Thursday, December 22
by Karen Robert
From previous posts you may remember that I am a huge Theresa Thompson fan. For me her Christmas cards have just the right touch: humorous, fun, light-hearted and well executed. This year she and her husband did their first empty-nester card. Usually she includes her kids, but alas, kids are not always available as they get older and leave the nest.
Isn’t it great?
You can see more of her Christmas cards here on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theresasthompson/6531663263/in/set-72157622926000666
The following is another card in a similar vein submitted by Michaelanne Morgan and the photo is taken by Scott Rains.
I think it’s hysterical.
This was their first card together, can’t wait to see what they come up with next year.
But on to cards with kids in them… This one took my fancy. It is so well done, I love the way it looks like snapshots over Santa’s list.
Posted by YetanotherLisa at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13639732@N02/5286948430/in/photostream/
I also loved this one from Amy at http://www.Whilewearingheels.com
The dog seems to be enjoying this photo shoot.
And this one is absolutely adorable of kids acting naughty and nice, well. mostly naughty as a little sister gives her older brother a massive wedgie.. The photographer Michael Flick used I used a plug-in called Lucas Art which gives a Norman Rockwell look. It is hugely successful. I love it.
See this at: www.flickr.com/photos/17773534@N03/3090331439/
I also found this one on Flickr, of a family acting fist naughty, then nice. Photo taken by Michael Flick.
But isn’t every family photo shoot like this?
See it at: www.flickr.com/photos/ianaberle/4221913081/
Here is a good example of a naughty or nice idea for kids for Christmas. As illustrated by Chris Nease at Holiday Celebrations.com, have the kids hold a chalkboard with the words “naughty” or “nice”. There are infinite possibilities.
Found at:
http://www.celebrations.com/content/diy-holiday-photo-card-ideas-and-tips
And we end as we began with a card designed by Theresa Thompson:
This one of a dog, acting naughty of course. Hmmm, Theresa, there seems to be a theme…
Merry Christmas everybody!
Tuesday, November 8
by Karen Robert
I just designed another Valentines Day card. I’m quite pleased with it, I think it’s perfect for men to give the little lady for Valentines Day. 
Tuesday, November 8
by Karen Robert
Here are a few Valentines Day cards I designed. All with animals for some reason…
A bumble bee card…
Or a Penguin Card?
Or how about a squirrel?
And finally here is a Humming Bird Card.
Friday, October 7
by Karen Robert
I just found this great vintage 1950s photo which I am turning into an invitation for a Halloween Party. Though it could be used as well for an costume party. Why does it always feel like the 50′s were so much more fun than now? Or at least their parties were. So Mad Men. To order, contact me, but hurry! Halloween is just around the corner.
Wednesday, June 22
by Karen Robert
I have been so frustrated with Gmail because I can’t add a logo to my signature. Gmail is great for many things. They save my emails in the clouds, I can access it on any computer, it groups conversations. I also noticed today that they added some sort of Twitter feature though I haven’t checked it out yet. But my pet peeve with Gmail is that you can’t paste an image into your signature. What gives? Considering this is Google, you think they would be able to figured it out.
Alas, my frustration with all things computers is coming to an end. I have just hired an assistant, Liz Donaldson, who is solving all of my tech issues one at a time. Today she discovered an add-on in called Wizestamp. They allow you to add Social Network buttons and to paste your logo into your gmail emails. Whoo hoo. Twenty year olds are so much better at these things than …over twenty-year olds. One glitch we have discovered with Wizestamp is that it only works if you have Firefox installed on your computer. Small price to pay.
So, here are my 2 signatures that I am adding to my email accounts, one for my decorating business and one for the Ho Hum Cards business. 
and here is my other logo for PKN Designs
So, next time I e-mail you, you will hopefully, see one of these styling signatures at the bottom of my email and Liz will be, officially, my new tech guru.
Tomorrow we tackle Quickbooks…..oy.
Tuesday, May 31
by Karen Robert
Here is a line of cards I premiered at the National Stationery Show a few weeks ago.
