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!

When word got out from a recent post, I can’t even begin to describe the response. My brain, and heart, are overflowing with joy and amazement. How do you truly say thank you for something like this? Or the forum posts full of concern? Or the vendor notes of support (like the one when Moo‘s Vice President alerted several colleagues on staff to make sure I was taken care of just because he could). Or surprise gifts in the mail. Or Tweet DMs to check in – one from Pixel2Canvas on vacation in the middle of the Grand Canyon. Or the dozens of e-mails we’ve received. Or a note from a photographer who had just lost her husband and the father of her 5 children, worried about MY FAMILY. (We are so ok by comparison.) Or the little surprises in our PayPal account just because. I mean, it’s more than the human mind can really wrap around.

You go through life trying to do good and just make it day to day. You stumble. Sometimes you stumble hard. Sometimes you even hurt people. You dust yourself off eventually, regroup, reprioritize, remember you’re not really all that (well maybe all that, but often minus the potato chips), and promise yourself that if you don’t learn from those past mistakes what’s the point of the future…so buckle down and get to it… That’s been my 2010. I’ve buckled down and got to it. I had another such gut-check / perspective experience on a CT-scan table just over a week ago to make me even more focused on what’s really important.

In my recent Rangefinder piece, I wrote about the photographer community and my close relationship with my vendors. While being interviewed about this website, the article opened and closed with the following:

I let ‘Fit to Print’ evolve into Paperie Boutique, a standalone blog, through which I’m paying it forward to those who helped me along the way…..What has this experience taught Robyn? “I’ve learned to never underestimate the generosity of people and their willingness to teach and share,” [Robyn] says. “Just when you think you couldn’t possibly be more proud of your professional community, something as simple as a ‘thank you’ or ‘I can help with that’ never ceases to amaze.”

I’m used to being on the organization and donation collection end of things. It’s been humbling to be on the receiving end to say the very least.

Then yesterday the latest ‘random act of kindness’ showed up on my door step.

It’s no secret that I love HB Photo Packaging, but this was just beyond unreal. This was a surprise just for me, just because. You can read more of the details over here at Flickr – please make sure to add to the comments and thank them on behalf of our professional community!

And shop their weekend sale—HB Packaging is having a 10% off summer sale!

And speaking of vendors, we have a winner in the recent Design Aglow contest! It’s Silvine Designs / Silvine Photography:

Congrats to Michelle and another huge round of THANKS to Design Aglow for being such big supporters of this site, and for donating such fantastic prizes! Thanks to everyone who participated as well, and have a great weekend!

We’re back in limited capacity! Thanks so much to everyone for their well-wishes and support! To our new advertisers, welcome! We’ll do our best to get you added in the days ahead.

I’m happy to announce we have an awesome Design Aglow giveaway this week – their new Studio Newsletter Collection magazine-style marketing tool. Read on and see more!

Want to get in front of your target market and stay in touch with your best clients in the most beautiful way? Our quarterly newsletter collection is a must for the studio who wants to stay at the top of their market!

Pre-designed, pre-written, yet 100% adaptable, we offer up a bounty of fresh ideas for topics that easily market all aspects of your studio. Show off new products, your most current images, and inspire with fab session ideas while you keep in touch with clients and prospective clients.

Four quarterly issues used for marketing with a luxury feel, printed as quadfold and mailed to best clients or used in high-tech yet cost efficient way, online. We have included instructions to make sideways scrolling online newsletter to blow your clients away via the web.

This beautiful product includes:
• four sets (winter, spring, summer, fall) of professionally written and designed pages complete with patterned backgrounds, design elements, and space to insert your own images
• A full tutorial

PRODUCT DETAILS:
• Fully customizable, consisting of unflattened .PSD files to customize all colors, text, fonts, and images
• Each brochure contains 8 – 4 x 5.5 inch pages – easily print as an accordion at your favorite lab
• Includes product images, but not portraits
• Contains directions to make an amazing online pdf with Photoshop, Acrobat and Bridge, and a slideshow with Lightroom
• Compatible with Photoshop CS or newer, Windows and Mac

How do you win? It’s simple! Leave a comment here with a positive testimonial why you love Design Aglow.

Then go to Twitter or Facebook and post:

I love Design Aglow / @designaglow – visit Paperie Boutique / paperieboutique.com by @shutterblog to win a new Studio Newsletter Collection

One lucky reader will be picked at Random by random.org from the numbered comments. Contest ends at 11:45 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 25, 2010. Good luck!

UPDATE: The winner has now been announced here – check it out!

(Make sure you read ALL THE WAY TO THE END of this entry for a special promotion / coupon code from Moo.com!)

It’s no secret I’m a Moo-oholic and there are several reasons why… Besides exceptional customer service and product (a thick, matte cardstock finish to die for and the cutest stickers you’ve ever seen), rarely can you find a printer that will allow you to print as many designs with one order as are included with that product. If you order a pack of 100 business cards and want 100 different images on them, knock yourself out! There’s no extra charge for that!

For my latest Moo business card order, I decided to take care of several upcoming seasonal and holiday promos at once. I had designs printed for an autumn special, a Thanksgiving thank you, a Christmas gift, a special Valentine, and a “baby’s first birthday” present—I will be tucking these promotional business cards into my client orders and correspondences over the next several months.

This is where the special gets “special”. I am making three of these designs available here at Paperie Boutique, and Paperie Boutique only, as a pre-sale through 9 p.m. EDT on Friday, August 21, 2009. (After that they will be available over at “Fit to Print“.) All pre-sale template orders will be e-mailed by 9 p.m. EDT on 08.21.09.

UPDATE: As Friday, August 21, 2009, the pre-sale templates have been sent to all of those who have pre-ordered thus far. If you did not receive yours, please contact me ASAP with your order number. The rest will be sent out as the orders come in. Please allow 3-4 hours for processing from time of order placement (extra for overnight orders).

To participate in this pre-sale, first visit Fit to Print and then register here. Then click the “Find Gallery” link at top right. You will then enter the code “ten” as shown above. At the next screen, click the thumbnail-image and you will be taken straight to the ordering gallery for this product.

Moo allows you to add a full-image to the back of your cards with your logo and contact info (not included) or use their design templates: “The reverse of the cards has up to 10 lines of text available – and a variety of different design templates. You can choose a landscape or portrait card, upload your company logo, or another image – or, if you have a design already, you can upload a design for the complete card back.” (Recommended full-image size 1039 x 697 pixels – 300dpi.)

So great! You’ve got your card front designs. You know what you want to do on the backs. What’s next?

Well funny you should ask because Moo is offering a special promotional code for Paperie Boutique viewers. Go to the Moo.com website using this link. Use the code H7DNEK for free shipping on a pack of 50 Business Cards.

The fine print: The Moo promo code H7DNEK expires on August 25th, 2009, and it is only valid for new MOO customers. You must use this link to begin your order with Moo. You are NOT required to purchase the designs shown above to take advantage of the Moo coupon code—it is available to all new Moo customers!

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments. Now get MOOving. These sales won’t last forever!