Daniella, the youngest in my favorite group of women in the world (she’s the one in the blue sweater), is now an RN!  To celebrate this huge accomplishment, the TKN gals wanted to get her something that we knew she could use in her new profession – cute scrubs!  But since we weren’t sure where she would end up working or what the dress code would be there, we pooled our money and opted for a group cash gift instead.

Giving cash can be kind of awkward, especially when it’s between friends.  I know it’s a great gift to receive, but it can feel impersonal when you’re tucking a few bills into a card.  I like to dress it up a bit if I’m going to give a cash gift.  My grandmother is a master at this – she’ll tape a check to the sole of a pair of slippers, or tuck the bills inside a pair of barrettes.

So in order to dress up Daniella’s group gift, I created this card – it measures 5″x7″ and is styled to look just like a miniature medical chart!

The outside of the card - tan heavyweight cardstock was used to mimic a manila folder.

When you open up the card, the text panels on the inside are set up with medical chart information – both typed and “handwritten” – and there’s a small envelope clipped to the left side that’s the perfect size to hold a few bills.

A wide shot of the inside of the card.

A closer look at the personal message - I used the least legible script font I had to approximate a doctor's penmanship.

A view of the left side of the card with the gift envelope detached.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother posting about a card I made for a friend – I make individual cards quite often and don’t generally reproduce them – but I was so excited by the way this one came out that I thought it was worthy of an Etsy listing.  Besides, I can’t be the only person out there with a zillion doctors, dentists, nurses, and PAs in her life!  It’s graduation season, and if anyone out there is looking for the perfect way to present a cash, check, or gift card to a new medical professional, get an order in today!

Dina purchased one of my stock designs on Etsy.   These are digital designs I’ve created that allow for some customization.  It’s a budget-friendly alternative to purchasing a completely custom creation, and for some folks, it may be the perfect fit.

This is the stock design Dina chose:

A stock design from my Etsy collection. This can be customized with any text or color scheme.

In her purchase notes, she told me that she was creating a gift for a baby shower.  She wanted the file customized with the name of the baby, and instead of the wedding text on the sides, she asked for the following phrases:  “Apple of our Eye” and “Grown from Heirloom Seed.”  She also wanted a grass green and pale yellow color scheme to match the nursery.

Dina told me she was going to print it and modge podge it on the front of an old fruit crate to use for storage in the nursery, and she was going to fill it with other fruit and vegetable themed items – onesies with carrots and peas on them, a hand-knitted strawberry hat, and an Anna Banana stuffed toy.  Is that the cutest idea in the world or what?  I loved it!

Stock designs include two minor revisions once the initial proof has been sent.  Dina was happy with the first draft, but she wanted the color changed slightly on one piece of text.  No problem!  We went back and forth on that color a couple of times (and I still count that as just one revision, since it’s trying to correct the same issue) before I finally hit on the perfect shade of dusty rose for the last name.

Here’s the final product (the name has been changed to protect the innocent baby!):

The stock design, completely customized and ready to print!

Thank you, Dina!  I’m sure your gift will be a hit!  I may even have to steal your idea for one of the million baby showers I have coming up this year .

If you’re interested in working with a custom design and you have questions you want answered first, email me or convo me on Etsy!  I’ll be adding more designs to the shop periodically, so keep checking back and see if there’s anything new that calls out to you.

My birthday gift to Mom and Dad was this invitation:

The front of the mock vinyl record invitation. I based it on an old Capitol Records design.

The back of the mock vinyl record invitation, with more information and some cutesy clip-art graphics.

I initially made up both sides of this invitation as two separate design ideas because Mom liked the colorful 50’s-themed graphics and I liked the more realistic record.  In the end, I used them both so we could include all of the necessary information.

Mom asked if I could do something with The Hop’s logo, which had a cool-guy bunny rabbit leaning casually up against it.  She wanted me to add a girl bunny next to him.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to Photoshop the low-resolution photo she had of the logo, I finally just drew it by hand, scanned it, and re-worked the file from there.

The invitations were printed on glossy circular labels and affixed to die-cut black linen paper circles for a realistic vinyl record effect.  I used bright orange square envelopes (not pictured; we had to mail out every single one!) and printed address labels for the mailing and the return address.

Want invitations like these?  Purchase a sample from my Etsy store and contact me to customize the text for your order!

After the party, I made up some business cards for my parents to send out in their thank-you notes so people could see the professional photos taken at the party and share their own images.  The best part of that was that I got to reuse that bunny logo!  Here they are:

This was a business-card sized insert that Mom sent out in the thank-you notes.

It was a fun project all around, and the guests seemed to really enjoy the invitations.