Print Smitten

Merry christmas to all my lovelies

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Just popping in to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

It's been a wonderful year, my daughter started preschool, I started this wonderful new venture in my life called Print Smitten and I can't wait to see what next year brings us.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share a last minute gift idea from the kids. Because I've had the pleasure of being home more with them this season, I decided to do a fun and easy craft with them. I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the process but here is the final product, applesauce cinnamon Christmas ornaments!

Ingredients:
1 cup of cinnamon
1/3 cup of applesauce ( store bought works best)
1/2 cup of Elmer's glue

Mix all together in a bowl until blended and let sit for 1 hour
Roll dough out on the counter I about 1/4" thick. Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes or so what I did and sit your tots on the counter while you use a skewer to trace their hands! Don't forget to use a straw to make holes where you want to string your ornaments.
I actually had to make two batches of this dough, the recipe does not make that much.

I then used some red and white bakers twine to string a tag and some bells and voila! Pretty and oh so smelly good Christmas ornaments. This is the perfect keepsake for grandparents.

Enjoy! And ill see you next year!

Tis the season for pretty gift wrapping

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Hello all my lovies! I've been diligently stocking shop with more girt wrapping goodies and I just wanted to pop in to share what I've been up to. Print Smitten is a full service graphic design shop that specializes in web graphics and stationary.

Since it's conception in August of 2013, we've gone through branding changes, and even some product changes. As I grow this business and learn along the way I'm discovering what I enjoy doing the most. Creating pretty a packaging, beautiful invitations and cards is what I find to be the most gratifying for me. So with all that said, 2013 is going to bring big changes to the shop and business. While web graphics will always be a part of the business, I am going to focus more of my attention on printed goodies from, cards, gift tags, invitations, party favors etc., all printed in my home studio and sent straight to your door!

Below are some new goodies I have available in the shop now. I have plenty more up my sleeve. Stay tuned in 2013 for
more goodies like these!

Below are some lovely images I've captured using my trusty iPhone. All products below are available in my shop now!

Free Social Networking Icons!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:27:00 +0000

Good things are happening at Print Smitten and I want to spread some love and holiday cheer. First up, free social media icons! YAH! I plan to offer up a new set of freebie icons every quarter with a different color scheme to match the current trends of the season. Instantly download as many as you like and mix and match colors for a fun, fresh, look to your blog or website. And of course if you don't like these, I have a ton of custom icons in my shop to browse through as well!

This first set is based from the Pantone's Spring 2013 Color Trend report as seen below. The color of the year has been announced as Emerald! Oh, how I love me some green.

If you need some help understanding how to install these buttons on your blog, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here and do another tutorial on the process ( which is so easy, you could do it while sleeping ). A quick Google search for " installing social icons on blog" will bring a ton of blogs that have given you screen shots and step by step instructions on the process. I promise, you won't be pulling your hair out. It's a fun, easy, and cheap way to snazzy up your online space.

And of course, I have my own personal favorites from the color trend list too below.

Don't forget to bookmark and follow Print Smitten on Pinterest and Facebook for the latest freebies,downloads and special promos that I have coming very shortly :)

So, enough chatting and more downloading right? Click on the ribbon link below and you will be directed to a public Photobucket album with all the icon images free for the taking. All you have to do is either right click and save or you can grab the code that is listed under each image. These icons are 64px and are set to a transparent background.

I would love to hear your feedback on these icons and once you get them installed, please comment below with a link to your blog or site so I can take a look! As always, you can see a ton of other social icons offerings in my shop too!

Boring Disclaimer: These icons are for PERSONAL USE only. They are not to be resold as your own and are not to be used for commercial use. Thank you for complying :) Contact me for additional question and if you are interested in an extended license.

Have fun ladies and gents!

http://s1166.beta.photobucket.com/user/printsmitten/library/FREEBIES/Social%20Icons%20Freebies

Simple typographic holiday tags

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:36:00 +0000

Some more goodies in the shop today. I designed these, well, out if necessity. You see, my printer and I don't get along very well and today it just decided it wasn't going to print any color for me. Fine then! Ill still make you work. So in went Kraft card stock and out came these awesome modern text tags in bold type with holiday cheer sayings. I win!

Snag these lovelies from the shop now!

DIY party flags

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:10:00 +0000

In my love for all things pretty and paper and detailed, I created fun little kit to assemble your own customized party flags. Fun right?

Every good party host knows that it's all about the details. These party flags a.k.a straw flags or cupcake toppers are all the rage now in the party scene. Below is a set I had just completed and shipping out today for a bridal shower.

These flags are laser printed on heavy smooth cardstock and come in sets of 12 with 12 toothpicks for sticking in cupcakes, appetizers etc. or glue around your favorite straws. Customize your font and colors and sayings too! Have fun and be creative.

