Holiday Special 2010

I know it seems early, but Christmas is approaching fast! Have you thought about taking your holiday photos yet?? Well to help you out, SwellMail Designs is teaming up with beth marie.photography for a festive mini-shoot and holiday greeting card special!

beth marie.photography is booking mini photo sessions at a discounted rate and SwellMail is offering holiday photo-cards at a discount to all bmp clients! Yay! Photo session dates are limited and filling up fast so hurry and book your appointment with Beth today.

Mini-Shoot Details:a 30 minute photo session for you and your loved ones.your choice of an urban or rural setting.and 10-12 edited full resolution images on a disk.
all for only $70.00!
(with the additional purchase of holiday photo-cards from SwellMail)
Mini-Shoot Dates:
Saturday, September 25 - Urban3:45 pm, 4:30 pm, 5:15 pm, 6:00 pm
Sunday, September 26 - Rural3:45 pm, 4:30 pm, 5:15 pm, 6:00 pm
(if you are very interested and the dates are not convenient for you, please shoot beth an email: beth@bethmariephotography.com)

Holiday Photo-Card Details:bmp mini-shoot clients will get to choose from five different greeting card designs. Cards are double-sided, flat, and printed digitally on heavyweight white cardstock. Choose from matte or glossy finish. Orders will be ready within two weeks.

Holiday Photo-Card Pricing:

25 cards for $31.25

50 cards for $60.00
rounded corners can be added for $5.00

Checks and credit cards (via PayPal) accepted.
Have something in mind completely custom and designed just for you? SwellMail loves custom orders! Please contact us for more information: jenni@swellmaildesigns.com

Holiday Photo-Card Design Options:

"Sweet Christmas"

"Oh Holy Night"

"Let it Snow"

"Elegant Holiday"

"Ho Ho Ho"

A {bmp} Giveaway!

I'm so excited to share with you a giveaway for my talented sister over on Good Girl Gone Glad! Please visit Jesse's blog and enter to win a free mini session or 50% off a full session from Beth Marie Photography!




Also, check back on Good Girl Gone Glad tomorrow for a SwellMail giveaway. Yay!

Sydney's Birthday Invites!

Little Miss Sydney turned two last month and her mama asked me to design the invitations for her Spring themed birthday party! After having her two year photos taken by bmp photography in her adorable rain gear, they came to me for help to get the party started. I designed a simple photo card with Sydney's name and age that could be kept long after the party was over. I added a wide belly band with the party information and flowers to match her rain coat. I stitched up the edge of the belly band with some pink thread; my favorite detail!

I love the idea that Sydney's family and guests can throw away the belly band after the party is over, and still have a fun little photo of Sydney to hang on their fridge!

I also created this 5x7 photo collage for Sydney's mama. She wanted a few to pass out to other family members.

For more photos of Sydney, check out the bmp photography blog!

The Invitation That Started it All.

I am so excited to finally have beautiful photos of many pieces of my work to share with you over the next week or so! Thank you, bmp photography! My own photography skills just weren't cuttin' it. I decided that I would start it all off with an invitation design that is very dear to my heart for many reasons.

My very best friend, Michelle, asked me to do her wedding invitations while I was finishing up my last year in design studio. Not knowing much about printing and paper options at the time, I accepted the challenge and still think they came out rather nicely with what I had to work with. Two days after I graduated college, I was leaving to study in New York and DC for a couple weeks and then headed to Europe for two months. I remember the night before I left I stayed up till 2am to finish printing them on my old HP inkjet. At the time I had the basic one black ink cartridge and one color ink cartridge, but since I was only printing blue.... I went through a TON of color cartridges only using one color. I printed the entire folder/pocket on one sheet of paper but didn't have time to cut and fold them. I knew she would be lost as to how to assemble the invitations so I did one as an example, drew her a color-coded instruction manual (cut here, fold here, etc), and packed them all up for my mom to ship to Texas the next day.

When I returned home from my travels almost three months later, I found out that Michelle had cut out a few invitations, messed up a few more, and then shipped all of them to New York for help from a fellow design classmate and friend. It still makes me laugh to think that these little pieces of paper went from Oklahoma, to Texas, to New York, back to Texas, and then most of them back to Oklahoma!! And they still looked great! I received many compliments about them and that's when it all clicked... I love making invitations! But it wasn't till even a couple more years and a big nudge from my sister that I actually began steadily designing invitations and announcements. And now, there's no going back!

Michelle wanted something simple and classic for her wedding invitations. I suggested the folds and pocket and she trusted me to "do whatever". One thing I incorporated that is very personal to Michelle and Gentry is the lyrics from a song.

in your heart and in my soul.

