{Snap Conference Recap}

I'm back and catching up on sleep from an AMAZING weekend at Snap Conference. It was held near Salt Lake City in Utah at Thanksgiving Point. Such a great venue for an event like this. Everything was all together and it was just beautiful!

I got to catch up with friends I'd met last year and made lots of new friends too!

My good friend, roommate and AMAZING jewelry designer Amy Cornwell. We were all gifted a beautiful necklace from her with the theme of the conference. I'll show you a pic later this week. I love it.

 My new friend Kelsey from Poofy Cheeks. I get some of my packaging supplies from her! I was so excited to meet her in real life! Kelsey donated to the swag bags too! I'm earing one of her awesome hair ties today!

Tara, Becca, and I right before the dance party! Love these ladies.

The conference was fabulous. Just what I needed to regroup and refocus my goals for my blog and shop. The sessions were great! I attended Blogging Basics, Happy Chaos (balancing the business with home), and a few others like Blogging For Good. Amy wrote a great recap on that session. 

The class was lead by Ethan Austin, Jeannett Gibson, and Meg Duerkson. It was by far the best session I attended. I want to use my tiny little blog to do good for others as often as I can. The Legal Matters class was also great and very informative. The SEO class just hurt my brain. Can someone please write SEO for dummies? 

When we weren't in classes, we were chatting and eating, and staying up way too late! I'll give you more of a behind the scenes tour of Snap on Friday when I share my Instagrams with you so stay tuned for that!

Have a happy day friends!

{DIY: business cards}

Hey there! I hope your week is off to a great start! It's not too late to link up to Made With Love so if you got crafty or cooked or baked something awesome last weekend feel free to share it! You can link up HERE.

I'm headed to SNAP in just a few short weeks so I thought it would be fun to share with you how I design my own business cards! I just ordered a bunch today! Wanna see?

I use Vistaprint to order my cards. Fast. Easy. They always come out great!!!

First I take pictures on a white background leaving LOTS of white space for my text. 

I like to use my sewing supplies in my business cards. You can use whatever you want! Last time I used covered buttons...

This time I used a sweet little vintage dish filled with thread and my pin cushion that I made a few years ago.

Yes, I color code my pins according to the fabric in the cushion. I'm OCD like that. Can you tell that I've since learned how to take better pictures and edit them properly?!?! Ha! I learn as I go folks.

Ok so now you have your pictures so it's time to have fun with text and other goodies.

I added some washi tapes strips. Tutorial for that HERE.

Cute right??? Then I went over to my new favorite photo editing site PicMonkey to add in all my text!

FRONT:

BACK:

So fun! I love them!!! 

Now, you just upload them to Vistaprint and choose "Premium Cards/Upload Your Own Design".

Make sure the files are business card sized when you upload {2x3.5} so they print correctly. 

That's it! Easy peesy right? Hopefully my instructions are clear. I am by no means a graphic designer! If you have any Q's I will do my best to answer them in comments!

Blog Sugar 2011 {a recap}

Last Sunday I attended an AMAZING event called Blog Sugar. Rachel Reeves is the mastermind behind this event and she and her team put together a very special day for all of us bloggers!

photo credit

The décor and food were really fun!

It was blog conference meets church. This particular conference is faith based and Christ was certainly the focus. Using our blogs to bring glory to Him was a major theme throughout the day. So refreshing.

I learned about balancing family and being a small business owner, finding my niche, creating community on my blog, and really connecting with my readers. I took away so much from this day that I know will really help me in my blogging.

We were given swag bags filled with all kinds of goodies too!

I can’t wait to use all the note cards and printables to re-do my inspiration board!

All in all, it was such a great day catching up with bloggy friends and making lots of new ones! I can’t wait for next year! I hope it’s a full weekend!

I have a fun tutorial planned for tomorrow so stay tuned! Happy Wednesday everyone!

Elizabeth

{Creative Estates Recap}

 

 

{photo by Food, Wine, & Mod Podge}

This last weekend I took an opportunity to attend a blog conference called Creative Estates. I had never been to an event like this before, but they promised me cupcakes! 

At the crack of dawn on Thursday I was picked up by Nicole and Kristen and we began our six hour road trip to Chandler Arizona! I had never actually met these girls before, but we have lots of mutual friends in real life and “knew” each other through Twitter and the Blogisphere. I was cautiously optimistic that they weren’t serial killers. Turns out they weren’t and the six hour drive went by lightning fast because of the non stop chatter all the way to Chandler. Loved getting to know these girls!

Once we arrived it was time to check in! Oh the SWAG!!! I was really not expecting that and we got some really cool stuff! Here are some of my faves…

A necklace from the Vintage Pearl that says “live creatively”, a super awesome headband from Craftee McGee, and a really fun business card holder from Taradara!

After checking in, it was time to meet my roomies Danielle and Linda. I had also never met them except for the occasional tweets, so again there was that hope that they weren’t super crazy. And they weren’t! In fact they were fabulous!

That first night we all attended an ice breaker event at a local restaurant…with really yummy tacos! This is where I cashed in on that cupcake! Look at this AMAZING dessert table designed by Kim of Tom Kat Studios!

{photo by Food, Wine, and Mod Podge}

Thursday night was also when I started to get to know some of the other handmade ladies that I have been Twitter friends with for a while now. I can’t even begin to tell you how fabulous my new friends are. I love how the Lord works. More on them tomorrow :)

Friday, I attended the sessions  “Inside the Creative Business”  and “PR 101”. I got to hear from some very successful ladies about how they started their businesses. My mind is SPINNING from the PR talk. Can’t wait to go back through my notes and get going on some of that stuff.

Saturday, I attended the sessions “Happy Chaos” and “Blog Your Passion”. “Happy Chaos” talked a lot about balancing your business with your family. I was so glad to hear I’m not the only one who struggles there! “Blog Your Passion” was about being yourself and letting your personality shine through on your blog. I hope I do okay at that, but I know there is always room for improvement. “Blog Your Passion” also talked about how to handle negativity which can REALLY bring you down.

All of the sessions were really fun. This conference was such a great opportunity for me and I am so glad that I went! I am still processing through all that I learned and I can’t wait to see how my little business will grow from my experience there.

Stay tuned because tomorrow I am am going to chat all about these lovely ladies and their handmade businesses!

{photo taken by Sandy of Sandy A La Mode}

{Creative Estates}

At the crack of dawn I’ll be heading to my very first blog conference! I am really nervous and REALLY excited to meet some of my blog mentors and friends in real life! It’s going to be a blast!

I packed as lightly as I could and am really proud of how little I am actually taking! Everything fits in one suitcase and a reusable grocery tote :) Here is a peek at what’s coming with me…

 

Think I’m bringing enough shoes?

I am SURE I am forgetting something vital. I did remember my business cards and my Spanx so we’re all good there :)

Do you follow me on Twitter? If not I am @sewchatty and I’ll be tweeting from the conference if you’d like to hear what I’m up to!

Check back tomorrow because I’m featuring some AWESOME links from this weeks Made With Love Party!

Have a happy day!