Personalized Note Cards

Hello friends!

All over Los Angeles, the wind and sun are not showing any signs of slowing down in lieu of fall. "What fall?" asks the locals. And here I thought I bought my bike way too late for summer, but nope! Having all this heat deceives me into thinking we're still in June but my massive wall calendar tells me otherwise. SEPTEMBER! Time to think about presents, cookies, Christmas trees, and personalized note cards! I always enjoy designing our own note cards (you can view our 2009 and 2010 cards here) and this time around, I am opening up my doors and graphic designing skills to anyone who wants their own special note cards, too!

A couple of months after New Year 2011, good friend, Lynn Kwan approached me for a surprise she wanted to give to her Beatles fanatic boyfriend, Chad Porter for V-day. She let me have the creative freedom which for me is the only way an artist should be able to work (ideally)! I ran the whole nine yards hyper ecstatic and it was incredibly rewarding to have very satisfied customers at the end of the line.

Meet Lynn Kwan and Chad Porter.

I'm a major Beatles fan myself (and saw my favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney at Coachella '09!) so it was a bit challenging where or how to start; which song to pick, which album, which image, etc. Finally, Lynn suggested I use the 'All You Need Is Love' song which is appropriate for Valentine's.

The animated version of the fab four from the famous "Yellow Submarine" film was too irresistible for me not to use, and how fun would it be to make Lynn and Chad like Heinz Edelmann's characters?

Lynn's Valentine's card for Chad has definitely up my inclination in designing personalized note cards especially after she posted this testimonial on my Etsy shop.

I am now excitedly working on wedding invitations for a wonderful pen pal in France! Stay tuned for that! And if you want your very own personalized note cards, email me at letterparade@gmail.com and quit sending massed produced cards that are no more special than the paper and envelope they come with!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Free Stuff Monday

Hello friends!

I hope you all had a fun July 4th celebration! The long weekend for me was filled with pounds of meat and grilled veggies, thanks to the company of good friends! Now, easing back to work isn't at all that bad.

Now let's talk about 'print-at-home' stationery. Have you purchased a downloadable file or two from Etsy or any other online source? There are lots of them and some have really amazing designs! For a few $, you can store many images ready to print at your disposal the next time you write someone a letter. What a wonderful idea! Alas, instead of selling my own, I decided to give it away! I've recently uploaded two designs that you can find via Letter Parade face book page delivered fresh every Monday. So if you are tired of the same boring lined paper, add a stylish touch by printing my designs over! It's that easy!

Here are the two previously shared designs:
"Peacock Stationery" and "Pink Roses and Butterflies" by Letter Parade.
Download high resolution here.

Once downloaded and you are ready to print, open file and hit CTRL + P to view print options, make sure to adjust printer settings to "FIT TO SCREEN / PAGE" and select NORMAL for print quality. You may print front and back and as many copies as you like! Works with any letter paper (8.5" x 11"). Now remember, the print will not completely bleed, or cover the entire paper as is common for at home printers. You will find a few centimeters of gap on the edges of the paper not printed. If you want a "full bleed" look, simply cut the sides as shown on the guide below.

More designs to follow! You are free to print unlimited number of copies for personal use only. All I ask in return is please DO NOT RESELL OR SHARE this file regardless of format (electronic or printed). If you like these copyrighted designs and know someone who will, too, just have them visit this blog or my face book page where they can download these files and enjoy more designs delivered every Monday!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales - Kujat

Letter Parade -UPDATE

Hello friends!

Happy 4th of July to all you Americans and to my husband who has yet to wake up and decide what to do today to celebrate his freedom and love for his country. To those of you who are wondering why I'm going to have to sit this one out or be a wallflower, that's because I am not American. I do love America, don't get me wrong. And very soon I, too will be American citizen, until then I will pour damn good wine and give a toast to you America!

I know it's been a while since my last post, this seems to be the norm with me nowadays! I am currently juggling several projects here and there but I'm happy to say, letter-writing and postcard-sending have not been put on hold. Nobody can possibly deny me the joy of this hobby!

I must admit, I have been tempted many times to close my Etsy shop, but alas, the SAD QUEEN rescued me and though struggling with time, I pressed on. To those who have no clue what my Sad Queen project is all about, read my previous entry here. It's a fun monthly design commitment for me and have gotten lots of wonderful feedback from my friends at Postcard Exchange and the folks at Postcrossing!

Here are some of the new products you can find on my shop:

The Pin-up Floral Envelope Sealers. 
I love the pin-up girls, they are one of the wonderful reminders of how fun my last creative job was despite how brief the contract ended. These girls are forever embedded on my creative genes and you will see them in a lot of my works and paper goods at Letter Parade.

 The Sad Queen postcard - JUNE 

This has been posted late, for which I had not found the time to blog about.

