Giving Back: Project Angel Food's Divine Design

In an effort to give back, Kelp Designs has donated 1000 packs of folded note cards to Project Angel Food's 'Divine Design' sample sale, taking place in Los Angeles this weekend (Dec 3 - 7). 100% of proceeds from the sale directly benefit Project Angel Food's mission to feed men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

We're excited to be a part of such a special event and in the company of such amazing designers (you can find us under 'Mini Boutique', between Kate Spade and Kenneth Cole!) . If you're in LA, I encourage you to stop by Beverly Hills. Amazing deals and a great cause.

Lisa Rupp 2010 Calendar Give-away

You may remember Lisa Rupp and her adorable free downloadable wall calendars. Well, she's at it again! Lisa has posted a give-away on her blog, for a 2010 wall calendar (also available for purchase in her etsy store). Love the circus train wall calendar -- would be a great addition to our nursery!

Head over to her blog and leave a comment to enter the give-away!

P.S. her November '09 calendar is also available for download -- click here.

Psst... we're over on The Social Life of Paper today (with a giveaway!)

Big thanks to PJ at The Social Life of Paper for featuring us on her lovely blog today. We're doing a give-away for all of her readers (and ours) -- free set of note cards from my shop (winner's choice on style). Head on over to read the interview and post a comment to enter the give-away!

and the thank you notes go to...

And, the winner of our folded thank you note give-away is K.Tsai (comment number 4). Congrats, Kim! Keep an eye on your mailbox, a pack of blue color block thank yous are on the way :)

Thanks everyone for entering!

Give-away: Folded Thank You Notes

So... I realized I failed to tell you about some of the new designs that we launched at the National Stationery Show! In addition to our flat notes, we now have a variety of folded notes -- thank yous, happy birthday, congratulations, howdy.... lots of options, yay!

Below are some of the 'thank yous' that are available online through our etsy store as well as at the following retailers: Arts & Letters (Santa Monica, CA) and O' So Inviting (Yardley, PA).

To enter the give-away contest, leave a comment telling us which of the four designs below is your favorite and why. The contest is open until 11:59pm PT on Sunday, October 11th. One winner will be picked by random.org and announced on Monday, October 12th. Winner will receive a free pack of their favorite thank you notes! Good luck!

DIY: Custom Wrapped Soap

When I stumbled upon the freebie placecards from Creature Comforts, I also discovered that she has a pretty extensive archive of DIY projects. This one was actually written a couple of years ago for mother's day, but as she states, there are many uses for dressed-up soap bars. I'm thinking about including a few in a gift basket for a friend. What will you use them for?

Check out the step by step instructions here.

Pantone's Spring 2010 Fashion Color Report

Last month, Pantone released their Spring 2010 fashion color report in conjunction with New York's fashion week. Not only is the report chalked full of fun, sunny colors that we can all look forward to this spring, but it also provides some interesting insight as to how designers and retailers are responding to consumer consciousness in a down economy.

Interesting read and beautiful colors. Can't wait to start playing with some of these new shades in new designs!

Featured on Perideau Designs's Blog Today!

I was lucky enough to meet my twitter pal and fellow stationery designer, Bridgett of Perideau Designs in person at the National Stationery Show this May and she asked me if I'd be willing to recap my experience as a first time NSS exhibitor. Head to her blog to read the interview!

Etsy Round-up: Sketch Books

I've always got a notebook of some sort in my bag becuase you never know when you'll need to jot something down. Check out these fun sketchbooks on etsy:

Overgrowth sketchbook by slidesideways

Pocket Notebook - Three Pack from theblackapple

Cahier Journal - Green Apples from RagnazIdnar

Colors: PMS / Paper Source / Waste Not Paper

When I was prepping for my wedding last year, I was a frequent visitor of my local Paper Source stores (the retail side of Waste Not Paper) to check out paper options and colors for my invitations. The variety and paper quality at WNP/Paper Source is hard to beat; and the color pallete of their solid papers is stunning.

I use their paper and envelopes for all Kelp Design creations, and wanted to share a list of Pantone colors that coordinate with the Paper Source palette. This list was compiled through a variety of sources including an email from our friends at Paper Source. It should also be noted that WNP/Paper Source papers do not have an exact PMS matches since their colors are custom, not digitally produced, but these are suggested numbers for their PS collection.

