:: so much afoot ::

man oh man. there's so much going on around here and it's driving me crazy that i haven't had a chance to share it with you all. like did you know i now have wrapping paper? it'll be for sale in my shop sometime in mid-may. and i have my 2012 desk calendar finalized, with a super-cool made-for-me exclusive calendar stand? it's very cool. and OH FREAKING YEAH. DID I MENTION THAT UP UP CREATIVE WILL SOON BE OFFERING LETTERPRESS PRINTING ON ALL WEDDING SUITES? i've partnered with amy rau of greengirlpress.com to make that happen, and i'm so flipping excited about it.

more on all of this in the coming weeks. i just had to pop by quickly to share. HOORAY!

- julie

:: up up creative gets fashionable ::

i've got some crazy things coming up in connection with the national stationery show in may. i've had some press inquiries and sample requests and even an interview with a trade magazine. but perhaps the strangest and also possibly the most interesting is that i am providing 45 invitations to be used in a fashion show.

for real.

apparently kate's paperie is hosting an exhibit at the stationery show that will showcase paper dresses from cutting-edge designers as well as fashion design students at new york's lim college, the latter of whom will be competing for cash and the opportunity to have their designs displayed in the kate's paperie windows during fashion week.

the students' work will incorporate products from NSS exhibitors. including up up creative.

i have to send 45 invitations for some fortunate student to incorporate into his or her design. but i'm totally stuck. i can't choose which design to send. part of me is thinking chevron, but then i'm thinking maybe that's too obvious. what do you think? check out the 24 options here and let me know which one you'd like to see made into a garment.

:: coming soon to minted ::

i'm quite cheerfully here today to share some good news. not only was my "vintage treatment" design (shown here) chosen from among 600+ designs to be sold on minted, but it was one of the special editor's picks winners. you are, my friends, looking at the "best personalized calling card design."

i'm most pleased, i think, because i look at this and i look at designs i submitted to minted just a year ago and i see how much i've developed my own design voice in that time. i look at how much i've learned about pattern and texture and about using the tiniest of details to add almost unnoticeable elements that take a design from ho-hum to something more.

it's fun to be able to look back and see the development. and it's fun to win! yay!

:: hurtling planets and other issues (or, how to plan a gorgeous trade show booth on a budget and a conscience) ::

i have a total of three started-and-aborted blog posts about my trade show booth walls. they are, to say the least, stressing me out.

in planning my booth, my design aesthetic and my eco-commitment have collided in a two-planets-hurtling-through-space kind of way and i've found myself spinning and spinning as a result. what's more, my own personal definition of creativity has me bound and determined to find a way to salvage both planets, to coax them into a friendly peace - to swing them into a tight little orbit around my brand.

the point of impact is this:

in my industry, anyway, the booth is the brand. in fact, it's the brand and its the retail shop that will carry that brand. it's job is to invite buyers into a little world that makes them think of their own shops and think, "this is what is missing. this is what i have been searching for."

walls are a big part of this. they're a big part of how we display our products and a big part of creating that feeling that buyers are browsing their favorite corner paper store, not being herded through aisle after aisle, booth after booth.

and i think that hard walls always look better than fabric or paper ones. hard walls complete the illusion in a way that draped walls just don't. and more than that for me, hard walls contribute to the crisp, clean, minimalist up up creative design aesthetic.

but hard walls are a problem, ecologically speaking. because the gold standard for NSS hard walls is foam-core, and foam-core is more or less not reusable and it's certainly not recyclable. we're talking about 208 square feet of foam core board that is not recyclable and not reusable. and that's just for my booth, which is one in what, a thousand-plus? as someone on some blog i was reading earlier said, it's disposable, which really means it's garbage.

garbage that costs anywhere from $400 to (more typically) $1400 and provides you four whole days of beautiful-walled goodness.

fabric and paper are also options for the walls, but they also tend to look messier, less modern, and much more DIY (and not in that good DIY way). in all of my web-crawling travels i've yet to come across a fabric-walled booth that i thought was amazing.

i want to find a booth like that. i need to. because fabric is such a better option: it's reusable from year to year, it has a smaller footprint, it costs less. it's recyclable, in many cases, and even recycled in some.

