too fruity

 This weekend I was working on a logo for nutrition business and they wanted a fruit or nut incorporated into the design.  So, I dusted off my wacom tablet and had a blast illustrating an avocado, blueberry, almond, kiwi and a pomegranate.  So tell me, which drawing is your favorite?

design: bar mitzvah invitation

I have been a busy bee designing invitations lately and I'm really excited about all of them! Here is my first finished design so far this year. This one is for a bar mitzvah.

new website splash page

I loaded a new splash page on my website to help direct traffic to the area of Creative Stash they would like to see. I'm so excited to have this step done. I still need to cater each section appropriately to the topic but, this is a start in the right direction.

desert baby

I had the pleasure of working Amanda at Desert Baby to help create an identity for her new online shop. She was in need of a banner artwork for her shop and a business card. Desert Baby specializes in sewn handmade goodies for moms and the lil' ones that rule their lives. I based her shops design on retro graphics (since I knew she is fond of retro) and a desert color scheme.

Online Shop Banner


Business Card Design

And on another note, Amanda made an awesome little painter apron for Hudson's 3rd birthday. He loves it. And she now sells this sweet little painter's apron in her shop!

logo redesign

I created my biz logo for Creative Stash 3 years ago when I was selling handmade paintings and gifts at a local farmers/craft market. I signed up to be a vendor and scrambled to create a logo and print business cards. I have wanted to redo it for awhile but, the timing was never quite right. This year, Creative Stash has branched off into a few different avenues and I felt it was time to revisit my logo and create a professional and cohesive look.

I redesigned it to be a clean, simple design based off the color wheel and used own handwriting ta-boot! Remember when I created my own font? I am thrilled to be able to use my handwriting, it gives the design a personal touch. I'm really excited to begin using my new logo. Hopefully, it doesn't take me forever to get it implemented on my website, blog and etsy shop.

art party invitation

For Hudson's birthday we were originally thinking of having an art party theme. We didn't end up going that route but, I did create a fun painting party invitation and wanted to share.

You may download this invitation for free and use this design for personal use. Invitation size is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and will fit in a standard A2 (4 3/8" x 5 3/4") envelope. Please give credit to me, Kristen Fagan (Creative Stash) or link to my blog wherever possible. Enjoy!

In creating this invitation I used the Adobe Photoshop brush plug-in Room122 Brushes created by Nathan Brown www.room122.com. Thank you Nathan!

Fashion trends and project ideas

Fashion Trends

Are you a recessionista? No matter what your income, looking good doesn't have to weigh down your wallet. Recently, Jamie Hogsett and Sara Hardin of Soft Flex Company, went on the hunt at Kohl's and Target to see what sort of affordable fashion they could find. And of course, paired the latest fashion trends with some of Soft Flex's free jewelry projects ideas that match.

We hope to update this section a few times a year with current and affordable fashion options that pair with our current and affordable free project ideas for accessories to keep you looking hip. I created the graphics and layout for this new web feature and I hope you will take a look by clicking Fashion Trends!

rise up for the homeless and hungry

I did my first pro-bono graphic project recently. I had the honor of creating the logo design for the first major fundraising event being produced with the Phoenix Philanthropists: Rise Up for the Homeless and Hungry. This event is meant to bring awareness and action to the homeless and hunger situation in the Phoenix metro area.

The event will be a 24-25 hour marathon of standing out in the heat of the Arizona summer to bring awareness and show people what it is like to deal with the extreme summer elements here. Proceeds and food donations will benefit St. Mary's Food Bank and other donations, like clothing, will benefit Children First Academy.

I am so happy to have been able to help out. Working with Thomas, the event organizer, was a real pleasure. He knew just what he wanted to convey and is so passionate about this event and for his community, it was very humbling.

Here are some of my sketches while working on this project:

initial sketchbook ideas

3 logo options for review

The event is tentatively set for June 4th & 5th, which is the week of St. Mary's Hunger Action Day and also the kickoff week of their "Send Hunger Packing" campaign for the summer. This will also be a great kick-off event for their summer water drive. There will be entertainment throughout the event ranging from movies, bands, karaoke, vendors, educational speakers, etc. Participants will raise pledge money for their efforts. Spectators and visitors to the event can participate in raffles, drop-off donations and participate in other ways to support the cause.

design: vector ribbon

While working on a logo design this weekend for a local charity event, I managed to get in a quick tutorial for drawing a ribbon.

