name your design : cool mom picks

As a small business owner, when a nice press hit comes along.... it gives me a nice little confidence boost and reminds me that I really do have a good thing going here and should give myself  a little pat on the back.

However, when THIS press hit came along....I bypassed the pat on the back and went into an all out running man/ cabbage patch dance routine. I'm so excited. I feel like I've made it to the big leagues.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for sites like cool mom picks that give a boost to small businesses.  It's pure awesomeness. (Thanks Mir!).

To share my excitement...I'm offering 20% off everything in the shop until the end of April. Use code CMP20. (Sorry, not valid on previously placed orders).

simone's sweet growth chart (via the gunclesonline.com)

As you know, I met Bill & Scout (aka, "the guncles") and their sweet baby Simone last month at the Boom Boom Room. They were incredibly sweet....

Anyway,   I was SO excited to see that they are enjoying the strawberry zig zag growth chart I made for Simone.  They posted a pic of her on their blog today....

What a big girl!  

Thanks to Bill & Scout for sharing name your design with your readers.

fun pics on our facebook page...

I've just uploaded some  fun pics onto my facebook page. The pics were taken from the "boom boom room" (the pre-golden globes celebrity gifting suite) that I attended two weeks ago with my "crew".  All in all...it was a good time.  Here are just a few of the pics....



me and "my girls"
(from left to right...carlisa, keshia, alison and me)



tisha campbell  with her adorable son

the "guncles" (bill + scott with their sweet little simone)
looooved them!



 Please hop on over to our facebook page to see the rest :).

quick boom boom rooom recap via alison

Happy Friday! My great friend and talented blogger, Alison, did a quick recap of our recent trip to the boom boom room last weekend. Head on over to her blog to see a few fun pics of our booth and several of the celebrity guests. I'll get my act together and post my full run down next week! Have a super weekend....

  and  G O  B E A R S!

starting the new year off with a boom!

Happy New Year everyone! We're kicking things in 2011  with a bang.....or should I say BOOM?! What am I talking about?? Well....name your design was invited to attend the "boom boom room"...which is an exclusive pre-golden globes celebrity gifting suite in Beverly Hills this Friday + Saturday. I'm super excited to set up my booth and give away my goodies, but a tad nervous. I rarely watch TV and I'm sure that I'll probably only recognize 10% of the celebrities that are there.  I'm counting on my little support team, Alison, Kesha and Carlisa to help me out with names/faces!

 I am actually sitting in the airport right now waiting to board my plane to LA. I left on Tuesday night and made a little pit stop in San Jose to visit the team at tinyprints and chat about my stationery line. More details on this later...but I can say that, I am even more excited about my partnership with them after meeting everyone in person and am blown away by them. They are AMAZING! So proud to be part of such an inspirational organization.

Well...friends, signing off for now. I'll be SURE to post pics and do a fun recap of the boom boom room.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
xoxo
Stacy

facebook giveaway winner plus some customer sneak peaks...

Congratulations Sarah! You left comment number 5 and you won a free 8 x 10 print of your choice...just for playing along with us. Please email stacy@nameyourdesign.com to get your print! yay!

                                                
 
 

In other news, one of blogs that I like to stop by and browse is titled my favorite everything.  It's written by a fun + creative mommy (of three girls under the age of 3!!), Shanna Coady.  If you have a minute, swing on by and check her out.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the three alphabet soup canvas prints that I made for her girls....Addie, Hayden and Piper (cutest names ever) in her new playroom.

 I love to see my designs "in action"...especially in a house with this much style!  Her home is so bright and cheery and  although she only gave us a "sneak peak" of her new addition, I have a feeling the final result is going to be fabulous!

both images courtesy of my favorite everything

a celebrity baby birthday party and me.

I was contacted by a celebrity event coordinator last month (side note: I made this connection via twitter...seriously, I've made SO many great connections on twitter. If you run a business...I would say it is essential to your growth). Ok, back to the party. The party planner wanted me to put together a custom birthday invitation and other pretty paper things for the birthday party of Josselyn Harris....the 3 year old daugther of Samantha Harris. I got a rundown of the "theme", which was a "sophisticated + elegant fairy princess party". I threw together a design as the first draft (thinking I'd probably be asked to make some changes), and Samantha loved it! yay! Here's an image of it below:

Here's a picture of all the party paper things before I sent them off to be displayed at the party:

I also sent my personalized, modern dots placemats for all the celebrity guests' children. Now, here was the FUN part....seeing pics from the party on people.com! Here are some of my favorites below:

two images above via people.com

thank you, thank you, thank you + thank YOU!

