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Monday, March 24, 2014

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}

Friday, March 21, 2014

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!


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

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...


Sunday, March 16, 2014

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)

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Paper Porn



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 **

Friday, March 7, 2014

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!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Letters Of Note Book



Congrats to one of my favorite blogs, Letters of Note, on the up-coming US publication of their book - Letters of Note. What a great blog! Each post is a letter or note from the past. The writers can be anyone - from a Elizabeth Taylor to quintuplets to a Samuel Clemens to name a few recent posts. The letters are about love, success, failure, hellos, goodbyes - in a word, life.

This is from the book site:

Letters of Note is a collection of 125 of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters. 
From Virginia Woolf's heart-breaking suicide letter, to Queen Elizabeth II's recipe for drop scones sent to President Eisenhower; from the first recorded use of the expression 'OMG' in a letter to Winston Churchill, to Gandhi's appeal for calm to Hitler; and from Iggy Pop's beautiful letter of advice to a troubled young fan, to Leonardo da Vinci's remarkable job application letter,Letters of Note is a celebration of the power of written correspondence which captures the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up all of our lives.

The UK edition is out now. The US edition, published by Chronicle Books, is available May 6th. More info on Letters Of Note.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Doilies for Kristina




One of my lovely brides emailed over photos of her doilies in action! I love the table & the color palette.

Photo by the totally amazing Lauren Fair Photography.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

How to Write a Love Letter

{My new love cards! See them on Etsy}

ALERT! ALERT!! Valentine's Day is in 2 days. TWO DAYS!!!!

Need a last minute idea for your sweetie? Look no further than a pen. Write them a love letter.

Now, I've talked about this before. I bring it up each year around this time. Why? Because around Valentine's Day, when everything you see is full of pre-written expressions of love & friendship, you could be giving your love muffin the most sincere expression of all…something original, straight from you.

Check out this article on Hallmark.com for simple, non-intimidating instructions on how to put your words to paper. Also, I've always like this article on the Art of Manliness. And you can of course refer to my previous posts on the topic - How do I love thee & Love Letter 2.0.

Happy Writing!

Monday, February 3, 2014

NSS :: Time to prep




In October, I announced my participation in the 2014 National Stationery Show. Hadn't said much about it since then. There hasn't been much to talk about to be honest. I've had a lot to think about & not much to act on. There is a lot of planning & sketching to do before I create anything…and the time for making my plans into actions is approaching.

There are certain things I've never done before - like design a tradeshow booth or create my catalog, so I've been pretty obsessed with those things. Add in an order form & a line sheet. I just feel more comfortable knocking out the things I've never done before. I've been developing products for years. I know how to do that! So I waited to start on any new products until now…the beginning of 2014.

The next few months I'm taking my letterpress ideas & executing them. (See the first three here) Plus! I think there are some things that I offer currently that I will not be taking to the show. I need to weed out what I know I can make on a wholesale level & the things I might not want to take to that level. 

That means more letterpress posts to come! I'm excited to get Victor up & running again. He had some printing issues in the Spring. Hopefully I figured it out…
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