Neat Stuff

1. To start, that photo above was inspired by this article. I really struggle with being in the here and now and not focusing on the future all the time, so it was a nice reminder to focus on the grass I have now. I've been practicing my brush lettering a lot and literally writing anything that catches my attention, and I was particularly happy with how that turned out.
2. Chris Loves Julia had a great post the other day about tips on maintaining and cleaning your cookware. A lot of it I knew, but some things I didn't, so maybe some of you will find it helpful also!
3. I just bought this new Whitelines sketchbook (I bought the gridded notebook) and so far I'm loving it. The idea is that you get the grids and lines you need to keep everything straight, but when you digitize, the white lines fade away into the background vs black lines that would take time to get rid of. I've used it for a couple of things and it works great! I can't wait to fill it up :)
4. I also just bought a bunch of multi-colored foam beads for putting into homemade slime. You know, the stuff that all those kids are obsessed with, and you probably made for a science project when you were in middle school. I intended to make it with my nieces, but I had to make some practice batches first to make sure I knew what I was doing....Here's a slime recipe I used. 
5. I can't stop pinning beautiful pictures of mountains and forests lately! And Pinterest won't stop recommending them to me, haha! They're so beautiful, I couldn't pick just one, so check out my board here. 

So that's it for the neat stuff this week! It's been a busy one, but this weekend we're headed out of town to the beach with my family for my dad's birthday. I'm kind of glad the Oregon coast tends to be a little cooler, because I get to bust out some sweaters and escape the triple digit weather that's hitting our area next week!

I hope you guys have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

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Happy Tuesday, and happy new year! It's a gorgeous snowy day here in southern Oregon, which is a rare treat for us. It's been coming down like crazy the last couple of days and I'm almost giddy over it! I love snow so much, but we're lucky if we get one snow storm a year. This winter I got my wish and it's a dreamy white wonderland out there today! I'm trying to soak it all in before it melts off in a couple days.

Today I thought it was time for a first post of the year, and I wanted to share my sort of resolution.

I decided this year to choose a word I wanted to focus more on, instead of a typical new year's "resolution." I don't usually make them because I they're hard to stick to, and every year I seem to have the same goals!

I always have some holiday (or year long) weight I want to lose, organizing to do, and goals to reach, but I have those year round. I always enjoy that jump start the new year brings for those things, and I do get a good dose of motivation to better myself, but I never really consider these things resolutions.

This year though I've been seeing others choose words of the year they want to focus on and I liked that idea because it can apply to so many different aspects of my life!

As you can probably tell, my word is moderation. I recently read Liz Marie's blog post about her work, balance, and while I really love that word too, it brought the word moderation to my mind.

If there's one major thing I'd say my life is missing, it's that. I'm a person of extremes and Dane teases me for it pretty often! I'm either eating completely healthy, or treating my body like a human garbage can. I either follow a strict workout program, or I'm a couch potato for months. I let chores go to the point of driving me (or Dane) crazy, and then I'll clean everything spotless! I've been this way my whole life, as long as I can remember, and I'm always wishing for that middle ground but never really trying that hard to reach it.

So this year I'm going to try to be a little more moderate. A little more veggies and water, but still some goodies here and there. Posting my lettering on instagram once a week or so instead of feeling like a loser for not posting every day. Trying to do something to get my heart rate up a few days a week, whether that's yoga, a walk, or a jog. One cookie instead of five (or ten!). Try to follow a cleaning schedule, but knowing if life gets busy and things slide for a day that's ok. Just not to get overwhelmed and let it slide for three days! And a bit less time mindlessly browsing the internet...

I think if I really put my mind to it, I can find a bit more moderation in my life and I think it will be a lot better for it!

I'm curious, do you set new year's resolutions or choose a word for the year? Or do you feel like I normally do, that your goals are constant year round, not just at the beginning of the year? Let me know! :)

As always, thanks for stopping by!

P.S.- I know it's late, but I made this video instead of a typical Christmas card this year, (I know, weird coming from a paper enthusiast, haha!) and I didn't get a chance to share it on the blog. So check it out if you'd like :)

A couple weeks ago, Amanda from Wit & Whistle announced that she was kicking off the new year with a new drawing challenge! She is one of my favorite bloggers/hand letterers, and the last time she did a challenge was right before I started reading her blog. This time I'm super excited to get to join in!

Drawing things besides letters or simple illustrations is not something I do very often, so I thought this would be a good way to branch out and help improve my drawing skills overall.