It's been a busy + exciting few weeks over here. Some of the more "fun" things to note:
1. Placemats seem to be a hit (yay!)

2. Wrapped up a BUNCH of new holiday designs for tinyprints. I am so excited for my holiday collection this year....I think it is my best to date :).

3. I was asked to design a custom birthday invitation for the three year old daughter of a super sweet celebrity, Samantha Harris (woo hoo!). She loved the invite and wanted custom pretty paper things for the party AND we gifted each celebrity guest with a personalized mod dots placemat. So fun! (lots of pictures to come from this, so stay tuned)

4. It's been a while, but I finally wrote a new post over at OMHG about a little system I devised to save time while designing.

5. Just booked my flight and hotel to attend the abc kids show in Vegas next week. I'm going to support my friends/partners at Itzy Ritzy. I designed a handful of fabrics for their 2010-11 product line and I'm excited to see them in action!

6. Lastly, Lots of sweet bloggers took the time to write about my little business these past few weeks. I am always so thankful and humbled when people take the time to write about my products. I hope they all know how much I appreciate the boost....boost in sales + my confidence :).

mom finds

duet letterpress

project nursery

little birdie art

clara's "closet" growth chart

I've blogged about the super sweet couple ( John + Sherry of the famed blog, Young House Love ) before. Fast forward a year and now their perfect little family has grown with the birth of their beautiful baby Clara!

To celebrate their adorable new addition, I sent them one of my new modern growth charts as a fun way to record how quickly their little bean is sprouting!

In true YHL style...they didn't waste any time picking a perfect spot to hang it up and make it work in their adorable home.




So, thanks Sherry + John for posting the pics! The little long neck looks super on the closet door and I'm so glad I was able to get you something that you hadn't already figured out how to make yourself!

lust vs. must?

I was waiting to write about this press until my new site was launched!



You see, although I am extremely flattered that Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine included my alphabet soup print in their June 2010 issue as the LUST piece in their "lust vs. must" segment...customers really don't have to "lust" over the $95 price tag anymore!

Since relaunching the site, I've made each design available as either a poster print or canvas print and in 6 different sizes and pricepoints....starting at $20 for an 8" x 10" frameable print! (Yes..., only $20!)

We love to hear that people are lusting over our designs...but for $20 a pop, we think you should just go ahead and buy one!

Just a reminder : We are offering free ground shipping on ALL orders until the end of August. Just enter the coupon code : FREESHIP when you checkout.

yes...SHE really likes how we dwell

You know when you were little, just starting school...you'd walk into class, look around and immediately spot someone who "looked" like someone you'd love to be friends with? Well...that's kind of how I felt when I first discovered Christiane of DwellStudio.



I remember walking through Target and stopping in my tracks at the P E R F E C T line of new baby bedding sitting in the aisles. I wasn't prego at the time, nor did I have anyone in need of crib bedding...but I wanted it..I REALLY wanted it. Being the design dork that I am...I got home and googled it and then I really fell in love. I spent about an hour on the site browsing and reading about their story. As time went on...and I got more involved in design myself, I saw DwellStudio products/posts popping up everywhere. They are the bomb.

So, after a couple of years designing for tiny prints , I was SO excited to see that DwellStudio had a line of stationery right along side of mine! woo hoo! This meant we were kind of friends...in an online proximity type of way, right?

Fast forward a year and I give birth to my third baby, Parker. My sister gives him this DwellStudio blankie from Target and he is hooked on it...literally hooked. We can't leave home without it. He then gets two DwellStudio board books from Santa (because Santa can't pass up great design either....especially when it's attached to quality literature) and they are now Parker's FAVORITE things to read before bed. I think it's pretty cute and I email Christiane to introduce myself and let her know 1. Parker's love for her amazing designed goodies 2. That I think she is awesome and want to be friends That we are fellow tinyprints designers

DwellStudio writes back...they must have seen Parker's room tour on my blog and asked to feature it on their blog in their "how you dwell" section. So, I was excited...because if the creative peeps at DwellStudio like how you dwell...that means you are really cool (at least to me it does).

click here to see the feature.