This video showed me how to create a smooth silver ribbon with multiple folds in Illustrator. Ribbons are used all over the place but, really they are challenging to make. I applaud tutvid.com for such a great tutorial, it is really easy to follow. They made a complicated image very easy for me to recreate.

Check this video out at Hi-Res here: http://www.tutvid.com/tutorials/illustrator/tutorials/vectorRibbons.php

digital sketch: spring flowers

I have been playing with my wacom graphics tablet today! Here are some fun spring flowers I created to use in an upcoming Soft Flex Company E-newsletter.

tread lightly

In anticipation of Earth Day 2009, Threadless (graphic t-shirts designed by the community) had a green t-shirt challenge. The challenge was to create a design based on the concept of thinking GREEN! Is it a cleaner environment? Sustainable resources? Renewable energy? Global responsibility? All of the above? Or maybe some other ideas…

I entered my first ever graphic contest with the design above. It was not the winner (not even close) but, it was a nice break from the everyday design I do. It was fun to think on and create. In total there were 461 submissions and some really stellar designs! I was blown away at some the artwork submitted. Check out the designs from the Threadless Loves Green challenge.

Here is my submission and some of my favorites:

final wedding invitation design

Here is the final wedding invitation design for Kelly & Joe! All shipped out and arriving in guests homes shortly! Wedding invitations are your guests' introduction to the unique ambiance of your special day. I can create customized wedding invitations you are sure to treasure. Kelly and Joe's invitation package is printed on beautiful Eco-Friendly 100% recycled paper that consists of 30% post-consumer waste, this nice cool white has an eggshell finish. The black envelope and enclosure card are also made from recycled paper with at least 30% post-consumer waste. Email me for invitation pricing and to get started!

design: software image package

Out of the blue one day I received a call about some freelance design work. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized I received the lead due to a recommendation from a previous client. It was nice to know my client was pleased with my abilities enough to recommend me. It's great to stretch your creativity and work on new designs with new clients. Extra time can be tough to fit in to our daily lives sometimes but, for me it is definitely welcomed.

This particular design job called for a logo, icons and a software image package.

soft flex's secret is out!

I work for Soft Flex Company, a beading wire manufacturer and jewelry supply company. We have been hyping our new product launch for the past few weeks. We unveiled our new items at the CHA show in California last week and at the Best Bead Show in Arizona this week. Today, we let the secret out on our website and the items are finally online for purchase! With the new product launch I also re-designed our homepage as seen above.

We have introduced 9 new color wire sets called Soft Flex Wire Trios. Along with the color wire sets we introduced 10 new Soft Flex beading wire colors. You can now find the largest color assortment of beading wire with 34 color variations at Soft Flex company!

We have introduced the world's first "green", eco friendly beading wire, called Extreme Flex Wire available now in 24K gold. Sterling silver & champagne will be coming soon. This product is not a steel product. Heavy metals are not used in the process and therefore this product is far better on the environment in its manufacturing process.

We have also recently introduced our economy beading wire line for craft and hobbyists called Econoflex wire available in 8 color options.

We'll be launching tons of new free project ideas using the Trios, Extreme Flex and Econoflex wire in February. If you don't know how to use color, we'll show you!

See what my creative friends are busy doing this week:

Sara Hardin (AKA SoftFlexGirl) loves the new colors in Soft Flex Wire! The Trios are SO COOL!

Jamie Hogsett made new earrings!

design: wedding invite

I sent off my sister's test wedding invitation this week. I am really digging it. It changed quite a bit from the original sketches (of course). The final design is loose and casual which is just what the bride and groom were looking for.

I purchased the paper materials from a company called paper-source and am happy with the quality. The white paper I used is "Eco-White" which is 100% recycled with 30% post consumer waste (PCW), and is a nice cool white with an eggshell finish. The black cards and envelopes are also currently produced with the new recycled content. My printer is slightly low on ink so, once I replace that the ink it will print without any lines.