fabric booths are, to me, ugly. they are not up up-y in the way that i need them to be for this trade show. but the part of me that believes that the best design comes from constraint also sees this as the ultimate design challenge. it is a problem to be solved, not avoided.

it's hard, though. because these aren't the only constraints. there are rules about what materials can be used at the trade show. rules about what we can carry in and what tools we can use to assemble our booths. and there are budgetary constraints. just reserving the space for this event costs in the thousands and while i could certainly create an ubercool ubereco booth on an unlimited budget, the budget's not just limited but pretty severely so.

and yet a decision has to be made. we're nearing march and it's time to order what needs to be ordered, construct what needs to be constructed. it's time to wrangle these planets into orbit before either one of them begins to implode.

what do you think? should i build birch walls? experiment with stiffened fabric? focus on free-standing shelves? should i order the foam core but find a way to recycle or reuse it after the event? help!

:: hooray! up up's very own indie affiliate program ::

blogging friends,

remember when you started blogging and you signed up for an amazon affiliate account and thought, whee! now i'll link to amazon whenever i mention a book or an album or whatever, and soon i'll be rich!

well move over amazon because there's a new affiliate program in town. if you'd like to become an up up creative affiliate, meaning you will earn a commission on any sales you refer (either with your partner code, given out to people you know, or when people click on one of eleven available banners that you can link to on facebook or put on your website or blog, etc.), sign up for an account here.

it's a way for you to support a shop you love and help spread the word about up up creative and make a little spending money in the process.

there are two plans currently available: the standard affiliate plan gives you a 5% commission on all wedding sales you refer and 10% on everything else you refer; the feelgood plan gives you 15% on any of your feelgood list referred sales and 5% on everything else. your affiliate account is payable via Paypal when you reach a minimum of $15.

whee!

register as an up up creative affiliate now and get access to the banners, codes, etc.

:: up up creative for snapfish ::

the kiddos are at daycare today (yes! new situation! we're doing part-time daycare! and it's working out well!) and i've got lots on my plate, from wedding proofs for clients to emails that need to be answered to prepping a bit more for the national stationery show. but first among the projects is going to be working on some new designs for snapfish.

things there are going well. i've got some bestsellers and everything.

so i'm wondering: what would you like to see from up up creative for snapfish? any special requests? your wishes are my commands, my friends. you (yes you) can shape what goes up on snapfish.com. now that's power.

(curious what i've got there already? the image above shows the 16 designs currently for sale in both the UK and US shops. follow the links to get there yourself.)

:: all i really need to know about business, i learned from my son's preschool evaluation ::

this week, we got evan's first little school evaluation. his first series of checkmarks and assessments. can he tell a story about an event that already happened? yes, he can. does he share well? yes. hold a pencil correctly? not if his life depended on it.

unsurprisingly, the boy came up strong in language skills (something about nuts falling near trees, right?) and social skills (well, not this tree) and large motor skills, and he tanked on fine motor skills. can't hold a pencil or scissors correctly. doesn't try to write his name. he can sing the alphabet, even the LMNOP part, faster and clearer than i can, but trying to get him to trace a letter on a piece of paper is about as satisfying as peeing into a doctor's urine sample cup when you really have to pee.

and seeing his evaluation, it got me thinking about my business.

i swear. just go with it.

because seeing his evaluation, my brain went through a series of thoughts:

1 - yup, this is about what i expected.
2 - i wonder how many of the other kids can hold a pencil properly.
3 - i wonder if i should be working with him on fine motor skills.

it's a totally predictable pattern of thoughts. i'm guessing that every single parent in the classroom ran through the same general thought process.

but then my next thought was:

4 - or maybe instead we should just develop the hell out of his language and social skills.

that's the entrepreneur in me. it's the part of me that thinks mcdonald's should stop selling cappuccino and starbucks should stop trying to force us to buy their breakfast sandwiches.

i think when it comes to preschool, there's a good argument to be made for developing our weaknesses. evan's going to have an awfully frustrating school experience if he never learns to hold his writing utensils.

when it comes to three year olds, there's also a pretty good argument for waiting it out. chances are very good that evan's fine motor skills will develop without me sending him to occupational therapy or embarking on my own home-study-course of preschool needle threading and pencil gripping.

but when it comes to business, i think there's a good argument to be made for accepting our limitations and weaknesses and instead developing the hell out of our strengths.

what do YOU think?