You can find these DIY flag kits in my shop now!

Handmade Envelopes and some wicked iPhone pics

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 01:56:00 +0000

today was one of those days where I just wouldn't be satisfied unless I had a new listing in my shop. The problem was, I had a packed schedule full of events to attend with my 3yr in tow. How was I going to get this done? I'll tell you how.

I have an iPhone 4s. Etsy recently did an update to the Etsy app that allows you to now upload pictures from your phone to create new listings yah! I decided to give it a go this morning and here are thoughts.

I'm in love, addicted, and cannot wait to list more once the sun comes back up tomorrow. I can list while taking care of business ( I know, too much info. ) or while waiting at the doctors office. I'm just so thrilled I can't hardly stand it.

Last night, I was working on a new product ( see image below ) and I was so excited about these cute little envelopes that I couldn't wait to share them with the world. I'm fortunate to have a sliding glass door in my kitchen which leaves in the best natural light. While my daughter was getting dresses this morning, I had to take some pictures. I just had to. On a side note, I often take quick shots with my camera just to look at and critique before I take the "real" picture with my crappy Nikon Coolpix that's about the have it's 5th birthday.

Anyways, this morning, I grabbed some scrapbooking paper, laid out my cute new envelopes and started snapping next to the door with the natural light. I did several shots all in about 5 minutes time. Below, you can see the results of the completely unedited iPhone pictures I took this morning. Not bad huh!

I didn't have time to create the listing right then and there, so While we were waiting in line, at several stores today and while at the doctors office, I was able to get the listing completely done and published to Etsy. Yah for time management and the Etsy app.

The moral of this post is this, you don't need a fancy DSLR to take great shots. You don't need a full photo setup with special lights and tents etc. These shots were taking in natural light from the glass door, a piece of scrapbook paper, a pencil and some bakers twine. That's it!

I challenge you and your phone's camera skills for your next photo shoot!

These cute cards can now be found in the Print Smitten Etsy shop :)
PS. tutorial coming soon on how to make these. And of course all photos will be shot with my phone. Yipee!

Sharing some Sprinkle Love

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:09:00 +0000

Oh me oh my how I am so bad a blogging. I wish I was the kind of person that was so organized and had my little blog schedule all written out in a nice cute notebook. Well, I can keep dreaming as long as Im attached to my 9 to 5.

I'm popping in today to share what I've been up to in the shop lately. I've focused my attention more on prints, invitations and wall art. I have been meaning to expand my shop with a better variety of printables and finally have the time to do so.

Below is an invitation that I did last week. I wish I had a need for it! But maybe you do? The colors and wording are fully customizable. More invitations are coming as quickly as I can make them so stay tuned :)

Color pallet creation

noreply@blogger.com (Tara::Marshall) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:45:00 +0000

Wow! two posts in one night? Another assignment this week was to make a color pallet from an image. This posed to be much harder then expected for a couple reasons. The biggest reason is finding an image. I know I know, just do a google search right? NOPE! Rule #1 - learn about copyrights and intellectual property if you ever plan to be a blogger, designer, or anything that requires the use of images of any sorts.

I spend about a total of 2 hours searching for images in the public domain ( images that are no longer copyright and are free to use for whatever you like ). I found a couple, but when I went to swatch the colors, I wasn't happy with the result. So after about 3 hours of work and 4 images later, I finally decided to use one of Nicole's images from her blog ( with permission of course ) for this assignment. If you have never been to nicole's blog, it's a must read! Even if you can't read; uh..I hope you can, but if you can't, her photography alone is amazingly beautiful! I chose this image because I liked the vintage feel it gave and who can go wrong with some flowers in a nice muted blue vase?

So here is the result of my pallet creation.
enjoy!

image courtesy of Nicole's Classes blog ( A little Sussy )

Holiday Cards are arriving

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:58:00 +0000

ok, ok, so I've been neglecting this blog and it pains me to even think about what to blog about when I'm more concentrated on stocking my shop. I promise to get this thing going come first of the year. But I had to pop in and share a new holiday card that I designed for two reasons; 1 : I wanted to offer up some fun holiday cards and 2 : I've been taking a class online from Nicole's Classes for Illustrator and one of this week's assignments was to create a piece of artwork that demonstrated what we have learned so far. What a fun project this was!

We are in week 3 of illustrator 102 and let me tell you, I have learned more then I have in the last 6 years on my own. Alma, the instructor is wonderful at teaching. Her style is just like mine which makes it even better. You can check out her blog here and to see a list of courses that Nicole's classes offers just head on over to their website. I already signed up for the patterns class and cannot wait to dive into making my own beautiful designs.

