fawn&forest

Have you done your Holiday cards yet? Truth: I have not, but it's in this weekend's project plan...! My plan? Forest Gnome Cards made using my children's artwork. Yes, time to dig into that heap of artwork  your children have produced thus far!

How to make a card using your child's artwork:

1. Determine he shape you want. Any shape could be used including a snowman, snowflake, angel, deer.. I chose a gnome (do a Google image search  to find the perfect image).
2. Print out your favorite image, cut around it to get a solid shape.
3. Trace the shape onto the back of the artwork (so pencil marks are not visiable on the front).
4. Cut the shape out and punch a hole at top.
5. Using red twine, create a loop and bow (your recipient can now use your "card" as an ornament!)
6. Cut a piece of cardstock to the desired size to fit both your cutout shape and the envelope. I used a flat card, but you could also fold the paper in half to create a folded card.
7. Using double sided tape, attached the Gnome (or whatever shape you use) to the cardstock. This will allow your recipient to remove and use as an ornament.
8. Stamp, write or print a greeting on the cardstock. I used a date stamper to print "12 25 09" in red.

Today's best gift pick? Clementine art supplies for your budding artist. Clementine uses only non-toxic, all natural ingredients and is environmentally friendly.

Happy Hanukkah to you as well! 

fawn&forest is excited to be included in Instyle Magazine's "Best of the Web" --as one of their favorite websites for shopping. Excellent!

Here's what they said about fawn&forest:

Check out the November 2009 issue of Instyle to read all about it & get an exclusive 10% discount code.

We have new items in the shop from ink+wit. The new 'Everything Counts' 123 poster and a little something for mom: linen tea towels (you're welcome!).

Plus, these super cute Safari Invitations in my favorite color combo: grey/silver and yellow. I used them for my younger son Owen's 1st birthday party recently! 

Get in the groove and rock out -- new lullaby renditions of all your favorites.

Not quite sure how the Smashing Pumpkins would sound like in lullaby version? Click here to find out. 

I love it when people are inspired by things of old. The Mother Stork's Baby Book by Elizabeth Brantley is not only pays respect to the original, but is thoughtfully updated (no yellowing pages!). Your children will literally feel as though you have written a book about them -- so satisfying, so beautiful! Thanks Elizabeth! 

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a kid I wanted to be a mom. Nothing else. Once I was in high school I decided I wanted to have a career (before being a mom) where I could go into work when needed, share my expertise, work very hard, make great money and then leave - oh and I had to be able to wear ripped jeans and cowboy books (it was the late 1980s after all). My career in the film industry fit that description pretty well: freelance, respect, hard work, good money and jeans (though not ripped and no cowboys boots).

What inspired you to create the Mother Stork's baby book?
Seeing my Grandmother’s baby book, the original 1904 edition of Mother Stork’s Baby Book, is solely what inspired me to recreate the 100th Anniversary Edition on the book.  I had never seen anything like it and after doing research found that there was nothing else like it available.  I had no experience in book creation and layout, publishing, retail, wholesale, packaging or marketing.  I did have the drive to make it happen and people cheering me on along the way, especially my husband Steve and my mom.

What's happening? What does the rest of 2009 look like for you?
2008 was such a busy year.  We recreated our website (my husband is the webmaster), created and launched three new product lines (Mother Stork’s Baby Art, Cashmere Chime Balls and Cashmere Baby Blankets) and all while being a full-time stay-at-home mom of a toddler.  So far In 2009 I have added one new product line (Cashmere Eye Pillows).  I have more new products in mind for the future.  I think for now my focus will continue to be nurturing Kistner Supply and making sure my customers are happy by continuing to provide high quality, beautiful products and excellent, personal customer service.

Happy May 1st, my friends! Before we reveal the May Forest Finds I have 1 more tasty morsel for you: 9spotmonk, which was an April Forest Finds. 

Make a letterpress lover out of your tot at an early age with 9spotmonk: a lovely assortment of letterpress notebooks, bookplates and color-in placemats!

The placemats (shown above, right) would also make great sheets of wrapping paper once your kid has colored them in, given that she did not eat lunch on it first!

Rockabye Baby Lullaby Renditions is the ultimate in buying for that new mom + dad. Does baby know or care who Bjork is? Probably not, but Mom will surely get a kick out of her favorite Bjork songs in lullaby form! Available in 7 renditions from Coldplay to U2, Nirvana and No Doubt.

And a special fawn&forest feature? You can hear a lullaby sound clip of each rendition, when each title is clicked on. Sweet! And as Rockabye Baby put it: cherub rock for a new generation..... awww.....

Sweetbeets makes me smile. Lisa of Sweetbeets not only rocks the letterpress (and so amazingly!) but also creates eco-friendly cards, using 100% post-consumer recycled paper that's also processed chlorine free and uses vegetable-based ink.

I think her "1 2 3 4 5" collection (1 and 3 shown above) would of course make beautiful birthday cards (blank inside so you can write your own greeting!) but would also look awesome framed + hung in a kid's room. And, if you are not throwing a party for 50, they would also make lovely birthday party invitations that would set the tone for a very very fun party.

So, I could not resist! Another peek!

We have been taking heaps of photos in preparation of putting gobbs of new products up. While we will be carrying several lines of paper goods in Paper+Media, Egg Press (pictured above left + right) is currently being patient while it's photos are being taken.

