Business Cards & Brooches

One of the first thoughts that popped into my head when I found out I'd be going to The Blogcademy was that I needed some new business cards to bring along. My last cards served me pretty well, but they were free, so they had a less than attractive logo and discount code on them, plus my style had changed a bit since then. I did a lot of research and gathered inspiration to figure out what I wanted my new cards to look like. I honed in particularly on cards handed out at Alt Summit because the attendants have some of the most creative and eye-popping business cards ever! That's when I decided I wanted to include some kind of gift to go along with the cards; something small, involving my artwork. In the end, I thought of making brooches out of shrinky dink plastic. It was a big undertaking, but so worth it!

I ordered my cards from Moo, and this time I was even happier about the results because of course, they had no watermarks. Plus I had unknowingly messed up about half of my cards during the last go-around (always make sure your white space doesn't have incredibly light grey random spots that totally ruin the whole picture!). With Moo, you can have as many different photo choices on the back of the card as you wish; I only chose about fifteen. Unfortunately I made the cards before I changed my site name, so they have all of the old information on them, but I'll be ordering again soon. Once I received my cards in the mail in record time, I bought supplies and got started on making brooches. I had never made anything with Shrinky Dinks before, so I read a lot of tutorials and watched a few videos beforehand. I absolutely loved the results! The only problem was that I had to draw and color each picture by hand. There are sheets that you can print on, but I thought they would look better and be more special hand-drawn. I made a lot, and my hand was pretty tired by the end.

I wanted to package my cards and brooches in glassine envelopes, but I ran out of time to order them because I made the brooches only a few days before the workshop. So I settled on tiny plastic bags and some really nifty striped paper clips from Staples. Though it was not my first choice, I loved the final look of the packaging because it had a very handmade quality and looked very much in line with my style.

For the headmistresses, I wanted to design an extra special pin. I ended up drawing the three of them with a tiny Blogcademy banner. The photo directly above is by Kat.

My cards and brooches were very well received at The Blogcademy, and I hope that I succeeded in making something memorable. In fact, Twinkie Chan just posted a few photos of herself wearing one of the Lily brooches, yippee! The bonus of creating the brooches is that I finally have a new product to offer in my Etsy shop! I've only sold prints and a zine since I opened, and I've been wanting to sell jewelry featuring my art, so this is a step in the right direction! I am still adding them to the shop so keep an eye out, but I will be selling brooches of my mermaid lady, desserts, the Bride of Frankenstein, Lily, and girl and boy pirates. Is there anything you'd like to see made into a brooch? Let me know, I'd love some new ideas! Also, the new Ahoy Miss Facebook page is up, so if you'd like to see some extras, be sure to like it!

On a different note, I want to say thank you so much to everyone for the love and comments we've been receiving about Sweeney. Our family is not the same without him, and we will always miss him, but it lifts our hearts to have so much kindness sent our way. Thank you!