Holiday Card Display

I had a lovely Christmas this year and the holiday cards I received from my talented designer friends really made the season extra special. My mailbox could not have been more happy! I don't have a fireplace or mantle to display holiday cards, so I chose to hang my collection on silver cord with mini clothespins right above my desk. Most of these cards were custom designed by the designers themselves. There's lot of letterpress and foil in the mix as well. It's so fun to stare at! :) I may just keep this display up year round for design inspiration (and as a reminder of the great people I've come to know).

And here's a pic of the holiday card I sent out! I had fully intended for this card to have gold foil-stamped typography on a rich black background, but I did not plan far enough ahead to pull that off. Maybe next year I'll be super organized and start my cards in October!

Merry Christmas!

I really, really enjoyed my holiday card exchange this year and have received soooo many beautiful cards from fellow Minted designers. I thought I'd share the Christmas card I designed and sent to friends and family for anyone who missed out on the mailing.

This was printed at Minted, using their curved frame die-cut shape on signature stock. I also ordered the white envelopes, gold foil liners and took advantage of Minted's free recipient address printing!

The back of the card included a cute little illustration I made since I didn't manage any family photos this year. You can also see below that I went a little crazier than usual with the envelope decorating, but it was fun to add some extra special touches.

As much as I love designing holiday cards and other lovely paper products, I'm also a musician...primarily a singer these days. In the spirit of the season, I made a little video for your listening pleasure. Here's my version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", first made famous by Judy Garland. It's one of my favorites! Guitar accompaniment by my musical partner in crime, Steve.

p.s. Sorry the video quality is so dark and lousy. We didn't light it well and ran out of time for more takes. Hopefully, we'll nail it next time!

Featured Minted Stationery

It is such an honor when Minted features any of my designs in their web banners or marketing emails. Check out a couple of my designs below, not to mention the great shopping deals!

Christmas Inspiration

Christmas is my favorite holiday so today I wanted to share a little eye candy. I made inspiration boards for Minted featuring 2 of my holiday cards. You can purchase both designs, Ribbon Happy and Ombre Sparkle, at Minted. ;) And if you're a little behind on your Christmas cards, I recommend sending a New Year's Card! Happy Holidays!!

Ribbon Wrapped Christmas board by Hooray Creative. See more holiday cards

Pink Ombre Sparkle board by Hooray Creative. See more photo Christmas cards

Minted Stationery and Art Gifts

Today only!! Super awesome shopping deal from the Today show featuring 50% off personal stationery and art prints from Minted! You don't want to miss this deep discount offer, so head on over to Minted right now and get some Christmas shopping done. I have a couple of brand new designs for sale also! ;) Use discount code: TODAY50

and ART PRINTS!!!

Personalized Wrapping Paper

Last chance to get your gift wrap in time for Christmas! I have several new wrapping paper designs available for sale on Minted. Every design is printed on luxe matte paper and includes customizable names, photos and/or unique messages. Sold as a set of 5 sheets; each sheet is 20" x 28".  Also available – matching gift tags, stickers and multiple colorway options. Make your gift-giving extra special this season!

Festive Floral personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Holiday Icons personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Blue Spruce personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Modern Garland personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Snowflake and Stamp personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Holiday Line Art personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Cityscape personalized wrapping paper by Hooray Creative

Minted Holiday Design Roundup

I feature my own work on here all the time, but there are many other designers' whose work I truly admire. Today, I wanted to share some inspiration and a few of my favorite holiday cards and gifts from Minted and the talented designers behind these fabulous products.

NEW Foil Pressed Holiday Cards I am completely in love with anything shiny and metallic and Minted's new foil-pressed holiday cards are gorgeous! The entire assortment looks beautiful, and I've rounded up a few of my favorites, but you can shop the rest of the collection here.

I love this awesome design, Modern Pine, by Oscar & Emma. Perfect for those who might want to skip the family photo on their cards this year. Loosely drawn branches and berries and a bright fuchsia and chartreuse color palette with real silver foil – this one is begging to be my Christmas card!

This exquisite multiphoto holiday card, was created by designer, Kelli Hall. The gold foil design elements in Dazzling Glitter are super chic and the clean layout and white space allow your photos to shine.

If  you're looking for a full-bleed photo design to really show off a stunning photo, I adore All Aglow by Olivia Kanaley. Her hand painted Merry is beautifully simple but still makes such an impact in glitzy gold foil.

Alethea and Ruth does bold, quirky hand lettering just right. I love the whimsical vibe in Merry Typography, and the lettering looks soooo lovely in foil. Love the mint colorway too.

...and a couple more I love! Joyfully Modern by Paper Dahlia and Sophisticated Snow by Pistols

NEW Personalizable Wrapping Paper Minted has lots of great new products and options to satisfy holiday shoppers this year and I'm excited about their new customizable gift wrap! With lots of photo and non-photo designs to choose from, you can make your gift-giving extra special this season. They have cute designs for the kiddos and more sophisticated personalizable designs for the grown-up gift exchanges too. Also for available for sale – matching gift tags and stickers!

NEW Holiday Ornament Cards The new Minted ornament cards come in 3 different die-cut shapes with a luxe linen ribbon. I love that these cards can double as a keepsake and even be hung on the Christmas tree.

Honestly , I could go on and on about all the fab products on Minted and the great work from my fellow designers. Not only does Minted have a fantastic selection of holiday cards, but they also have lots of great gifts (ie. art prints, calendars, notebooks, personal stationery) and party decor for your holiday soirees. Head over to Minted now and get your shop on. Happy Holidays!!

Zazzle Holiday Cards

If you haven't done so already, NOW is the time to buy your Holiday, Christmas and New Years cards! The other day I posted a feature on my 2013 holiday collection, exclusively available at Minted.com. Feel free to take another look at my Minted designs. However, if you can't find a design you like on Minted, I have many more holiday cards and party invitations for sale on Zazzle. Check out just a few of the options below and get your holiday shopping underway.

Sweet Embrace Save the Date

Hooray!! My Sweet Embrace save the date design has now been shared and repinned on Pinterest over a 1400 times! I am thrilled this design has spread so far and so fast. Its success has certainly exceeded my expectations. For those who arrived at his blog post because you're looking to purchase this design, it is now exclusively available for sale at Minted.com!

'Sweet Embrace' save the date by Hooray Creative for minted.com

I think this design has been successful thus far because it pairs sophisticated, clean type with a beautiful, professionally photographed engagement pic. If you're recently engaged and planning a photoshoot, I have a few tips if you hope to use this design for your Save the Date cards.

1. Go for great natural light. Late afternoon or sunset can result in some beautiful pics.
2. Make sure to get some nice vertical shots of you and your honey standing close together, holding hands, sharing a kiss or 'sweet embrace'. Look in love!
3. Full, head-to-toe body shots work best, so the photo can be cropped, scaled or repositioned around the text to achieve a flattering layout.
4. This design looks great with white text, so what you wear matters. A little color or similar tonal qualities in your clothing can help.
5. You probably don't want the environment in the background of your photo to be too busy, but you still want some color in your surroundings so the text in this design is legible.
6. Get creative!

For a little extra inspiration, here are some of examples of photos that can work with this design:

FYI: You might notice in few of these examples that there is a pink tint overlay or outer glow around the edges of the photo. These filters can add a pretty effect to your photo and the overall design. However, what looks best totally depends on your photo, so you'll be able to purchase this design with or without any tint/filter.

Black Friday Cyber Monday

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! After the turkey feast and pumpkin pie, the holiday shopping season will officially kick into high gear! I have been thinking about Christmas since last March, having designed a big batch of holiday products for Minted (and a few other sites). Now, I'm super excited to share my work just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Today's post features my Holiday and Christmas card collection, exclusively available for sale at Minted.com! I will also be making daily posts for the next couple of weeks so stay tuned for holiday inspiration, gift guides and of course, more Hooray Creative designs (or like my fb page for updates).

And here are your Minted promotions!

11/27 Wednesday–11/29 Friday: 15% off $100 and 20% off $150+ on holiday cards 12/2 Monday: 15% off + Free Shipping on holiday cards and 25% off everything else

Featured Holiday and Christmas Cards by Hooray Creative (click on any image to purchase)

The rest of the collection!

NEW Christmas Ornament Cards

Cityscape Series Non-Photo Corporate Holiday Cards

Available cities include New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles

NEW Foil Pressed Cards

Please note that each card is fully customizable and is available in different color options. I have also made coordinating pattern backers, labels and envelope liners for each design and Minted offers lot of extra bells and whistles, such as die-cut shapes, luxe triple thick paper, glitter liners and much more.

Minted also carries many other products including limited edition and customizable art prints, party decor, wedding invitations, save the dates, birth announcements, wrapping paper, personal stationery, journals, calendars, etc, etc, etc. Now, let the shopping commence! And please feel free to buy some of my stuff. ;) No pressure – haha!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Happy Holidays!!