These are cards I made using vintage 1950′s illustrations, tweaked, then I added some of my typical snarky lines to them. Here are a few of the favorites:
On the inside it says
“…Martini?”
and on the inside it says
“…except for most of the time when you’re wrong”
On the inside it says
“…but it’s really starting to bug me”
And finally, I had a few cards which were didn’t fit into any of my lines, but which did very well, like this one:
and this one:
Find these in a store near you!
Monday, May 30
by Karen Robert
So I am a little later posting these cards than I told you I would. New York City got hit by a glorious summer weather suddenly, so I took the weekend off from all things cards. I wanted to show you one of the other line of cards of my cards I designed and displayed at the New York Stationery Show a few weeks ago. This line is using old etchings and drawings and updating them with patterns and puns. Yep, I’m a punster it seems.
This card was a run- away best seller this year:
Ah, yes, the nagging wife thing seems to be one of my forte’s. But I can be nice as well, as the following cards can attest:
and here is one which isn’t snarky at all, just a little gross:
But this is sweet, right?
and so is this one:
And this one is sweet as well, it got a lot of buyers:
and finally, I like this card a lot…it has a pun and light touch:
I will be posting one more line of cards tomorrow, even if the weather is fabulous….
Friday, May 27
by Karen Robert
I have not posted for AGES. What happened is I committed to taking a booth at the National Stationery Show at the Javitz Center here in New York. In case you don’t know, it is a HUGE fair where people from all over the US show their stationery products. I impulsively signed up because I had started designing Greeting Cards because I was bored waiting for programmers to finish getting my site ready (it’ll be ready in a few months, promise). Three months later I had my cards deisgned, but then I needed a brochure, order forms a booth, a logo…it was sudden panic. But, lo and behold, I pulled it together and got it done. Here is my booth:
I had a blast doign this show. Thank God my friend Karolann with pursestrignsonline.com had the booth next door. We made each other laugh at all of the funny people and situations that came up. My new favorite people are Meg and Molly who own Kramer Drive. Their cards are really cute, and these two sisters are hysterical. We had such a laugh with them.
Here is my brochure cover. It took AGES to make the whole thing, it had to show the 90 cards I had designed inside, plus I needed to fgure out how to brand myself and my new line of “vintage modern cards”.
I’m proud of the bit at the bottom that says that all cards are made with Wind Energy. I have the printer use partially recycled paper as well. I don’t want to be responsible for adding too much more mess to our world. The card featured on the front of the brochure was one of my biggest sellers. (in case you can’t make it out, the words underneath this lovely guy in his bathing suit say “So, by arrogant you mean awesome , right?”)
And this next one was also a big hit, especially with my good friends… not that we’re old or anything.
And this one below was a surprisingly BIG hit. Sorry kids, but I’m afraid the words just came to me (…. not that this is what I ever felt!)
I guess old ladies became a bit of a theme with me…
This card below I made with my childhood best friend in mind (you know who you are). She always peed her pants whenever we all laughed really hard and it became part of the lore of our childhood.
I love this one:
And finally, this one was a best seller as well.
I had lots of others cards in line of cards, too many to post here of course. Hopefully you will be seeing them in stores though near you soon.
I’ll post my other greeting card lines over the next week.
It’s good to be back.
Thursday, April 21
by Karen Robert
Does anyone out there need to design a fun alphabet? I didn’t think I wanted to until I saw these great fabric designs over at Spoonflower. I am a bit of a nut for this site (see previous posting)and I made the mistake of going on it today and poking around. An hour later, here I am still obsessing. I think one of the things I love about it is that ANYONE can upload their designs on it and sell them. Granted, some of them look quite amateur, and some of them are clearly done by professional designers. But many of them may be people who are stuck at home with kids (who me?) or frustrated would-be artists who are trying to work out their style. Anyway, Spoonflower has a contest every week, and this week it was for designs using the alphabet.
Here is the winning fabric designed by Jennartdesigns:
And here was another great one designed by Pennycandy:
This one wasn’t in the contest, but I found it anyway, it’s by Dentednj:
Another great idea was using the alphabet in sign language.This by Amyteets:
This fabric is designed by Lauradejong:
I love the cherries on this alphabet design by Kri8f:
I liked this design by Melisza using a 1950′s chemistry lab look:
This one is designed by Applesandorange is one of my favorites:
And finally, I liked this cute fabric for a baby’s room. It’s designed by Ttoz:
