Inspiration for the New Designs

There was a little children's shop in Paris that had the cutest type in its windows. I took this photo years ago and saved it in an inspiration folder. It's taken awhile to create to new designs, but I had to start with making a fun lowercase cursive. Once the address stamps where created I played around with a few name stamps using the new type treatment. Some worked better than others, here are the winners. If there is something else that you'd like to see with the new cursive treatment let us know.

You can find our new name stamps on our Etsy site for now. And remember many of our accents stamps work great with these themes. Make your own set today!

New Cursive Address Designs

Introducing the our latest address stamps. The fun cursive type treatment is a perfect addition to our playful designs. All of the new personalized address stamps come in sets of two, an address stamp and an accent stamp, so that you can play with the layout. Stamp the address on the back of the envelope and stamp the accent stamp by the recipients name. Or stamp the address in the upper left corner of the envelope front and use the accent stamp to make an envelope liner or use it on the notecard inside. Change it up depending on the occasion or envelope.

The new designs are currently on our Etsy site.

Chocolate Cups

My intermittent blogging has been the result of jumping into the field of creating and designing apps. Rarely does my digital work cross over with Butterfly Fly, but I had to share an idea that came from an app I designed called MrChocolate.

Jacque Torres is MrChocolate and he is an amazing talent. The app features step by step videos, photos, and text for making and decorating all things chocolate. It was a peasure to work on and I hope you’ll check it out on either iPad or iPhone.

What I thought you’d really like from the app is a techique that I’ve used at my son’s last two birthday parties- and that is making chocolate cups. The kids had crazy fun dipping the balloons into the chocolate and then popping them to create a chocolate cup that we filled with ice cream. It was so much fun the first year that we hired a balloon guy and made the whole party a balloon theme the following year.

Beyond the kids loving this, it’s a great way to make a cute treat without baking. Summer is coming up and a hot oven can be miserable. But my favorite part of this treat is that it’s perfect for acommidating kids that are gluten-free. Nobody gets left out!

A couple of things to remember, make sure none of the guests have latex allergies, and it’s helpful to have a dedicated parent going around and picking up the popped balloon pieces. We had the kids dipping and then popping one at a time and everyone waited patiently for their turn. We all know that chocolate has magical powers, but patient children? It was amazing.

If the kids are popping the balloons themselves then a toothpick works well. They may need to hold the top of the balloon. The popping noise can be loud so warn tiny ones to cover their ears.

Also, it’s not as easy as melting the chocolate and dipping- the chocolate needs to tempered otherwise the cups don’t set well. Tempering and the chocolate cup technique are both featured in the apps.

If you’re ambitous try blowing up different sized baloons and make a flower like Jacques does. I think I’ll be saving that for a rainy day activity this summer. Enjoy.

The Curious Garden

Spring has come so early to the Midwest. Here's a little gardening inspiration for your young ones with a great book, The Curious Garden by Peter Brown.

A little like the Pothole Gardener's tiny creations, a boy discovers a small collection of struggling plants among the concrete and starts to take care of them. Overtime the garden spreads throughout the city transforming it into a beautiful environment. If you haven't seen this book yet please check it out from your library or better yet it would make a super cute easter present.

Happy spring!

The Pothole Gardener

This has to be one of the most charming ideas- tiny gardens planted in city potholes.

Many gardens have themes that make them not only lovely to look at, but add a wonderful bit of whimsy.

This spring as you drive and curse the giant holes that winter has left behind, remember their potential. Visit The Pothole Gardener for more inspiration.