Senojal Designs

Hi, everyone. Thanks for entering the first ever giveaway from Senojal Designs. I’m a little tardy in publishing the results and contacting the winners, but I hope you’ll forgive me.

I won’t keep you in suspense anymore. The two winners are Tiffani and Cate. Congratulations, y’all! I’ll be in touch soon with more details about your prize.

Thanks again for participating, and if you didn’t win this time, don’t let that keep you from playing in the future!

Until next time, grace and peace.

Good morning! When I logged in to check my e-mail this morning, I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me. My Little Ladybug suite of invitations, notecards, and party circles on Senojal Designs has been featured on Invitation Buzz today.

Thanks for the mention, Heather! If you’re planning a ladybug party for your little lady, just buzz on over to Senojal Designs and check out the Little Ladybug suite!

Until next time, grace and peace.

One of the most common questions I get from customers regards the color of the envelopes they will receive with their order. Most of my invitations and notecards are printed on heavy linen cardstock, and they come with matching white linen envelopes. For me, the luxurious texture of linen won out over colored envelopes, however cute they may be.

That said, I’ve noticed a new trend that’s a wonderful way to dress up white envelopes, and I’m excited to announce a new section to Senojal Designs :: DIY Printable files. I’ve sold a number of printable designs to customers, and I’ve finally started to list them in the etsy shop, beginning with address label envelope wraps.

Have you seen these? They’re super cute and simple to use. Each label measures 7 x 2 inches and wraps snugly around a standard A2 size envelope (4.375 x 5.75 inches). You don’t even have to have any special material to print these little gems. Just print them on plain white printer paper, cut out, and adhere to your envelopes with a glue stick. Wanna know what’s even better? You can print the file as many times as you want. It’s yours to use just one time, or 100 times. It’s up to you! You cannot, of course, accept credit for the design, sell the file or distribute it to others, but other than that, your options are pretty much endless.

Could these be any cuter? Over the next several days, I’ll be launching all kinds of DIY Printable files :: from envelope wraps to party circles to banners and favor tags. All of these items will, of course, complement my line of invitations, and they’re the perfect way to coordinate all aspects of your special events.

Stay tuned for new designs rolling out soon!

Until next time, grace and peace.

Hi! Remember me? I used to blog here, but over the past couple of weeks, life got busy and crazy, and it became easier to pretend this site didn’t exist than it did to actually write a post.

Over the weekend, Senojal Designs blew past the 50-sales mark on etsy, and to celebrate the milestone, I’m offering a 15 percent discount to all blog readers from today, May 24, until the end of the month. Offer expires at 11:59 p.m. May 31. To take advantage of this offer, enter ETSY50 in the message to seller section during checkout on etsy, and I’ll issue you a refund for the difference!

Because life has been busy, my thoughts have been fragmented and disjointed, and I don’t have that much to say.

But, I do want to share some of the fruits of the busy-ness with you. Last week, I had the privilege of designing some super fun birthday party invitations for a sweet friend’s children. I like designing custom stationery for kids because it allows me to be more playful and fun than I get to be in my other designs.

Know anyone having a pool party?

What about a space-themed rocket party?

I had a lot of fun with these designs, and I was pleasantly surprised when my sister-in-law contacted me to request some rocket invitations for my rambunctious little nephew. I love being able to create something special for my friends and family. Selling custom stationery on etsy has been very rewarding, but there’s something incredibly validating and special about making stationery for people who actually know me.

Until next time, grace and peace.

It’s been a crazy week. Senojal Designs has been fairly busy, which is good, but it also means that Micah and I went to the post office three times this week, and I went again this morning while Dennis kept the little lady. The post office is a 6-mile roundtrip outing from our house. Did you know that if you’re self-employed, you can write off little business trips to the post office and bank? Six miles doesn’t sound like much, but going 3 to 4 times a week adds up to 18 to 24 miles, which (using the mileage rate for 2010 taxes) adds up to $9 to $12 a week I can write off on next year’s taxes. To continue the math, $9 a week for 52 weeks adds up to $468 a year. That’s a tax deduction I’ll take, thank you very much.

If you’re self-employed and keeping your own books, you should look into an online service like outright.com. It has lots of good features for keeping up with expenses and income, and it even has a mileage calculator to help you keep up with all of those little trips. It has been a great help to me.

Another site that I’ve found helpful and interesting is smaller box. Every week, smaller box posts a list of the most valuable small business articles of the week. I’ve found helpful input and good ideas from all of these links.

And finally, if you’re a fellow etsy seller, you really should subscribe to the Storque and keep up with all the latest etsy happenings there. The Storque frequently posts tips and tutorials to help our little businesses succeed. You should check it out.

That’s all I’ve got for now. It’s time to hop in the shower while Micah naps. If I’m fast, I’ll be able to get completely ready before she stirs. We’ll see how it goes.

Until next time, grace and peace.