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

Happy Holidays!

Oh wow! 2010 felt like it took only a month and now we're gearing up for 2011! I hope your year has been better than the last and that next year will top it all off in terms of life, health, career, friendships... all the goodness that everyone deserves!

I will remember 2010 as the year that made me grow a stronger and better person whom I hoped to become some years back. Hooray for continuous growth! And the biggest highlight of the year is no doubt Dan's accident resulting to severe head trauma last October 9, it seems such a long time ago now and I'm happy that he's back to his old outgoing, funny, talented, active self. Read more about his accident here and check out the website, too! With caring and loving families, amazing friends and thoughtful, generous strangers coming forward and helping us in such a trying time of our lives, we have never felt more blessed! And these are all part of the many reasons why this Holiday season will be celebrated with much gusto!

Letter-wise, I also found many awesome pen friends around the world along with the (albeit late) discovery of http://www.postcrossing.com/ adding more colors to my 2010!

Not too sound too fruity, I definitely had some low times this year, too but why look back to this year and count the bad apples when you have the good ones that should be carried over to the new year? Besides, it can't hurt to be optimistic, right?

Of course, another exciting thing that I always look forward to with glee is designing our own Christmas greeting card. This time, to save on postage, postcard version will also be sent out to everyone on our list who have stayed and/or managed to touch our hearts in surprising ways!

 

 

Lastly, for 2011, write more letters! Listen to music twice as much as you ever did your entire life! Make more time for somebody dear to you! Be more creative and do what you do passionately and I guarantee it will make you sleep better at night!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Mail News Scoop

 

As if current USPS problems aren't enough, it only seems to be getting worse. I mean, seriously, USPS has had 640 health and safety violations in the past five years and have recently been fined $220,000 for unsafe conditions specifically at the Los Angeles area. No wonder their plea to increase postage fee for January 2011 was denied! 

Again and again, USPS scream for new management and total overhaul of its system is getting louder by the year. I would love to hear something positive for once. 

Just thought it would be appropriate to rant about it here.