Chartreuse: 610U or 611U
Chocolate: 476U
Curry: 7405U
Grape: 273U
Lake: 7459U or 7468U,
Moss: 582U
Night: 289U
Papaya: 171U
Plum: 523U
Poppy: 150U
Pool: 7464U,
Red: 200U
Strawberry: 191U
Violet: 270U


Hope this helps, and if you have other colors to add to the list, let me know!

Calling-Cards featured in Etsy Treasury

Big thanks to primsbyandrea for including our Green Retro calling cards in her treasury today! Check it out here.

NSS: RiverDog Prints Mentioned Us in her NSS coverage!

We're over here today... RiverDog Prints included us in her national stationery show recap! She was super sweet and so encouraging. She's gearing up to exhibit at nss next year and I hope to see her there!

NSS Day 1: Twitter-tastic!

Day 1 at the National Stationery Show was all about the twitter connections! On top of meeting a number of amazing retailers, I had a fabulous time meeting my fellow stationery twitter pals including @crowandcanary, @pjinomaha, @substudio (booth #1933), @RiverDogPrints, @tiselle (booth #2063) and @perideaudesigns.

Also, @crowandcanary and @owensays have put together a handy directory of NSS exhibitors that are on twitter -- you can check it out here.

p.s. we have some great nss neighbors -- a few veterans and a bunch of newbies like us, first time exhibiting and several brand new companies with different styles and products. Love the energy!

NSS Set-Up: Booth #2070, Take 2

Sadly, our original booth design/shelving was unable to be used at the last minute. However, one cab ride to Ikea later we had a back-up plan in place and I'm really happy with the way the booth turned out:

We've had a lot of comments from visitors about how the exhibit space has clean lines and a 'zen' feeling that mirrors our cards! The metal shelving had its advantages too -- we were able to showcase the promo magnets that I handed out. And, they've been so popular that I think we're going to package them to sell as gifts with the cards.

oh my!

Almost a month? Shame on me for not posting sooner. Was tied up with National Stationery Show prep.... and am excited to say that the show is finally here! Me and the hubby hopped a red eye from LA to NYC last night and headed straight to Javitz this morning to begin set up. With the added help of my lovely mom & sister we're just about done. I promise to post pictures of our set up soon and of course nss coverage of our friends and neighbors. Wish us luck!

Freebie: Placecards or Treat Toppers from Creature Comforts

Ez over at Creature Comforts shared a new freebie yesterday -- printable seating cards and/or treat bag toppers. Each sheet contains six cards, three in each design. Visit her blog to download the .pdf and gather other ideas for these tags!


[image from creature comforts]

Etsy Round-up: Wedding Invites

Love the colors on these.... what fun wedding invites!









Top to Bottom:
Blossom 2, Letterpress by DingbatPress
All Laced Up by decadentdesigns
Patchwork Wedding Invitation by PostInvitations
Invite No. 12 by upup

New Stuff: Calling-cards

I got a little calling card-happy while working on the new branding and business cards for kelp designs (more about that later...). While my new cards are the standard size (2x3.5), I had a ton of fun designing these 2x2 mini cards for my etsy shop. The four styles below were listed last night. Would love to hear what you think. Are you a fan of the regular sized cards (2x3.5) or the mini's?

National Stationery Show : The Booth

I spent last weekend in the windy city visiting my architect-to-be sister and working on my exhibit booth for the National Stationery Show. I probably don't tell her this often enough, but she has some serious talent and I'm so excited about what she's put together for Kelp Designs' exhibit booth.

While I don't want to reveal too much until the show, I will say that the booth encompasses all that I want my little company and products to be -- environmentally-friendly, streamlined, yet interesting and unique. I promise to post pictures from the show so you can see the booth in all it's glory. Until then.... lets just say, everything in the booth was chosen because of its 'green' factor and it is highly unlikely that you'll see anything else like it at the show. I can't wait :)

Featured on L7Designs Today!

Big thanks to Carrie at L7Designs for featuring Kelp Designs in her Etsy Spotlight of the week! Go check it out...

DIY: Gift Bags

Jessica Jones over at How about Orange came up with a very creative way to transform envelopes into gift bags. Her step-by-step tutorial can be found here.