I am very curious to see how the invitation arrives and whether the post office with be happy with the tiny shell placed on the cover of the invite. It pokes the envelope a little but, I'm hoping it is placed in a location that doesn't bother the postal machines. If not, and the envelope arrives in poor condition (or with a nasty postal note, haha) we'll rethink that embellishment and find something a bit smaller but, hopefully everything will arrive a-ok!

design: reflection

While working on some freelance design this weekend for Ultimate Online Backup, I managed to get in a quick tutorial for making a logo reflection in Illustrator.

I can also do a reflection in Photoshop, but I wanted to learn how to do it in Illustrator (vector). The advantage? I can scale it up for billboard if I wanted. That’s the power of vector graphics. All you have to do is make it once and you can change the size as many times as you like, without losing quality. And typically, logos are best created in Illustrator for this very reason.

This is a new skill I'm sure I'll use time and time again. It creates a very clean and shiny end result that has become ever so popular!

design: tropical flowers

My sister Kelly is getting married this year. I have been working on her invites and am almost at the point where I can finally print everything out and assemble. Kelly and Joe are having a destination wedding in Mexico. Her colors are a striking black and hot pink and she wanted to incorporate tropical flowers.

I drew these tropical flowers on the computer with my wacom (really need to use this more!!!) and they will be printed on the final invite as part of the background with the accent of hot pink. I sent Kelly 3 options for the closure today and am awaiting her feedback. I'm excited to see the final invite come together!

sonora star jewelry

My friend Carla sent me this beautiful gift last week. These pieces are from her handcrafted Sonora Star Jewelry Collection. The color schemes she has created within that collection are a gorgeous, rich mixture of jewel tones that are oh so flattering. Plus, she strings all her beaded creations on the best quality beading wire, Soft Flex! Carla sells the creative hand earrings pictured above online and, as of right now, the extra long pearl necklace can be purchased at their booth or you can contact them via email to inquire.

I met Carla in 2001 when I began working as a graphic designer in a local bead shop/bead supply catalog company. We have stayed in touch all these years and I am so thankful for her friendship. Her and her husband Mark are wonderfully genuine people. They have since moved to Alpine, AZ and began their own jewelry company, Black Mountain Jewelry. They sell their handmade jewelry designs online and at art festivals around the state. Check out the awesome press coverage Black Mountain Jewelry recently received for their gifts that give back. I am proud to be their go to designer for all things graphic and I am ever so grateful for the beautiful gifts they have sent me. Thank you for being such good friends ~ love you!

design: software icons

I was recently contracted to create a new icon set for a software product. I took on the job thinking it was logo design as usual but, quickly realized icon design is a whole new ball game.

I had some obstacles to overcome: the files needed to be created in a new program specific for icon design (which I needed to learn fast!), it needed to be scaled down itty bitty and easily recognizable, it had to created for pc and mac (which of course are different in file type and size) and I needed to animate the icon for when the program was is "processing" mode.

It was a busy couple of weeks working on the above design and I am really happy to have had the opportunity. It's now a new skill set I can add to my portfolio. I enlisted a good deal of online resources to help me on my quest to design my first icon. Here are a few goodies that helped out:

• Creating Windoxs XP Icons
• 7 Principles of Effective Icon Design
• 10 Mistakes in Icon Design

Here is a quick step process of how this design came about.

My initial researched yielded these sketches. From here the client chose to pursue #4.

I went on to offer some choices in computer style and color schemes. We ended up working with blue & green colors for the 2 versions of software they supply.

The client choose to go with the open computer design. I showed multiple sizes of the icon and we tested how it looked it on the program.

Although it looked good on paper it needed to "pop" off the screen better. After tweaking the color, simplifying the background, changing the border to white from gray and thickening the outline of the computer it really wowed! Here is the final result:

This really was a fun project. I enjoyed the challenges and designing something so different from what I do on a daily basis.

wordle

My friend Lisa found this website that generates "word clouds" and posted it on her blog. I generated one too by putting my blog address into the Wordle field and above is what I got (click to enlarge). So cool!

From the Wordle website:

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. "

Create your own.