio to reveal within a couple weeks. 

On Thai Time Site Design

Want to know the blog I check most often for updates? On Thai Time.  My sister started a blog about her adventures of teaching English in Thailand and it is some of the funniest written stories accompanied with some of the most beautiful photos.  If you are looking for a laugh, head over there and read some of her work.  She is pretty amazing writer and the coolest thing is that her writing comes across exactly like she talks... I think that is part of the reason we all love it so much because we miss her so much.

Why am I posting about it here? Well, I am pretty proud of the little bit of redesign I helped her with.  All of the web designing I have learned I taught myself through hours of online research and reading countless blogs and forums. Before I got my hands on it, her blog was a pretty standard blogger site.  I adjusted the width of the columns, added an about page, updated her sidebar with a centered photo and 'about me' link, added those social media buttons below her picture and helped center her title.  She still wants to change the title but we are having a hard time deciding on what that should be... hopefully we will get there soon.

So head over there to read her stories! I promise you won't be disappointed and she sure would love it! 

Antler Bobby Pins

When I went home for Thanksgiving, I came bearing gifts.  I found some inspiration on pinterest and decided to make a couple pairs of antlers for my sisters and cousin and I.  They were so fun and easy to make and we had a great time sporting them.I shaped all the pins out of black oven clay and cooked them as directed.  I then sprayed them all with gold spray paint, added gold glitter to the ends and glued on a bobby pin with some tacky glue. So fun and festive for the holidays.

Around Here

It is worth noting that it is freezing around here, like they said on the news you would legitimately freeze and get frost bite within minutes if you spent much time outside.  The air temperature hasn't been anything crazy around here... just in the -20s (like -25 this morning).  I say it isn't crazy because it has happened before and we frequently have weeks in the -10 to -15 range.  What is crazy is what they call this 'polar vortex' which has brought this arctic air down with wind chill temperatures in the -50 to -70 range... yeah, crazy.  Some people I know don't believe in 'wind chill', but I can tell you first hand that wind with anything this cold cuts through any sort of barrier you try to wear and feels like it cuts you.  The wind chill is what closed churches and schools today and canceled almost all forms of transportation (airplanes, buses and cars).Picture above from when it was a bit warmer outside here in Fargo.  We frequently take Wesley on walks alongside the frozen river and Scott and Wesley love to race each other on the path.

New Year 2014

S and I went out to dinner to celebrate on New Years Eve. Even though our meal wasn't the best, we still had such a great time. We bundled up, since the whole day was -17, and pretended we were all dressed up even though were in long underwear and turtlenecks.  I tried a bunch of different braid and hair up dos and just couldn't get it to work! Anyone have any secrets?! It was a fun excuse to wear some red lipstick and have a martini. 

We came home and decided to camp out in our living room with Wes and watch a movie. Stripes on stripes.  The next morning, we had probably the best January 1st day ever and laid in that flannel and down comforter bed all day long taking naps, watching bowl games and S played lots of video games. It was glorious. I then found a recipe for 'Mormon Scones' and we decided it is our new favorite unhealthy fried food, probably surpassing our homemade doughnut tradition.  In high school, we frequently ended up at a friend's house and his mom was usually always cooking these scones. I have still remembered (8 years later) how good they were and was happy to find such a good recipe. Hope you had the best first day of the year too! Happy New Year!

Top photo from my instagram

Christmas In Montana 2013

Scott and I both found out we had the week of Christmas off at the last minute.  We decided that if the weather was nice enough we would drive back to Montana to spend it with his family.  The weather was pretty scary over the weekend before, but our drive proved to be dry and quick the whole way (8 hours) there.  The picture above is to document our Christmas together and my first time using a Christmas cracker (they give you crowns in them!)

There was lots of snuggling with Wesley and a white white backdrop. Scott and I accidentally both dressed in flannel for the drive which I didn't realize till I took that picture #flannelcity

(on the left) During our stay, we all went to check out the Army Navy store in Billings because they carry Filson gear that is sometimes on sale.  That store is full of stuff, like lots and lots of stuff. There were all kinds of things hanging from the ceiling (up above me were bullets, a grenade and razor blade wire) and stuff stacked to the ceilings through the whole store. (on the right) I am basically the puppy whisperer. Penne, the wire haired pointing griffon, is within months of the same age as Wesley and they have so much fun together.

Our everyday view.Pretty much the funniest puppy. We were waiting at the drive through at McDonalds and he was perched on our smallest center console.

One of the most beautiful sunsets on the drive home.  That drive was a long one and took what felt like forever but we were lucky to have dry roads.  We also started listening to a book on tape for the first time and are bummed we didn't think to do it sooner!

DIY: Use Pictures as Ornaments

We had some friends over the past weekend and decided to break out our new fujifilm instax camera I just bought.  We had the polaroids just laying around and our friend had a brilliant idea to clothespin them to the tree as ornaments (since we don't have many ornaments).  I love the idea of using pictures as ornaments! You could even use them at a party or a way to collect memories over the years... so fun! Photo from my instagram. Merry Christmas! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I sit here writing this feeling completely stuffed and slightly embarrassed I encouraged/ was the one cooking so much food tonight, but am oh so thankful to be here with family and a full stomach. We have had a great time here so far playing lots of guitar, eating lots of food, meeting up with friends, spending incredible amounts of time with family and enjoying this amazing weather. We sure do miss our little puppy but are so happy to be able to count so many blessings in our life.

 

Happy Happy Thanksgiving! Oh and if you are looking for the most amazing pecan pie recipe, I think you should make this one. I am a huge fan of pecan pie with pecans all the way through and let me tell you this was so delicious. The only thing I changed in the recipe was adding more pecans then it called for. Making this, we almost ate the filling not leaving enough for the pie; then when it finally came time to eat pie, there wasn't enough to go around (I had to start hiding pieces so everyone could have some!). I think I found my staple pie recipe. I also made a pumpkin roll and think I also found my other staple recipe- for my first time making it, I found it easier then I thought and it didn't crack when I rolled it! Success!

Fish Return Address Stamp + Fishing Photos

I finally get to tell you about this! This was one of my very first stamps I ever worked on and finally got it finished and photographed and ready to show you! I am so proud of this one! Our family has a cabin on the river in Montana and everyone loves to fish there... it really is a beautiful beautiful place. Well I had a great idea to create a return address stamp for a cabin shaped as a fish and love how it turned out!

I incorporated our last name into a simple drawn fish and hand wrote out the address. I also am thinking of engraving the last name-fish logo onto a piece of wood with a wood burner to use as a 'house logo' and maybe hang pictures of the fish everyone catches up there! It would also make a great kitchen and book stamp. Interested in a custom designed and calligraphy return address stamp? You can pick one up in my etsy shop! Thanks for looking!