Simple Pleasures

The end of May is always my favorite time of year. Late spring and summer weddings are in full swing keeping me happy and busy with work. The streets are bustling with laughing kids running off to the nearby park. The house feels fresh and cool at night with all the windows open. And, my favorite flower, the gardenia peony, is in full bloom.

Peonies have such a short season; two or three weeks of their sweet scented loveliness and then they're gone. Keeping me waiting a full year to have the true pleasure of coexisting with them again.

So, as soon as their buds start opening you can always find me eagerly waiting in the wings with a vase and scissors in hand. And, that's just what I did this morning. I decided to take advantage of my favorite flowering plant and today's sunshine and snap some pics of my new line of wedding confetti. It'll be a few days before I edit all the pictures and have the listings set up in the shop, but I thought I'd share a few snapshots of what I did on this very happy morning.

- Kate ♥

DIY, Your Own Way

Why should you buy everything already made in someone else's vision? Why not have a little fun and make it yourself? As a paper crafter and artist I sometimes take for granted that not everyone has the means - or quite frankly, the time - to make their mailing tags by hand, but that doesn't mean that they don't want to embellish and decorate a set of those tags 'til their hearts content.

So, with that thought in mind I lovingly handcrafted and pieced together some basic kits for the shop. I like to think of them as a do-it-yourself for paper enthusiasts. Use each kit to decorate gifts and enclosure cards oh so stylishly, write fun little lunchbox notes, make quirky to-do-lists, embellish journals and scrapbooks...whatever you create just be sure to have fun with it and, most importantly, let your creativity guide you.

Until next time, be sure to share your love.
- Kate

Careful It's Hot

This year my long summer days were happily full of personalized requests and custom invitations. Last week I finished up the season's final order and immediately found myself immersed in a slew of handcrafted requests for Autumn and Winter weddings. Truly, I feel like I've somehow jumped from cool pink lemonade to hot apple cider in the blink of an eye - and I think I burned my tongue!

So, with the end of summer having somehow rushed by unbeknownst to me, I thought it necessary to slow down and reflect on some of my favorite summer projects for Birdcage Cards. 'Cause ya know, sometimes a girl just needs time to adjust and reflect. Here's a tiny sampling of what's been keeping my workspace aflutter...

A Sun-Charged Day

It has been such a great day today! I've been working on some lovely 5"x7" Swallowtail Invites in my bright and sunny workshop. My space has just been flooded with light all day, but there's not even a trace of that yucky humidity that's been hanging 'round Buffalo all weekend. So now I'm taking an early dinner/late lunch break from a productive day in my workshop and I thought it'd be the perfect time to share a tiny taste of a few projects I've recently worked on.
The only problem is I keep forgetting to photograph my local orders. I worked on a handful of them in the past few months, but because each was hand delivered it never occurred to me to take some product shots like I do for my online orders. And its driving me nuts since they were all lovely custom invitation orders and I could have used some shots for my portfolio! Ugghhh, I guess I'll have to chalk it up to part of the learning process and know that next time it will be on my mind. Well, at least I hope it will, eek!

Love, Love, Love...

This is what my desk looks like right about now. Every year I make handcrafted valentines to send out to my loved ones and this year - well this year I have an Etsy shop. So, I've been making twice as many. I've always felt that the best valentines I've ever gotten were the ones made by little fingers with crayon smudgings and dried glue everywhere. Now mine may not be so messy, but they are made with just as much heart because, I think, nothing says I love you better than a homemade valentine. Well, that's my two cents anyway.

Okay, gotta get back to work. I've got a ton of pictures to edit so that I can list these new cards in my shop this weekend. Wishing you all lots of love. Smooch!
-Kate

New In the Shop:

I've been very slowly releasing my fall cards in the shop. I'd love to say it's to build anticipation, but really I've been too busy with other orders to be able to turn my sketches into burned silkscreens or stamps yet. Fortunately, I was able to get two new screen prints completed last week and one of them listed in the Birdcage Cards' shop so far.

Shown above is my newest edition, Lovely Leaves. It's an original hand drawn, hand screen printed card in a lovely mustard yellow color. Printed on a heavy 100lb card stock and measuring 3 3/4" x 5 1/8" this bad boy comes in at only $3.00. I'll be adding more color options and bundled prices for this card in the next week or so, as well as a handful of more original hand drawn cards. So, be sure to stayed tuned!