Sober - a love quote postcard.

From my 'Old Musings' archive way back that I finally was able to recreate with a new design for a postcard. Again, I think postcard is such a versatile medium in sharing art. It makes me happy thinking this little darling is gracing somebody's mailbox and greeted with a smile. What a heart-warming transaction!

Missing - a love quote postcard

Another one from my 'Old Musings' archive. Writing short quotes is a fun skill I've gotten from my grandma 'Vencia who was exceptionally talented and an amazing music teacher who then passed it on to my Dad. It was fun to tell their writings apart growing up as they both had very different styles.

So these are what's new and up about Letter Parade. I hope you like the new stuff! If you have more time to kill today, and are in the mood for reading more about paper products, I suggest you head over to Missive Maven's blog who did a wonderful stationery compilation yesterday.

Have an amazing JULY everybody!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales - Kujat

The Sad Queen Postcard Series

Hi friends!

Whoa! I got sidetracked there for a while. But yes, oh yes my 2011 is going great, thank you! I hope the same goes for you!

Much apologies for the long absence. What? Three months it's been. Let's see, my day job well, I can't complain and music continues to play, louder it seems... my Etsy shop, however, I would quote a good friend and fellow Etsyian Jessica of A Cup of Green Ginger that "you get out of it what you put into it." Though it hasn't been too much effort put in for mine, recently, I've added a new series of Postcards called 'The Sad Queen' and have circulated a handful of the February and March series to newfound friends via this awesome facebook group Postcard Exchange, and of course via Postcrossing. I am happy to report I've had several requests for swaps (postcards) along with "favorite" clicks and have sold some, too.

Let me explain the concept behind the Sad Queen postcard series. I have to admit, I am all over postcards now, I used to be just crazy about letters but little did I know then that these two come hand-in-hand. Well, throw in stamps, too, but I'm still getting there. And of course, I've slowly been exposed to different types of postcards, and to my surprise, there are hundreds and hundreds! No wonder they bring so much joy to postcard enthusiasts and collectors alike. So, I was particularly fond of postcard books, literally, a book a size of a postcard that contains pages and pages of postcards that you can tear and mail out. What a wonderful idea! I married that to an excuse to create something at the start of the year, and what products would spring up to mind but calendars? Though too late to come up with one now, I decided to produce one postcard every month until I have a full twelve enough to compile into a postcard book that will also serve as a calendar. So this is my task at hand.

The story of the Sad Queen herself is an ongoing one. I progress into the story as I go from month to month and what better way to start but the month of Love, February, when the sad Queen hits her all-time low.

Well, with all that being said, I present to you The Sad Queen February, March and April.

These, along with lots of new stuff since my last blog entry can be found at my Etsy shop. And the 10% discount offer exclusive for you still stands just use this code upon checkout LPARADEFRNDS10!

Thanks for reading and happy writing!!!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

First Sale on Etsy!

Dear friends,

What an exciting week for Letter Parade etsy shop which I opened with just three 'thank you' cards last Monday, December 13th. As a certified Etsyholic, it is not a surprise that a new seller would not make a sale in months as I've read in a lot of Etsy featured stories so I didn't think I'd make mine right away! And there I go pouring more time into adding more stuff to my shop, the printing, the packaging, the styling and product shots plus editing.... there is always something to do and learn or read about other sellers' mistakes to avoid. It can get overwhelming. The rewarding part was being featured in a treasury on my first day of opening! Then I got invited in a BNR circle that I can't even properly explain what the whole deal is about. Basically, it's a large circle of Etsy sellers who come together online for a set time, like last night we did a three to five hour BNR. A couple of newbies who never had a sale (like me) were included and we took a spot with one product on the board. One seller has to buy one item from our shop to kick me out of the board/spot so she can have a product featured there instead allowing her to promote her products and shop more until another seller takes her spot. I don't know who thought of this but it's pretty darn clever! I was invited by the curator of that BNR herself, seller MyWaterColorDReams. It was there that I made my first sale, a set of two of these to seller FlirtySanchezProject:

 

Being in a BNR like all teams and circles has its own perks, like learning new stuff from other members I would've never discovered on my own. Maybe if I read a ton of Etsy blogs but still, inside tips and tricks are something you can only get from the streets. The downside to a BNR is having to spend and buy off another seller's item just to get a spot. Of course, for my first I never got to do this because I got my hands tied up with excitement for my first sale and opening accounts to payment tools that sellers preferred to use that I only heard about last night. But of course, you pay for good advertising, right? So if you pay to be advertised and still get something awesome and handmade out of it, I think that's a pretty damn good deal! So starts my BNR addiction and there's one in just a few hours today, yay!

Oh, and another exciting thing when I woke up this morning, my pink roses 'thank you' card got featured in another treasury again! This time the treasury is called 'Innocence' put together by seller WaterlilyJewels.

