lessons in motherhood

So, I recently received an important phone call

and sequestered myself in my office away from the kids

to ensure peace and quiet.

However, the lock on my office door doesn't actually work.

My oldest son eventually made his way in and was desperate

to show me something.

My silent crazed hands failed to shoo him out of the room

which led to the mother of all stink eyes and me silently whispering

"Leave!"

Not exactly a mother of the year moment for me.

When I finished the phone call,

I found my son and asked him what he wanted to show me.

He quickly whipped out these beautiful tulips

he had cut from our yard

and excitedly handed them to me.

"They're for you, Mom.  Because you love tulips."

Like a knife right to the heart.

As moms, we don't always make the best choices

and it's amazing to me how resilient our kids can be.

During one of our recent giveaways

in which you could submit your favorite quotes,

Terri submitted this one about living in the moment

and it has really stuck with me.

Summer is here and with it, a whole new schedule.

My goal is to enjoy all that summer has to offer with my kids.

Which means my house is not always going to be tidy,

the laundry probably isn't going to get folded

and I may not always answer my phone.

If you call and have to leave a message,

just know that I am enjoying life with my kids

and that I will eventually get back to you.

Grandkids Welcome

Happy Monday!!!

Price = $25.00

Business Vinyl Week: Sign Blanks of all Kinds

Sign blanks are available in many different formats.

Corrugated Plastic Signs are often used around election time

as people proudly support their candidates with yard signs.

If you are in the business of yard work or painting houses,

why not stake your sign in the yard of the client you are currently doing business for?

Help potential customers easily make the connection as to who

did the awesome new landscape or beautiful paint job.

I think it would be fun to create these stork signs for families

who want to announce a new arrival.

Metal sheeting comes in a variety of colors and sizes.

Easily directly traffic in your parking lot with a metal sign. 

Sometimes customers walking or driving by your shop

may not know about all the goodness in your store.

Using an A-Frame sign to display the daily special

outside your store can attract customers who may not

have given you a second look.

An A-Frame covered in chalkboard vinyl

allows you to easily change your daily special.

Street Signs are also available.

I think this would be fun to use as decoration

in a transportation inspired boy's room.

If you are in the market for a sign,

you have lots of options.

Contact us and we'll help you design the sign that's just right for you.

Business Vinyl Week: Banners

DISCLAIMER: Today's photos are not the greatest.  When I do banners, usually I finish them, put them in a mailing tube and ship them out, never to see them again.  Which means getting a nice shot of them hanging at their event isn't always possible.  Some of the banners can be quite large and taking pictures of them late at night after I finish them isn't always feasible in my house.  So, I ask that you look beyond the quality of the photographs to the concept of what we can create for you and your business.

Banners are a great way to shout your message out to the world.

This banner hung over main street and was approx. 20 feet by 5 feet.

If you plan to hang a banner anywhere in your city be sure to find out

what regulations your banner needs to meet before you place your order.

Banners come in a variety of sizes and colors.

It takes approx. one week to receive a banner blank from our supplier.

We can expedite shipping but that becomes costly!

So, plan ahead and save money.

This banner would not stop flapping in the wind, so ignore the bottom corner. It's just folded over.

Sometimes, banners can be reused.

This Mother's Day Gifts banner was actually done on the back side

of a banner the customer had previously used for another promotion.

I prefer to receive logos in .ai or .eps format because I can change
the size of the logo without it becoming distorted.
The client who requested this banner created their own logo
and was only able to save it as a .jpeg.
Luckily the client was able to email me the names of the fonts she used
and I recreated the logo in the proper format.
This will also benefit them when they create other marketing materials
such as t-shirts and flyers.

Contact us to discuss color and size options for your banner.
Banner Pricing = $5.00/square foot

Business Vinyl Week: Advertising with Your Car

Using your car to advertise your business is a great idea.

It is relatively inexpensive to have your logo and information cut in vinyl.
And, a high volume of potential customers
will be introduced to your business as you drive around.
Traffic jams and rush hour suddenly become free advertising.

When it comes to cars and vinyl, you have a couple of options.

You can have your logo and information put on a magnet.
You can put that magnet on your door or even on your tailgate if it's big enough.
Car magnets are great if you don't always want to be driving around in the company vehicle.
You can remove them as you please and easily re-stick them when you are ready.

You can put your logo and information directly on your windows.
The vinyl can be removed when you are ready to change things up a bit.
But, it can not be re-used as the vinyl gets destroyed when you peel or scrape it off.

When it comes to choosing the size of your design, I like to think less is more.

Vinyl can be cut to whatever size you need.

However, that doesn't mean it should fill up your whole window.
I recommend a smaller to medium sized design.
You will want the information large enough to read,
but small enough to be classy.

