Cardstock Color Options

All of our handmade paper products can be customized to your affair's color scheme. Below you will find colors charts of some of our stock. This is not the complete list and if there is a color you are looking for but don't see below, please let us know as we may have it.

Elegantly Sweet Portable Pocket(c) Invitation

We have added a new member to our Wedding Invitation family. Her name is Elegantly Sweet. She is featured in the Winter 2010 Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine. (Doesn't she match the cover beautifully?)

Let your intentions to your guests be known with this fabulous elongated Save The Date in it's own mini portable pocket(c).

Then, really wow them with the layered invitation & rsvp tucked with love inside their own square pocket. The matching wrap label on the outer envelope really ties the suite together and makes a fabulous first impression.

Of course, Elegantly Sweet is available in any color combination of your choosing. Start the process by visiting our Etsy Shop here.

Jalouise Tank Top Giveaway Winner!

Well...I hope everyone had just a fantabulous holiday. With many people heading back to work today, they are not in the happiest of moods. So let's start off the day announcing the winner of our Jalouise Tank Top Giveaway! We got the opportunity to interview designer Krishala Burchill in this post. She was kind enough to offer a giveaway to one of our readers of their choice of size and color one of her lovely tanks. Let's see what Random.org has to say...

Post Number 45 came from Kym! She had this awesome comment...

Thank you so much Kym for you comment and congratulations! We'll have more exciting giveaways on the horizon! Thank you to everyone that entered.

OMG! Luke Wilson said my name!

Well, not exactly. Actually he says the name of the city I live in during the new At&t commercial. It's just so funny & exciting when you don't live in a huge city, but hear it mentioned somewhere. David Letterman once mentioned our city on his show as "the place to go if you want to get away with a crime." Since we have lots of crimes that never get solved. 10 years ago an airplace crashed into a hotel and we were all over the national news then. Various weather disasters also put us into the news alot.

Hmmm, now that you think about it, all of these thinsg are kind of negative huh? Well, we have a really, really, famous baseball player that is from here (and happens to be my cousin). So I guess that's positive.

An Interview with Krishala Burchill plus a GIVEAWAY

We were pleased to have the opportunity to talk with Krishala Burchill who's designs are now available on Etsy. Check out all the info and then see below for a fab giveaway!

Describe your design style. Jalouise is the world of fashion’s newest addition, showcasing trendy new designs on custom T shirts, quality comfort clothing, and stylish accessories that add a taste of stylish sparkle to any wardrobe! Jalouise strives to stay two steps ahead of the hottest fashions to be hitting runways nationally, and yet pays close attention to both customer needs and satisfaction.

What's your favorite color? Red!

What's book is on your nightstand right now? Sad, but true ''Skinny Bitch''


Where do you get your inspiration? The inspiration of Jalouise bloomed from the unique vision of an at-home mom. Krishala obtained the firm conviction that with both determination and creativity, a successful company could be formed that would cater to people interested in both comfort and style. Krishala took her large vision and applied it towards creating a small company, which affectionately became known at Jalouise. As Jalouise has continued to grow and expand its territories nationally, its products and fashions have become notorious for becoming welcome additions to wardrobes internationally.

How do your items take on their sense of character? Jalouise utilizes a combination of color and universally appealing themes to captivate the attention and adoration of fans everywhere. Jalouise devotes an abundance of time and energy into ensuring that its images, products, and creations are ones that are bold, diverse, and edgy, but that still obtain firm roots in broad-based customer appeal. By striving to merge the world of unique charm with quality products strategically designed for durability, Jalouise has developed a product line that has become notorious for pleasing even the most deliberate of shoppers!

What do you think your biggest challenge as an artisan is? As an artisan and/or designer, my greatest challenge is to ensure that my product line always expresses new and fresh ideas and components. It is my goal to constantly come out with what will be appealing in a fashion-sense next week, or next month. Fashion changes constantly. Styles need be be born, re-born, adopted, and adapted every single day. While constantly staying one step ahead in the fashion-world, as a designer, I feel it is my responsibility to ensure the quality of the items and lines I am developing. My biggest challenge, therefore, is really to stay ten steps ahead of the game in terms of ideas, and to remain firm in my goal to please every customer with products marked by strength, and quality.

