Stelie Designs

I am happy to introduce, my newest Save-the-Dates. These beauties are made from recycled paper, and I think they are my new favorites. The couple is amazing and I can't wait to finish their wedding invitations. They are going to be beautiful, I'll post those in a couple months. Keep checking back.

I almost hate to say this for fear I'm jinxing myself, but finally, naptime was a success!! Within 30 minutes both kids were sleeping all by themselves. I didn't even have to stand in their room to ensure they stayed quiet and in their beds.

These two miracles are truly my pride and joy!! They are the reason I am home full time. I really have the best of both worlds. I get to watch my kids change, grow, do silly things 24/7 and have Stelie my creative outlet. In these pictures they were climbing on hay bales that were set up as a small maze. The maze was okay once but after that it was all about climbing on and throwing hay.

I had the first card party open house in 8 years, in Sioux Falls, SD, my birth place and parents current home. I wasn't sure how it would go since my cards are a more modern/simple design. I worked hard for 3 weeks when I could squeeze in an hour here an hour there to get a good supply. Single greeting cards, packaged thank you's, packaged holiday, etc. I am happy to say it was a smashing success! I sent out 30 invites and only 17 people attended. I made 3x's what I had hoped. Yeah!! My husband was amazed and very pleased too. Well worth the time and effort. My top sellers: "The Essential Card Kit" - 8 assorted cards for those events that everyone needs a card for "Jazz up you table" paper confetti - autumn leaves, baby feet, snowflakes. If anyone in the Minneapolis metro area is interested in having a card party for their friends and family let me know. Now I need to get all of them up and running on etsy.com. That's a future entry.

I am happy to introduce a new item to Stelie Designs, it's paper confetti to Jazz up your Holiday table. Shown here is the autumn leaves, paired with matching autumn leaves place cards. Simply write your dinner guests name, fold, and put on the table, then sprinkle a little autumn confetti on the table around the candles, flower, etc. Or put the confetti in a thanksgiving dinner invite, or thanksgiving card. I also have snowflakes for winter, baby footprints for baby showers. More to come. It's amazing how excited I was once I completed the packaging combo. Yes, small creative things give me energy to do more. It's been a crazy week getting ready for my first "card party" open house in almost 7 years, while both kids, my husband, and I are all sick with various stages of colds. I'm also finding it can be challenging to work for an hour or so and then have to stop for waking children or chatty husband instead of having a good 3-4 hours at a time.

I love to read blogs and am fascinated with reading people's thoughts, events, and creative ideas. As one of the last people to have a blog, I hope you find it interesting and/or informational Being the mom of 2 1/2 year old boy/girl twins, I always have funny stories that I want to cherish. Someday when my kids are grown they will be able to see what our life was like at this time. I am a Designer who quit corporate life in late May, and am finding that I love, love, love being home full-time with my babes. However, my babes only pay in kisses and hugs, so to help out financially, I decided to resurect my cards and invitation business, Stelie Designs, back from a friends and family only to a growing business again. Stelie Designs was created in 2000 with myself and a good friend, when I left a Design Firm, and she left corporate retail. Stelie is our names Stephanie & Julie combined. Now after 7 years and 5 kids, I am going it alone at least for now. Stelie has a new logo an

Is it possible that naptime as I knew it is coming to an end? Naptime is defined as 1.5 - 2 hours of quiet time dedicated to work on Stelie Designs. It's one of those off days where P&A prefer to play in their beds rather than nap. We've been having quite a few of those off days in the last 2 months. In between my trips to their room, I did find a holiday card I made 7 years ago. It's a fireplace sketch that was professionally re-printed (see below.) Funny, it has only 2 stockings, obviously a time in my life before kids, but still works for a newly married couple, empty nesters, or someone with 2 kids. I'm packaging it in a set of 10.