Ahoy Matey, Argh!!

So as promised, new goodies are here!!

One of the commercial use packs I got were a pirate set. I jumped right in and did a ship and a cute little pirate fella. Combine that with some ocean waves and some fun pirate-ish fonts, and you get my newest invite:

Pirate Invitation

Why, Thank You!

I haven't made any thank you cards yet, though it is on my ever-growing to-do list! However, a customer came to me and asked if I had a matching thank you card for my Sesame Street invitation. 

 Matching Sesame Street Thank You Card

 

I have to say, the idea was instant. I saw it in my mind and not only did I love it - but so did the customer. So I decided to put it in my store for anyone else interested :)

I got some commercial use goodies a couple days ago, so expect some new invites soon! I'm eager & motivated to create some new stuff, so it should be fun! :)

~ Jeni M.

Run or Dye Time!!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you a first for me! I took a break from designing and card making to run my first 5k.

After losing nearly 40lbs last year through hard work and determination, I really wanted to run an official 5k. And before you ask - there is no secret. I lost the weight through the very old and boring routine of diet & exercise.

A scrappy layout I made during the competition chronically my 12 week results

And I know, I know - the word diet disgusts me too. So let's just call it clean eating. And I don't mean I went all natural (I can't afford that yet! lol). I just mean I watched what I ate, how much I ate and when I ate. I learned that sodium & I are not fast friends, so I paid attention to how much sodium I took into my body and lowered it as much as I could. I allowed myself a good splurge at least once a week. And I made sure to exercise over an hour every day! That's it people - the pounds literally just fell off of me during the competition (which I won by the way!).

So yes - a 5k. But not just any 5k. I wanted to do one of those colorful ones popping up around the country. You've got the Color Run. Run or Dye. Color Vibe. Color Me Rad. Color In Motion. And I'm sure many many more. I went with the only one coming to the town I'm currently living in: Run or Dye. I signed up and waited for the day (which was over 6mo after singing up for it - grr).
Fast forward to yesterday! The big day had arrived. I won't bore you with too many details, but let me just say it was awesome. Not only did I have a great run, but the color part was so much fun! If you can ever experience one of these - I highly recommend it!! I don't have many pictures yet. The run has some, but they haven't been posted yet. And I left my dang camera battery in the charger at home. Total bummer! But the memories are fantastic, and I won't forget those any time soon!!

At least I had a cell phone :)

It's The Boys Turn

Yep, the boy version took me longer than I thought it would. I just couldn't decide on colors. I would think blue & green would be easy to pick, but there are so many shades that I just couldn't decide lol.

Boy Sleepover, Slumber Party Invitation

But hey, at least I got it done! I can breath a sigh of relief and decide what to do next! Until then!
~ Jeni M.

Slumber Party Sleepover Invite

So I had this cute idea with some girls grouped together for a sleepover invite. I pictured pillows & blankets on the living room floor. Well, I never figured out the blankets (I did try, but it looked funny), but I did put them down in front of a couch :) 

Sleepover Slumber Party Invitation

Add some movie night goodies and you have my newest invite. I'm working on converting it to boy colors. Wish me luck -- switching colors seems to be a pain for some reason lol.

~ Jeni M.

Monkey Baby Shower Invite

I started this one a while ago, but just never had the motivation to finish it. With some down time, I forced myself to focus and get down to business lol. After finishing the girly version, I did up not only a boy version, but also a gender neutral version as well :) Seems like lots of people like to do gender reveal at baby showers now, so I wanted to make sure they could use my invite for that! :)

Monkey Baby Shower Invitation

Working next on a sleepoever invite! I'm excited to start it, so I'll be back with that one soon enough!

~ Jeni M.

Bouncy Fun

I've been to more than one party with those inflatable bouncy house things. I swear that's all you could do for parties in the small town I lived in a few months ago, lol. SO! I thought - what better invite to do next then one with those castle things!

Bouncy House Castle Invitation

It was a lot of fun to make up the house/castle thing. I have to say -- there are so many different versions out there. And colors. Who knew!? The hardest part was narrowing the colors & design down to what you see above. But once it all came together, it just fit, you know :)

That's all for today. Onto my next project (not sure what that will be yet, but I'll figure it out soon, I'm sure)!

~ Jeni M.

Bunny Cuteness

So Walmart is telling me Easter is coming up. Now, knowing Walmart like I do -- I figure Easter will be within the next 6mo or so, since we all now how much Walmart likes to rush holidays lol.

