I'm a dork, but at least I'm having fun!

Lately I've been very taken with the idea of personalized stationery. It's a romantic notion, I know, probably linked to all of the Jane Austen I've been watching and reading. People used to leave a card, like a business card, at people's houses when they stopped by. It was a way to make sure their friends knew they'd been visited even if they never saw each other. It could also be linked to the desire I have to have a written correspondence with someone. Through reading histories and biographies I've come to realize that most of what we know about people is through their letters and diaries. Although I doubt anyone will be publishing a biography ofme in the future, I like the idea of leaving a record for someone else to find. In doing this, I think it would be cool and kind of luxurious to have cards and paper that are unique to me. I shopped the Internet and found that such luxuries don't come cheap. At Paper Source they will print a set of 50 A2 folded cards (the ones that are the size of 1/2 an 81/2 x 11 sheet of paper) with plain envelopes for only $435.00. No, that is not a typo--fifty cards for four hundred and thirty five dollars. That's $8.70 per card! I've been known to spend money on stupid things like that before, but not that much money. Really, who does that? I also realized it would take me forever to get through 50 cards and I know by about the 5th or 6th card I'd be sick of them anyway. So, I started to think about making my own stationery. I bought the envelope and envelope liner templates from Paper Source because they have the cutest envelopes. But after that I began the fat and lazy phase of my pregnancy, so the desire to go any further than buying something on the Internet fizzled.

Then I read the June issue of Domino magazine. They spotlighted two stationery design companies. The first, Lovely Design, didn't offer personalized products. (I've linked them here because they have some really cool stuff to drool over!) The second, Paper+Cup, had personalized stationery at much more reasonable pricing--only $2.60 per card. Beside the fact that if I spend that kind of money on anything it's going to be on my house, I still wanted to try my hand and making my own cards! So, inspired, I decided to sit down during Kaitlin's nap today and give designing stationery a try. It's been a really fun project to work on. I'm pretty happy with the results of my first tries. I made thank you notes for Alexander, and plain notes for Kaitlin and me. Coincidentally, this has worked well into my other recent obsession with learning how to do digital scrapbooking. It's helped me learn my way around Adobe Photoshop Elements a little more--I actually taught myself how to install and use brushes (not hard and way cool!), and practiced working with layers. Anyway, here are the results. The cards are simple, but that's the trend these days, right? They do make me wonder why I ever spent so much time trying to come up with cute handstamped cards. Such a drudgery compared to Photoshopping a card! The other benefit is that mass production is no longer an issue. If I need 1 card or 10 cards I simply open the saved file and press print. Also it's very easy to change the design or color scheme. I love it! So low maintenance. Maybe I'll make birth announcements this way too!