I have been swamped since the beginning of the year and am just now finding time to update the blog. I’ve been working on so many projects! First up is an invitation to the Swiss Avenue Women’s Guild’s Valentine Casino Night, designed in the shape/format of a playing card. I illustrated the queen and the back side’s heart pattern. What you can’t see is the beautiful pearlescent paper stock that adds so much depth and elegance. Beneath that are two shots of the Valentine cards I sent to Luke’s grandparents and great grandmother. I saw the coolest idea for a pixelated heart pop-up card on minieco.co.uk’s blog and had to try it from her downloadable template. I used my Silhouette die cutter to do the cuts and glued a tiny photo of Luke on the pop-out heart inside (I ran out of adhesive right before I shot the photo, so the photo of Luke was a last minute addition). Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Since this is my first year to blog, I thought it would be fun to post some of my favorite projects from 2011. I do so many jobs large and small, I had a tough time choosing my favorites, but here’s a sampling. I’m so grateful for all of my clients, family and friends and I’m so lucky to be able to be creative every single day of the year. Happy New Year!

First up are promotional materials for my friend Pam’s custom jewelry business. Last year I designed her logo, business cards, and website. This year we added small cards to accompany her gift packaging that tell her story, small price tags, and a display card that will appear alongside her jewelry in the Texas Quilt Museum gift shop in La Grange, Texas. I had these printed on pearlescent paper and they are stunning. To see Pam’s beautiful jewelry, click here.

Next is a business card for writer/editor Kristy Hurst. I love doing cards for other creatives and Kristy is a very gifted writer.

Below are several projects for Akorn Pharmaceuticals. First is the biggest project of 2010-11, the redesign of their corporate website and launch of their e-commerce division, AkornDirect.

I put together several concepts for consumer packaging for Akorn’s line of generic lubricant eye drops.

Below are the logo and PowerPoint templates for Akorn’s national sales meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. The resort where the meeting takes place is inspired by Moroccan/Spanish design, so we chose to develop the concept based on artwork and elements found throughout the hotel and spa. I hand-lettered the type with my upgraded Wacom tablet, so much fun!

Every year I do an email holiday greeting for 360Limo, an international transportation company. This year I had fun with type:

Next up are proposed concepts for Crafts 101, a line of paper/yarn crafts for young girls, and Music 101, a line of musical instruments for young boys. While these ideas were not used for the project, I had a blast working on them.

Last but not least is the logo for the Sacred Music program at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. The logo is an illustration of the organ and rose window in the church’s choir loft.

I recently designed a promotional poster for Michael Conrady for the St. Thomas Aquinas choir’s performance of Mozart’s Requiem (following a candlelight evening prayer service for All Souls’ Day). I shot the photo for the poster and was thrilled to be asked to photograph the concert as well. It was a fantastic night and I enjoyed experimenting with my new wide angle lens in a gorgeous setting. I have to say listening to the full choir and orchestra alone in the choir loft was pretty sweet!

Welcome to my first official blog post, I’m so glad you found me! Check back here often to see what I’m working on, what inspires me, photo shoot updates/sneak peeks and much more.

We just returned from a much needed road trip to stay with family friends in the Sangre de Cristo mountains near Santa Fe. It was so much cooler than Dallas has been all summer and we even saw RAIN for longer than 5 minutes for the first time since May. Our 21-month-old son, Luke, had a great time with his Midland grandparents and Brad and I spent a fantastic Saturday in Santa Fe by ourselves for the first time since he was born. The colors, the light and the landscape were just breathtaking and I took as many photos as I could in between rain showers. I planned a sunset shoot each night to capture Luke with his grandparents, but unfortunately it clouded up and rained every evening right at perfect light. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the trip, including a stop at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo (an effort to get Luke to nap in the car!).