I really had no ideas in mind when I sat down at my computer this evening. In fact, I really needed to concentrate on designing some notecards I have been working on. BUT, somehow my brain turned directions and within 2 hours this is what I got. Funny how things work.

This card is a 5 x 7 printable file available in my shop. The font and words are customizable for free. I also managed to get some other holiday cards listed as well that allows you to insert your own image or I can do it for you. Enjoy!

Badges and buttons oh my!

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:14:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of working with Lauren from limnandlovely.com the past two days. She contacted me and was in need of some blog badges for her site ASAP. It was a rush order and Lauren was very specific on what she wanted which always makes things easier. Below are her custom badges I designed for her. You can visit her website here. It's a lovely site dedicated to all things weddings. Lauren and her twin sister, Ashely are a team that come together to curate some of the best wedding compilations all in one spot. They feature unique wedding photography, D.I.Y's and even some freebies!

If you are interested in having a custom blog button of badge design, visit my Etsy shop for premade designs of if you are interested in OOAK designs, I can do that too!

Typography as a logo

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Hello lovlies! Today I wanted to share some typography style logos with you. Typography has been a trend this past year. Bold graphic style types made into wall art, tee shirts and everything in between. As a designer, I'm particularly drawn to typography styles of logos and art.

Take my logo for instance, As you can see ( in my blog header ) I used two types of font, one script and one monotype. It's important when picking out fonts for any branding that they go well together, aren't too busy and are easy to read. What drew me to my brands font was the modern twist they both had. If you are in need of a logo but aren't sure if your sold on graphics or lots of flowers or brackets etc, then a simple typography logo just might be what you need.

Below are some samples for you of my work to take a look at. This is a good mix of different styles of type and designs that can be done with a typography logo. Really, a font can be manipulated in a million different ways to create a truly unique one of a kind piece of art.

all designs are copyright Print Smitten 2012

Color theory is another huge love of mine! I'm just smitten over color combos and pairing good colors together to create a lovely pallet. With a typography logo, color plays a big role! The best of both worlds :)

If you are in the market for a typography style logo, your in luck! I just updated my Etsy shop with some listings that do just that. Right now, turn around time is about two weeks out. Comment below and let me know your thoughts and opinions on this style of logo design.

P.S for those of you wondering how my daughter's first day of preschool went, I couldn't tell you because she's not talking! Darn kids!

Today we hit a milestone

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 13:26:00 +0000

My oldest, Abby, is embarking on a new journey today. Her first day of preschool! She did great dropping her off and so did mommy ( until I got back in my car ) .

I can't wait to hear about her day! Here is a quick pic in front of the church squinty eyes and shoulders up! Yep, that's my girl.

p.s don't mind the less then excellent quality of my iPhone photography skills. But hey, I captured this moment that I'll never get back :)

2013 Calendar is here! ( well almost )

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:21:00 +0000

Ok, I know I said it would be a couple weeks until this project was complete but I really needed to make it a priority and get it out there as the holidays are in full swing!

What a task this calendar was to complete. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into by decided to do this but non the less, I'm so glad that it's done and I stuck it out and finished it. This project was moved to the front burner about a month ago and I've been working on it in between client work and creating new items for the shop.

The calendar is not yet available for sale. I still need to do some file cleanup and prepare them for printing but that's the easy stuff. Each month is 4.25" x 11" so two months fit perfectly on one 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper.

So here it is! All done and pretty don't you think? Be looking for an update later this week on when this will be available :) When I get my own copy printed, I'll be sure the take some style shots for some inspiration.

Enjoy!

Sneak Peak - 2013 printable calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 18:21:00 +0000

I've been working diligently on a new 2013 printable calendar to adorn your lovely space wherever that may be. These are fun and easy ways to dress up your office, kitchen, foyer or wherever you need a little art and function all at the same time. These calendars are designed to be little pieces of art. When the month is over, you can cut away the calendar and frame your art or hang with a cute cloths pin. I plan to do a more "functional" calendar as well for us mommies that NEED to write stuff down!

So far January thru April are complete. I hope to have the rest of the year done in the next two weeks. Ill be sure to keep updating as I progress. I expect these to be hot sellers this holiday season. There are so many wonderful uses for them. They make great stocking stuffers or gifs for any occasion really.

Right now, all my designs are print your own style. I hope to have printed products offered in the future and I may just start with this calendar! But printing your own is easy smeazy. Just email the file to your local print shop like Staples and Office max or you can order online or even print from home! Depending on the quality you are going after, always make sure you are printing on heavy card stock. I like at least 110lb. weight or even heavier if my local printer offers it.

Enjoy!

