joyeux juillet

One of the most popular features on the site is the combined guest post / packaging displays. With many retailers offering “Christmas in July” specials this week, the timing of this post could not be better! Jeanine McLeod of Cloud 9 Studios in Tampa Bay, Florida, is here to spread a little (pre) holiday cheer!

I look forward to our Christmas in July Open House every year. It gives us a chance to celebrate my favorite holiday twice! Each year in July we build miniature versions of our three Christmas sets and invite our clients to come choose which one(s) they would like to reserve in November. It is great for our clients because they can actually see what their different options are, and it is great for us because it solidifies our November calendar in July when clients pre-book and pay for their sessions. This is a great way to get some momentum in the middle of the Summer and to market to our clients for Christmas before anyone else does!

Since this is our 4th year doing the open house, I wanted to add a little something extra to the celebration. I wanted to create Swag Bags to give the first 25 people to book their Christmas Session. Our premiere limited set this year is “A Peppermint Forest”, so we went with a red/white theme for our bags. Many of the components of the Swag Bag came from different posts here at Paperie Boutique.

I used the free Holiday MOO Tag design … but changed it a bit to fit as a tag for our swag bag. (Purchase mini cards at Moo.com.)

The snowflakes came from Paper Source.

The bookmarks were printed at WHCC and have the 2nd half of the year calendar on them from the free calendar template post last week.

The wine glasses are full of cinnamon candy and we made red/white wine charms for the bottom. The wine glasses I ordered from threadartfl.com and the wine charms we made out of jewelry making materials purchased at Michaels.

The lip balm was custom ordered in a peppermint flavor to fit our theme from threadartfl.com. We ordered enough so that during Christmas we can keep them out on the front desk in a pretty bowl.

Extra items included were a Christmas ornament, tea light candles and a set of 3 blank note cards that preview a greeting card line we will be releasing this Fall.

I hope this helps to inspire you guys to put some “Paperie Boutique” ideas for good use in unique packaging for your next special event.

Thank you so much, Jeanine, for not only sharing your adorable packaging – but also how easy it is to put Paperie’s free product downloads to good use! Stop by the Cloud 9 Studios blog and tell her how much you appreciate it!

Have a great weekend!
-Robyn

P.S. Don’t forget the Photographer’s Wall Display Guide giveaway ends late tonight! Hurry up and enter to win!

but Friday, never hesitate…

An incredible end to an incredible week – today an amazing giveaway / guest post from Jamie Schultz Designs. I’ve been a fan of Jamie’s work forever and I’m beyond thrilled to have her here at Paperie!

Jamie Schultz Designs is so excited to be featured as a guest on the Paperie Boutique blog. Let me take a moment to introduce myself. I was raised in a very small town in Nebraska where my passion for all things creative developed. My grandmother owned a charming flower shop and I spent countless hours watching her design works of art right before my eyes. As a child, I dabbled in art but didn’t find my niche until I picked up a camera. At that point it was evident that photography would serve as my creative outlet.

A childhood dream was realized when I opened my studio loft in the quaint downtown area of Hudson, Wisconsin. Inspired by the charming details in my grandmother’s shop, my boutique style studio offers the capability for unique custom photography. With that came a client base who came to expect a wide array of products to preserve and showcase the images from their session. As my photography business grew so did the number of inquiries from other photographers interested in purchasing my designs for use in their own businesses. Thus, Jamie Schultz Designs was born.

Using my signature style, I create templates that are clean and simple with a splash of defining detail that will undoubtedly impress your clients. These timeless designs include collections of holiday cards, birth announcements, graduation announcements and coffee table books for engagements, high school seniors, families, and babies.

As a token of our appreciation to the loyal Paperie readers, Jamie Schultz Designs is offering a $10 gift code off $50 or more to you just for reading this blog! (Enter code: paperie10)

In addition, one lucky winner will receive a $50.00 gift code to www.jamieschultzdesigns.com

See below for details how to win!

First become a Facebook Fan of Jamie Schultz Designs.

Then post this in your status…
I’m loving http://paperieboutique.com -and- http://www.jamieschultzdesign.com

Next come back here and leave a comment here where you’ve done so … and you might just be the lucky winner. Good luck!

UPDATE-EDIT: Contest ends at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 16th.

Thanks so much Jamie (and Natasha)! Don’t forget to stop by the site, the blog, and become a Facebook Fan to show your appreciation!

UPDATE: The winner has been announced here. Thanks again to Jamie Schultz Designs and everyone who entered!

Also don’t forget that the iPhone case template kit collection by Go{4}Pro is still up for grabs through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 15th – there’s still a chance to win!