.

The band No Justice got their start in our small college town and specifically wrote a song for the couple. During their relationship, Gentry was stationed in Iraq for a year and gave Michelle a heart shaped necklace before he left. When Gentry returned home for R&R he surprised Michelle with the song, Heart on a Chain, that No Justice had written specifically for them. Gentry proposed to Michelle that very same night!

.

Michelle and Gentry's invitations make me smile every time I see them. They make me laugh when I think about how many ink cartridges I wasted, how many cities they travelled to, and how I spelled 'marriage' wrong and no one told me for 2 years. To me Michelle's wedding invitations are a reflection of all the memories and friends I made in college and how much I've grown in my stationery business just in the past couple years. Thank you all for helping me learn and grow with every design.

2010 changes.

There have been a lot of bittersweet changes this month with SwellMail. Beth, our lovely photographer and my favorite sister, has decided to concentrate all her spare time on her photography business. Therefore, I am taking full responsibility for SwellMail Designs! But don't worry, Beth will still be in the picture (no pun intended) when it comes to photo-cards. All photography for photo-cards will be done through bmp photography as she is still going to offer a very small photo session to SwellMail clients. Plus, any clients that she refers to me will receive a discount on their photo-cards!

Also, SwellMail is extending its design services to all invitations, cards, announcements, business cards, or whatever! Photo or not! I am very excited about this change and look forward to lies ahead and the unlimited design possibilities.

Currently I am working on two different wedding invitations and last week I finished up a portfolio cover for a professional wakeboarder! I am also changing up the pricing a little, nothing too drastic. I will post SwellMail's new price list in the next week, along with some finished products that I've had laying around for too long!

Thanks to all our past and current clients for oppurtunity!
If you have any questions please email or call me at 918-230-1644
SwellMail Designs email address has not changed: swellmaildesigns@yahoo.com

xoxo, Jenni

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Christmas and is enjoying the new year! Happy 2010!
Please be sure to check out Beth's photography blog for more of her work outside of SwellMail.


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Hastings Holiday Session

The youngest Hastings member is at such a fun and rambunctious age that Beth decided what better place to do their family pictures than in the park. He is definitely all boy and loved covering his mom and dad in leaves. The photos turned out great and we had so many good ones to choose from for the Christmas card. Here are a few more favorites that we wanted to share with you.
Thank you so much, Hastings family, for giving us the opportunity to photograph and design your Christmas cards!

King E-pics

Here are a few of our favorite from the King's engagement photos. These photos were used for a Save-the-Date Christmas card that I'll post at a later date. So check back soon!

a Bunch of love.

This past month SwellMail had a very special order from one of my best friends. Kacy has been a very important person in my life since 6th grade, so I was tickled pink that she asked us to create her marriage announcements/invitations! Josh and Kacy Bunch were married on October 10th and celebrated their 10th year together. Wow! Congrats guys! They wanted the invites to be casual and fun to reflect their personality and to also have a 'handmade' feel. We left the front fairly simple with a big photo to show off their beautiful faces. Then we hand-stamped a swirly pattern over the corner of the photo. We also used an ordinary office stamp to stamp on the date of the reception on the back. Kraft paper envelopes and custom labels helped the whole design come together. Thank you so much Kacy for allowing us to be a part of your special celebration. We had so much fun doing the photo session and going through the whole design process with you!

Attention facebook fans!! Over the next couple weeks I'm going to be posting our previous work that is already being enjoyed by those friends of ours on facebook. So please stick with me and I promise we will have new designs to show off just in time for the holidays. If you're not already a facebook fan... then what the heck are you waitin for?! Also, I'm still trying to figure out this whole blogging thing, so forgive me for any mistakes and those teeny tiny pictures I posted before. I think i have the photo uploading figured out for now. But no promises people...

update .... apparently i am still having trouble with image sizes. i will be messing with the layout throughout the day so if you can't see the post or some of the images, i apologize and will get it fixed asap. if you have a minute, leave a comment and let me know if you can see the images or if they are cut off. thanks!

xo
Jenni

happy fall y'all!

the leaves have turned to pretty fall shades, pumpkins occupy every porch on my street, and the holidays are quickly approaching! fall is my favorite time of year and always puts a smile on my face. i just wanted to wish everyone a fun and safe halloween and let you know that our photo sessions are completely booked until next year! wow! we are so blessed to be busy with our creative passions, but are regretful that we cant help more people with holiday photos this season. please start thinking about those birthdays and events that are coming up in 2010! we look forward to hearing from you!