:: trade show bound ::

i've sent in my deposit and gotten my booth number and up up creative is in the national stationery show directory, all of which means it's official: i'm going to the show. no, wait. i'm not just going. i'm exhibiting at the show.

the picture above should give you an idea of how overwhelmed i'm feeling, although i'm simultaneously in awe at how prepared i feel, overall. i mean, i have no idea what i'm doing, what my booth will look like, what i will wear, etc., but i just feel kinda ready.

i feel good.

:: also available: new valentines ::

in addition to the wedding designs i released this month, i've also got five new valentines in the shop for 2011.  there's one design in the new collection (shown above) that i described as being for "when you feel like shouting it from the rooftops, but your aesthetic is a bit more whisper in the dark..." i'd say that pretty much sums up all five of the new cards now in the shop: lovey but unsappy; bold but subtle; somehow graphic but with nary a graphic to be found.

ah, me and my contradictions.

find the new cards here. or peep them below.

:: slow launch ::

 you've heard of the slow food movement? well i'm apparently initiating a similar movement called the slow launch movement. what you do is this:

1. spend months working on a new product or collection
2. set a december deadline for launching that new product or collection
3. finally actually release the product or collection in your shop in january.
4. make a halfhearted attempt at telling people you did this, preferably by using your personal (not your business) facebook page to post one link without any real explanation.
5. wait at least a week and then finally get around to writing your newsletter and sending it to your 429 adoring fans.
6. after this, maybe put something on your blog where the same 429 adoring fans, plus approximately 235 additional subscribers and readers, will read it.
7. finally realize that you might want to let some folks outside your inner circle know about the launch.
8. write a press release. send it to your favorite blogs and magazine editors. spread the word on twitter. finally put something on your business facebook page.

and that, my friends, is how it's done.

now watch and learn because i'm about to break out step six, in which i finally announce that my winter 2011 wedding collection is now available and getting some keen interest. hooray!

now, before i get to step 8 in my slow launch, i'd love to have some feedback from you. specifically, i'd love it if you could give me some words to describe individual pieces as well as the collection as a whole. what are your impressions? how is this collection like and not like my previous 12 designs? who do you think the collection appeals to? what are your favorite designs?

:: 2011 printable calendar now in the shop ::

only on etsy, and in your (my lovely blog reader's) honor. click on the image to buy yours.

:: the pic has hit the stands ::

back in august, i got an email from a senior editor at brides magazine. you know, that wedding mag you see on, say, the magazine rack at your grocery store checkout? the one owned by conde nast, publisher of the new yorker, vogue, and wired?

she wanted my invitations. for her magazine. i nearly died.

a few months later, the pic has hit the stands, so to speak. january 2011 issue page 62, under "buzz," and i quote:

"OMG, we're loving the chatty invite craze - so shut that etiquette book and aim for wording that reflects your true personality." and then at the end, "upupcreative.com."

for real. i'm pretty psyched.

perhaps most of all i'm glad that the little blurb they wrote about the invitation (i honestly had no idea what they were even going to do with my invitation) totally reflects my own philosophy on weddings: be yourself and everyone will love it. so yay.

:: twelve, no, thirteen! ways to help support businesses you believe in ::

from its title, you may be thinking this post isn't very me. but it's a topic that means more to me with each day i pass as an entrepreneur and a member of a handmade community. with each new friendship i make in "the biz," with each shop i discover and sometimes even rediscover after a long time, with each marketing decision i make, i become more interested in thinking about how we can all help one another more.

so i give you this post.  