Have a great weekend everyone!
-Robyn

P.S. Look around the sidebars and say “hi” to several of our new advertisers. If you are interested in advertising with Paperie Boutique, please contact todd @ this domain. If you are a photographer and are interested in having your packaging featured – or are a vendor and are interested in having your business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured – please contact robyn @ this domain to be added to the posting schedule.

third time’s a charm

The Internet is full of photography-related forums now, both free and paid, private and public, new and old. Sometimes it gets pretty overwhelming to figure out what to choose—not only from the sheer volume of groups out there, but also deciding which ones will benefit your business and be the best investment of your time. On the 17th of last month, I gave one recommendation. Now I’m proud to feature the only other paid-forum that I’m a member of – Pinkle Toes 4 Photographers (PT4P). I have been a member of PT4P since day one of v1, and immediately renewed my membership for v2 and v3. I’ve always found it more than worth the expense for the member forum alone—nevermind the business and marketing materials, templates, card designs, website expansion tools, etc. So it is with great excitement that I introduce Michele, a.k.a. Pinkletoes, to explain more.

Spring your photography business into action with Pinkle Toes 4 Photographers! Now in its third year, PT4P is the original ever-evolving, all-in-one design, marketing, and resource center for photographers. Whether you’re just starting out or even if you’ve been in the business for years, PT4P has materials to help save you time and money and keep your business fresh and moving forward. New materials are released quarterly, but here is just a small sample of the kinds of templates created just for PT4P members:

Be sure to check out ALL of the offerings in PT4P including webinars (topics chosen by the members), album and framing actions, contract and brochure templates, and so much more.

Special Limited Time Offer: Purchase your v3 membership by March 7th and mention “Paperie Boutique” in your payment message and you’ll receive a bonus Senior Save the Date postcard template.

Thank you so much for doing a guest post, Michele! I look forward to seeing some of you at PT4P soon!

If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).

be ? mine

Today’s guest post is the best kind – pretty with benefits! One of my favorite vendors, Terry from Sassy Designs, Ltd., has dropped back by with Valentine’s Goodies for everyone.

Hi, Everyone! It’s me – Terry from Sassy Designs, Ltd.! Robyn is such a gracious host and offered to have me back a second time! Again, I am honored!

I’ve got some big plans for Sassy Designs, Ltd. in 2010 so I hope all of you will keep up with me! I’ve been so busy that I’m closing up my Etsy shop and focusing my time on my main website shop and of course doing custom orders. Until the Etsy shop is empty everything there is discounted 25% so be sure to check it out before it’s all gone!

The shop at the main website is stocked full – digital papers, design elements, card templates, and has a bunch of new things that have been added over the last few months! I’ve been working on some fun things for Valentine’s Day and as a thank you to Robyn and all of you fabulous readers I’m offering the two newest items to you for free! I hope you do fabulous things with them!

Thank you so much, Terry! When you make good use of these
freebies please leave a note in the comments and share with the class so we can all see. (You can take a peek at how I made good use of Sassy Designs background papers and a frame element in my holiday gift tags.)

More new guest post features are currently in the works! If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).

Roy G. Biv

One of the most difficult things about launching a business or rebranding is deciding “what” looks like you. And defining your brand / logo also involves selecting the colors that will in turn make you stand out above all the rest. Be it classic, funky, timeless, modern, elegant, or shabby-chic — the colors you choose will be the exclamation point to finish the statement.

So what’s a photorapher to do?

A great site to check out is colorcombos.com. The site will allow you to view various color-combos together, or create your own. You can enter a color hex value and find related color-libraries. (For instance, this is the combo library for lemon yellow.) The site even has a color combo tester.

Another big help is the “color index: Over 1100 Color Combinations, CMYK and RGB Formulas, for Print and Web Media“. And the follow-up “color index 2: Over 1500 New Color Combinations for Print and Web Media – CMYK and RGB Formulas“. (Or you can buy both of these books combined in the “complete color index: Over 2600 Color Combinations“.)

From Amazon.com: “Each color palette includes a swatch, an example of the colors used in a design, and accurate CMYK and RGB formulas, making it easy for you to find appropriate colors and implement them immediately. The palettes in “color index” are divided into categories based on the moods they evoke, while the palettes in “color index 2” are based on color families. No matter your preferred method for searching, you’ll be able to easily reference hundreds of hues at a glance.”

I have The Designers “complete index” set myself (which includes the “color index“, the “idea index“, and the “layout index“). They’ve been invaluable to me during my years as a web designer, then photographer.

UPDATE: Don’t miss another great link / site review posted in the comments!

So what are you waiting for? You have all the links. Now go play!

If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).

a moment like this

Just in time for Christmas, a new guest post that comes bearing gifts!

Hey, I’m Moon! I am an 18 year old photographer who is very interested in graphic design, photography, and art in general. I’ve just started a small business called “Moments Photography“. I have done most the designing myself and was working on digital papers for albums, business cards, etc. So I thought I might as well share them here!

I also do custom logo designs, headers, and basically anything graphic-based thing needed for photography.

Thank you so much Moon! Please visit her website Moments Photography and don’t forget to download your (FREE!) gift!

This weekend I finished these cute holiday-themed birth announcements for a client’s baby who decided to make his debut about six weeks early. The artwork is by Holly Brooke Jones at twopeasinabucket.com, commercial license available.

