Typography

I like love fonts.  I am what some would call a font hoarder. I literally have thousands of fonts on my computer, and thousands more that are not installed because it slows down my computer.  I think so many feelings can be conveyed with words, and using the proper font can further enhance the feel.  You don't need colorful crazy drawings, or pictures.  When I put together designs for invitations or signs, or whatever else I am working on, I spend several minutes browsing through my fonts to find the "perfect" font.  Using a good font can make the difference in a piece looking like art vs looking like someone typed it out in Word.

There are plenty of good free fonts available on the web.  My favorite site for free fonts is www.dafont.com.  Literally, hundreds of FREE fonts.  Next time you try making something, try downloading some fun fonts to give it a little extra oomph. And please, oh please, do not use Comic sans...it's never a good font.

(source: Pinterest)

Halloween on a Budget

I love to decorate for the holidays, but I certainly don't have piles of money laying around. And while I literally have TUBS full of Christmas decor, I only had a few small Halloween pieces, most of them from my childhood.   I really want to make our house special for the kids. I want them to remember the holidays and think to themselves "Gosh, my mom made our house look awesome!" OK - well maybe just remember the holidays. But I secretly want our house to look awesome.  I was able to put together a few inexpensive Halloween decorations that made our house feel a little more festive.

A spooky raven makes a nice addition to our mantle. Cost $0.00. Using a frame I already had, I whipped up a little graphic in photoshop and printed it out and framed it.

Subway Art is everywhere now. I love the simplicity of it and it can be customized for any holiday! Cost: $4.99 for a bag of mini pumpkins.  I created the Halloween word art in photoshop and printed as an 8x10 and used a frame I already had. The witch is one of my few decorations I already had.

Want a super simple craft to do with the kids?  These Spooky jars are easy and cheap and oh-so-cute!

The materials needed:

Empty Mason Jars

Acrylic Paint

Paint Brushes

And a couple of cute helpers!

Have your cute helpers paint the inside of the jars with the acrylic paint. I used a sharpie to draw faces on the outside of the jars.

Put a LED tealight candle inside and watch them glow!

Total Cost:

Jars: $0.83 each

Paint: $0.59 (on sale!)

Sharpie - free

tealight candle  - set of 12 for $9.62 on Amazon.com

Less than $2.00 each!

Our tops are still drying, but I painted them to match the jars. 

And just because I like to share, here are the two Halloween prints FREE to download and print off yourself. Just click below to download.

5x7 Spooky Crow Print

8x10 Halloween Subway Art

Who doesn't love Halloween?

Candy, haunted houses, costumes, fall colors, candy, parties, candy, and lots of candy! I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't love this holiday. It's fun, it's a chance to be creative, and there's candy!

I've always wanted to be the "cool" house on the block with the super creepy decor, but the fact that there are 2 small kiddos who might freak out if I went too creepy, keeps things on the "G rated" side. 

I can't wait to take them to the pumpkin patch so we can pick out the perfect pumpkin. I've already seen a million ideas I want to try on my pumpkin...

Maybe a simple monogram:

Beautifully carved leaves...

Simple, but beautiful:

These pumpkins are so elegant

Love the black and white!

I'm thinking next weekend might be THE weekend for pumpkin hunting. 

It's a Giveaway!

In celebration of my new FB page, my new favorite picture frames, and a super Awesome October, I'm having a GIVEAWAY!

Here's how to enter:

1. Like both Sweet Bean Photography & Design Facebook page AND Sweet Bean Handmade Gifts & Paper Designs Facebook page:

Sweet Bean Photography

Sweet Bean Handmade Gifts & Design

2. Leave a comment on either on either one telling me why you like them.

That's it! Want to be entered more than once?

Send friends to both pages and tell them to leave a comment stating who sent them. (they will have to like them to leave a comment). For each friend you send, that's an additional entry.

On Sunday, October 9th, all names will be tallied and a winner will be chosen!

So that's all fine and dandy, but what do you win? Whoever wins, gets to choose one 8x10 Organic Bloom Frame in any shape or color of your choosing! That's a $50 value! Check out www.sweetbeanphotography.com for color/size options.

Lookie what came today!

I LOVE them! I love the shape, the colors, the everything. Ever since my printer lab came out with these custom shapes, I want to have everything printed on them. I think they add a little extra to them. And everyone is sure to notice.

Do you love the shape too? All of my printed cards, invitations, and announcements can be printed with these beautiful die cut shapes.

One Happy Chick.

So here's the scoop. I have wanted to run my own Etsy store for, I don't know, like forever (or at least since I discovered the wonderful world of Etsy). But I worked a full time job, and had 2 kids that require massive amounts of attention (also require occasional feeding too). I ran my photography business on the side, and between all that had very. little. time. But I know I love to make things. And I know I love to be with my children. A few nice people have encouraged me to do my own thing. But that's a scary thought to completely rely on myself. I kept talking myself out of it and saying someday I'd get around to it.

Well, I decided it's my someday. I finally put in notice at my job (where I've lived for the past 6 years!). I know that may seem crazy to some, but I figure how am I going to know if it works unless I try it? Right? I've put a lot of thought into this over the past year or so. Some people are born to climb the corporate ladder. To pour their heart and soul into making someone else a truckload of money. That is not for me. At least not anymore. I've spent the last 10 years working for some corporation, and I find myself just doing the same motions everyday. I didn't enjoy what I did. AndI felt like I was wasting myself and my time, not to mention my time with my kids. They're only little once, afterall. I don't want to play the games anymore. I'd rather play games with 2 little people who think I'm the coolest person around.

So here I am, in the last 2 weeks of working in the corporate world. I've finally got the blog up, finally got my Etsy store up, and now I've got to sell and do what I love to do. Make cute things!

And I'd like to thank everyone who said I could do it. Without your words of encouragement, I never would have taken the risk.

Looking forward to seeing what the future holds!