That said, I thought it would be fun to do up a Easter invite. Easter party, Easter Egg Hunt, Easter something -- both as a card, and if need be, as a larger flier. I think it turned out pretty cute & fun!

Easter Egg Hunt Invitation

So yes, if you're doing something for the upcoming holiday (which is on April 20th by the way -- I googled) then check out the perfect invite for your celebration!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Where are you from??

So I browsing the nifty apps associated with Etsy. From promotions to tax help - there are pages and pages. I found one that took all my sales and put them onto a map so I could see where I've made sales at.

I'm hoping this works, cuz it's kinda neat to see where I've sold to! It tells me I've hit 3 countries, and 21 states (in the US). Not too bad for a newbie; at least I don't think so lol. 

K - That's it for now. I'll be back later to show off the Easter party invite I'm working on!

Sesame Street Fun!

I was cruising Etsy trying to figure out what I should make next -- what was popular right now. I saw that Sesame Street seemed to be really big, so I thought that would be fun to do! I can't get enough of rainbows, so why not!

I made the lamp and then the famous street sign. Followed with a rainbow paper (I almost added purple & pink to it, but I really wanted it to feel for girls AND boys, so I kept those two out).

Find the perfect fonts and wa-la!

Sesame Street Birthday Invitation

I originally started with a card that had a photo and then went to the one you see. SO, after I finished that one, I made the photo version using the design I came up with up there.

Sesame Street Birthday Invitation

So far, it's been very popular (and it's only been up for like a day). A lot of views and a lot of favorites -- gotta love that!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

A Look Back

You know, I've showed you all my products, but I never showed you my first creation -- My logo & computer girl.

A few years ago, I thought I'd start designing digital scrapbooking kits. And to get my name out there, I started with template freebies. But  before all of that, I needed a design name. I threw around a bunch of ideas and eventually settled on Jeni.Em Designs. My name is actually Jeniece, but I didn't want to go with that. And I currently go by Jen. But there was something catchy about using my childhood name Jeni. And then, in stead of going with JeniM -- I spelled out the M so that people would know to say the letter and not end up combining it to be Jenim lol.

Well, when I discovered I had no love for designing kits, the freebies stopped and I left behind Jeni.Em Designs.

Fast forward to a few months ago -- a friend and I were chatting about Etsy. She convinced me I should open a shop and I didn't need much encouragement to do just that. I dusted off my designer name and opened up. BUT -- Everyone knows you need a logo. Out comes the doodling...

You know, I actually didn't doodle much before I settled on a design. The bottom graphic was scanned and made into this:

I thought about doing it up with a nice, strong font (ie: the top version) and ended up loving my hand drawn one (ie: the bottom version).

After that it was all about the computer girl. You can see above I did a simple girl. I knew I wasn't something cute, but I wasn't sure how detailed I wanted. Googling around, I saw these girls with computers - and I knew I needed to have my Mac with me lol.

It took a while to get her all done. I was still pretty new with everything it takes to make something like that. Not only that, but I still don't understand certain tools that I KNOW would make designing easier lol. Ah well - as long as I get 'er done, right? lol

Anyhoo - so yeah. Name done. Girl done. I dressed up my name - added some color and some scrappy elements and wa-la

Well I guess that's it. Just thought I'd show off my business graphics. ((Okay, mainly I was in the mood to be chatty, and since I have a blog - I'm allowed to do that lol)).

I'm in the process of getting up some custom options for my work -- one option to change stuff on a card (ie: colors, fonts, photos, etc) and another option to have something new made for you! Just need to get the listing done up and then you'll be able to get something special done up for you!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Lego Revamped, again

With things not improving, I'm updating THIS previous post, as well as updating my card (again)

**Update**

Well, my Lego card hasn't sold since I changed it. I'm so incredibly bummed. Searching Etsy doesn't help because they seem immune to Lego's rules. I still can't figure out why Lego targeted me, but I won't let that get me down.

Instead, I'm updating the card again.  I went with kind of a mixture of my two previous versions. I'm really hoping people will be interested again, and at the same time Lego will leave me alone. Here's hoping right :)

So here's the current card, as it stands. ALL versions are available, of course. But for advertising purposes, I'll keep this preview up and see if people will like it again. 

