Another day, another Minted design...

Hi all! Still working on the Minted Holiday Challenge. Note the new button in the side bar. Would love to hear comments if you have them. I'll post a big reminder when the voting begins and you guys can help me kick some butt :)

Happy Wednesday!

Christmas in May

Time for the 2010 Minted.com Holiday Challenge!! My first design is up on their site for submission. What do you think? Would you send this to your friends & family?

You can tell me and the other contributors what you think of their work. Just head over to Minted.com & comment (or do it here!). The submission deadline isn't for a few weeks, but posting the designs early is a great opportunity for designers to receive feedback, not just from each other, but from potential customers. We can then tweak the designs before the judging begins. It is much appreciated if anyone has a moment to cruise over there.

A fun bonus feature Minted.com is providing designers is the handy badge in the right column of the blog. Click there & it takes you straight to my design :) Finally!! So easy! Love those Minted peeps!

A note about yesteryday...I'm learning a lot doing these challenges. Some of you may have noticed a post I put up yesterday, promoting this challenge, but took down. Sadly, I had to majorly edit my design. It was brought to my attention how close it was to another design, submitted before mine & by an experienced contributor. It's not against the rules to have similar designs, but I felt the professional thing to do was revise my submission. It's not like I don't have more ideas :) So, I took it as an opportunity and hear we are talking about a new design!

A guestbook you can sit on...

I had the divine pleasure of attending my cousin Kate's wedding, this past weekend, at a girls camp in upstate New York. It was a beautiful weekend, full of family reunions, an open bar & Irish line dancing. I'm not kidding. Super fun! It looked something like this. But I digress. What really applies to this blog is...

Gone are the days when guests showed up at a wedding & wrote their name in a book to show they'd attended a wedding ceremony. I give you a new surface...Kate's guest book consisted of 2 Adirondack Chairs & a couple of pens.



That's right folks! Guests of the wedding were asked to write messages to the couple on a set of Adirondack chairs with paint pens. And they did...all over the chairs. As you may imagine, the arms of the chairs were taken first. Luckily, this is a creative crowd.







The next day, the groom (Welcome to the family, Matt!) covered them in a Krylon Clear Coat to seal them. They dry in about 10 minutes, but Matt suggested waiting an hour to move them. As you can see, guests really had fun with their messages & it will be something Kate & Matt can enjoy for years to come.

Congratulations Katie & Matt! It was a wonderful weekend!

If anyone has other fun ideas for a "guestbook" leave them in the comments section or email me & I'll share the best ones!

Hello, Dottie!

Hi all! Just up on my Etsy shop, this new take on correspondence cards. Everyone say "hello" to the Dottie Monogrammed Correspondence Card Set.

Instead of the traditional 4x6-ish card, I've added a few extra inches to the dimensions. The result is a fun, long flat card with plenty of room for jotting off a note, personalized with the initial of your choice in the color of your choice.

Great for gifts!! A set of 10 will only set you back $15.00.

What do you think? Click here to see the full listing on Esty!