Wedding Invitations Galore

I've been hard at work designing wedding invitations for the past couple weeks. I entered 2 of Minted's big wedding invitation design competitions. (The Fall in Love challenge is for digitally printed and foil-pressed invitations and the Make an Impression challenge is letterpress!) I'm really hoping to make a splash in the wedding market this year, so your support (and especially your votes ;)), would be greatly appreciated.

I have a variety of entries, including gold foil and letterpress designs, some formal and classy, others fresh and modern. So, voting is open, now until December 9th, and my designs can be found at the links below or on the challenge pages here and here (just look for Hooray Creative). Please be awesome, and vote on some of the other designers’ entries as well right here . Thank you sooooo much for taking the time to look at my work!

Rustic Charm wedding invitation

Gettin Hitched wedding invitation

Grand Central wedding invitation

Garden Nuptials wedding invitation

Painted Chevrons wedding invitation

Handpainted Botanicals wedding invitation

Inline Chic wedding invitation

Modern Photo Frame wedding invitation

Pastel Watercolor Wash wedding invitation

Chalkboard Love wedding invitation

Destination wedding invitation

Poppies wedding invitation

Gold Love wedding invitation

I Heart New York wedding invitation

Elegant Lace wedding invitation

Gold Glamour wedding invitation

Garden Lights wedding invitation

Golden Gate Bridge wedding invitation

And then, there's Letterpress (a technique of relief printing using a printing press). Minted's beautiful letterpress invitations are printed with 1, 2 or 3 ink colors on luxurious cotton paper. The photo below includes designs from Minted's existing Letterpress collection. You can see the texture of the paper and impression of the printing, right? Gorgeous! I want to be in this collection. ;)

Browse Minted's Letterpress Collection

So, without further ado, here are my Letterpress entries! FYI: I was allowed to enter the same design into both Minted challenges, as long as they were suitable for both digital and letterpress printing techniques – so a few of these will be familiar.

Jaxson Formal wedding invitation

Rustic Charm wedding invitation

Modern Romance wedding invitation

Timeless Type wedding invitation

Gold Glamour wedding invitation

Inline Type wedding invitation

Floral Embroidery wedding invitation

Cadence Script wedding invitation

New York New York wedding invitation

Floral Romance wedding invitation

Annelise wedding invitation

If you made it all way to the end, congratulations! Hope you like what you saw. Thanks for checking out my work!

Newlywed Christmas Cards

So far this year, Newlywed Christmas cards have been a popular item. It's the perfect way for a couple to share their professionally photographed wedding pics with family and friends. So, if you're looking for a holiday card to announce your first Christmas together as Mr. and Mrs, I have a few full-bleed photo designs available for sale on Minted and Zazzle.

Married and Merry Newlywed Holiday Card by Hooray Creative on zazzle.com

Married and Merry Newlywed Holiday Card by Hooray Creative on zazzle.com

Merry and Married Newlywed Holiday Card by Hooray Creative on minted.com

Married & Merry Holiday Ornament Card by Hooray Creative on minted.com

Married Christmas Newlywed Holiday Card in red or white by Hooray Creative on zazzle.com

Married Christmas Newlywed Holiday Card by Hooray Creative on zazzle.com

Very Married Christmas Newlywed Holiday Card by Hooray Creative on zazzle.com

Married and Merry Newlywed Holiday Card by Hooray Creative on zazzle.com

New Holiday Cards at Minted

Hooray! My 2013 holiday assortment is now available for sale at minted.com. The collection includes all sorts of christmas cards, new years cards, holiday ornament cards, corporate cards, postcards, minibooks, gift tags, personalizable wrapping paper, etc. The banner below is just a small sampling. (click on image for larger view)

Top Left to Bottom Right: 1 Joyful Script, 2 Ribbon Happy, 3 Retro Snowflakes, 4 White Noel, 5 Pine and Flurry, 6 Most Wonderful, 7 Gilded Year in Review, 8 Stacked Christmas, 9 Noisemakers

Holiday Ornament Card Featured

Woohoo! One of my new holiday ornament cards is currently featured on the homepage of Minted.com and was recently spotted in a Minted marketing email as well. Check out the rest of the holiday ornament card assortment here. They're super cute! I plan to send these out for Christmas myself. :)

Baby Shower Invitations

It's time to vote again! I have 5 designs entered into Minted's On the Way! Baby Shower Invitations Challenge. I admit I was a little bit out of my element on a baby shower themed challenge, so I just went for clean typography and sweet illustrations. I'm not sure if these designs will resonate with expecting mommys, but I think they're cute. :) Please feel free to click on the links below and vote on my entries. As always, thanks so much for checking out my work!