1st edition of the chicago : crave guide

This post is a little delayed...but hey! Better late than never! Last Monday, Brooke and I attended the Chicago CRAVE guide book launch party to celebrate the very first edition of this awesome book. I've mentioned the CRAVE company before as they are an inspiring organization that promotes and supports women entrepreneurs....gotta love that, right?

Well...the books didn't make it in time for the actual party but that didn't stop us from having an awesome time. The super talented and sweet Michele, did a great job organizing the event that was held downtown at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio(also included in book). It is so uplifting and inspiring to be surrounded by women who share the same energy and passion for running their own business as we do. It was a great night and we are truly, truly honored to be featured in the FIRST edition of this book in Chicago. What a treat.

We snuck out a few minutes early to head down the street to NAHA for dinner. NAHA is another woman owned Chicago business that is also included in the CRAVE guide book.... and for the record, the halibut was the bomb.

Here's a few pics from the night. The quality stinks...but you get the basic idea.

in the bathroom of a beautiful family...

photo plucked off of dear cjane

Yeah...kind of a silly title, huh? I couldn't think of another way to talk about the fact that one of my favorite girls (that I've never even met but love just the same) has my nie nie birds print in her bathroom! Who cares, you ask? Well...for me..it's important...and meaningful and I am so flattered to have something of mine in her house.

If you've been following my blog you know what Stephanie Nielson of the Nie Nie Dialogues means to me. When I read of Stephanie's accident, I was quickly attached to her sister, Courtney's blog...where I would read updates on Stephanie and her family along with getting to know Courtney and her beautiful little family as well. As time went on and the Nielson children went home to their mom and dad...I continued to read Courtney's blog. She is an amazing writer and honesty, her blog (along with Nie's) is the first thing I look at when I sit down at my computer to start my day.

So, a few months back I sent Courtney and Stephanie a canvas for their homes..just a little something to brighten up their days. I guess Courtney really liked hers because she took the time to post about it on one of her blogs. So, you can go here to read the post....and if you've never heard of Courtney before...I can almost guarantee that you'll be hooked once you read ANY of her insightful posts.

So, I offered her readers 20% off if they enter the coupon CJANE during checkout...you are welcome to use this as well. I never put an expiration date on it so keep it in your back pocket and pull it out whenever you need it :).

and the winner is.......

Last week, while on twitter....I saw that Chicago Magazine was asking readers to submit flickr photos into their Home + Garden section for a contest. So, seeing as though I already had Parker's room photos in a folder on flickr....I sent some over...and GUESS WHAT?? I won!. They picked my little bean's room as their "flickr friday" pick. They said "Our staff loved this fun and sophisticated kid’s room posted by le papier boutique. The decals are a cool and non-permanent way to add interest to a tyke’s digs." I don't get a prize, per say, but the fact that THE coolest magazine in Chicago likes my decorating style is PRIZE ENOUGH for me....thank you v e r y m u c h.

Thanks Chicago Magazine...you are ALWAYS one of my favorites.

it appears that we are CRAVEable!

There is an organization that I've recently fallen in love with and I found them via twitter. For those of you small business owners reluctant to join team twitter, get over it! I have already seen the benefits in the two short weeks that I've been tweeting or twittering, or whatever you call it!

So, back to my point...I've recently fallen in love with CRAVE. Crave is a multifaceted organization that offers three diverse and helpful resources for professional women and small business owners in the Chicago area (in addition to other key cities across the country SanFrancisco, Boston, Atlanta, Portland, etc.)
The three main components to CRAVE are below:
CRAVEparty
CRAVEguides
CRAVEbusiness

I went to a CRAVEbusiness coffee chat last week outlining some helpful social media tips for small business owners and met some super women...one of them being Michele Kravetz from CRAVEchicago. We got to talking about the FIRST Chicago Edition of the CRAVEguide. After a few conversations, mixed with a little luck on my part, I was offered a spot in their book. The CRAVEguide "celebrates stylish entrepreneurs by showcasing the most creative, interesting and gutsiest proprietors from cities all over the world. This fall CRAVEchicago will launch it's own guide: The Urban Girl’s Manifesto, a unique and stylish guidebook for Chicago living complete with real-life examples of amazing women around the City who will help satisfy your next craving."