Building Blocks (aka Lego lol) Birthday Invite

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Mario Banner

I was going to do a simple pennant banner like I've been doing, but I'll admit -- when researching graphics for the game and trying to decide what I wanted to make on the card (and how I wanted it to look - new version vs older versions) -- I came across a banner using the blocks you see in the games. 

I had already made these (the blocks) for my card and it was simple enough to remake them bigger for the banner. SO - I went with the square style banner this go round.

Mario Birthday Banner

This set is ONLY what you see above ("Happy Birthday!") because each print sheet has two blocks on it. Kind of a pain to print up letters you don't need. SO, eventually (I forgot to do it today) I will put up a listing to personalize it -- and I'll send people the extra letters they want. I will link it here when I get it up!

Super Mario Bros.

So I was completely unsure what to make next. I swear I get all these ideas - and then the moment I sit down ... it's blank. Completely blank!!

Well - I asked on my Facebook Page for an idea. Anything. My friend Kim came through again! She said Toad -- from Super Mario Bros. I didn't go with Toad specifically (I wanted to steer clear for copyright issues). Instead I went with a generic Mario theme (ie: the background).

Super Mario Birthday Invitation

I can't get enough of this invite!! It's rare that one just comes together so quickly and so easily. But this one did. I saw it in my mind and then bam - that card! I believe I will be doing up a banner to match in the next couple days, so be on the look out for that!

Until then! ~ Jeni M.

Bowling - Girly Style

Just popping in real quick to show you the girly version to my Bowling Invite I shared a bit ago.

Bowling Birthday Party Invitation

And with that, I'm done (see - told you it was gonna be quick!) Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Star Wars Dudes!

I did it! I pushed through my creative block and finished up the Yoda I was working on. And from there, the rest just poured out of me.

I'd show you my crappy Yoda, but I didn't even save a version of him. Let's just say that Yoda MUST have large eyes, or he looks like a freaky alien. Which is fine if you're going for alien. But now when you're going for a pretty well-known character.

And without further ado - my Star Wars element pack, all done up and prettified for you!

 

Star Wars Clipart Element Pack

Total cuteness, right?! I can't get enough of that Yoda lol. I plan on using some (maybe all) of these guys and doing more invites. I just haven't done it yet. Soon (always soon lol) :D

That's all for now! Until next time!

~ Jeni M.

And Yet More Minecraft Goodies

With the success of my Minecraft Banner, I wanted to do more extras. So I did up some water labels. You would think this would be quick & easy, but this is me we're talking about here. In other words - I had to do up 4 different ones for some reason and they all had to be "perfect" lol.

Well, I don't know if they are perfect, but I happen to like them!

Next, I think I'm finally in the mood to finish my Star Wars characters. I got stuck on the Yoda I was making and I think I finally figured out what was wrong with him! Wish me luck!!

Until next time!
~ Jeni M.

Let's Go Bowling!

Moving forward from all that Lego crap, I decided to avoid movies and cartoons and just do something simple. And with every other friend throwing a bowling party, I thought it would be awesome to do a bowling invite!

Bowling Birthday Party Invitation

I plan on doing a more girly version eventually, but for now, I've got this one!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Legos Go Bye-Bye

So if you've read THIS post, then you know that Lego got a hold of me and said what I did was a no-no in their book.

I kinda get it. I do, I really do. But dang it all - I went out of my way to make my own minifigs so that I didn't just straight up cut photos from google and resell them like they were my own.

Ah well. I guess it was too go to be true that since others did it, I could too. And I was worried when I put them up anyways. I figured I'd do it till I couldn't. I guess a week was my limit.

SOOOOO -- from this point on, if you are interested in either the cards or the element pack below, please feel free to email me at jmoody022 at yahoo dot com and I can do a private sale through Etsy, easy-peasy! :)

Private Sales Available For These:

 

Until Next Time! ~ Jeni M.

The Trouble With Legos...

On my birthday no less, I'm updating THIS previous post. Grr lol.

**Update**
 

Everything was great! My Lego card is a hit and is selling awesome! That is until today.

So, Lego got a hold of me. Did you know that just saying (or rather typing) Lego is against their rules. You are supposed to capitalize the entire word and stick that tm thingy at the end. Oh -- and it's never, ever called Legos with an "s". That word doesn't exist. The correct term, apparently is Lego Bricks.

Needless to say, my cards were in violation and I quickly changed things up - both the card and the name (the name is now Building Brick Invite). I added some hair, changed the minifigs and reuploaded it.

