Jose - Soccer Banner

Jose has a blog about U.S. major league soccer for Spanish speakers. Wanting to give it a look that was more his own, he came to me for a custom banner.

The thing I love most about this banner is the crowd in the background. Previously in my design there was just blue sky, but it was Jose's suggestion to have the fans included since fans are who would visit his blog for information on Major League Soccer. I purchased a stock photo of a crowd of fans, tweaked it and dropped it in. It really gives this banner an extra sense of life!

I love working on stamping banners, but this was a fun divergence from the usual.

Belinda's duo banners

This was supposed to have gone up in September, but it didn't, and I got distracted from checking!

These banners were done for Belinda's two blogs, My Stampin' Pad and The Stampin' Buzz.

You can see that they look like the viewer has just moved to the left a little allowing for more of the pond scene to be shown. This allows the blogs to look similar, but have their own personality.

Belinda also ordered a watermark and a couple custom signatures one with the frog on the lilypad and one with well, a lily on the lily pad.

I'm sorry I don't have a copy of the watermark right now. I'm not at home with my files handy, but this gives you the idea of her overall project. This was a really fun project and Belinda was lovely to work with! Be sure to check out her blog(s). :)

Milk is the New Prada - new banner

Chinwe has a personal blog that she wanted to make hers through a design statement. She wanted the design to include images representing herself and her two boys.

As it turns out, "creating" people ... not so much my strong point. Enter stock imagery. The woman is from one image, the older boy is from another, and the baby is a copy/hybrid of the older boy's image and some digital drawing. The bottles are my design. Phew! This is a challenge I enjoyed.

She also has a clothing store and needed a watermark for her images.

I love the clean simplicity of this image. :)

Stampin with Steph - new banner/watermark/signatures

Steph was one of the patient people to wait for me to catch up on my life. She was super easy to work with and I'm pleased to show you her materials that I've created.

This is her new banner (you can click for a bigger look) for her blog.

For her watermarks, I created light and dark versions through 2008 and 2009 for the Stampin' Up! information so that her watermarks have an extended life past the end of this year.

And finally, here's her digital signature to coordinate and tie in with everything!

Back at work

I'm back to design work, and while the momentum is slow to build, it is indeed coming back.


I had several customers take me up on my offer to work with them upon my return from Convention/vacation. I am now working my way through that group. If you're someone I contacted by email with my offer, please know that I'll check in with you again soon as I wrap up projects.


By way of celebrating upcoming design work, I have pulled out an unused design that I created for a customer. I converted it to my own use! :)
Thanks for looking!

Self-Imposed Summer Vacation

I want to thank you for considering me for your design work. Unfortunately, I cannot undertake any new projects until after August 1.

I take my design work and my customers' needs seriously. However, I am currently experiencing several circumstances in my personal life that are simply not making it possible to give the attention I would like to new projects. The major downside of these issues is that my creativity has been severely curtailed. I don't feel that you would be getting my best work.

Please understand that I would LOVE to work with you, but I understand that once you're ready for design work, you're excited to get going and any delay is likely to be a disappointment. If you are willing to wait for me to return to the business in August, I would like to offer you 10% off of any service over $15 or a free digital signature to coordinate with your design work. If you are interested in working with me in August, please send me an email and let me know whether you'd like the percentage off or the free signature image.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding and I hope to hear from you.

Blog banner - a summer edition

I had the pleasure of working with Jackie Pedro again to design a "summer style" banner for her blog. She has wonderful stamping projects that she shares and is just a nice person to be in contact with. :)