And oh my, what beauties. The updated Paper+Media category should be all ready by next week. That's the goal, at least.

Just a Peek week has indeed been just a peek as there are hundreds of other product-peeks I could give you!

One last peek before the week is up : a look at Paper Cloud. We will soon be offering their complete collection of pillows, lamp shades, journals and paper goods. Hooray!

All fabric pieces by Paper Cloud are screen printed on 100% linen and made by hand, one at a time. I love the line-style drawings of all things natural -- sunflowers, mushrooms + oniopods. I am also loving the shades of linen used -- fresh aquas, grays to the loveliest of grassy greens to name a few.

Today's peek takes us into the paper+media category. I have had a lot of fun plumping up this category recently + have handfuls of new items to reveal.

In staying true to the category title, paper+media, a paper section will soon be added.... who knew?! Featuring the loveliest cards for birthdays, congratulations and just for fun. Additionally, there will be baby announcements, shower + birthday invites. Egg Press is one company I have added, featured in the images above.

I will also soon be offering gift wrap from Pikku, for the regular 'ol $5 gift wrapping fee. So lovely.

What is your fondest memory of pregnancy?
My fondest memory of pregnancy would have to be the photo shoot we did of my big belly. We went to magical gardens in Austin on the waterfront with a talented photographer friend. The sun filtering through the trees painted in an incredible mosaic of greens, and the photos turned out equally magical. We still have some hung around the house and they always make me smile.

How has motherhood inspired you?
When I first decided to create The Essential Pregnancy Organizer, it was just my over-organized side and my design background coming together for what I thought would be a little project. With over 125,000 printed now and more on the way, our child as an inspiration has turned into a full time business. Apart from that, the daily realization that this little creature absorbs everything we say or do is a constant inspiration to be better people in every part of our lives.

What was your favorite part in co-authoring 40 Weeks +?
The creative process of working with a co-author is very rewarding for me. Much of my design business is just me in a vacuum, in a sense, so when I have the opportunity to work with someone else and enjoy the back and forth process of creating and refining something new, it's invigorating and professionally very rewarding.

What will you organize next?!
We're now moving in a direction that I'm excited about but never would have anticipated. We had a breast cancer survivor approach us with her plan for an organizer. She developed most of the content but wanted help with designing, publishing, and distributing the book, and we're delighted to work with her. With the help of some sponsors we'll be making the organizer available for free to women with breast cancer. It feels great to be involved with such an important project, and we're so inspired by this woman we want to make her story and excellent organizing tool available to women who need it most.

The other new development is directly in line with the first two organizers. It's called The Essential Toddler Organizer, and as you might guess it picks up right where the second book left off. As with the first book we had moms write and say "Please write the next book, I want these tools next year". So we have The Essential Pregnancy, Baby, and now Toddler Organizer, which should be out this fall. I don't know if we'll go beyond that, but we have some general family titles in the early development stage. If you have ideas of your own for organizers you'd like to see please send them to dani@essentialorganizers.com.

Thank you Dani for being a part of memory week! (Picture on left of Dani and her son provided by the author.)

You may find yourself sitting + staring at the Binth Baby Book before you actually muster up the courage + the perfect pen to start writing. It's that beautiful. It seems as if it was specifically made for your child, family +  story. A family heirloom? Certainly!

The woodland-ish theme + gentle earthy hues, designed by Binth, gracefully take you through the first year + beyond. One of my favorite aspects of the book is the two pages of the family tree. Nothing puts the stamp on parenthood more than filling out your child's family tree for the first time. The book also provides ample blank space in the back for additional writing, photographs or to use as a guest book for all those 1st birthday party guests.  

In the most inspiring meaning of the word, the Binth Baby Book, is quite serious. Screenprinted by hand on recycled paper + artfully bound, the simplicity of the designs + thoughtfulness of the inscriptions inspire a stillness. Filling up this book with endless amounts of unorganized gushy rambleings and random bits seem somehow out of place. It is however, the perfect place to record the simple beauty of the new life of your child. 

My endless amounts of unorganized gushy rambleings + random bits in the Moleskine notebooks have comically served as the rough draft counterpart to the simple beauty of recording life + memories the Binth Baby Book. Perfect. 

I have become documentation-obsessed. While my mother is quite loving, as a second chlld, I was severly neglected in the baby-book-childhood-documentation category. Very few pictures were taken + not a single locket of hair was saved.  I love my mom + do not hold it against her but as a result have commited myself to documenting every last bit of my pregnancies + details of my children.  There, I've admitted it!  

And it's fun. While I have a son + another son on the way, who will perhaps never care to read the ushy-gushy lovey bits I have lovingly written about them, I still enjoy taking the time to slow down, relax + write about my children, my family + my time spent as Mom in the early years.

The First 1,000 Days (shown above) is a simple way to document your child's first thousand days of life. Each page has a beautiful paper-cut illustration by artist + author Nikki McClure, with inspiring suggestions of what to write -- "your first day, first visitors, first yawn" and "all the new things you learn everyday, new words, new skills, new friends" in addition to 2 pages dedicated to each month of the first year, celebrating the first birthday, songs, games and books you read together. All tied up in one compact book with nearly 130 pages of goodness.

So, as a salute to my documentation obsession, all next week will be devoted to Memory-Keeping in various formats. Fun!