Building Blocks (aka Lego lol) Birthday Invite

I'm a little nervous that it won't be enough, but come on. Search on Etsy for Lego invites and there are pages and pages. What is so special about all of theirs that they aren't "in trouble," but me - with less than 20 things in my store gets dinged only 10 days after uploading mine. 

Ugh! It's just frustrating is all. I guess I needed to vent a little. Thanks for indulging me! 

Until next time! 

~ Jeni M.

Lego Birthday Decorations

The Minecraft Banner has already sold, so I guess I did a good job on my banner lol. And I went ahead and did up the Lego banner.

Lego Birthday Banner

And like the Minecraft one, this has a full alphabet & number set so you can have it say whatever you want! I think it's more fun that way -- kids love seeing their name on banners and such! :)

I'm gonna keep this one short! Until next time!
~ Jeni M.

More Minecraft Goodies

I was doing a little market research (tell me that doesn't sound all grown-up, and sophisticated lol). Well I discovered that birthday extras sell pretty good. Extras being banners, and water labels, and cupcake toppers - and so on.

So I did up a banner for my Minecraft invite!

Minecraft Birthday Banner

I also went with a full alphabet instead of just Happy Birthday because I know from experience that it's fun to personalize a banner! I found one at Walmart (for WAY too much money lol) and have used it a few times!

So yeppers - I finally did what I said I would do forever ago. I made birthday extras. Next I think I'll make a Lego banner!

Until next time! ~ Jeni M.

Say Hello

So a friend on my personal Facebook was really excited about my Lego Movie guys that she threw out there that I should do a Hello Kitty invite. I knew I was walking a fine line with making the Lego Movie guys look exactly like the characters that I wanted to make sure to make the cat close, but different at the same time.

Thus, my results are this:

Hello Kitty Birthday Invitation

I'm so in love with the colors in this -- pink and all (I'm so NOT a fan of pink lol). And that photo is courtesy of me :) Yes - sometimes I can take a decent pic lol. That isn't my daughter though. That's my friend Kim's daughter. She suggested a Hello Kitty card after all - makes sense I should use her daughter lol.

That's all for now! Until next time!
~ Jeni M.

Lego Movie Dudes!

So people were excited about my Lego Movie guys! A couple asked if I was willing to sell just them by themselves, not as a card. How can I say no when the interest was so large.

For the next few days, I worked on a few more popular characters. I did them up. Even added some different facial expressions. And uploaded it to my Etsy. It's been really popular already! I'm really excited at how well it's been received!

So, to those that have bought them already - thank you so much! It means a lot that you like it so well :)

Lego Movie Clipart Element Pack *

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

* Well I had to remove the link. You can see why HERE grr
These are now available as a private sale.
Email me at jmoody022 at yahoo dot com if you're interested!

Lego Movie Awesomeness!

Well, when I made my Lego Invite, I knew I couldn't just stop with the plain guy. The Lego movie is huge right now, and I had to do up something!

Lego Movie Birthday Invitations *

Tell me those didn't turn out awesome, lol. I'm beyond excited about these! And my kids LOVE the little guys. They keep telling me to make more, so I'm thinking I'll do up an element pack (though, I thought I'd do that for my Star Wars guys, but I still haven't done that yet either, so who knows lol).

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

* Well I had to remove the link. You can see why HERE grr.
These are now available as a private sale.
Email me at jmoody022 at yahoo dot com if you're interested!

Lego Invite

So I hesitated to make this one cuz of copyright issues, but with the Lego Movie being a huge hit, and Legos being big regardless, it's hard to ignore that. I went ahead and designed a Lego minifig myself and did up a card.

Lego Birthday Invite

So there it is! Totally cute right! Well people seem to think so, because sales are happening fast! Yay!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Star Wars Birthday!

A couple years ago I did a Star Wars birthday for my son. It was a HUGE hit!! I wish I had been up for making my own invites back then. But alas, I did not. I went with the crappy Walmart cards and called it good. Blech!

So anyhoo - I did up a Star Wars card. I had a bunch of ideas in my head (still do really) and settled with this one:

Star Wars Birthday Invitation

My next goal is to do up more characters and get other versions made up. Maybe do up an element pack of just the characters. We'll see :)

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

More Zebras!

So the Zebra birthday invite came together and I thought it could make a cute baby shower invite. I removed the photo, added a tree - and wa-la!

Wild With Excitement Zebra Baby Shower Invite

And recently I was asked if I could do a boy version. Ugh -- that was totally on my to-do list and I kept putting it off. But it was just a quick switch of colors and there you go!