Style Boards - How to make a swatch pallet in Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:30:00 +0000

One of the things I've been meaning to do since I started Print Smitten was to gather all my branding elements into one, easy to find document. An easy way to design your brand is to create a style board. Style boards are not just for businesses. They can be used for party planning, room designs or just about anything you want to create. If you do a search on pinterest for style boards, you will find a ton of inspiration.

The Print Smitten brand was inspired by bright colors with a simple modern twist and a bit of whimsy thrown in. See my style board and tips on how to create your own mini style board in Illustrator after the break.

When you are creating different graphics for different sites, it's so important to have all your colors, elements and fonts be the same throughout your brand. The easiest way to do this is to create a swatches pallet in Adobe Illustrator to keep on hand that can easily be pulled up and used no matter what document you are in at the time.

Below is my style board for Print Smitten. This was easily created in about 10 minutes in Illustrator. I already had my logo, fonts, colors etc. picked out. It was just a matter of organizing all these elements in Illustrator so they were easily accessible.

As you can see, it doesn't need to be anything fancy. Like I said, about 10 minutes of my time is going to save me hours and hours in the future.

The colors and graphic elements of your brand can be saved in the swatches pallet in Illustrator as I said before. Here is a brief explanation on how I did it to make it fast and easy.

Step 1

open a new document in Illustrator. My board happens to be 400px square but your board can be any size you wish.

Step 2

I created a set of squares to fill with my colors and lined them up to make them pretty. Fill your squares with your colors.

Step 3

Add your fonts and other elements. Be creative but remember this is just a reference and you don't need to spend hours doing this.

Step 4

Open you swatches pallet. Select All the colors currently in the pallet by default by click shifting and drag them to the trash can at the bottom of the pallet box.

Step 5

now you have a clean slate to work from. At the top right of the pallet box, click the drop down arrow and select "add selected colors". This will automatically add all your brand colors to the pallet. If you have any patterns or other little icons or graphics you want to add such as my heart and circles, you can select them individually and drag them to the pallet.

Step 6

Yah! Now you have all your colors and elements in the swatches pallet! But we are not done. You have to save the pallet and make is accessible in any document you start right? At the top of the pallet click the drop down menu again and all the way at the bottom, select "save swatches as AI". Name your pallet and save!

That's it. Test it out by opening a new document, selecting the swatches pallet, clicking the drop down menu again and selecting "user defined" you will see you pallet listing there to pull up and use. To get your elements back on the page simply click and drag them out of the pallet and they are there ready for you to use and resize!

Hope this helps you organize your brand or party or whatever it is you are working on. Leave a comment below and let me know how this works for you!

Score at the Consignment Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Tara vaughn) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:56:00 +0000

After finally taking the time to set up my blog, I thought all night about what my first blog post would be about. Instead of racking my brain for days and trying to methodically plan out my posts, I decided I was going to just dive right in and get some content on this blog and stop procrastinating!

So, today I want to talk about my kids consignment adventure yesterday. In my hometown in southern PA, we are blessed to have a Kid's Closet Connection franchise that does a twice a year sale, once in the spring and again in the fall. Yesterday was the fall sale. If you are unfamiliar with Kid's Closet Connection, visit their website and search for sales in your area.

The best part about this particular sale, is if you consign, you get entry to the 'pre-sale' the night before it opens to the public. Can you say "YES PLEASE"! That means first dibs on all the goods.

These sales are massive and when I say massive I mean millions of dollars worth of kids cloths, toys, equipment, furniture and room decor. I stopped having yard sales and now save all my kids gear to consign at these two sales. Find out what goodies I scored after the break!

I worked for several months gathering my kid's cloths, washing, tagging, and hanging them for the sale. By the time I was done, I had over 350 tags listed and ready to go. We won't get into why they have so many cloths in this post.

I commissioned hubby to tag along as a second set of hands and I put him on a mission to find specific items. One being a coat for our daughter Abby. He scored This beautiful burnt orange pea coat brand new and still had the tags on it from Gymboree marked at retail for $50. Our price, $10!

Next, was a set of train tracks that came in a large plastic bag. With toys, you must be careful. This particular sale requires that all toys have batteries in them to show they work. But with toys that don't have batteries like these train tracks, you take a gamble on hoping all the pieces are there. The kids were so eager to tear them out of the bag this morning and fit them together! It appears at first glance though we have some missing pieces but non the less a nice set for only $5.

Last but certainly not lease, is a beautiful set of flash cards printed on very heavy cardboard, something i can appreciate. They are in mint condition. What a find! The illustrations are just lovely and I find joy in them just as much as the kids do. The Bo has a retail value of $14.95. Our price, $3.00!

Of course this was not all of the goodies we found. I managed to find a ton of jeans and PJ's at awesome prices. So I encourage all you momma's to hit the Google pavement and search for local kids consignment sales in your area!