So really quick, here are the newly added products at the shop:

Etched Flower Series note cards                                                 

 

 Bon Voyage French Note Card                                                    

 

 

 La Vie Est Belle Note Cards                                                         

 

 Paris Thank You Card                                                                 

 

Bonjour French Note Card                                                          

 

  

Mime Valentine's Card                                                                 

 These are now available at my shop. And as an exclusive treat to you my friends here at blogspot, I offer a 10% code "LParadeFRNDS10" (apply during check out) until December 31st, 2010, Friday 6:00 PM PST. Thank you for another wonderful year!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Letter Parade Opens Shop on Etsy!!

Hi friends!

I'm happy to announce that the Letter Parade online shop is finally open! You can visit it here. After unsuccessfully running GKkards with poor product shots that didn't do justice and just wasted posting fees, I vowed to do things differently with Letter Parade. It seems like with the coming new year, it's just a perfect timing to get this thing up and running!

So today, with a borrowed pro camera, I tried my hand on product styling using my "flower series" thank you cards and came up with these:

 

 

 

I must be doing things right that in just a few hours after uploading these and more photos to my online shop, another member featured one of my 'thank you' cards in her treasury! Thank you DoodleBugFramesEtc !

So come check out the shop! I will be filling it with more products and yes it's going to be all about letters, stationery, paper goods, postcards, etc. to get you corresponding in style! 

And maybe you have some ideas on designs that you'd like me to create for you? I can do that, too!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LetterParade

Happy writing and browsing/shopping!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

In My Mailbox : Vintage Stamp Dispenser

The life of my mailbox is at an all time high now with lots of friends from around the globe and all those postcards from Postcrossing.com! It's never seen better days! Especially when I shop around for unique vintage or handmade Etsy finds.

Not really a self-professed collector myself, things just seem to find me (yeah yeah) and soon enough found fallen bird feathers on the streets are piling up on my growing collection of vintage tin cans that spurred from hours and hours of looking over the vintage category on Etsy!

So when this little darling found me (it's fate), the letter-writing, letter-mailing, vintage loving me, how could I say "No"? There's no stopping my epistolary from growing now, from the modest start with letters, postcards, stationery to this little baby, my mailbox is as curious as I am as to what will find its way to me next.

Stay tuned!

According to seller Sassydoggs, this vintage stamp dispenser is.........

"from the 1960s because the stamp pictured on the side appears to be a 1965 4 cent Lincoln stamp."

Visit her shops:

http://www.sassycatts.etsy.com/
http://www.peppermintpixies.etsy.com/ 



Happy writing! (And collecting!)

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Paper (and flower) Art : Kari Herer

A repost from my Facebook Notes 10/09/2009.

"BOTANICAL ART IN THE NEW"

This morning, I tried to understand the last images I have left engraved in my thoughts from the sleep I just woke up from...dream residue. I only caught one scene in a shabby house with a makeshift bed in the center. The main focus shifted to a baby, my baby lying next to me his body warm and safe. I'm not sure if in my dream when I was still in it, if it was a real human baby, because my mind now argues that it was a polar bear cub! My heart cringed at the memory, I so love polar bears and I grieve over their increasingly desperate fight for survival. It must explain why I scoured the web pages for flowers mix with whatever comes close to my vision of a rotten corpse. My search turned up these beautiful works by photographer Kari Herer. Each piece reminds me of those flowers in the graveyard set adrift in a sea of melancholia.

Check out more of Kari Herer's work here and shop her Etsy shop for these lovely, one-of-a-kind prints.

Another exquisite work of art to write about!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Renegade Crafts Los Angeles 2010

A couple of weekends ago, through some random article from Etsy, I found out about an annual crafts fair with stops in: Austin, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Not having attended any big crafts fair before, I looked up http://www.renegadecrafts.com/ and marked my calendar. The event promised over 200 vendors, live music and workshops - a two day event.

So on a fine, hot Saturday, Dan and I cramped a couple of hours in our busy weekend to check out the fair. Though I came out of it (unbelievably) with not a single purchase, I walked away with a handful of business cards from several vendors. There were adorable terrarium's, fine jewelry, screen-printed t-shirts, fabrics, wool, aprons, pillowcases, but most sold paper goods like cute note cards, journals, stationery sets, art prints and posters. Of course, paper being a natural obsession of mine I found myself assembling what is now called Letter Parade, something I should have done a long time ago! Anyway, I left the venue inspired and exhilarated hoping silently that I could make time the next day to check out the second half because I must've only briskly checked out about 100 vendors or less.

Here are some of the photos from the fair. I am now a devotee and will not miss next year's for sure!

Upcoming crafts fair here in the LA area is the LACE EVENT. Happening on August 14 and 28, 2010 at the Chinatown.