So, OH MY GOSH...am I excited. This is such an honor for me and I hope it will help get a lot of exposure to name your design for Brooke and I! woo hoo!

Here is a sneak peek into the guide at my layout in the book. The books will be in circulation for two years starting this Fall and available to purchase through Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles and other hot spots around the Chi!

giveaway on project nursery!

Head on over to Project Nursery.... the coolest spot on the web dedicated to your baby's first room. We're giving away another canvas print valued at up to $125....so head on over to check them out. I guarantee Project Nursery will soon be on your list of "favorite design blogs for baby".

We get loads of inspiration from Pam and Melisa's amazing nursery designs. Their inspiration boards are just what you'll need to get those creative juices flowing!

our nie nie birds print is "nesting"

If you are a blogging mom...who is interested in design..then I'm sure you MUST have heard of Gabby Blair from Design Mom. She is THE mom who (among many other things) orchestrated the entire Nie Nie Day silent auction last year after Stephanie's accident. She is an inspiration to many women as she manages to successfully juggle being a mother, wife and a business woman. I contacted her because I was trying to get the word out on my nie nie bird prints....because it is my hope that the more people that know about them...the more people will buy them and the more I'll be able to help out the Nielson's (I send 20% of the profits on these prints to the Nie Recovery Fund). Well...it turns out that Gabby actually READ my email, LIKED my print and decided to write about them on cookie magazine's nesting blog!. I'm not a Fortune 500 company, but I aspire to give like one. Won't you help me out? If you blog yourself...won't you please spread the word? You can grab this photo below:


You can read the post here. Or go straight here to order one.

Thank you Gabby...Happy Anniversary to you and your husband. It is refreshing to see how much you love eachother after 14 years together...

parker's nursery tour on apartment therapy

Parker has no idea that his room has made it onto one of the best sites out there for home design. I think the message on Ohdeedoh's facebook page sums it up....it reads "a site for people who care about good design....but happen to have children." Yup...that is definitely me!



To check out the entire tour and interview on ohdeedoh, click here.

It was so much fun creating Parker's room and even MORE fun seeing it on apartment therapy! Thanks again Alex.

we've got a buzzzzz......

We are truly buzzing off of all the amazing press we've gotten lately! It is so surreal to see your work featured on some of these blogs/sites that you've followed forever! It makes you feel like you've finally "made it"...ahhhhhhhh...feels good.

I always wonder if these amazing sites even realize what their feature does for a small business like ours??? I always try to send a thank you to the writer/editors to let them know how much it is appreciated....because it TRULY HELPS OUR BUSINESS!

The following mentions have resulted in a huge surge of traffic to our site and some new loyal readers of our blog. So...in case any of these editors are reading...thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to highlight our products.

Also, if you own a small business and feel like some of these editors are "untouchable" or "impossible" to reach...give it a whirl anyway! I have found recently after venturing out on my own pr/marketing campaign, that most of them are genuinely happy to hear from you!


"As far as we're concerned, you can never have enough art on your walls. And if you can find something for your child's room that is both cute and stylish then you got yourself a great find. We recently discovered Name Your Design and were enchanted by their fun colors, patterns and styles their prints (which can be personalized) offer..." click here to read more on ohdeedoh.

"Name Your Design's Zoo Animals Wall Art Set ($225) includes both an elephant and personalized giraffe print to decorate your lil one's walls...."click here to read more on lil sugar.



"The wannabe Warhol-inspired paintings of your kid in Technicolor just won’t cut it when it comes to original art.
Give the old-fashioned portrait a new take: Name Your Design uses a photo of your child’s profile to create a custom silhouette..."click here to read more on Urban baby.

featured on daily candy kids chicago.....

When you run a small business...it is a LOT of work. There's no "set" and consistent paycheck...you have to W O R K...and work HARD, everyday, to get your income flowing...designing, updating, marketing, sales, customer service, shipping, tracking, etc, etc..

Brooke and I love what we do...and getting recognized by kicka$% sites who want to highlight our work is just what we need to keep us pushing on! We are truly blessed to be able to do what we love, from home...with our kiddies close by. We think it is I N C R E D I B L E that there are so many ways for us to spread the word about our work via the web and we are honored that Daily Candy has decided to feature our shop today.






So, thank you Daily Candy Kids Chicago for supporting us hard working mamas! We will be fans for life!

Check out the article for a really amazing coupon code.