thirteen ways to support businesses you believe in

1. buy from them. duh. moving on.
2. “distribute” their wares, their name, etc. on facebook (i.e. julie green “is loving every single item in the such-and-such shop, especially this” with a link) or on social shopping sites if you use those (i myself don't, but my twitter friends swear by wishpot, kaboodle, polyvore...)
3. tell your local stores to stock them. follow this up by telling the business proprietor that you’ve already done this -- then he/she can follow-up appropriately.
4. sign up to be an affiliate if they have an affiliate program. every blogger i know has now or at one time had an amazon affiliate account. for each click on an amazon link that blogger gets, like, a penny. but sometimes affiliate programs are good, and sometimes they’re even downright lucrative, and sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you get in return since you’re probably going to plug the heck out of someone you believe in anyway.
5. include a link on your blog (in the sidebar), offer a free ad spot, etc. ask the person whose business it is you’re supporting if he/she can provide you with a small banner. chances are good the answer will be a happy YES!
6. if you have your own business, offer to do a cross promotion or to collaborate.
7. put their items on your christmas and birthday wish lists, or even on your wedding registry if you can figure out how.
8. ask them for a stack of business cards and give them out to people you run across. my husband keeps a stack of my business cards in his wallet and he’s always giving them out when someone needs invitations or papergoods or graphic design, etc.
9. wear, give, or otherwise show off their goods to others, then brag about where you got them. this one’s a big one. you can tell people over and over how cool everything at the infusion shop on etsy is, and they may eventually mosey on over to google and see if they can find infusion, but if they see you wearing your gorgeous, organic plum infusion bag and realize that this is, in fact, the bag they have been searching for their entire lives, they’re probably going to follow-through more quickly and completely.
10. recommend the business owner for an interview on your favorite blog, in your favorite magazine, etc. you might go tell etsy to include me as a featured seller, for example.
11. help out with seo. write up your favorite businesses using the right keywords. incoming links help websites rise in the search engine rankings. the better the keywords, the more bang for your blogging buck. to find out what keywords you should use, see what kinds of words the business’s own website tends to use. ecofriendly? irreverent? handcrafted versus handmade?
12. if you have made a purchase in the past, offer to write a little testimonial for their website. be specific about why this purchase was a good decision, what was pleasant about the shopping experience, etc.
13. provide feedback! let the proprietor know what you like and what you’d like to see in the future.

:: a calendar of my very own ::

flummoxed designer seeks someone to tell her
how to hang her awesome new poster-sized calendar. please help!

recently while sprucing up my studio walls with some yummy goodness (some embroidered art i did when i started up up creative, artwork by illustrators i admire, etc.) i realized i needed a big-ol-calendar on the wall next to my desk and decided it was time to take a few hours away from work-for-others and do a little bit of work-just-for-me.

i present: the result. i love it, printed all large (13x19) on this delicious 100% cotton paper i have and all. but i can't for the life of me figure out how i want to hang it. a simple hole at the top, hung over a nail? a bulldog clip holding the paper? two holes and some string? i just. can't. decide.

thoughts?

:: winter wedding 2011: sneak peek! ::

it's not ready for prime time quite yet, but here's a little sneak peek at the 2011 winter wedding collection soon to be released in the up up shops. i was trying to add 12 designs to the 12 already there, and in fact designed more than 20 in the rough-draft stage, but i can't seem to weed out two of the fourteen pictured here. so maybe it'll be a plus-sized collection?

as usual, there's a bit of whimsy, a bit of snark, and a good, hearty helping of bold. there are a few julie green original illustrations (i'm quite proud of the orchids) and some other fun stuff throughout. can't wait to show off the whole thing in a few weeks.

whee!

:: thoughtful is the new black ::

"I'll give you all I can" by brandon christopher warren on flickr

so here's the thing: i'm not having a black friday sale. or a cyber monday one for that matter. i've hosted my fair share of very enticing sales in the past and without fail they have generated not one single purchase. no one has taken me up on my free shipping sales; no one has ever gone in on a 50% off everything sale.

that and i am so freaking annoyed by the barrage of emails and facebook posts i've received touting Specials! and Savings!

and honestly, as much as i rely on my customers for my family's actual livelihood (your purchases from my shop make a real difference in our lives, and for that i'm so very, very thankful to you), i'm just really turned off by the whole concept of black friday. the thought that companies lie in wait all year just itching to earn your big christmas-spending dollars on the friday after thanksgiving just makes me want to turn in my official entrepreneurial spirit card.

with each year that passes my gift giving becomes a little bit more personalized. something about the confluence of having children, and my husband taking a huge pay cut in order for us to move home to new york, and home ownership and, yes, being an indie business owner has just made me think so differently about the holidays and about gift-giving all year long.

the last year i shopped at a mall for christmas was 2006. i remember it well because i was in my first trimester with evan and the pregnancy migraines were so bad that all i wanted to do was walk and walk and walk because it sort of helped, so hubby and i hoofed it from end to end and back again at the local mall one november night (before thanksgiving, even -- my crazy-sick bubble-gum-sticky memory is pretty sure it was november 18th) and by night's end we'd covered most of our christmas list.