I'll be honest, when I'm not working on new designs for a holiday, I'm bad about sitting down and practicing my lettering, much less drawing at all. I figured this would be a good way to keep me in form! Even though I need to be getting a couple more Valentine cards in the shop right now.....

Anywho, she gave two prompts per week, which is proving to be a perfect pace. Last week I spread them out and this week I did them both on back to back days, but it's nice not to feel stressed about it. A daily challenge would probably have been way too much!

The four prompts so far were:

1. Your favorite childhood toy
2. Monster
3. Your favorite letter
4. Something that makes you laugh

So far it's been a lot of fun, and I've been sharing them all over on Instagram! But, in case you don't follow along there, here's a round up of them all.



My favorite toy is a doll my grandma made me when I was a little girl. She looks pretty rough now, but she was so well made that I know she's going to last a long time still, if not for the rest of my life. It's one of the few toys that I still own from my childhood, so it was a pretty easy choice!


For monster, I tried to do something cartoon-y and type-y, because anyone who knows me knows that I don't do scary. I thought it turned out ok, even though I apparently can't draw fur very well. The tentacles were fun to do though!


 I don't have a particularly favorite letter, so for this prompt I chose a few of my favorite things and based the letters on them. The pattern on my 'K' is supposed to be knitted, but I'm not sure if you can tell? I was pretty happy with the swirls behind the 'L' though! I have never been able to do pretty swirls like that, but for some reason that night it clicked.


Lastly, when I saw this fourth prompt, I knew it was going to be a challenge! I decided to do a recognizable image from one of my favorite sit-coms, and I chose this New Girl for two reasons. One, we're watching new episodes of it right now, and two, it seemed easier than the couch/coffee shop of Central Perk from Friends ;)

So far I've been really surprised at what I've been able to do! It's been so long since I've drawn like this, I wasn't sure anything would even turn out. It's definitely been a boost to my confidence, and I'm hoping to keep practicing drawing other things besides letters after the challenge is over.

If you would like to join the challenge, it's not too late! There's still two more weeks and four more prompts to go! You can head over to Wit & Whistle to check out the whole list, and to see what she's drawing every week. You can also check out the tag #wwdrawingchallenge on Instagram to see what everyone else is sharing.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it was fun to write about something a little different for a change. I'll post the rest of my drawings here when the challenge is done, and I have another item to check off my 26 before 26 list later in the week!

I hope your week is treating you all well. Thanks for stopping by!

I know it's only the beginning of November, but when you're in the greeting card game, that means getting Christmas cards up and going!

I've been working like crazy lately on my new holiday line, and today I listed a bunch of new products!

Yesterday marked my shop's one year birthday, and I feel like I've grown a lot in this last year. I love being able to see improvement in my stuff, and I'm hoping for a successful holiday season!

Here are a few of my favorites that I listed today.







Isn't it amazing what a year's time can do?

I'm so excited with how everything turned out, and I have even more stuff to list in the next week or two, so keep an eye out for that. I also feel like maybe a giveaway is in order in the near future ;)

For right now, as a little gift for all of my awesome blog readers, here's a 15% off coupon for anything in my shop for the next two weeks! Just use the code EARLYBIRD15 at checkout.

To see everything else in the shop, check it out here! Or click on the shop tab above.

And I'm curious, what's your favorite new product so far? Let me know!

Now I'm off to make dinner and maybe change out of my sweats. The life of a designer really is so glamorous ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

I just recently remembered another invitation project I got the privilege of designing a couple of months ago, and I had intended on sharing them sooner!

Better late than never though, I always say ;)

These were a fun one for me, in part because they were such a challenge!


My friend Amber contacted me to design these invites for her best friend's bridal shower, and since it was at a pizzeria, she wanted the theme to be Italian. I'll be honest, when I think of Italian, I don't think of bridal shower, but she was picturing a cute little bistro with red checkered table clothes, and so I went from there!

After some Pinterest searches for inspiration, I felt like I got it nailed down, and I was very happy with how they turned out!

Sometimes it's nice to get outside of your comfort zone once in a while!



I really like when an invitation has an interesting background, whether it's a color, print, or pattern, so I wanted to incorporate the red checkers all the way onto the back. It's just a nice point of interest that can give an invite that little extra something!

These were a fun one for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other kinds of requests I might get to push me a little bit.

Do you ever get satisfaction from a project that took you out of your comfort zone? Or is it just me? Let me know! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I am a self proclaimed procrastinator, and I've mentioned this before. And anyone who knows me irl just rolled their eyes and said, " well, duh."

But I have too much on my plate these days, and too many things I want to do, so I am declaring a summer of NO VERY LITTLE procrastination!