Last but not least, one final look at my “Christmas wrapping 2009“. You can see my two Moo mini-card free template downloads (one, two) – recently featured at the Moo blog – in action.

I’m taking another break for the holidays so Merry-Happy! See you next decade… Thanks for making the 2009 Paperie Boutique debut a smashing success!

…Robyn laid an egg…

‘Tis the season to cross-post. Sorry things are so quiet around here lately, but I’m swamped. Just posted the above photo (of my Holiday 2009 packaging) to Flickr.

Card templates shown (printed at ProDPI) are by:
1. beyond red and green (circa 2007)
2. Pink Ink Studios
3. Melissa Davis Designs

More on the packaging here and here. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

tag – you’re it.

Sorry it’s been really quiet around here lately. Most photogs are up to their eyeballs in “holiday” right now which means I haven’t put out the call for guest features so as to not impose.

That goes for me as well…so… I’m trying to keep the content new here. Promise!

I packed these up to ship tonight and thought I’d share. It’s a holiday gift for my newborn clients. A photo of their baby on the front, and graphics to make it into a gift tag on the back. I had them printed as square business cards by ProDPI.

The background “papers” and frame element on the back of the gift tag are by Sassy Designs, recently featured here at Paperie Boutique.

To complete the look, I rounded opposite corners and used a heart-shaped hole punch to create a “tag” — then finished each one up with ribbon. I’m very pleased with them. Can’t wait to hear the client reactions later this week!

threepeat

I designed these cute 1.5″ circle stickers to add to my holiday correspondence and packaging. (HO)³ – a.k.a. “HO HO HO”. Get it? I had them printed at Zazzle. (They only print ‘glossy’ stickers by the way so if you don’t like ’shiny’ you’re on your own.) Before any coupons, Zazzle charges $5 / sheet of 20 stickers.

→ download link ← (right-click, save as — this is not a layered file so what you see is what you get — I do not provide technical support for this download)

Select the 1.5″ labels from Zazzle: zazzle.com/custom/stickers. Check to make sure everything looks centered and how you want it to appear in their design-generator.

Don’t forget to swing by retailmenot.com before placing your order to see if there are any current coupon codes for Zazzle. If you’d like to create 1.5″ circle stickers with your logo to print at the same time, see this previous free download.

Merry, merry!

This Christmas-themed sticker template is ©Robyn Pollman, 2009. All rights reserved. It may not be copied, resold, made available for download or given away elsewhere, or redistributed without my written permission.

joy to the world

(Originally posted to Flickr forums in July 2007.)

This (FREE!) Christmas card template was originally designed to print as a 4×8 photo card in sRGB from WHCC. (You can view a larger demo version here.)

→ download link ← (please note this file was designed in CS2 and you must have Photoshop or Elements and know how to edit a .psd layered file — I do not provide technical support for this download)

The three images that go in the black area of the bordered image boxes should be 660×450 pixels (300 dpi) or 2.2 x 1.5″. See this previous free-download-post for information on changing the background color.

The font I used for the top and bottom of the card is “Frivolous“. It can be downloaded (FREE!) here. The text for “JOY / WONDER / FAMILY” can be hidden but not changed.

This template is ©Robyn Pollman, 2009. All rights reserved. It may not be copied, resold, made available for download or given away elsewhere, or redistributed without my written permission.

the great beyond

Ready for another fantastic guest post? Me, too! I’m excited to share the following by Sherri Sanchez of Beyond Red and Green – “Christmas and Baby Templates for the professional photographer”.

Make sure you read ’til the end for a special discount!

Hi everyone! My name is Sherri Sanchez, and I’m the designer behind Beyond Red and Green! Photography is my first love, but I have always enjoyed creating in many different ways. Four years ago when I was looking at templates for my photography business, I found that there really wasn’t much out there that suited my tastes. I didn’t like the traditional bright red and green colors and styles that I saw. I wanted something “beyond” all that so to speak, and decided to put something out there that I felt other photographers might appreciate as well. I love the simple and understated. Crisp and beautiful elements. Pretty colors and vintage touches. I feel that my design work expresses a little of each of those things, and I hope that you do too!

Beyond Red and Green offers a completely new set of Christmas templates each year. (One thing I’ve always offered on my Christmas templates is the ability to order them individually.) But I have also found a way to express my love of newborns with my beautiful baby announcement collections. I try to make each set with care and attention to detail…only creating something that I would be willing to send out for my own baby.

All of my templates come in complete layers, so that each element you see can be moved around to your liking. Colors can be changed, and image boxes can be duplicated, moved or deleted to meet your client’s needs. Text can be deleted if needed as well. Each template is sized for whcc’s specifications, and come in psd format.

Come by and check us out! And as a special thank you to Robyn for featuring my work, I’m offering $10.00 off any order of $50.00 or more to Paperie Boutique readers! Simply mention that you saw me on The Paperie Boutique, send in your order as usual, and I will make sure to refund for the discount!

Thank you so much Sherri! Make sure you stop by Beyond Red and Green and tell her “hi”!

If you’re interested in having your packaging, marketing ideas, or products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).