but since then i've taken a different tack: i buy fewer gifts, for one. i suppose i also make fewer, which is to say that i try only to make things the recipient will not only love but also use (or happily display, if display applies). i don't knit scarves for people who won't wear them, don't stitch pillows for people who won't put them on their beds or couches. maybe because i don't want anything extra around my own crowded house i just can't bring myself to give gifts simply for the sake of fulfilling a gift-giving obligation.

none of this is to say that i eschew traditional mall-type gifts if that's the kind of gift a person really wants the most. if my sister has been saving all year to buy a nook (the barnes and noble e-reader) then heck yeah i'll give her a barnes and noble gift card. but giving a barnes and noble gift card just because i can't think of what else to give someone? i just don't do that anymore.

and as far as my own shop goes? well, i guess i've just come to know that the people who shop from my store aren't shopping there because the prices are the cheapest or the sales the shiniest. they're not people who will see that i'm having a sale and just impulsively click "buy." they're people who want to give a friend something personal. people who can't resist buying that card that so perfectly sums up the state of their love for someone else that they must have it, minimal shipping cost be damned.

so i'm not having a sale. i do hope you'll shop at up up creative this holiday season if you think your gift recipients would love what you can get from my shop. if you'd like some gift giving ideas i can even help you out with those, and i'm always happy to do custom stuff if that's what you need.

so happy friday, black or otherwise.

:: holiday card giveaway ::

i mentioned that i was going to do a majorly huge giveaway this month, and here i am to finally announce it: the long-awaited  sapsucker™ holiday card giveaway. and oh, baby - it’s a good one.

there will be 3 winners:

GRAND PRIZE: 50 (holy crap, fifty? yes!) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop PLUS one custom Sapsucker card. (Total package is worth $170)

1st RUNNER UP: 20 (whoa! still pretty good!) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop (worth $60)

2nd RUNNER UP: 10 (hey, it’s a start) holiday cards of your choice from the Sapsucker Shop (worth $30)

YOU MUST VISIT MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE TO ENTER. FIND DETAILS THERE.

WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010. entries close at noon EST.winners announced sometime that afternoon. winners will be chosen randomly from all entries. you may have up to two entries total (see “extra entries” above) but you may not win more than one prize.

:: two years ::

[ watercolored balloons, by stephanie kac on flickr ]

it's the two-year anniversary of the up up creative opening. last year i totally did this great week-long celebration. this year, well, i don't have anything like that planned. i had it on my list of things to do, but there it sits, all un-crossed-off.

oh well.

it's pretty amazing to look back at how much has changed in two years. how much my business has grown, and how much i've learned.

sales in 2010 are projected to hit more than 250% of 2009's sales, a fact that in and of itself makes me sit back and just marvel. but so much other amazing stuff has happened this year: press inquiries from martha stewart living, brides magazine, and cleo magazine (in australia), an invitation from snapfish to become one of their designers. this is big freaking stuff. it's no wonder i'm sitting here all unprepared to celebrate this anniversary -- i'm too busy working!

i think my anniversary gift to myself is going to be some time over the next few weeks to just sit back (maybe take a walk) and fantasize about the coming year: dream away about all the possibilities for up up creative's third year in business, see what reaches my wildest imagination can take me to.

:: yet to come, now available ::

here's november's desktop wallpaper for you. another little inspirational gem, eh? for someone who would rather be accused of being cynical than sappy, i can't seem to shake these inspirational little sketches when the time comes to create a wallpaper drawing.

it's just that if i'm going to have something on my desktop for a month it better damn well make me feel like a hotshot.

so there.

maybe december's will simply read: I AM A HOTSHOT.

:: elopement announcements ::

 

my favorite-project-of-the-moment? elopement announcements for laura and brandon (based on this modern invitation design in the up up creative shop. this adorable couple took off to new mexico for the most totally-freaking-gorgeous private ceremony and upon their return hired me to create a fun, sweet announcement for their friends and family.

i chose the colors to match their storybook wedding pics and i cannot even begin to explain how happy the finished product makes me. and this couple, frankly.

what a good idea, elopement announcements. have you heard of anything like that before?