Even though I’ve been terrible about maintaining my blog, it is still my baby that I’ve poured tons of sweat and love into (in that order, haha) over the last few years. I went through a long period of customizations to try to get it just right, and sometimes I still think about changing something – the layout, the background, or my favorite customization – the header.

Gah. The header!

This picture tells a lot of the story. It is a snap shot of my MOST RECENT header uploads on WordPress. As in, not even close to all of the headers I have uploaded over the past three years.

Did I mention the 20-some layers on Photoshop? Or all the adjustments? Or files?

But in the process of making this labor of love come to fruition, I also learned so much about Photoshop and my personal tastes. In fact, I started exploring Photoshop for this exact reason – making a professional-looking header – and it is what led me to start creating custom invitations. I’ve said many times that I feel a creative and artistic pull but don’t necessarily know where it should take me, and digital design is something I’ve come to see as a “talent”. I still have a lot to learn, sans doute, but I have finally found an artistic means through which I can (usually) express what I actually see in my head.

Even though I felt like shoving my head through my monitor at times, I seriously am SO grateful for the opportunity to learn this art and how to express myself!

Hate to post and run, but I had to share a quick pic!

One of my sisters needed awesome wedding invitations on a budget, so I stepped in to help. This is what we came up with and this is the final execution (with a professional print job to boot) – they look super expensive, and they were my labor of love for months. I am finally confident enough to share them with you because she absolutely loves them! Please excuse the not-so-high-def pic – it was an iPhone pic on my way to get the packaging for shipping. These will be coming back to Etsy soon, so please convo me if you are interested.

When I was a little girl, my dad had me memorize many different bible verses, and the very first one I learned was 2 Samuel 22:4. This verse, throughout my entire life, has reminded me that God is there and even when I stray, he is powerful enough to save me if I reach out to Him. So, I created a fun printable that you can download and print. As always, the image displayed below is a low-res version – if you click on the picture, you’ll see the high-res version to save and/or print. I always make my posters at least 200 dpi so you can print them up to 11 x 17.

One of the contest winners, Celesta, wanted me to design invitations for her awesome dogs’ first birthday. And these aren’t just any dogs — they are beautiful Weimereiners! When she sent me a picture to capture their playful personality, I couldn’t resist creating this fun and cute card. Check out Arya and Avery 🙂