iPad Mini Giveaway!!

Hey all!!! Just want to share with you all, this stellar giveaway going on at KaelahBee.com!! Miss. Kaelah is giving away an iPad Mini!!!!!!! Holy Heck!! I can't even believe this!! It way too cool!! 

I've been wanting an iPad since the iPad first came out, but being a full-time college student and first time business owner with a growing Etsy Shop, my funds have had to go to more practical places... like bills and tuition -__-  But this giveaway has brighten my hopes of actually being able to own one! This would be an amazing asset to my life, and more so to my growing biz! I'd be able to bring it with my every where I go, so I could answer any questions any potential customer may have more promptly, as well as edit/update my Etsy Shop!! 

If you all want to check out the giveaway, and even enter for yourself, than be sure to visit Kaelahbee's blog for all the rules!!

Have super fun Sunday all!!

xxoo

Playing Catch Up...

The last time I posted on here, it was just around Halloween and I had left off with a video tutorial for you all. Now that more than a month has pasted, a lot has happened. Besides Hurricane Sandy and the Nor'easter we had a week after, October was full of new orders to fill and ship out, which thanks to Sandy made it nearly impossible to do. All of my orders were delayed for over a week! I still feel so bad that my customers had to wait extra long for their orders, but thankfully they were all so understanding and extremely patient! [Thanks again to everyone who stuck with PLS during Sandy!] October was a very successful month for my little shop, and I am very happy to have meet the customers I did that month! In the little spare time that I managed to find, I was able to craft some handmade halloween cards for my family. Each one was different and unique to the families members that were going to be receiving them. I am really happy with all of the designs I came up with, but even more so, I was soo happy my family loved them as much as I love making them!

Then came November. The end of fall. The beginning of the Holiday Season... & Turkey Day. Nothing to exciting occurred in November, but I was able to take a mini-trip to Virginia with my family for Thanksgiving. We left The night before Thanksgiving after I got out of work, and made it to my Aunt's house at around 1:30 in the morning. I was soo tired by the time we got there that I just went straight to bed. The next morning was Thanksgiving. Not my most favorite holiday, well to be honest, I hate Thanksgiving because the food selection is pretty much everything I hate, expect for mashed potatoes and my mom's pumpkin pie! I brought with me, a Tofurky, because I don't eat meat. It's my Thanksgiving tradition for the past 3 years, which is how long I haven't had meat. So basically Thanksgiving went something like this: 

9am: I woke up and got dressed.

9am-11am: assembled a lots of items that I was already behind on submitting to a lovely blogger, and took photos out side because it was soo lovely outside.

11am-12noon: Ate breakfast & kind of watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

12noon-1pm: Played some pool, and kick my little brother's butt... 3 times! [I'm just that good lol]

1pm-2pm: Cooked my Tofurky...

2pm-5pm: Ate our lovely Thanksgiving meal with my whole family, which was very nice

5pm-5:30pm: Chatted with my Aunt's friend's mom about some business stuff

5:30pm-7:00pm: Ate desert, which included lots of pumpkin pie in my belly

7pm-til I went to sleep: Played pool against my brother (again), my Dad, and my other brother on and off.

So my day wasn't too exciting, but it was definitely fun to just hang around with my family in a different environment for a couple of days. We ended up leaving the next day around 5:00pm, because we had lots of activites to attend to over the weekend here in New Jersey. But we made it home in less than 4 hours and my Grandma drove back up with us to spend Christmas here. Yayy!!

Now here we are in December (!?!?) Did I just say that? Seriously, though I can not believe it's already December! Hey 2012, where'd you go!?!? I'm hoping to build up my shop inventory this month and just focusing on making my shop one big, cohesive brand that I will be proud to share with others. I wanted December to be filled with orders for all my Holiday Note Cards, but with the Holidays coming up, I'm hoping it will be a little slow in the shop, so I can spend as much of my free time with my family & friends as possible!

What did you all do for your Thanksgiving? Do you have any fun/exciting plans for Christmas/New Year's? Let me know what you Holiday traditions are; I love creating new ones with my family!

