Happy Friday! Are you ready for the weekend? I surely am. Here's my favorite things I've come across this week.
Above: My company's namesake, the Happy Cactus, over the past 2 years.
DESIGN / I'm pretty sure I want/ need everything in the Kaufmann Mercantile store.
READ / I'm about to start Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. It sounds fascinating!
EYE CANDY / Oh So Beautiful Paper's round-up of calendars for 2014 features so many great designs - and makes me think about doing a calendar for next year.
SMALL BUSINESS / Interesting article about mentors for people starting second careers. I certainly would be nowhere with Happy Cactus Designs without the help of my mentors.
WATCH / As a former teacher, I am loving Kid President's Pep Talk to Teachers and Student.
LISTEN / Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots. So good.
My dear friend from graduate school, Kasia, and the love of her life, Andy, will be tying the knot in October. I was so touched when Kasia came to me to work on some wedding stationery for the thank you notes they will need to write. She really loved my Corazon design and we collaborated to add a special touch - the same motif on the side of the card with the couples' initials in the center of the heart. It's a fun little surprise when the recipient of the note opens the card. Now I just can't wait for their wedding next month!
Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing more details about some of the newest cards in the fall collection. I couldn't help but start with my favorite card that I designed this summer - the Midnight Rose patterned note card.
I sketched out a simple floral motif of lined roses, leaves, vines, flowers, and dots this summer and arranged it into a repeating pattern.
Stepping outside of my comfort zone, I used a very dark blue background and loved how the design turned out; the motifs really pop off of the page. Turns out I was right on trend - moody, edgy florals are very "in" this season. You can shop the new Midnight Rose card in the shop here.
I'm still loving the colors and patterns seen on the runway at New York Fashion Week last week. When I saw this Lela Rose dress, the colors immediately reminded me of our Happy Birthday Dotted Cake card. Love the mix of blues and teals! You can shop the birthday card here.
I love Fashion Week. It's so fun to see what the creative minds behind all of the biggest design houses show on the runway, and I love getting inspired by all of the colors and patterns. Here's some of my personal favorites from this week. You can see all my top looks on my Pinterest board.
Favorite Florals / Oscar de la Renta + Naeem Khan
Favorite Black and White / The Row + Jill Stuart
Favorite Lines / Naeem Khan + Tadashi Shoji
Favorite Soft Gray / Jenny Packham + Jason Wu
Favorite Bold Colors / Lela Rose + Monique Lhuillier
All images from Style.com.
The last of our orders from the National Stationery Show went out last week and we could not be more excited about all of the retail shops where you can now find Happy Cactus Designs' products. You can now shop for Happy Cactus cards, notepads, and other products from coast to coast! Check out an entire list of our retailers here. We are very fortunate to work with so many wonderful shop owners and appreciate their support of our business.
If you are a retailer interested in learning more about carrying our products, please visit our wholesale page for more details.
I'm excited to share the latest releases from Happy Cactus Designs with you! Once I returned from the Stationery Show and settled back into my normal routines, I got to work doodling, drawing, and brainstorming ideas for new cards. It was so nice to get back in the creative groove. One downside to all of the preparation for NSS is that there's little time for creative work, so it was wonderful to be able to just draw again.
What resulted was a new collection of cheerful and fun cards that I'm really proud of. I'm also quite excited about additional Christmas cards I developed. Designing holiday cards when it is 100 degrees outside is always a challenge! They will be available for sale soon (I feel like the holidays will be here before we know it!).
Retailers can view all of the new releases along with our existing collection in our catalog here, or contact us at hello{at}happycactusdesigns.com for a hard copy and sample.
Our Squiggle Flowers card was inspired by colorful oversized tissue paper flowers, so we think it pairs quite nicely with BHLDN's Papered Pom Set. Shop the card set here.
My favorite shelf on my studio bookcase is the one with all of my books about lettering, script, and typography. It's so inspiring to see the variety of ways artists choose to represent words.
Here's a round-up of my favorite books:
Clockwise from top left: Sign Painters by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon / Creative Lettering by Jenny Dom / Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age by Steven Heller / Typography Sketchbooks by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico / Little Book of Lettering by Emily Gregory / Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili by Louise Fili
I can hardly believe that Happy Cactus Designs turns two years old this week! It seems both like yesterday and a very long time ago that I took a big leap of faith and opened the Happy Cactus Designs shop. To celebrate, we're offering customers 10% off all orders placed online through the end of September. Use code TWOYEARS at checkout.
I took some time to pause and reflect on all that this growing company has accomplished in the past year. Here are some highlights:
- Participated in numerous craft/holiday shows and trunk shows. I love doing shows because you get to personally interact with customers and get their instant feedback. We're in the midst of lining up a number of shows we'll be doing this fall and winter - stay tuned!
- Exhibited at the National Stationery Show for the second time. No longer a novice, I felt way more comfortable exhibiting at the Stationery Show this year. I was able to connect with a number of wonderful stores, got to spend face-to-face time with retailers that already sold our cards, and made some great business connections. I also got to meet many stationery friends face-to-face for the first time.
- More than doubled the number of retail stores that carry Happy Cactus Designs products. Our cards can now be found in wonderful stores across the country. I've been so fortunate to be able to meet and work with some fabulous retailers who own some of the best gift, home, and stationery shops in the country.
- Introduced new products including two new notepads and place cards.
- Took a big risk and launched a collection of foil stamped cards. I've been so happy with how well this mini-line of cards has been received by customers. The gold balloon birthday card has been the biggest crowd pleaser of all!
- Connected with more stationery designers. One of the best parts about this industry is the number of wonderful designers in it and their willingness to connect. I've made some great friends and love how supportive this community is.
- Grew my number of custom projects by leaps and bounds. I love collaborating with people and helping them see their design visions come to life. From holiday cards and save the dates to custom wedding stationery and personalized notes, it has been awesome to work on so many special projects.
- Partnered with some fun and inventive companies on various licensing projects, including Postable, Two Smiles by HP, and MyCustomCase.
I'm currently brainstorming new product ideas and working on new hand-drawn designs, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon. Thank you for all of your support. We're so happy to be two!
Our brand new Cheers to You! card pairs well with Anthropologie's fun Galleria Stemware. Shop the card here and get 10% off your entire order with code TWOYEARS at checkout.