Sweet Garden Shower by Hooray Creative for Minted

Floral Baby Border by Hooray Creative for Minted

Cloud 9 by Hooray Creative for Minted

Giraffe Family Portrait by Hooray Creative for Minted

Baby Blocks by Hooray Creative for Minted

Please make your vote count and rate some of the other designs in the competition as well, right here.

Gold Foil Holiday Card Inspiration

It's almost time to start thinking about the holidays! New at Minted this year are gold and silver foil pressed holiday cards – and they are gorgeous!! I curated 2 inspiration boards for minted.com featuring their new gold foil cards. The first board was inspired by Laura Hankins' beautiful holiday card Snow Fancy and the 2nd board I made includes a lovely design by Kelly Ventura called Shimmering Peace. Check out the rest of Minted's foil pressed holiday card collection right here. Enjoy the eye candy!

Snow Fancy Foil Holiday inspiration board by Hooray Creative

Shimmering Peace Foil Holiday board by Hooray Creative

Holiday Gift Wrap Winners

Some good news this week! I had 2 winners (6th and 12th place!) and 4 editor's picks in Minted's Outside the Box Holiday Gift Wrap challenge. Minted will be launching it's inaugural collection of unique, personalizable gift wrap for the upcoming 2013 holiday shopping season and I'm so pleased to be included! My 6th place design scored a rating of 4.0267, which is a personal best for me. Hooray! I'm also celebrating another little milestone with this challenge – I have finally reached a total of 55 Minted awards. I've been trying to crack 50 for awhile now, so these gift wrap wins were extra rewarding. :) See the rest of the winners from the gift wrap challenge here.  Some great stuff in there. I personally can't wait to buy some wrapping paper!

Left to Right: Festive Floral, Holiday Icons, Blue Spruce Holiday Gift Wrap

Left to Right: Modern Garland, Snowflake and Stamp, Holiday Line Art Holiday Gift Wrap

Save the Date Cards

Voting is now open for Don't Forget! Minted's Save the Date Challenge. This is one is one of my favorite challenges, so I have designed bunch of photo and non-photo save the date cards for brides and grooms-to-be. Please check out my entries and show your support by voting. Click on the image links below to rate my designs on a scale of 1-5 or go to minted to vote right here. Thanks!!

Destination New York save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

In the Loop save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Tropical Love save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Touch of Class save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Sweet Embrace save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

State your Date save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Elegant Script save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Floral Engagement save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Retro Script save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Yes! save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Perfect Type of Love save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Classic Romance save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Photo Shoot save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Finally Gettin' Hitched save the date card by Hooray Creative for minted.com

Halloween Party Invite

Fall is my favorite season and I don't know about you, but I love Halloween! Monster bashes, The Great Pumpkin, homemade costumes, tricks and treats!!! Since this is truly one of my favorite holidays, I really enjoyed designing these Halloween-themed party invitations. So if you're planning to a throw a spooky soiree next month, might I suggest you pick up my party invitations? – available exclusively on minted.com ;) It comes in 4 color options, which I named Purple People Eater, Pumpkin, Black Magic and Green Goblin. Colorway names have never been so fun and creepy!

Spooky Soiree Halloween party invite by Hooray Creative on minted.com

Minted Holiday Card Winners

I received exciting news this week!!!!!! 2 of my designs in Minted's "Oh What Fun" Holiday Card Challenge placed in the Top 40 out of 3348 entries! Minted's annual holiday card challenge is very competitive and many talented designers enter, so I am extremely honored to be in the winner's circle this year. Thank you so much to everyone who voted, liked and/or commented on any of my holiday designs. I am forever grateful for your support!

12th place: Most Wonderful available at minted.com

25th place: Ribbon Happy available at minted.com

1 Merry Always 2 Stacked Christmas 3 Happiest Holidays 4 Making Spirits Bright 5 Merry and Married 6 Be Joyful

All 6 of these designs are or will be available for sale on minted.com very soon!

Congrats to all the winners in this challenge! See the Top 10 or check out all 3348 submissions! Also, see my 12th and 25th place designs in Minted's blog posts detailing the Top 11 - 20 winners and the Top 21 - 40 winners.  Hoping I can be lucky enough to crack the top 10 next year!!

FYI: My Rustic Joy holiday photo card, that won 11th place last year (see blog post), is now available for sale in my Zazzle shop, right here.