simply rosy blog

I may have written before about how I thought of the idea to start Simply Rosy, but I think I have simplified it in the past, so here is the full story!  It all began when I was planning my own wedding.  I have always loved paper-crafting (origami, scrapbooking, etc.), so when looking at invitations, I was drawn to those that had layered paper.  In fact, I fell in love with a Paper Source custom design that I saw featured in a bridal magazine.

However, almost everyone I could find who did layered paper designs charged an arm and a leg for them, and like most brides, I was on a budget and could not spend that much for the invitations.  The design I liked (one backing layer with a patterned paper band around the middle) seemed fairly simple to make, especially considering that I had paper-crafting experience.  I even knew which patterned paper I would want to use, since I wanted something in neutral colors with a floral pattern, and I had always loved Anna Griffin’s “Repousse” pattern.

So, the next step was to work on finding paper suppliers.  I started by contacting Paper Source, who referred me to their Kansas City store, since they didn’t have a physical store near me.  Annie, their rep in Kansas City at the time, was FANTASTIC!  She helped me figure out what pieces I would need, and sent me samples of different colors for the main part of the invitation and the backing piece.

From those samples, I made a mock-up of what I wanted, and my husband (then fiancé) approved the design.  I absolutely adored the Luxe line of cardstock that had a subtle texture similar to watercolor paper, so I calculated how much paper I would need.  In order to save some money, I ordered the huge “half sheets” of Luxe cardstock at 19.5″ x 27.5″, and planned to cut them down at Kinko’s using their professional rotary paper cutters.

None of the colored papers that Annie had sent matched closely enough to work for the backing layer, so I bought reams of cardstock from an office supply store that had 4 different colors (one was taupe that I used for the backing layer, and I still have about 3 reams worth of those other colors stashed in my “paper closet”…6.5 years later, haha!).  If I had just been planning to use the “Repousse” paper for the band, I wouldn’t have needed very much; however, I wanted to make coordinating envelope liners, so I needed a large quantity.  I found an online scrapbooking store (Oak Leaf Acre, the website doesn’t seem to exist anymore) that sold scrapbook paper in bulk for a discount.

I also wanted to use double envelopes, which proved to be fairly difficult to find at the time, but I finally discovered that Action Envelopes carried them, so I was able to order my envelopes there.  I ordered return address and monogram embossers from AcornSales.com to use for the back of the envelopes and ceremony programs respectively, and my future Mother-in-Law helped me find a local stationery store that carried the tissue paper liners.  For my save-the-dates, I just bought some cream, linen-textured card & envelope sets from a local craft store, printed the main info on the right-hand side, and used a coordinating hydrangea rubber stamp from Anna Griffin to decorate the left side, which was a fairly simple project.

Assembling the wedding invitations proved to be much more complicated, but luckily I did have some help from my sister, who was my Maid of Honor.  Cutting the huge Luxe sheets at Kinko’s took quite a bit of time, but the personal paper cutter I bought to use for the other pieces was not as accurate.  Plus, I cannot even tell you how many of those little double-sided adhesive cartridges from the scrapbooking section that I went through; that alone made the invitations cost significantly more than I had calculated (but still less expensive than purchasing custom ones).  Oh, what I would have given to have my professional paper cutter and ATG adhesive gun then!

The envelope liners also were a daunting task, but my father, who is an architect and very familiar with using an Exacto knife, took over that project and finished much faster than I could have.  We had a family night (actually a couple, I think) at my apartment to finish assembling the invitations and addressing/stuffing envelopes, and thank goodness I had several other people there to help, because it made the project a fun family event instead of feeling overwhelmed doing it by myself.

Looking back, I realize now that they were technically far from perfect; however, they are sentimentally still one of my favorite projects.  I learned so much and felt a huge sense of accomplishment from doing them myself.  It was also wonderful to hear so many compliments from family and friends, which is really what encouraged me to start my own small/home business making invitations. It is definitely a great way to satisfy my paper obsession!