Beginning with this lovely little blog of mine. She's seen a lot of theme changes over the years, and a few name changes too (maybe I should do a contest and see if anyone can remember the original name??), but I just have not been crazy about the look it's been sporting lately.

Starting with my logo, I'm working one a bit of a re-branding of my whole, well, brand. There are a few things about it I like, but there are some things that I'm like, "uhhhh, what was I thinking?"

So this space will be getting a face lift, and I've already started preliminary sketches for my new logo. I LOVE pretty things (which should be obvious, because it's in my tag line for Pete's sake!) and my logo just isn't making the cut.



So, without putting it off, I will be getting to work on sprucing things up, and also adding some of the pile of new designs I have to the shop!

All the while re-modeling my house, finishing my glamper, and having an all-round, awesome, rad summer! Haha!

But also, disclaimer: re-designing a blog is super hard, especially when you know so little about html and css and all of that techy mumbo jumbo. So, while I won't be procrastinating, it still may take a while for me to finish, and if you stop by and see that things are under construction or all out of wack, please bear with me!

Happy Thursday everyone, thanks for stopping by!

I'm back!

My new Valentine cards are up in the shop tonight! A day later than I planned, but hey, better late than never right?

And more importantly, still in time for you to order and make sure they're delivered in time! Here are the new designs I listed today.





Plus, from now until Valentine's Day (one whole month away!) you can get free shipping with any order. Just use the code FREESHIPVALENTINE15 at checkout!

Today was a bright and early kind of day. I've had a doozy of a cold since last week, and I'm finally feeling better! I woke up early to try to get a job (I'm a substitute teacher), but there were none available! Annoyingly funnily enough, I got four calls on Monday and two yesterday, when I was too sick to go in.....

Oh well, today will just have to be spent blogging, editing, and working around the house. Darn! ;)

There will probably be some time spent day dreaming as well, because as my photo suggests, I'm starting to dream of summer!

Normally, I'm not a summer person. I love fall and winter and all things cozy, but with my tendency for being discontent, I always start missing that warm weather right about now. Sunshine, swimming, eating outdoors, and vacations have been on my brain the past couple days!

So, I decided that I will give myself a couple days of wishing for that balmy summer weather, and that's it. I know that it will be here soon enough, regardless of my pining, and knowing myself like I do, I will probably complain about the heat when it's here!

I'm still not quite over the snow (because I love snow!), and I still feel like I could be happy in hibernation mode. Lounge wear and wool socks, and lots and lots of Netflix still sound pretty nice to me! So, I'm going to try to be happy in this winter season, and enjoy it for the things it has to offer.

Also, Valentine's day is coming up, and I do enjoy that holiday! I'm excited to be working on some card options for the shop, and I should have them listed by the end of the week. Keep an eye out for those!

I shared a couple of sneak peaks on my instagram (like I so frequently do), so if you don't already follow me, please do! @amybrightlydone

How are you feeling these days? Am I the only one starting the get the winter blues?

If so, hopefully it's not too bad! Thanks for stopping by, and happy hump day!

I just today got around to mailing my Christmas cards!

I know, I know, I'm a big time procrastinator, but I think they should all arrive before Christmas day itself, so I'm calling it a success!

I had a lot of fun making this year's cards, and they were pretty simple to do. Plus, they feature a Thanksgiving day selfie, so what's not to love about that?





I decided I wanted a couple different options, so I did half in black and white, and half in color. My only issue with them was that I could have done a better job digitizing my lettering, because they looked a little rough around the edges. I guess that's what these kinds of things are good for though, so I can learn as I go!

Technically this was also my off year (I send out cards every other year), so if you got one from me, it means you probably gave me one first, ha!

But next year will be the big year, and I already can't wait to come up with a fun design! And in case you missed it, this is what I did for my card design last year. The difference was that I used free digital graphics and fonts that were created by someone else, and this year I drew everything on my card by hand.

Sometimes I think it would be easier just to purchase and use other graphics, but I'm loving the freedom that comes with creating my own stuff to use instead. Hopefully I will just continue to improve, and next year's cards will be even better (both for my own, and in the shop!).





Have you gotten your cards out yet? Or are you a big time procrastinator like myself?

Tis the season my friends!

I've been working on Christmas presents the last couple of days, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how things are moving along. I might actually get things done on time!

My poor little sketchbook has been being a tad neglected lately, but once I'm past all of this business, I can focus a more on drawing and lettering.