Wild With Excitement Zebra Baby Shower Invite

And that's it! Until next time!
~ Jeni M.

Zebra Birthday!

Last year, my friend Danielle asked if I could help her design a tshirt for her daughter birthday. They were doing a zebra themed party, and wanted something cute to go on a shirt.

So I dug through my scrapping supplies and came up with this:

Danielle loved it and so did her daughter! They printed it up and she was a hit at her birthday party!

So this year, when she turned 7, Danielle turned to me again. Only this go round, she went with simpler.

Not only was it much easier, but it forced me to learn how to make a scallop pattern around something lol. Gotta love learning something new!!

And from there, I decided to do up a zebra inspired card. I went to work designing my own zebra. Found the perfect picture, which is of course by Danielle May Photography and is a photo of her daughter (the same beautiful little girl from before!).

Let's Get Wild Zebra Birthday Invite

So yes, this card was a couple years in the making (in a way) but eventually it came together! Enjoy!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Minecraft Birthday Invite!

So a friend of mine came to me, needing an invite for her son. The theme? Why it's Minecraft, of course. You know - that game that's taken a billion steps backwards in graphics and yet seems to be getting more & more popular every day. I will never understand the obsession, but that didn't stop me from making her a card.

Minecraft Birthday Invite

So yeah - I maybe never understand the obsession over Minecraft, but that won't stop me from selling this. Who know it would be my best seller, lol. People seem to love this invite, and that really makes me happy! I fully plan on doing up birthday extras with this theme, but I want to get more cards in my shop first!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Little Monkey

So I purchased my first CU pack. I found the cutest monkey set and I couldn't wait to do up something with them. I started in and did up this guy:

Isn't he cute? If you like him, you should definitely check out GS Creations. She makes some really fun stuff! So yes - onto a card this guy went. And I came up with this:

Monkey First Birthday Invitation - Boy

And you might notice this isn't Jamie's amazing work. This time I went with a photo done by my awesome friend Danielle of Danielle May Photography. She works out of Englewood, Florida - so if you're in that area, definitely check her out!

But that's not the end today. Nope - what good is a monkey card if I don't do up a girl version. But apparently, that's easier said then done. For some reason, I struggled coming up with the right mesh of colors, but eventually - after trying many (MANY) different combos, I came up with this:

Monkey First Birthday Invitation - Girl

Haha that little cutie still cracks me up. Trying to find a photo to put there, Jamie showed me this one, having just taken it a few days before. I still smile when I look at her!

So there you go! My monkey cards! I eventually hope to do up a baby shower invite with that monkey pack I got. But that's gonna be another day!

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

Pony Request

My good friend Jamie (you might recognize her name from some of the photos you see -- she's Jamie of "Jamie Suckow Photosgraphy - if you're in the Portland/Vancouver area, you should totally check her out!).

Anyhoo - my friend Jamie loved my My Little Pony ponies and asked if I could do up a print for a friend's daughter's party (seriously, is that a never-ending sentence to anyone else lol). How could I refuse! So I did up a print for her and threw it in my store!

My Little Pony Print

She printed it out and found a cute frame. The little girl just loved it! So that made me pretty happy. Jamie even snapped a photo for me so I could see. I LOVED seeing it in print!

So there you go - my first non-card for sale! And what's cool - it was pretty easy! SO if you ever see anything in my shop that you wished was a print for framing and not a card - please message me! I am always up for making something out of my card creations :)

Until Next Time!
~ Jeni M.

My Little Party

Years ago, a friend asked me to make her a birthday invitation. A My Little Pony one. So I gave it a shot and ended up with this:

But, I knew I wanted to stay away from copyrighted images. There's one thing creating something yourself to look like something -- and, in my opinion, it's a whole other issue find images via google and cutting them out. I know I can do that (like hundreds of other Etsy stores do) but I don't feel right using images that aren't mine.

So I took this old card, and revamped it with my own designs. I made the papers. I made the flowers. And most importantly - I designed the ponies :)

My Little Pony Birthday Invite

This card was actually my first sale on Etsy! It took a while before someone found me and purchased my card, but I don't mind. By then I was doubting myself and hesitating making anything else. And then someone bought this. And I swear, a couple weeks later, someone else bought this one. My confidence rose, and the rest is history!

That's all for now! Until next time!
~ Jeni M.