I’ve decided to merge this Sweetbeets blog with ModEcoKids.com which is my children’s design blog. I’ll occasionally post about Sweetbeets news and inspiration on ModEcoKids.com but also I feature handmade and eco-friendly finds for babies and children as well as resources for retailers. I hope you’ll check it out and update your RSS feed if necessary. Thank you!!
Last night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning editing the new images of Sweetbeets cards and uploading most of them to the online wholesale catalogue. I’m so pleased with the new images. Photography has been a lot of trial and error and I’m sure I’ve put at least a thousand images into the “trash”, but I’ve learned that my cards really need a vibrant background for product shots.
I use a sheet of paper as my background. As I was browsing the selection at the local art shop, this lovely shade of blue caught my eye. I must have been subconsciously influenced by this necklace by Formfire Glassworks that is on my wish list or perhaps these baby booties by Elefent. I doubt that blue will replace green as my favorite color, but my camera seems to love it much more than a green or white background.
Last weekend I finally finished a few new Sweetbeets designs….a bit behind schedule, but I hope you’ll agree it is worth the wait! If you browse the online wholesale catalogue sometime next week, you’ll find cards featuring a baby playing with blocks, a baby girl ballerina and a baby boy cowboy riding on a rocking horse. Very cute if I do say so myself!
Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, letterpress stationery, letterpress cards
I stumbled upon this blog post about Sweetbeets and I have to quote it here because I love it so much:
this is exactly the type of card that i don’t use as a card at all. i will frame it in a simple white frame with a white matte and give it to the most scrumptious two year-old on my list. even better? frame the entire 5 card-series to be lined up neatly on a playroom wall.
Framing my cards as letterpress prints had been on my to-do list, but seeing this post made me get moving on it. Here are the results so far.
The cards are framed in IKEA RIBBA frames (9×11 inches). I had a custom matte made at a local framing shop because the one that came with the frame had an opening that was a bit too big.
I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, although I need to figure out how to prevent the horizontal and vertical lines in the image from appearing a bit distorted. I know there’s a fancy photography term for this lens distortion but I cannot remember it right now! I also bought a RIBBA frame that fits three cards that I thought would be perfect for the Sweetbeets number series, but that will have to wait for my next photo shoot.
Technorati Tags: affordable artwork, letterpress print, made in Canada, letterpress, framing cards, nursery decor, children’s spaces
I needed a photo of myself for a designer profile so we did a little photo shoot in our back yard. I had originally recruited my six-year-old son as photographer! He captured some great images but when I went to edit in Photoshop I discovered some glare from the sun on the photos. Since my Photoshop skills are not that advanced, we had to start again another day and my husband took this one. I thought I’d share it here too so you can put a face to my name. I’ll add it to my ‘about’ page soon.
Here’s a treasury I curated to promote some fellow Trunkt members. Trunkt is the “premier directory of creative entrepreneurs”. Click here to visit my portfolio on Trunkt.
Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, treasury, Etsy, Trunkt
I should have bought one of these paper trimmers years ago! I’ve had fun making these flat correspondence cards by repurposing some of my letterpress cards that don’t meet my quality standards for selling to Sweetbeets retailers. Because I use only 100% post-consumer recycled paper, occasionally I find very obvious dark spots embedded in the paper. I’ve been putting these cards aside, but now they’re being put to good use as my thank you notes. Sometimes I can even punch out part of the illustration to make a gift tag so that the whole card gets recycled!
Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, recycling, paper trimmer
I finally joined Flickr! Click here for a sneak peek of my home. My style is definitely minimalist! I feel most comfortable and happy in spaces that are decluttered and serene. I’m very inspired by this quote: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” (William Morris, 1882). I’d like to update the color palette now that my sons are getting out of the drawing-on-walls phase. I’m envisioning a white, airy space with splashes of chartreuse and other shades of green! I saw the perfect inspiration photos on one of my new favorite blogs so stay tuned while I put together a post about it…
I’ll be sharing more images of Sweetbeets cards on Flickr in the coming weeks. I think I’ll do another photo shoot to get fresh images of my cards when the new designs are available in September.
Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, flickr, workspace