I have donated the “Zinnias” stationery set (pictured below) to this auction in support of a Mother who has lost both of her children tragically in just two years.  Please consider visiting the auction page to contribute towards the support fund, or you can still donate an item for the auction.  The bidding starts at 9am tomorrow and goes through midnight on Sunday, and there are lots of beautiful and interesting auction items.

Facebook Page – ‘Benefit Auction for Debbie’

Click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this post and add a comment telling your friends about the auction page (http://tinyurl.com/3wwtefq), and you will receive a 5% off coupon good for a single order in the online store from 10/7-10/14.  If you do not receive a coupon code within 2hrs, please email me, and I will take care of it right away!

It is a special holiday weekend as well as my birthday week, so I am happy to announce our first store sale at Simply Rosy!  Most prices on the store site are reduced from 10-20% (excluding some custom products and gift wrap).

Click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this post (include “@simply rosy” in your comment to receive automatic credit) or “Like” our FB page at the top of the sidebar to the right to receive a 5% off coupon good for a single order during this sale – one coupon per customer.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns!

I posted a few months ago when I made a pink card ring for a baby shower at church, and as I guessed, I will probably be making several more.  It is appropriate that I received an order for a red, white, and blue card ring with stars on it in the month of July!  The couple is expecting their first baby next month, and has decorated the nursery in a Texas Rangers theme, so this card ring should match perfectly.

When I began planning a baby shower with a group of other ladies, we tried to think of some alternatives to the typical shower games.  I always like providing a blank book or cards for the guests to write thoughts, memories, and advice for the expecting mother/family (kind of like an informal guest book), and one of the other hostesses told us that she remembered another shower where the hostesses had given the Mom-to-be a ring with cards on it for guests to write prayers and verses.  Then they tied pieces of ribbon onto it, so that the new Mother could read the cards while holding the baby who could play with the ribbons.  We all liked that idea, so we decided to make a ring of cards and ribbons, and guests could write thoughts, advice, memories, prayers, verses, or pretty much whatever they wanted.  Being the “paper person” of the group, that project was assigned to me.

I found some cute scraps of patterned paper in pinks and greens, and bought solid cardstock to match.  I cut the cardstock down to 3.5″x4.25″ (6 cards per letter-sized sheet of cardstock), and cut strips of patterned paper to .75″x3.5″.  After I had adhered the patterned paper strips to the left edge of the cards, I punched a hole in the top left corner of each card and strung them all on the ring (the patterned paper acts as reinforcement for the hole punch in addition to adding a nice decorative touch to each card).  I used a plain bracelet like this from the jewelry section of the craft store, but something like a twist-end bangle or even a regular binder ring from an office supply store would work well.  I also bought a wooden letter from the baby’s name to decorate and glue on the front, and I layered that with other pieces of the coordinating paper to make a cover card.  I was very pleased with the results, and so was our friend.  I am guessing I will be making quite a few more of these for future showers!

One of my close friends is from Arkansas, and she is going home to participate in the Jones Center Arts & Crafts Festival in Springdale, Arkansas, in just a couple weeks.  In case you are unfamiliar with the event as I was before this year, the Northwest Arkansas Craft Fairs are a huge series of fairs held twice a year in various cities in Arkansas.  I was hoping to be able to attend with her and share a booth, but since I cannot go, she has offered to take my wreaths with her.  She makes lovely nursing blankets, embellished burp cloths, and toddler pillows, so if you are interested in any of those, please email me for her contact info!

When I started planning for the fair, I thought I would make just a few wreaths to display, but as you can see from the table of cuteness above, I got a little bit carried away once I began shopping, and the final count is eighteen.  Our house was overrun by wreaths for several weeks while I worked on them, photographed them (thank you to my husband for helping with that, his photo/video site is Pixel Grill), and packaged them for the trip.  You can see a gallery of all the completed wreaths here.