What is the most cherished item you have in your shop? The most cherished item I have in my shop? Surely, this would be my fans and customers! My primary objective as a designer and a store-owner is to make sure that my customers and my fans are number one. It is because of their support and admiration that I have been able to initiate my own clothing line. Jalouise develops its products based on the needs and desires of its customers. Therefore, it is my firm conviction that ultimately, the single most important thing to me, as a designer and a company executive, are my supporters – and their continued satisfaction.

Any unique ways you market your shop? (on etsy or otherwise): Jalouise periodically picks random fans and customers and will send them items that we are considering adding to our product line. These products or gifts, are designed to show customers that we appreciate their support, inspire them to provide us with continued feedback, and to encourage them to be a part of our production team. It is our company’s goal to please each customer. Therefore, we pride ourselves in introducing potential products to our already existing customers, seeing what they think, and inviting their ideas and thoughts to enter into the realms of our creative design department.

What is the best thing about owning your own Etsy shop? Etsy provides Jalouise with the unique opportunity to branch out and introduce itself to markets that have currently been unexplored. By opening its doors to Etsy, Jalouise hopes to formulate long-lasting business relationships with partners, develop a strong base of creative customers who enjoy the delightful combination of comfort and style, and to develop a direct line of communication between corporate management, and customer needs.

Jalouise by Krishala Burchill is definately one shop you will want to heart. In fact, you could win a tank top just by doing so! Krishala has generously offered a tank top (your choice of size and color (except black)) for one lucky reader! The rules are so simple. All you need to do is any of the following, them come back here and make a comment telling us you did so. You can do as many of these items as you like and then make a comment for each item letting us know. Each comment is an entry into the contest!

1. Visit Jalouise on Etsy and "heart" her shop and leave us a comment about your favorite item of her's = 1 entry

2. Tell us what celebrity would look awesome in Krishala's designs in a comment to us = 1 entry

3. Call, write or email a friend or loved one and let them know how much they mean to you! Then come back here and tell us about it = 1 entry

4. Subscribe to my little blog (via the handy button on the right) and leave a comment about it = 1 entry

5. You can also enter by twittering about the giveaway = up to 2 entires (one for each tweet!) and coming back here and telling me about it. Please include my twitter account in the update: i'm @sspaperie on twitter!

6. You can also enter by blogging about this giveaway and telling me about it here = 1 entry

7. You can also enter by doing a facebook update about this giveaway with a link, (don't forget to "fan" us via the link on the right!) and tell us here = 1 entry

8. Please just make sure that each entry is its own comment =  more chances for you to win!!!

Thank you and good luck!!! Please do not include your email address within the actual comment for privacy.

A holiday tradition at Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort is there giant gingerbread house. Check out this time lapse video of the 3-day build. I bet it smells yummy in there! Have you ever built a gingerbread house?

Embarrassing myself

Welcome back from the long Thanksgiving weekend! Did you get filled up? Did you watch the parade and football? Did you shop on black friday? Did you make a fool of yourself in front of extended family? I answered "yes" to all of the above!

So we made the drive from Indiana to Alabama on Wednesday morning and stayed through Friday evening. We spent Thursday with waaaay too many cooks in the kitchen. Hubby & BIL smoked the turkeys and the ladies all did the rest. So this resulted in black turkey, runny green bean cassarole and over-garlic-ed mashed potatoes.

So then Black Friday rolled around. Now, I'm not one to get up at 2 am and elbow people, but I do like a good deal. So at about 7 we drove to the Huntsville Target to see what was left. So we got there, and I was able to pick up a few things on sale to cross that last few people off my list (yeah! I'm done!). (HERE COMES THE FOOL PART!) As we are strolling through the boys' clothing section looking at pj's. I proceed to hit a pole with my cart. This pole has a fire extinguisher strapped to it. I must mention that I am deathly afraid of these things. Growing up, my father had them all over the house. They were big and heavy and he always told me to stay away from them because they could explode. Well, I'm trying to get around this pole with my cart and to top strap breaks and the F.E. is just kind of dangling there. As I reach for it, the other one breaks and there it goes! It crashes on the floor, explodes and starts spewing the white chemical everywhere. There just happen to be 3 Target workers standing there that are on their walkies in a flash "We have an emergency!" Hubby and I are tripping all over each other trying to get away from the still spewing FE. He grabs up the cart and pulls it along behind us (we did just work really hard to find all that stuff!). He asks me if I really wanted those PJ's for our son. "Um, yes" I say meekly. He pulls his shirt over his nose and runs back for them. At this point, the entire back half of the store is filled with white dust clouds. I can't see him. Will he be able to breath? Will security grab him up? Will he get the pj's?

