Oldies But Goodies Reminder!

Tomorrow, Friday, is the day I draw our first winner in the Oldies But Goodies Giveaway. I am super pumped! How about you?  I have some extra goodies to put in the prize packs like:

Some fun applique cards! This is a heart stamped on cardstock that's adhered to the card with a piece of adhesive tape. 3D! 

This holiday card makes me so happy! I hope it will put a smile on the face of our first winner on Friday.

Did you enter?? You know, you can't be a winner if you don't enter.

To do that, head over to the KBDS Facebook page & look for the Giveaway tab. There are only 2 required hoops to jump through to enter. Tweet about the giveaway & Like K. Batty on Facebook.

Now! How to do that...there is a Tweet button in the widget. Click that. I have a pre-written tweet that you can send out. Then, after you send the tweet, click on the time stamp under your tweet. That takes you to a new screen that has a special URL at the top. Copy & paste that URL into the Rafflecopter widget. Easy peasy!

Looking forward to crowning the first winner!!

Playing!

{Sweet Sophia!}

{Spider Mum leftover from a photoshoot. So dramatic!}

A friend of mine lent me a 50mm lens for my camera. I've used to to photograph the St. Patrick's Day banner, the cards for the Oldie-but-Goodie Giveaway...and a few other things around the house.

April Birthdays, Listen Up!

I'm on a mission to send birthday greetings to my readers this year. We need more actual handwritten cards & less Facebook posts people! Life happens offline too, you know.

Interested in getting something in the mail besides junk & bills? Great? There is a nifty Google form to collect your information. Find it here. As I said before, I promise this information collection is ONLY for the purposes of sending you a card, not for anything else, including my own mailing list. (Though you can sign up for that here if you're so inclined...insert toothy grin).

If you have a birthday in April, this is the last week to get your name in for my next mailing. May & June birthdays, don't lollygag! Your month will be here before you know it!

{photo by starfire on Flickr}

Cleaning out my cards = a KBDS Giveaway

As I have said a few times this Spring, I have been re-vamping some products, creating new ones & giving the axe to some old ones who no longer cut the mustard. That last bit means good things for you, dear reader.

I'm going to give you my oldies-but-goodies! Enter the Oldies But Goodies Giveaway!

Looking for a home in your stationery stash are:

Large Flo Greeting cards in blue or orange (making room for my new flourish stamp)

Smooches, digitally printed (making room for the same design on the letterpress!)

You're Cool, digitally printed (another design going to the press!)

Hi, Yo, Sup & Thx applique cards in pink. I'm continuing these in other colors.

Simple Elegant Thank You - I LOVE this design, but it's the only card I offer that's 4Bar (read: smaller than my others). Look for this card in my Etsy shop later this year, all grown up like it's brothers & sisters to my standard size (4.25" x 5.5").

There are a few more I may add to the offerings and I have a few other randoms I'll throw in for the winners. Here's how to get involved:

Check out the Giveaway section on my Facebook page to access the Rafflecopter widget.

Do the 4 required steps. Come back each day to tweet about the giveaway for more chances to win.

There will be winners each week for 4 weeks, chosen on Fridays. Winners will be notified via email. You have 48 hours to respond otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Once winners are confirmed, I'll announce their name on Facebook.

What you win: 5 cards - a mixture of the cards described above. If you have requests, I'll try my best to fill those until inventory is scarce.

I'm so excited to give these cards a new home & help build your supply of cards. Once you have them, I bet you'll be surprised how much you use them. As I have said before, having cards around is an excellent way to be good (or at least better) at sending greeting cards.

So, again ----> Go to my Facebook page to enter. Good luck!

Coffee Mug Magic :: Fall 2013 to Spring 2014

It's not just all NSS talk around the Batty house. I have been filling Etsy orders, taking custom client projects & drawing on my coffee in the morning. See:

From September, for our anniversary:

In honor of our beloved NY Rangers:

Clearly, the below mugs were done for Christmas. I love these so much I want to make them into something else...a stamp, a card...something...