Have a happy Monday night, all!!

xxoo

Something about the South + a New Design...

I was contacted recently by a return customer of my Etsy Shop, who was inquiring about a custom order for 'House Party' cards. Yes, that's right House Party. Now, if your mind works like mine did when I initially read my customer's request, then your probably thinking of an actual house par-tay... loud music, too many people and not enough beer. But guess what, we're wrong. This type of 'House Party' couldn't be any more opposite from what I was envisioning. 

It turns out, that in the South, a House Party is what, I interpret, as a second-string Bridal Party, but in the best way possible. You see, your House Party traditionally consists of all the lovely ladies in your life, whom for one reason or another, are not able to be apart of your Bridal Party. [Side Note, I totes wish my sister-in-law had a House Party, because I would have been the first to join that, instead of the Bridal Party, & I say this in the nicest way possible.] I didn't want to seem uneducated, for lack of a better word, to my customer, so I asked Google for a hand in helping me find out what exactly a House Party was. I came across We Love Weddings, The Blog and they provided me with the most simplest explanation to this mysterious concept. The post I read can be found Here. It was very helpful to me, being that I have never heard of a House Party for a wedding before. The South has such beautiful traditions, and I'm learning the best are usually kept secret. Seriously, I love the idea of a house party, and I'm a bit upset that we don't have these up North, and uber jealous of the South for their heartfelt traditions. House Parties are great for the ladies in your life, who maybe can't afford[Read: don't want] to buy that hideous gorgeous Bridesmaid dress, or maybe for the ladies who are full-time career women and/or mommas, and just can't devote that much time to their lovely bride. Whatever the reason maybe, I would totally prefer being in a House Party than a Bridal Party.

So after I did my homework, I began conversing with my client to obtain her vision for these House Party cards. After many edits and re-edits, I finally came up with what she had envisioned. Below, is an image of the House Party cards she has decided on to ask her best ladies to share in her very special day. 

The chevron pattern she chose, is the same as the Engagement Party Invitations she purchased back in August. Chevron is my all time favorite pattern! You will see chevron patterns worked into a lot of my designs, because, well, I love it, and secondly, because I find it to be so versatile. You can customized it to any color combination your little heart desires, and you can change up the actual pattern, making it thinner, taller, horizontal, vertical, etc...

I really enjoyed creating these with this customer, as she is such a doll to work with, and also because, it was something new that I've never done before, in the sense of a House Party card, which we now all know the actual meaning of. 

If you'd like to see more of my Custom Designed Paper Goods, be sure to visit my Etsy Shop: Paper Love Stationery

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Hope you all have a stellar evening! And be sure to share some of your regions wedding traditions and superstitions; I'd love to hear about them!

Let's start off with an introduction...

Many of you may not know the story behind my little Etsy shop, Paper Love Stationery, so I decided I would take time today to tell you a little bit about it, and I guess a little bit about me as well!

You can read the condensed version of my Shop's story Here, or you can continued to read the adventure-in-the-making after the jump!

College student + aspiring graphic designer, who opened this shop to share her Modern Paper Goods that she designs, assembles, prints & ships from her {tiny} home studio in New Jersey.

That is pretty much the most condensed version of my Shop's story. It's nothing too crazy, but it's my own story and that alone makes me soo happy that I finally found the courage to pursue something I truly love, even if it's still a work in progress.

Ever since I was little, I had a quiet love for art and creating pretty things. I say 'quiet' because I never really expressed my creativity to anyone because I was always afraid of people, mostly my family, not approving of me. My family places school very high on our list of priorities, and although I do value school, the standard 9-5 is not my dream. I want a job that leads to a more creative path, where I'll be able to use my creativity every day. What's better than working everyday doing exactly what you love to do? As I said, I always had a love for creating pretty things, but I never gravitated to one specific interest... until I discovered my love for graphic design and paper goods. I opened this shop in May of 2012 to share the items I create with others in hopes that they love them as much as I loved making them. I started 'paper crafting' in November of last year, making my family handmade cards and ornaments as gifts. My love for crafting grew so much after that, and so I began to design note cards and stationery, which inevitably lead to designing invitations!

