I hope everyone has a spooky evening!
October Around The Web
Happy Friday, friends! It has finally started to feel like Fall but I definitely enjoyed the warmer weather we had most of the month. This October had some big moments — I moved back to my original team at Hallmark in the lettering studio, we celebrated Dale's 26th birthday, my sister Sophie spent her birthday weekend visiting us in St. Louis, and of course we attended a Halloween party (with our whole group dressed as Mario Kart). Here are a few of my favorite finds this month:
- I loved Paper & Stitch's Fall Style Guide, I am feeling inspired to start making my own real mood boards.
- Dreaming of Dubai...
- This moon party would be lovely, Halloween season or not.
- A beautiful home in LA, especially the light and airy pink bedroom.
- Mustard inspiration.
- Sugar & Cloth shared this beautiful pillow DIY, and my only hesitation is whether or not our kitty Otto would destroy it...
- One of the highlights of my month was receiving my first Oui Fresh Beauty Box! I have to say I am really impressed with the quality and selection in the first box, I can't wait for my November one to arrive.
- These blush boots are on my wish list.
- I'm planning on testing out this minestrone recipe next month!
- So many statement sleeves
Happy Halloween!
Hallmarker Portraits by Ty Hester
Today I am sharing a recent portrait I had taken as part of a project by the talented Ty Hester! She choose to take portraits of Hallmarkers (and she painted the backdrop too!) for one of her #My5Days, you can view her full gallery here!
Halloween Inspiration
I've never loved orange so this year I decided to round up some Halloween inspiration that was a bit darker than the traditional orange and black. I love the idea of hosting a Halloween dinner party complete with an elaborate table setting — hopefully this gets you excited for this spooky time of year!
Stefan Kunz Visits Hallmark
Today Stefan Kunz visited Hallmark to give a talk and share his process with a group of Hallmarkers who love lettering. I was lucky enough to attend both sessions, and really enjoyed seeing how he creates his work — especially his work process with the iPad Pro. After watching him work I am really hoping to be able to test out lettering on an iPad very soon! You can visit Stefan's website and Instagram to see more of his work. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the day:
- Stefan began his talk with the idea that "Words Matter," and he realized early on that people would read and be impacted by what he choose to say on Instagram.
- He choose to focus on positive messages, especially ones from the Bible, because he believes that art is an expression of what you do and you can choose to be intentional about it or not.
- Creating is the integral part of the process, but it is also important to take that one final step to push the piece further. This could be adding in a second layer to the piece that someone may not notice at first, or just adding in more detail to make your work more dynamic.
- He wants to think that there is no surface I can't use for lettering.
- Keep going. There are no shortcuts.
Thanks for sharing your work with us, Stefan!
Hallmark, CVS, and Stand Up To Cancer
Last year my team at Hallmark had the opportunity to design a group of cards for a partnership between Hallmark, CVS, and Stand Up To Cancer. Here are a few of the final designs for this special collection:
