Vale Design : Freelance Package Design & Branding

Work in Progress

Sorry everyone. I am finishing up a freelance project for a new client. As the sign says, thank you for your patience!

DIY: FREE PRINTABLE Pom Poms from Domestifluff

Kristen at Domestifluff {and Paper Crave and Craftig} is at it again. Chek out these beautiful DIY free printable Pom Pom PDFs she is sharing with everyone. I absolutely LOVE her design style. Just print on cardstock, trim and the rest is up to you. Make sure you also download her free Jam jar tags and labels! Thanks Kristen for sharing your amazing talents with the rest of us! Have a great weekend everyone!

{image credits Domestifluff}

Better Homes and Gardens 100 days of Holiday Cookies

I just received my October issue of Better Homes & Gardens and I was so excited to see a small little paragraph about their 100 Days of Holiday Cookies. How great is this?! Sign up for free. {There is an option to only receive the 100 days.} Then it is daily cookie recipes galore from now until New Year's! They even offer a widget that you can add to your Facebook or blog that will show the recipe of the day. Super cute and convenient.

{image credits Better Homes & Gardens}

How About Orange - DIY Recycled Magazine Business Card Holder

Jessica Jones from How About Orange has another crafty DIY project for all of us! Check out this recycled magazine business card holder tutorial. She is so crafty and talented. I am not a person who sews, but if I did, I would totally attempt these. It is starting to get close to holiday shopping and my house is already being bombarded with catalogs and what a creative way to use them before you recycle them. These would make the cutest little gifts for friends. I would definitely use the CB2 catalog for this project. Great color schemes and bold graphic patterns. {I think that may be what Jessica used for her holder.} Thanks Jessica for sharing your great idea! Now go get creative everyone!

{image credits How About Orange}

Amazing Apple Crisp Recipe

Ingredients:

5 c. peeled & sliced baking apples

1 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. oatmeal

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 c. butter or margarine (1 stick)

3/4 c. flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Sugar and cinnamon apples to taste. Arrange apples in a buttered 9x13 glass dish. Make sure you have enough apples to sufficiently fill the dish. Combine brown sugar, flour, oats, and cinnamon. Cut in butter till crumbly. Press mixture over the apples. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until top is brown.

**I love Fall and this is a definite must have Fall dessert recipe from my great-grandmother. It is so easy and super tasty! Over Labor Day, we took one of my nieces to Cranes Orchard. We had a wonderful time picking three different types of apples and some peaches. Tired from picking, we then snacked on their restaurant's fresh apple cider and my new favorite food, apple cider doughnuts! I used the Golden Supreme apples we picked for this recipe. Pair with Vanilla ice cream and you are all set! Enjoy!

Lunchbox notes free printables

My mom used to put notes in my lunch box and my brother's almost everyday while we were in elementary school. I always used to tell her I was not a baby and to stop doing it, but she knew better. The truth was that I LOVED her notes! Handwritten little reminders that someone loved me. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw that two of my favorite artists, one designer, Kathleen at Twig & Thistle, and one illustrator, Lori of Fresh Picked Whimsy, were offering free versions of their own! Nice work ladies! Have a spectacular weekend everyone! See you back here Monday!

Download FreshPickedWhimsy lunch box notes.

Download Twig&Thistle lunch box notes.

{image credits Twig & Thistle and Fresh Picked Whimsy}

DIY: FREE PAssion Fire Fight Card {limited edition}

Someone you know needs to hear this! I wrote these words in an email to a friend the other day and I could not stop thinking about them. They had a nice, strong, motivational ring to them. This DIY free printable PDF contains 2 A2 folded cards. Print them on cardstock, trim and give to a friend. Remind them that you see their strength, even if they do not!

Download PassionFireFight here.

new products at Vale design paper goods!

Click HERE to find out more about this CUSTOMIZABLE COLOR A2 folded card printable! Matches our Mod Flower Dome box design perfectly for a super cute set. 

Click HERE to find out more about this ink saving EDITABLE wedding favor box printable! {matching A2 folded card coming soon! Please check back!}

Click HERE to find out more about this CUSTOMIZABLE COLOR printable! Modern and super unique. Would work for a variety of occasions!

**Make sure to keep checking back. New items coming weekly, including Holiday items! As always, if there is custom packaging you are interested in or have a question about, please feel free to convo me. ~ Erin
 

Blog Love: Designer Jots

As we know, I am a big advocate of illustration and patterns. I was very happy to stumble onto Designer Jots by Carolyn Gavin. Designer Jots is her blog from her main site, Ecojots, her brother sister run company that makes eco-friendly paper goods. Both websites show off their modern, bright patterned style on a variety of products. Notebooks, folders, cards, e-cards, agendas and journals. They even have wrapping paper! What a great coordinated gift for a fellow paper lover.

{image credits Carolyn Gavin, Designer Jots}

found via Twig & Thistle

Eat Drink Chic DIY Ice Cream Soda

Amy Moss of Eat Drink Chic is at it again! In case you missed her previous DIY, Ice Cream Parlour, her next project, Ice Cream Soda labels, is a must see as well. People, run, do not walk to her site. All of these professionally designed tasty morsels are FREE! The product photography alone is absolutely stunning and then she backs it up with beautifully designed work. I have to get down to Australia. I think they might have more hours in a day than the rest of us! Happy weekend everyone!

{image credits Eat Drink Chic}

My new Canon Rebel

I did it. I pulled the trigger! I am the proud new {and terrified} parent to this Canon Rebel XSi. I am so excited about the possibilities with this thing! Just think about how amazing my product photography will look. I am very grateful that I have a professional photographer as a close friend though. This baby may require a few quick lessons!

{image credit Amazon}

Landor, Sterling Brands, Hornall Anderson Blogs oh my

It seems like everyone and their mother has a blog now-a-days, myself included. It is how and what you choose to do with your blog that sets you apart from others. I choose to use mine as the face of my freelance design business...with maybe a picture of my office dog or two! However, even the big design guys are getting into blogging. As a freelancer, I am always interested in setting my personal design bar very high. I measure what I release to my clients against what I envision that the "Top" design companies would release to theirs. I always wonder, "What would they do? How would they go about this project? What was their thinking behind this design?" Now I can be privy to that knowledge! Landor, Sterling Brands, and Hornall Anderson {to name a few} have blogs. What an amazing opportunity for the rest of us to learn from their knowledge and experience. I also follow Landor and Sterling Brands on Twitter. To these "Top" companies, thank you for opening the doors, sharing and pushing the rest of us to work harder and design better!

{image credits Landor, Sterling Brands, and Hornall Anderson}

DIY: FREE {joint} printable Mom's Latte list

I was asked by Cindy at Skip To My Lou to write a guest post and to offer an exclusive free printable. After a quick brainstorming ladies lunch with Lori of Fresh Picked Whimsy, we came up with the Latte List, well, Lori did!  I offered my design and list making skills and she contributed this super cute illustration! This is for all of your busy mom's out there. Keep these lists in your purse, on the fridge, or in the car. It offers a checkbox and lines for child's name, date, time and notes. There are 2 lists per 8.5"x11" page. Just print, trim and go! Enjoy! ~ Erin & Lori

**Also available on Craftig.

Download LatteList here.

COMMON SENSE RULE: For personal use only. Not for commercial use.   ©erinvaledesign.com

Brand Packaging Magazine Digital Edition

As we know, I am a huge fan of Brand Packaging Magazine. For a package designer, this is a great informational and visual resource and it is FREE! They have wonderful articles, are up to speed in all the latest design trends and keep you informed on national design conferences. This magazine is offered in both traditional paper form and a digital version. I prefer the paper version. {Don't worry, I recycle them when I am finished.} However, I was missing my August issue and I needed some design inspiration ASAP for my latest freelance projects. I went to their site and was very happy and surprised by the digital version of the magazine. The images are clear and it lets you zoom in very tight...plus it makes the cutest "turn the page" noise. If you are in a pinch and need a quick resource, definitely bookmark their site. You can also follow them on Twitter.

{image credits Brand Packaging Magazine}

Black bean & salsa soup

Ingredients:

2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 c. vegetable broth

1 c. chunky salsa

1 t. ground cumin

4 T. sour cream

2 T. thinly sliced green onion

Directions:

In an electric food processor, combine beans, broth salsa and cumin. Blend until fairly smooth. Heat the bean mixture in a medium saucepan over medium heat until thoroughly heated. To serve, ladle soup into 4 individual bowls and top each bowl with sour cream and green onions.

**Ok, I am not sure when Fall arrived, but it is here and I am busting out all my go to soup recipes. This one is definitely high on my list. It is such an easy healthy recipe, a vegetarian option, and I always have these ingredients on hand. I usually use this salsa. I found this recipe here on allrecipes.com. 

Fresh Picked Whimsy Recipe Cards

Ok, we all know that I am in love with my friend Lori's illustrations from Whimsy Studios and her blog, Fresh Picked Whimsy. This time she is giving us all a treat! She illustrated some recipe cards for her mom's birthday and she has put them in her shop! Each recipe card is 4"x6". There are 6 designs and she provides you with 2 of each. Seriously people, if I could draw like this I would get nothing else in my life done!

**Lori and I just finished a joint free printable for a guest post. It is so stinkin' cute! She has some serious talent! This one is going to be for the moms!  We will let you know when it is up.

{L - Congrats on the new writing gig!}

{image credits Whimsy Studios}

**update: just found out that these are going to be sold brick and mortar! If you are in the Carmel Indiana area, please check out Westwood Paper and keep an eye out for Lori's recipe cards.