Vinyl can also be placed directly on the body of the car if you prefer that.
HOWEVER, this becomes risky business
as you never know how the paint will react.
I feel it's best to stick to the windows and avoid the potential for a new paint job.

Contact us to receive a free quote on our car magnets and car decals.

Business Vinyl Week: Logos

I love logos. 

They are fun to create and I love to see what some people come up with.

Here are two of my favorites.

Everytime I see them, I have to tell my husband how much I love them.

I love the simplicity of the words and the graphics. 

When starting a business there are two major upfront decisions that have to be made:

1. Business Name

2. What's the logo going to look like???

(sure there are more decisions to be made,

 like how you are going to finance the whole thing...

but logos are more fun to think about.)

The logo says a lot about your company, for that reason, it can be a process to create one.

For me, creating the logo for strawberrypearl has been a three year journey.

When I originally started doing vinyl,

I knew I wanted to use the name 'strawberrypearl.'

It was an email address I created in high school and it has just stuck with me.

One of the many hats my brother wears is that of graphic designer.

So, I asked him to create a logo for me.

This is how it started.

As I journeyed into the vinyl world and became more comfortable

with text and designing type,

I couldn't keep myself from playing with my logo.

I actually quite like the logo my brother designed

but I'm a creative spirit and I just couldn't keep my hands off it.

For awhile, I tried something super simple and did this:

but of couse I got tired of that and currently the logo is this:

Occassionally, I'll throw it inside the strawberrypearl icon:

Playing with your logo can be risky business.

Your logo helps build your brand

and your customers will come to rely on it. 

Do you remember when Gap tried to 're-invent' their logo? 

I don't think I read one positive comment about it.

As a result, they called it all off and went back to their old logo within a week.

Recently, Toni asked me to create a logo for her hair salon.

When I first met with Toni to discuss her logo,

she showed me a design she had created on a build your own logo website.

It was similar to the top logo here:

As I worked with the logo, it slowly morphed into the bottom design.

Toni had asked that the logo be non-gender specific because they

cut both men's and women's hair.

She also asked that the logo include 'LLC.'

The best part about creating a design is the moment when you know you finally got it.

You can work hard at something and tweak things here and there,

but the best feeling in the world is when you make that last tweak

and you just want to exclaim 'Viola!'

That's how I felt when I came up with the logo for Toni:

Here's one more logo I've been working on:

This is for a project I'm working on in my spare time.

A project that I hope to share with you in the near future.

If you are looking to start your own business

or need a logo re-design,

email me at strawberrypearlstudios(at)gmail(dot)come and we'll talk.

I'd love to create something for you! 

Business Vinyl Week: The Bagel Deli

This week is dedicated to the many options vinyl offers to businesses.

This vinyl logo was created many years ago, sadly not by me...

My husband's family owns and operates a bagel shop on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

A couple of years ago, we all got together to spruce the place up a bit

and I was able to add my vinyl touch. 

We replaced the paper signs in the bagel display case with

more permanent vinyl. 

 

We added the hours of operation to the entryway. 

And created other signs to direct customers around the shop. 

My husband surprised my with a fancy new camera for Christmas,

so while we were at the deli,

I took a few random shots behind the scenes.

 

Mom and pop shops are great.  They usually have a charming atmosphere

that just can't be duplicated in larger stores.

Replacing some of the hand-made signs in the shop with

inexpensive vinyl can help to spruce the place up

without taking away the charm.

Contact us today if you would like us to take a stab at some signs for your shop.

Wicked

I have yet to see Wicked but I have heard rave reviews.

Sue asked me to come up with something with these lyrics

from one of the songs from Wicked.

She is moving and wanted to give this to one of her good friends.

This was one of my favorite pieces to work on because

of the story behind it and the connection these women have with each other,

which is so eloquently described in the lyrics of the song.

I love making gifts with meaning.

Iron-On Vinyl

I have a love/hate relationship with iron-on vinyl...

it doesn't always do want I expect it to do,

which could possibly be due to operator-error, or possibly not. 

When I designed these giggle and dirt shirts,

I had them professionally silk-screened for my own sanity.

One of my biggest frustrations when working with iron-on vinyl

is that I am usually working

with smaller shirts, which means smaller/thinner writing.

Usually the letters didn't stick like I want them to because they are so thin.

So, I thought I would take a stab at it again and make the onesie's

pictured above for my cousin's baby shower.

I figure she's family and won't hate me if the vinyl melts off in the wash.

This time I cut a block of blue vinyl to put behind each design.

Vinyl loves to stick to vinyl, so the blue block gives the white letters

something to grab onto.

If you look really close you can see that the vinyl isn't smooth,

that it has melted into the grooves of the onesie.

I think this is a good sign...

or it could just mean that I fried the vinyl...

Either way, I guess I can start experimenting with it again.

If you've worked with iron-on vinyl and have tips to share,

leave a comment.