My first planner design

I never thought the monotonous designing of a 12 monthly calendar would be enjoyable, but it was.

I have always said, if I had a design job before kids, it would have been really hard to become a stay-at-home mom. I truly enjoy designing that much!

This was fun, and pushed my less than detailed oriented creative side into one that I really had to look at details... even though it's a simple design.

So here are some of the guts of the planner. Unfortunately, I can not print it because it would cost me more than I can pay. That's what happens when you don't mass produce things!

Aw well, it was a fun project, and maybe I will get to print it in the future and have my very own, very specialized and unique planner!

There is still some tweaking to make it more unified, but all together, I am really happy and I would love to use this as my daily calendar, planner, prayer journal, etc.

Cover

 This would be the double spread of a month. The binding would be where that break is between the two pages. 

 The double spread of the weekly planner. 

 The notebook page

 The prayer journal page. I intended this to be a large part of the planner. I was going to have a special page for Jason, Nevaeh, and Gray. 

The back cover. 

Get organized

Ok, a new type of design goin' on here. I enjoy pushing myself to new things in my design.

I recently came across Erin Condren and her website full of designed goodies: www.erincondren.com.

I am a sucker for journals and planners and appointment books and pens and organizational stuff. I've said this before, but it's like my kids in the dollar store.

Except, they are in the dollar store with 25 cents. Her things are so amazing, and I will for sure purchase the teacher's planner when I start homeschooling, but until then... I can drool over her things.

And design my own planner, notebook, calendar, prayer journal...  and so much more.

So here is a little look into my very own, personalized, all-in-one 'life' planner. I can't wait to get it printed and, hopefully, it will be much cheaper!!

This is the cover, which will be laminated, and I (of course! It's my new favorite and old fave!) used Sweetly Broken type face and Bodoni type face.

The calendar is what's taking a while with the double page months and weekly planner. It's fun, though, being a simple design but making it unique and still organized looking. 

If you would like to order, I would love to help you with this! I do have to see how much it will cost to laminate, print, and coil bind all together. My email is listed on the side in the bio... 

Or you can order from Erin ;). 

Angela and Adam, first impressions

When I think of wedding invites, I think of first impressions. They are the sneak peek to the actual, every-girls'-dream event... The Wedding Day.

First impressions are pretty important. What stunning suit should he wear to the job interview? How should she do her hair for the first date? Having manners when meeting someone for the first time. First impressions determine (it shouldn't always, but sadly does) how we view a person, event, thing, etc. Are you seeing how important they are? 

Why shouldn't wedding invitations be the same way? They are a glimpse at what a splendid time the guest will have. A look into how casual, or fancy this big day will be. I love wedding invitations for this very reason... the mystery of how the bride (and sometimes groom, can't forget him) envisions one of her (or his) most important days. 

And I am completely humbled and honored to design Angela and Adams wedding invitations, and more. I get to have an even deeper look into her wedding day before anyone else. 

Angela and I went to high school together, so of course we are facebook friends :) . She happened to see my 'advertisement' for wedding designs and it all went smoothly from there. She told me the day is a beach theme. Oh man, if you don't get a beach wedding invitation theme right, it looks cheesy and messy and just not classy. In other words, opposite of Angela. 

How do you come up with a classy beach theme? Not only that, how is Angela going to come up with a beach theme in the middle of Iowa? Let me tell you, from seeing her pins on Pinterest, to what she has explained to me, this beached Wedding will be a very beautiful, non-cheesy beach wedding. 

So how to create the first impressions? It can look cartoony if too many beach pictures are used, but it doesn't feel like a beach if you don't do something with the beach. See my dilemma? 

Well, with Angela's vision, we came up with this:

I have also been honored to design her rehearsal dinner invitations (those are so much fun, amazing dinner idea!) and her programs. But to not spoil the surprise, I will add those after the wedding. 

Angela: Thank you so very much for giving me the chance to create your wedding day first impressions. It has been such blessing to be in contact with you again and I pray that your big day goes beautiful! Enjoy it because pretty soon you will be celebrating your 5 year anniversary!!!! 

New Look

I never really enjoyed the look of my website before. I didn't have time to change and come up with a new concept until the last week or so when I was on the couch with sickness. What better time than recovering!

I aslo needed new business cards (shown on the right), since I have started designing wedding designs!

I am so excited to show you my very first wedding design I have had the privilege to work on! I do not want to show you until she mails them out, as to not spoil the surprise for her family and friends. But I am ecstatic to be apart of something so special!

Here is a 1 year old birthday invite I was delighted to design for my dear friends! They nick-named her Lydi-bug, so it obviously had to be a lady bug theme!

Something new

Weddings!

I thoroughly enjoy designing invitations and I wanted to branch out to wedding invitations. I designed three examples of various styles. I can design any custom wedding invite.

My prices vary but add items like the envelopes, wedding programs, RSVP's, Save the Dates, Table cards, and even bridal showers.

If you would like to see the invites in person, or talk about designing an invite, please email me and we can exchange phone numbers.

volunteer work

As much as I would love to make a little extra money here and there, I love to help places like this even more.

The Fresh Start Women's Center is a women's quality program for the state. They help women get back on track from any trauma they may have endured. For example: breast cancer (pink), domestic violence (purple), even victims rights (blue) and recovery (green).

This program received a revamp this year with new leadership, including a name change. And with an open house coming up this next year, they wanted a new look as well.

They really wanted a woman made out of the ribbons that represent the four pillars they stand for. Also, they wanted her to be running/walking to signify that they can get through anything with help.

Here is what we came up with.

Learning is half the battle

Usually when I do not have a freelance job to be done, I work on some random design of my own. I want to keep up my skills and put into memory new things.

So recently I decided to challenge myself even further with the Alphabet challenge. With each letter of the alphabet I want to design something... anything.

It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with the letter, or if it has everything to do with it. I just design whatever comes to mind and the inspiration flows from there. I may do more than one design for a letter, wherever my creativity takes me.

Please enjoy this designing adventure with me!

Samantha
skaraidos@gmail.com