The Happy Cactus Blog

The colors in Happy Cactus' Happy Birthday Roses card pair so well with those in Clara von Zweigbergk's Kaleido Trays found at Design Within Reach. 

I love receiving customer feedback and hearing what types of cards people are looking for. One request I heard many times over was for a general "thinking of you" card. For this card design, I reached back into my archives of doodles and drawings, and decided to use this drawing of a bunch of lavender. I associate lavender with calming and healing, so it was the perfect motif for this type of card. I paired the drawing with a light mint background and hand-lettered "Thinking of You" in a deep purple script. You can find it in the shop here. 

A number of customers have asked me if I would make a card that could be used for a child's baptism or communion. This Floral Cross card is especially true to Happy Cactus' signature style - delicate hand-drawn flowers and a strong mix of colors (in this case, a palette of pastels). I love the sweetness of this card, and how it can be used for a number of different religious occasions - baptism, communion, confirmation, and Easter, to name a few. You can find it in the shop here. 

Another great baby present combo - our Welcome Baby Boy Sailboats card pairs well with Pottery Barn Kids' Sailboat Mobile. 

Happy Friday! Here's some mellow tunes that I enjoyed this week. 

Volcano Choir - Byegone

Shovels & Rope - Lay Low

The Tallest Man On Eart - King of Spain

As I've built my business, I've sought out and come to depend on a number of apps and cloud-based programs to streamline my business procedures and make my life easier.

Here's some of my favorite services that I highly recommend:

• Inventory Management: Stitch Labs / No more crazy spreadsheets for tracking inventory! Stitch Labs is a cloud-based service that has transformed how I maintain an accurate inventory of all of my different products. Bonus: it also integrates with my e-commerce platform so I can manage incoming orders, send invoices, and create packing slips. 
• Processing Payments: 
• Square / I use the Square reader with my iPhone at craft shows and other events. It's the easiest way to quickly process credit card payments in person. The best part is that funds are usually transferred to your account within 1-2 business days. 
• Stripe / Stripe is my go-to for processing payments on custom orders and wholesale transactions. Their fees are lower than manually entering numbers into Square. It also integrates with my e-commerce platform, so web shoppers have the option of using PayPal or using a standard credit card. 
• PayPal / My go-to for sending money and receiving money from customers. 
• Shipping: USPS / For most customer orders, I use the USPS and prefer their Priority Mail service. You can order free shipping supplies (boxes, envelopes), and then print your shipping labels at home at a discounted rate. 
• Contact Manager: Highrise / Highrise has been a great solution for keeping track of various people I come into contact with - wholesale accounts, potential accounts, custom clients, and more. I can also set follow-up reminders that are emailed to me. 
• Email: Google / Google Apps for Business has been an easy and cost-effective way to maintain a business email. I also use Drive (formerly Google Docs) for all of my business documents. 
• Fax: Metrofax / In the world of stationery, the fax machine is alive and well. Many wholesale accounts prefer to fax their orders and, while I would prefer to do everything via email, I knew when I launched Happy Cactus thathaving a fax number was essential. Metrofax is a web-based fax service that's very simple to use. 

The Garden Blues Floral note card pairs well with Furbish Studio's beautiful vintage Suzani textile with silk embroidery. 

This week I've been playing a lot of catch-up on a few outstanding projects and also working furiously to meet a few self-imposed deadlines. Keeping me company, the Head and the Heart's new single, "Shake." Happy weekend! 

One of my favorite new cards in the Happy Cactus Designs greeting card collection is the bright and cheery You're the Best card. One of my aims while developing new releases for this year's National Stationery Show was to create some cards that can apply to many different "card-giving" situations. This card is great for thanking a friend or writing a note to a parent or child. I hand-lettered the greeting in a fun, cursive script, and then added a hand-drawn dotted zigzag and a striking yellow background. I think it's a really cheerful card, and many buyers and customers seem to agree, as it's quickly become a new bestseller!

Celebrate summer with a little discount off all orders placed in our online shop. Simply enter code summer13 during checkout and you'll receive 25% off your entire order. Yea!