This is brilliant! I love that you can run the envelopes through the printer to customize them, before converting to bags. Jessica provides some free templates for the A2 and 6x9 envelopes with the tutorial, or you can make your own.

Freebie: Mini File Folders from WhiskerGraphics

Earlier this month, WhiskerGraphics offered up a free .pdf template for mini file folders that are very cute, and surprisingly useful. See what other folks are using them for here and here.

For more downloadable mini file folders in other styles, check out WhiskerGraphics etsy store.

I'm planning to use them to help sort my photos and also my ideas for the national stationery show. What will you use them for?

Owen Says Blogging about NSS and including me!

Jennifer Erts over at Owen Says compiled a list of tweets about the National Stationery Show and included one of my tweets! It is interesting to see where everyone is in the planning process, thinking about shipping options, booth give-aways (me!), booth designs (me, next weekend!) and pr/marketing opps. There's a hash tag for the show if you're interested in listening in or joining the conversation -- #nss. And, thanks Jennifer for including me! Follow her @owensays.

Etsy Round-up: Gift Tags

Spent the evening admiring these lovely gift tags on etsy:

Personalized Giraffe Favor Tags by Perideau Designs

Traveling Soul Tags by IamBlessed


Spring Tags by jellybeans



Little Red Riding Hood Tags by CrowandIris

Little Bird Tags by deejann

Reminder: Postage Hike

Attention Brides! Just a friendly reminder that postage rates are scheduled to go up on May 11th from $.42 to $.44 for one ounce. New stamps won't be on sale until May 11th, which leaves a tricky situation for those ever so important RSVP/reply cards.

USPS has a variety of options, but your best bet may be the forever stamp. It costs $.42, and will always be valid for first-class mail regardless of future postage hikes.

The increase is affecting other postage rates too, please visit USPS for more information.

DIY: Wine Labels in Illustrator

I stumbled across this great wine bottle design tutorial on worldlabels.com over the weekend, and it had my mind swirling with ideas:

- Wedding favors or at the bar

- Table numbers for dinner parties

- Corporate events

- Wine tasting party

- Hostess gifts

- Girls night-in

- Birthday or holiday gifts

The tutorial is easy to follow, providing step-by-step instructions and resources to get the project started. For color palette ideas, don't forget about ColourLovers. And, istockphoto.com has tons of options for background designs and patterns.

How have you used custom wine labels?

Biz Talk: Twitter Benefits

Earlier this week, one of my LinkedIn groups had an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of twittering for businesses. Andrew Ballenthin culled through the 120+ comments and compiled a list of the top themes, which I've included below and are available on his blog. While a lot of companies are struggling to understand what twitter is and how they can utilize it to build business, more than 80% of commentors agreed that twitter presents a lot of opportunities.

Here's how companies have benefited from twitter:

1. Build relationships with people they would have not met before
2. Exposure to lots of new business thoughts, technical ideas & leadership styles
3. Finding new clients by commenting back on others’ tweets
4. Access to thinkers and doer’s one wouldn’t normally interact with
5. Can follow businesses you want the latest updates from with less effort
6. Clients have asked for accounts to be opened so they can get regular updates
7. Can assist Google rankings, sometimes it gets first page results
8. Can assist in getting real questions answered real time during the day
9. Been a great way to gain interactive access with new clients by following their tweets
10. Received access to publicity: radio, TV, press, speaking engagements
11. Allows leaders to connect to followers on a personal level
12. Without being pushy, it can generate buzz/talk about your company
13. Great for bringing traffic to your site if you offer truly valuable information & links
14. Provides a premier marketing tool when used correctly
15. Can be a great resource for getting push information versus searching the web
16. Can act as a news wire for journalist who are looking for story content
17. Can save time by getting the latest news without having to go search for it
18. Enables expansion of your database by removing budget or geography barriers
19. It can increase your market reach if you actively promote your presence on twitter
20. A great way to showcase your expertise & differentiate from competition.

Great list! How are you using twitter? What would you add to this list?

Feedback Please: Photos

I can't decide if I like the way these photos turned out?! In person, the contrast between the iceplant, flowers and cards looked sharp and I liked the texture. I'm not sure it translated well in the photos though. What do you think?