I did do a fun little sketch last week though, some of you may have seen it on instagram (and if not, you can follow me @amybrightlydone). But it's a bit late in the game to be adding Christmas cards to my shop, so I thought I would give it away as a free desktop wallpaper!

This last weekend was a very productive one, in terms of hand lettering practice anyway.

I was feeling a little burnt or something with all of my shop stuff (Christmas cards!!) so I decided to shift focus and work on some personal projects instead!

My grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday (!) but they didn't want a party.We did a family reunion last summer to celebrate, but my mom thought it would be nice to send out an announcement to those family and a few friends who didn't make it.

I was pretty excited to do it, and I'm glad that I did! I ended up smoothing out some wrinkles I was having with printing and quality, and I was super happy with the result!




Since it's the gold anniversary, I gold embossed the 50 on all of the announcements, and I thought it turned out super cute!

I do have a confession to make though. The dates? Those aren't my handwriting! I got most of the way through the editing process before realizing that I hadn't done those yet.....so in the interest of saving time, I used a hand written font instead. Kind of cheating, but it is still hand lettered, just not by me. (Don't worry though, it was licensed for personal use!)

The calligraphy, the 50, and the laurel leaves are all mine though. The front had what you see here, as well as a picture of my grandparents from last summer. Then the back was a black and white photo of them on their wedding day! I won't be showing those though, because they don't really want their photos all over the internet.

Then, I drew up a quick invitation for my little sister's birthday party! She put me in charge of planning (and oh man am I having fun with that!) and so I decided to do something fun and informal for her to pass out to friends.





I have always liked the look of this kind of lettering, where everything is filling a set space, and all of the word shapes play off of each other. I never tried it before, because it seemed too daunting, but I'm glad I gave it a shot! I really liked the result, and so did she! I only kept one for myself, but I actually printed it in three different colors, fitting in the party's theme.

I may go ahead and share her party here down the road, if it turns out as good as I'm picturing! And maybe even if it doesn't.

Now that I had a solid weekend, and I'm feeling a little refreshed from some new projects, it's back to those Christmas cards! I'm really feeling the time ticking for those, so I should have some things listed for sale in the next couple days.

Happy Monday everyone, here's to a great start to our work week! Thanks for stopping by!

My goal this week was to finalize Christmas card designs, and get them up in the shop.

Now it's Friday, and if you look, there are no Christmas cards there.

I've been running into a bunch of different problems. Apparently no store in a 30 mile radius of me sells the weight of card stock I need, so that's a pretty big one. And I've just had too much on my plate!

Hopefully though, I will have some stuff ready by the beginning of next week, and I have some stuff that is almost ready, aside from a little tweaking. One new card that I'm really excited about will be available as a digital option, meaning that you send me a picture you want, I will customize it with your family's name (s) and then send it back to you to print where ever you'd like!

This is how it would look as my card. It needs a little adjusting, but hopefully it will be ready to offer soon!

I'm feeling very festive and Christmas-y these days.

I know it's a bit early, but one thing I've learned recently, is that as a producer of merchandise, you need to have holiday stuff ready way earlier than the actual holiday!

I think this is especially the case with Christmas cards, since most people probably get a jump on those pretty far in advance. Which means I'm already feeling behind on those, and I'm giving myself until the end of this week to get some of those up and in the shop!

I'm trucking right along though, and I have one design almost finalized. What do you guys think?

Ok guys, here it is!

Last week I told you all that if I reached 100+ likes on my Facebook page, I would give away a free printable here on the blog! You all blew me away by helping me out, and within a few days I reached that goal. Thank you all so much for that!

I worked really hard on this, and I hope it's the first of many free printables I offer here for all of my awesome friends and followers of Brightly Done!

So, without further ado!




I have always wanted to do a chalkboard printable, so this seemed like the perfect time to give it a shot! And since it's almost November, I wanted to share something that could be Thanksgiving themed.

It's an 8x10 print, once you trim off the excess, and you can print it in your own home, or send it to somewhere like Staples to print it very inexpensively.

I think it looks the most realistic when it's framed without glass, so it keeps that matte look, but I'm sure that no matter how you do it will work.

For myself, I put it in a large gold frame (without the glass), and I love it!




For this printable, I did all of the lettering and illustration myself, but in the interest of saving time, I did get the chalkboard background here.

I hope you all like it, and feel free to share with your family and friends! However, it cannot be sold or used for commercial use.

Thank you all for stopping by, and don't forget, my Etsy shop is still scheduled to open this Saturday, November 1st! I hope that if you like this printable, that you'll check it out :)

Happy printing friends!

Earlier this fall I got the chance to work on a very special project for a very special friend of mine!
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