He emerges and we high-tail it to the checkout while the workers are still dristracted. We pay for all of our items. While laughing at ourselves, we hear people all around us talking about it. We can still see the white clouds from the checkout just gettting thicker and thicker. I snap a quick pic with my iphone and we are outta there! I am so glad that I don't live there and I only embarrassed myself in front of my in-laws. Have you every totally made a fool of yourself at a holiday function? Please share and make a comment!

Thank you to our Soldiers!

Good morning! THANK YOU to all our veterans today. We often take for granted the people that most deserve our gratitude. Make sure you take time today to kiss a soldier! Enjoy these lovely little patriotic finds from Etsy. Please leave a comment and let us know if you are celebrating today!

Little Gobblers

Call me crazy, but when the holidays come around, one of my favorite things is to dress my 2 boys in matching outfits. Only problem is that they are 7 and 1, that's a big range when you are talking about finding matching outfits. But they are boys so they always get the shaft when it comes to cute clothes anyways. So they usually end up in "coordinating" outfits instead of "matching" outfits. Hey, don't mock me, they make for awesome photos! Today, I've gathered a collection of too cute handmade items for your little gobblers for this Thanksgiving.

Preparing for Holiday Sales - Part 1

(stockings by rikrak.etsy.com)

Well, it's officially November and I already feel behind preparing for Christmas season. Being a retail stationery shop, Christmas Cards are a huge thing for us and a big chunk of our fiscal income. But preparing for Christmas while the kids are still on summer break just isn't my style. However, I am determined to be prepared this year! (don't I say that every year?) This list of ways to prepare for the holiday season are gathered from the awesome members in the Etsy Forums. Below you will find the first 10 of the growing list. Please make a comment and let me know what you are currently doing to prepare for this busy Holiday Season!

1. Buy plenty of packaging now. It's never fun to get twenty orders but realize halfway through packaging that you only have 2 mailers. Or, put Uline in your favorites. Their shipping time is A-MAZING. RoyalMailers.com is another great one and they were to my house incredibly fast...5% off with code "etsy" and free shipping. And of course, check our Etsy supply shop for cute ribbon and such for your packaging.

2. Keep your supplies plentiful. Some of us do make-to-order, and this is especially important. Even if you don't, it's important to keep the supplies for popular items that you do remake in stock. You never know when you might be featured on the latest popular blog and get deluged by orders.

3. Start fiddling with your work schedule now. You might be putting in longer hours, but figure out how you can get more work time in at times that AREN'T well into what should be snooze time. Start enlisting your family for help.

4. Decide on a holiday shipping schedule. Just when is it that you'll stop shipping? Remember, USPS can be slow in December.

5. Send out a newsletter to your mailing list letting them know of your holiday schedule. You don't want your loyal customers missing those important dates.

6. Sell Gift Certificates. Have you thought about making sure gift certificates are listed and ready for sale? These can be helpful this time of year for those late shoppers. Offer them via email, allowing your and your customer a way to get past slower delivery times. For more about gift certificates, read this.

7. Do some Christmas shopping now. If you haven't thought of it, suggest swaps to a few favorite Etsian. There'a a great list of traders here: http://etsytraders.blogspot.com/

8. Don't forget ordering your cards, labels, etc. I always do a Christmas calendar and design my own cards, but I always have to cram it in while I'm buried in work. Then, I run into the same shipping problems that my customers do. I'm telling myself to avoid that trap this year. (And I hope I do!)

9. Start posting Christmas items if you haven't already. They're selling right now--really!

10. Make some meals ahead and freeze them. You might need them, and it will certainly help take some of the pressure off you.

Stay tuned for the next segment. Don't forget to leave us a comment on what you are doing now to prepare for this holiday season!

Pack your Flip Flops!

Hot off the press brand new wedding invitation design now available! I'm calling it the Island Getaway. It starts off with a so cute Save The Date that features the wording, "You are cordially invited to...our honeymoon?"

Then comes the gorgeously festive pocketfold invite. featuring palm frond patterned cardstock (it's shimmery!). All of your wedding details are tucked neatly inside the pocket.

Your guests will being rushing to rsvp so that they can start packing their flip flops and sunscreen!

It's cold outside right now, but this invitation sure warms me up! Color & design can change to fit your event's style. This invitation is available for purchase at our Etsy store here.

New Blog!

Hey ya'll - this is the new web address for the Sugared Ink blog. If you are looking for previous posts, please look here