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.