My shop is going to be 5 months old tomorrow [October 9th!]. I've had some pretty great success so far, that I never thought would happen so quickly. 

            My Ombre Chevron Thank You Cards 

             were featured in a Treasury List on Etsy!! 

I made my first sale in August, just 3 months after I opened my shop, and from there they just kept coming! Which makes me so, so, so happy that others love my items so much they are willing to purchase them! Every customer I've had the opportunity to work with so far has been absolutely fantastic; such lovely people, who were absolute joys to work with. 

Such lovely feedback from 
one of my first customers!

I believe I owe a lot to Meredith of One Sheepish Knit, for my first Etsy Sales. I reached out to her in May or June, when my shop was brand new, in the hopes that she might be willing to accept some of my cards as a gift for graduating college {Congrats again, lady!!} and much to my delight, she did!! I sent her a mixed set of my 'Keep Calm and Carry Yarn' Cards, being that she is a badass knitter! Upon receiving them, Meredith emailed me with the best email I've ever received! She wanted to offer my 'Keep Calm and Carry Yarn' Cards in a giveaway on her blog! I was beyond flattered/shocked/excited/nervous!!! I quickly accepted and from that gained many followers/supporters of my shop + it was great opportunity for my to promote my Shop! She really is an awesome gal, who helped my shop out a lot, and I don't even think she realizes that!


[To Meredith: Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the truly amazing opportunity you gave to me!!! I hope to work with you again in the future!]

Thanks to my first sales, I've gained a lot of confidence in my little shop and the items I've been creating, which I questioned in the beginning because I'm actually self taught at the moment.. All my items are created by me from the idea in my mind to the finished product that arrives at your door. I design, print, assemble and ship each product from my {tiny} home studio in New Jersey. There's a lot of love and care that goes into designing each item! My most favorite part of the whole creation process, has been creating my 'brand.' I'm having a lot of fun choosing colors and patterns that I want people to identify my shop with. 

My current packaging/branding for my Shop! 

I'm really loving coral lately, so it's kind of the main color theme.

Of course the most fun part of running my shop, as side from the truly amazing people I've encountered so far, is designing items for my Shop. My inspiration for my designs comes from things that I love, be it colors, patterns, places or objects.. even phrases inspire my designs. I really love color & whimsy & all things modern, which you will see reflected in all of my designs. I'm beginning to prepare for the Holiday Season, with lots of modern note card gift sets, which are the perfect little gift for the Holidays! 

Well, that's all I have for now; hopefully there will be more stories and successes to share with you all! Thanks for taking the time to read more about my shop! 

I really do love hearing from you all, so if you have a feedback or questions, regarding me, my shop, a product, or anything at all, let me know:

comment below

tweet me: @PaperLoveStnery

comment on Fb: facebook.com/PaperLoveStationery

shoot me a quick email to: hello@paper-love-stationery.com

xxoo

Ardiana

Owner/Designer of PAPER LOVE STATIONERY

Paper Love Stationery has a BLOG!!

Hi all!!

PLS finally has a blog, where I'll be able to connect more with all of you! On this blog, I'll be posting some DIYs/Inspirations, projects that I'm working on and all the other little things that happen from day to day. 

I hope you all come back and visit again real soon! & until my next post, you can visit my etsy shop, Paper Love Stationery, tweet me on twitter, and Like PLS on facebook!!

Hope you all have a stellar Saturday day night!

xxoo

Ardiana

PAPER LOVE STATIONERY: New Shop Name!

I'm BACK!! These past few months have been crazy busy between work and my Etsy Shop. I just got my first big order for my Shop too! I'm super excited about it. You can check out the invitation I'm working on and all the other paper goods I have up for grabs on my Shop, PAPER LOVE STATIONERY.

Okay, so it's raining and ugly here in Jersey and I have a four day weekend a head of me. I'm going to watch Sex and the City and work on some more designs.

Have a great weekend all!

xxoo