I'm done with holiday cards! Yay!

I've sent the proofs over to the printer and hopefully I can see what they'll look like as cards soon.

So, my calendar is done and all of my holiday cards are done.

It's a really good feeling. It only took me 5 years to get this down. 

Also, for the the first time since designing holiday cards, I'm really happy with what I've made. Designing holiday specific cards has never been exciting for me, and I think it shows in my past designs. 

I don't know how I tapped into this new inspiration for these designs, but I did it. I think I approached it through not focusing on what I think should be holiday cards, but what I want to find in a holiday card. Cats, pugs, coziness and my city. Those are things that I really like and speak to me, so I went with it. 

Hopefully, others enjoy them too.

Have a great weekend, everyone :) 

I've been pretty quiet this week, I know. I've been working on several new card designs and taking some extra days off at the same time. Nate has a 9 day work week coming up so I took a couple of extra days to hang out with him. I tend to work when he's working, so I know I'll end up working 9 days in a row too.

I've been trying to make a few new birthday cards and some thank you cards to add to my line. I didn't realize how few of them I had and I'm hoping that by adding more specific card designs it will up my wholesale game a little bit.

Yesterday I checked out my calendar proof! I think it's looking good. I do need to do a little more work on it, but it's really coming along. I'm hoping to learn everything I need to about doing a calendar this year, so maybe it will be a little easier next year? I hope so. I knew that it would be a bit of a learning curve, but I guess I underestimated just how big that curve would be.

I really hope people like it. It's scary making something so different than what you usually make, but I think it's necessary. Learn and grow and take some risks. If this doesn't pan out, then I guess I can say at least I tried. 

Well, day one of nine is almost done! 8 more to go. This will be good. A chance for me to really buckle down, focus and crank out some new work. 

Have a really great weekend!

The Crafty Wonderland Spring show is this Saturday so I've been really busy getting ready for it. The spring show isn't as intense as the winter show, so I've been working on a few other things as well.

We had to go to Ikea on Monday for a couple of things for the up coming show and while we were there I talked Nate into this book shelf system. I've been wanting to line that whole wall with book shelves since we moved in 6 years ago. It was really hard to find an affordable solution while also keeping a low profile in mind. Our house it really small and I didn't want to be running into them all the time. We put them up on Monday and I haven't had any run ins!

I've also been working on a calendar! For the past few years people have asked me about making a calendar, but I never really had any great ideas on a theme. I thought of one in December last year, but it was way too late to make it at that point. So I started making it for 2018. It's almost done and I'm really excited to share it soon!

I also broke out some old etching plates and my etching press. I've been missing old Portland quite a bit lately so I thought I'd print some of these plates I made from 2006 - 2007. I'm not going to list them on Etsy but I might have a few on hand at Crafty Wonderland this Saturday.

If you're interested in purchasing one, and can't make it to Crafty, you can e-mail me at michelemaule@gmail.com

On top of all this I've been working on wholesale orders. I've had a really slow couple of months, so I am really, really grateful for those wholesale orders. That's one of the scary parts of working for yourself, the slow month. It's even scarier when it turns to two slow months. Hopefully, it continues to stay a bit steady for awhile. 

Okay, back to work!