I am pleased to announce that we will now be offering custom digital design services for printed photo cards (sample, double-sided postcard above).  These are of course perfect for Christmas cards, but also work very well for baby announcements, thank you cards, etc.  We are more than happy to print these for you, but if you prefer, we can also send you the full-sized digital file to print at your choice of local or online photo lab.

Please contact us for additional details.

As my husband was uploading the two invitation samples to the website, he questioned my decision of categorizing the invitations (into “Wedding”, “Bday”, etc) rather than just putting them in one big page all together. My answer to him was that I am going to be creating several more samples during the course of my business, and I would prefer to have them split into categories rather than to have (eventually) HUNDREDS of invitations in one lumped location.

His response to that was, “But maybe people won’t understand that they can use ANY style with ANY paper for ANY occasion. I think that maybe people will assume that these 11 samples are the only invitations you offer.” I am positive that some potential customers will have exactly that response, so I would like to clarify specifically what I mean when I say I am a custom invitation designer. (Brief summary here: http://www.simplyrosy.com/custom.htm)

As we complete the remaining pages in the invitation section of the site, we will:

1. upload images of probably at least 50 patterned and solid colored papers, eventually we will most likely list even more than that.
2. have between 5 and 10 basic invitation styles, with several options for “extras” (like response cards, custom envelopes, ribbons, enclosures, etc).
3. list several standard sizes for invitations.
4. upload files with several font options, as well as list several choices for how you might like to word an invitation.

The main goal for me, as a custom designer, is to offer ANY combination of the above four options that you might desire.

For instance, if you like one of our samples which is listed as a wedding shower invitation, you can use that very same design as a baby announcement or children’s birthday invitation or garden tea party or whatever other occasion you can imagine. Or if you see a complicated wedding invitation, we can easily simplify the basic concept to be used for a wine tasting or even a Super Bowl party!

PLUS, if you have an idea which is not included in the options listed, I will be happy to talk to you about it, and try to create what you are imagining. That means that if you would like a 12″x12″ invitation, with a huge bow around it, in bright green and navy blue floral paper – I will try my absolute hardest to do exactly that!

Or, you may have seen a particular patterned paper which is not listed on my website, but you KNOW that you would like to use that exact paper. I will try to find the paper through my vendors or at local stores. Or if you would prefer, I will tell you the number of sheets which I need to complete your order; you can purchase the paper and mail it to me, and I will reduce the price of your order accordingly.

The main point that I am trying to express is that I will customize every single invitation I design to be exactly what you wish. Of course, complexity often comes with a higher price tag, so unfortunately, I will not always be able to do exactly what you want within your budget, but I would like to work with you to get as close to your dream as possible.

I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you enjoy the website. Check back soon for updates!

~Kat – kat@simplyrosy.com

I am in the process of creating several more samples to show on the website.  I have made 4 more baby-related samples, and now I am starting to work on some wedding-related invitations.  I am really excited by some of the designs I am using!

It has truly been a process deciding which products I am going to use for my invitations.  The two absolute essentials (besides beautiful PAPER, of course!) are a great paper trimmer and really awesome adhesive.  (I can’t tell you how sick of repeatedly crooked cuts and tiny adhesive dispensers I am!)  Over the past few months, I have purchased 5-7 different paper trimmers and countless varieties of adhesive, and I still have not found the “perfect” tools.  (Although I do admit it has been fun to have an excuse to try so many different products!)

I’m still working on finding my most important tools, but paper is a completely different problem (I have TONS).  Which papers should I use and how many should I display?  Will I be able to find those papers for a long period of time, and if so, how/where can I order in bulk?  Will customers really choose a large mix of papers, or mainly choose the papers used in the samples?  Etc…

This has been a fun ride so far, and I’m hoping for even greater adventures to come!

We have now posted the invitation policies as a page in the blog.  Also, since I have not yet been able to upload all of the custom option details, I have created a temporary list for your information until I have some time to update the option details (i.e. have hours and hours to scan patterned paper swatches).

Let me know if you have questions!

~Kat – kat@simplyrosy.com