Because it's so freakin' cold out, I drew a hat & mittens to keep our coffee warm. I am making the hat into a stamp. I love it for wrapping paper!

I took this one somewhere in between all of the above. No idea when, but clearly I was having a bit of nervousness that morning:

And from last week, the day of my photoshoot with Alyssa Kirsten, I drew a camera on my mug.

As I've said before - you can do this! I have a set of dry erase markers that I keep in the kitchen for this purpose. Just make sure that you remove ALL traces of the markers before you put the mugs in the dishwasher. Otherwise, your design will be permanent.

Until next time...

Irish Freebie :: St Patrick's Day Banner

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! Download my free banner and grab a pint of Guinness to get yourself in the mood!

It's easy to put together. You need string or ribbon, computer paper to print on, scissors & your choice of glue. I tried double-sided tape & a glue stick. The glue stick was the best choice.

Print the below sheet as many times as you need to get the length banner you'd like. One sheet makes about a 2 - 3 ft banner (depending on spacing of your pieces).

Cut out the pieces. Fold them in half so that the long points meet. Place them around your string & glue the insides together. See! Easy peasy.

I'm trying out a new-to-me site called Issuu for this freebie. Use the widget below to access the banner pdf. Send photos of your banner! I'd love to see!

If this isn't your speed, no worries. There are loads of great ideas for St. Patrick's Day on the Blogosphere. Here are a few of my favorites:

FREE Bracelets on the 30 Days Blog

Ombre Shamrock tshirt from The Country Chic Cottage
Boozy Irish Car Bomb Trifle from Two in the Kitchen
5 Ways to Wear Green on St. Patrick's Day on The House that Lars Built

Slainte!! (prounounced Slan-sha)

Paper Porn

{Just Because Card - I Miss You Card - Just Because I Felt Like It by JulieAnnArt}

The best reason to send cards...just because.

See more Paper Porn on Pinterest...

** Love stationery & paper products? Follow my Paper Porn board on Pinterest or submit something you like to: Kbatty {at} ymail.com or tweet @kmbatty **

NSS Freak out

Sooooo…I have about 2 months until the National Stationery Show. Yeah…

Trying not to freak out. I've been filling orders from Etsy & custom items from clients, plus I have other work responsibilities for my husband's business & a family venture I'm working on. It's not like life isn't already full of exciting things to do. I say that because I've been trying to stay very calm & work at my to-do list for NSS…and life…steadily.

And now I feel like I need to go into a room, lock myself in & stay in there until I check off several things on my NSS to-do list.

Most of this panic comes from the fact that I started working on my catalog last week. Woah. I forgot how long stuff like this (multi-page booklets to be specific) takes to set up. I'm feeling a little panic about it. The good news is that I've started, I'm making progress & I know that's the hardest part. I just needed to get started.

On the other hand I can relax on 2 things. First, I found someone to work on my website. Check! It will just be an informational site with links to my Etsy retail & wholesale shops. Oh…and! My blog will probably be moving. More on that later…But! It's done. Now I can hold my head high that I will have a killer looking online presence.  Everyone, welcome Emily Thompson of IndieShopography to the team. (applause!!!)

Also! To go with my killer web designer, I booked a killer product photographer. This was really tough for me to do. I'm not a bad photographer & I really enjoy shooting. But I need 2 things - first, for someone else to spend their time taking & retouching my photos & for those photos to be up an notch in quality from what I feel like I can take in my home. Plus, I'm feeling short on time & long on tasks to complete. Enter Alyssa Kirsten who's enthusiasm for the lifestyle-esque shots we're going to be taking is crazy infectious. I couldn't be happier to work with her!!

One more thing - I have some new stamp designs. They've been ordered, are on their way & when the arrive I will make cards so you can properly feast your eyes on the new stuff.

Just trying to check things off the list...That's the news to now!