all mixed up

Today we have a vendor / guest post and giveaway from The Designer’s Mix!

The Designer’s Mix website has officially launched after much anticipation, and is growing weekly as we add new items for you. We currently offer fun alphabet sets, unique papers & textures, beautiful templates, and tons of handy dandy digital elements such as buttons, tags, and frames. There is much more coming your way soon, too!

What’s great about The Designer’s Mix is its flexibility and quality. All of our products are designed to be mixed, matched, and used in a variety of ways. We want you to get creative and rock our products on your cards, albums, web designs, newsletters, and so much more.

Not to mention, there is a freebies section on the site! Yes, FREEBIES! New freebies are available monthly, so we encourage you to check back each month.

Onto the fun part… TWO very lucky people have the chance of winning a $45 gift certificate to spend at The Designer’s Mix. To win a gift certificate, head over to our Facebook page, “like” us and tell us what you think about our stuff. We will randomly pick 2 winners from the comments on the Facebook page on Monday, June 27th.

We are also going to give someone a $75 gift certificate! If you want to aim high for the $75, tweet about this blog post, follow us on Twitter and tell the Twitter-sphere about @thedesignersmix! We’ll randomly pick a winner from the tweets on Monday, June 27th.

P.S. Any Paperie Boutique visitor can enter the promo code “paperie” at checkout for 10% off your order!




Don’t forget to scroll down because we currently have two other ongoing contests from Dear Miss Modern – and – StudioThoughtSauce.com!

image is everything

Today we have a gorgeous packaging / guest / vendor post feature by Farrah Braniff Photographs. From the PPA Website, “Farrah Braniff is a Houston, Texas-based photographer, specializing in contemporary portraits of babies, children and families. Recognized for her unique design approach, she has earned numerous awards, including winning PPA’s AN-NE Marketing Awards for the last three consecutive years.”

And you’re in luck! At 2 p.m. EDT today (Thursday, February 23rd) you can participate in a PPA Webinar with Farrah Braniff:

“Become an Image Marketing Dynamo”
Creating a unique and cohesive image marketing campaign is vital in today’s world. But our clients are being bombarded by marketing messages every day…so how do you make yours stand out? It’s not “magic,” as you’ll see. In this webinar, Farrah will explain how she creates her own award-winning marketing materials and websites, walking you through the steps needed to create your own dynamic campaign (including how to keep your designs unified and cohesive). Open your eyes to find your visual inspiration, and get ready to wield that inspiration with true effectiveness.

This is my newest piece- a folder that will house my welcome pack of info. I am designing that now. This folder is about 8×8 and printed on pearl paper.

I am big on thank you notes and these are a few of the ones I send out. The second one is a personalized thank you note. I take an image from the client’s session, pop it into this template that I have made and send it off to White House to print. I make a pack of 25 cards for them. They go crazy and love it! The best part is that they send these out to their friends, which is a little bit of extra marketing for you!

I also love making fine art cards. I use images from my travels and personal photography. I include these as freebie gifts in people’s bags when they pick up. I think it is a great way to elevate your work and show your clients another side of you.

These are my print boxes and the laminated tags that I make for them. My clients LOVE the tags!

I also make great use of the White House Custom Color stickers. They can be used for everything!

Every year I have a batch of cute onesies and kid T’s made. I give them away at sessions. Clients love them! I get pictures emailed back to me of my client’s kids in the T’s. It’s fun and different and helps you stand out!

This is how we package up our gift certificates. I use 5×7 boxes, my logo ribbon and 5×7 flat printed cards from White House Custom Color.

These are my referrals cards. Almost all of my business is from word of mouth so rewarding my clients for this is really important. Each client gets a set of 50 cards. They give them to friends and, when friends book, both of them get a $100 studio credit. I firmly believe that, if you want to get clients talking and spreading the word, you have to make it worth their while!

I have a set of digital elements that I created and sell. You can see more about that at thedesignersmix.com. The yellow and blue backgrounds on these are from “Volume 1″ of the set.

Stay tuned for a very special giveaway from thedesignersmix.com! Don’t forget to drop by Farrah’s website and blog – and her webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern today!




I’m excited to announce the three winners of the $50.00 gift cards to Photo Card Boutique – Julie Wagner Photography, DeAnna Newsome, and Denise R. Contreras:

Congrats to the winners! Thanks so much to Photo Card Boutique and everyone who entered!

Heads-up there’s still a giveaway from Design Aglow that’s being extended through midnight tonight – so enter fast!

P.S. 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.

green is the new black

I love the packaging feature guest posts! And today we’re particularly lucky because Michelle Black is stopping by to show off her new gorgeous ‘green’ rebranding. Without further adieu…

This year I decided to re-brand. I kept the same logo but changed the overall feel of my packaging and marketing materials, to better reflect myself as a person. With nature in my blood and having practically grown up in the woods (okay not really, but I was a major tomboy and spent a LOT of time outside, haha) I thought the change was only fitting, and I wish I’d started out with it from the beginning! With all eco-friendly, recyclable, and biodegradable materials, the new packaging just feels good, it gives off a good vibe. Less is more in my book, and keeping the packaging / materials simple, clean, and quietly sophisticated is something that now has a lot of importance to me. My first set of proofs went out the door wrapped in Earth last week and I wanted to share some photographs. I’ll be getting the remainder of the products this month (print folders, mailers, CD cases). I’m also looking for a new portfolio for my prints, does anyone have suggestions? I’ve searched far and wide and haven’t really settled on anything yet.

*Ink on the bags and boxes is acid-free and non-toxic.*

*Borders / frames on the proof image shown above are available for purchase at The Photo Professional [ here ] .*

Order deadline cards were printed at home on natural, recycled paper.

Recycled tissue paper from Nashville Wraps.

Cards with rounded edges from GotPrint who is a green company!

Beautiful soft twine from Hobby Lobby.

Logo on boxes and bags is a stamp I had custom ordered. (Stamp info now included in the comments.) I purchased both brown and black inks – they both look beautiful!

Tags are made at home, printed on recycled paper.

Tags are made at home, printed on recycled paper. *BAGS AND BOXES ARE RECYCLED KRAFT PRODUCTS.*

Thank you so much for sharing Michelle! Make sure you stop by her blog and website “The Photo Professional” to say thanks in person!

P.S. If you’re waiting on an e-mail from me, please be patient. I’m extremely behind right now and doing my best to catch up as fast as I can!

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.

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!