Don't Panic Design

Congratulations to my blog giveaway winners: M. Nootz - Calendar Mindy Teini - Recycled Notebook Cyndia at Black Siren Studio - Ever Occasion Notecards Please contact me via email (designsdontpanic@gmail.com) with your address, and I will ship out your prizes within 3 days. Thanks so much for helping me celebrate!!

Happy Anniversary to me, and Don't Panic Design !   One year ago today, late on Halloween night, I opened my Etsy shop of printable invitations and personalized note cards, at the urging of my sister.  A year ago November 1st, (tomorrow) I made my first sale.  Even though I didn't make another sale until sometime in January, that first sale was like a fire, urging me on.  It has been an amazing year, full of failures and successes, lessons, and celebrations.  And that's what I like most about this job: helping others with their special celebrations!   In honor of celebration, let's celebrate with a giveaway! To celebrate the last year, and start off on a good foot this year, I am giving away three items that haven't hit my shop yet.  A set of 20 Just a Note note cards with envelopes, a small daily calendar, and a recycled envelope notebook with the winner's monogram on it.  In order to enter, all you have to do is leave a co...

A long skinny invitation, either portrait or landscape,  is a great way to take advantage of your  standard sheet size and look creative and pretty.  Tuesday's Tip Another way to stay within your budget and get a custom design is to create yourself, or have a designer create for you, an invite that will fit two or more onto a standard sheet of paper.  This way you can print two (or more) for the price of one.  Think outside the box in terms of size.  5 x 7 is pretty standard and will fit two up on a letter page.  But 3.5 x 8.5 will fit three per page and with the unique size and shape will really stand out in the sea of invitations. This invite has a white border around the edges and will fit in a number 9 envelope.

As I travel ever deeper into the world of blogging, I am attempting to post more often with meaningful  content.  So, while my business is centered on you - what you need and what you want in an invitation design - my life, while focused on my business and on growing it, has many and varied interests.  One of the most important to me is to make small changes in action and habits every day to become more environmentally friendly and reduce my own waste.  So, going forward Thursdays are dedicated to being green, if not other reason that today is Thursday, and I am inspired to start now! The first thing that I would like to share with you is this website about keeping produce better longer.  Understanding about food and how it 'works' is essential to everyday healthy living and reducing waste by knowing how to keep it fresher longer.  So please, take a look at this link and read a bout some of these fruits and vegetables and learn how to keep them longer, so...

I got an email tonight from a recent customer.  I set up the files to fit onto her pre-printed stock.  She was so excited about how they came out, she sent me pictures of the completed invitations to share, and I wanted to share them with you. It really made my night and got me to thinking about some of the other invites I have designed since I opened my shop on etsy.  I have gotten so many nice comments back, and I wanted to share some of the designs with you tonight.  I love being able to provide someone with the design they wanted and to hear them say, these turned out even better than I imagined!  It's why I do what I do!

My sister is getting married in June, and we  started assembling the invitations last week.  Just before, we went out shopping for paper to use as a backing, she says to me, "Oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing.  Why am I doing this?"  I just kept looking at the paper and said, "You have to practice to be good at something.  Everyone is an amateur when planning a wedding, because you only do it once." So, when you decide to DIY your wedding, or any party, (and I applaud you if you do) make a list of what needs to be done, and then decide what you need help with.  When it comes to invitations, the hardest part is the design.  Do your research and find a template you love; if you can't, solicit the help of a designer who can help bring your ideas to life.  If possible, find someone who has experience with print as well as design.  You should be able to have a dialogue about what you want and some back and forth with tweaking details....

Printable invitations are becoming more popular, and with near constant access to the internet, your resources are extensive.  There are so many options that I think it must be impossible to not get what you want.  It may take a little research, a little work refining your searches to return to you the results you want, but somehow, there is something for everyone out there, and you can find it. If you can't find it, you can always have your design custom made.  Search for created designs that have a similar sensibility and then contact the designer about custom work.  I would be willing to bet you will get a resounding, "Of course I can do that for you!" almost every time, because designing is what designers like to do, so taking on your project will be fun for them. Here are a few of the designs available on my etsy site,  http://www.etsy.com/shop/DontPanicDesign .  They're not just for weddings; I've adapted a few of these for birthdays and even bu...

When doing your own invitations, it helps to understand a little about design and print.  A lot of times you'll be asked questions you won't know how to answer, or hear terms that aren't quite clear to you.  Having a base of knowledge will help you start designing, have something designed, and definitely be useful when you have something printed.  With just a few minutes of time, you'll be that much more prepared to have a smooth printing experience, and end up with just what you want. I have chosen what I think is the most important and most useful information. This glossary is not alphabetical. Instead it is divided and sorted by subject.  Sometimes the terms used to explain the terms are defined next and so on. The first thing to know is Copyright. Copyright : A group of legal rights granted to the author or creator of written or visual work. All work appearing with the © symbol or the word "copyright" is protected by its creator or his heirs.  C...

When you set out to create the perfect invitation for any event, it's always good to know what you want. It also helps to know what you don't want and to not know what you want. So, let's start with the most important thing: knowing what you want. Unless you have the invitation in your hands, try not imagine what you want too specifically. The human mind has the capacity for endless possibility. Unfortunately, technology is limited by human ability. So imagine what you want, color, theme, paper, even size.  But be flexible and keep an open mind; sometimes what doesn't quite match our imagination has a way of becoming just what we want. After that, know what you don't want. Remember, knowing what you don't want is just as important and helpful when starting the design process.  I don't want to send a postcard, I don't want it too big, I don't want a block font.  Do you want a card that folds, or something flat? Do you want to use envelopes? ...

Well, I think I am going to attempt to update this at least weekly at first, or as the desire strikes me. Since the title of this blog is inspired by my store on etsy, I am going to start there. I have worked in copy and print for the better part of the last ten years. The interruptions in that decade have usually involved travel. I am largely self-taught in design. I had some early on training in Pagemaker (how many of you remember Pagemaker?) and taught myself InDesign. Early on, I had some wonderful teachers and mentors. From there, I have picked up different skills from others I've worked with and from trial and error. What I really learned after all this time, is how much I enjoy designing. Creating something from nothing, matching someone's imagination on the page, is awesome. Starting on something, not knowing where it will end up, and finding the end result is better than you expected, well that's about the most you can ask for you when you create somethi...

Welcome to the first post of the Don't Panic blog. While this is primarily a place to showcase new ideas in digital design, it will also be an outlet for other creative endeavors. I enjoy knitting, torn paper crafts (did I make that up?), building stuff with power tools, and spray painting stuff. I love garage sales and the Goodwill. I love a deal, but I also love to find things I can re-purpose to meet a need. Oh, and check out my etsy store for complete listings of customizable digital invitations for the ultimate DIYer. There are also personalized note cards, Thank You cards, and organizing tools. There's a button to the right. Pull up a chair, and a mouse, and feel free to ask any questions or leave any feedback, including your ideas and projects! Amy