Little Lamb Design Stickers put to use in Bangladesh

This past fall we had the pleasure of working with Tommy Obenchain as he took the next step towards realizing his dream of using his for-profit company, Taylor Pearl, to help fund his non-profiit, Pearls for Life.

In 2005 he traveled to China and saw an opportunity to import pearls and re-sell them in the U.S.
At the same time he knew he had a passion to provide for the basic needs of some of those most in need.
His concept was born to use a portion of the funds from the sale of fresh water pearls to fund fresh water for children and their families in Bangladesh.  In 2009 he traveled to Bangladesh  to research the problems and the best options to help.  Tommy also worked with several professors at Vanderbilt University, where he is currently a senior. The solution that he decided would have the greatest impact was a Sono filter, which uses rocks, sand, and an arsenic probe to eliminate bacteria, metal and arsenic from the water. 

This fall Tommy used his fall break to travel to Bangladesh and oversee the first installation of the filters.  Our stickers made the trip too, leaving the Pearls For Life logo on the filters provided by his team's efforts.

Over 77 million people drink contaminated water every day in Bangladesh. He has already provided water to about 300 hundred and hopes that number will reach the  thousands in the coming year . He will work full time on Taylor Pearl and Pearls for Life for 18 months after graduating this spring, before starting work for Huron Consulting. 

It has been a pleasure working with Tommy and learning more about the great work he is doing! If you would like to read more about Taylor Pearl and Pearls For Life check out .taylorpearl.com

aTeam Ministries' Heart to HeART Gala

I got an email several months ago from an old friend asking if I wanted to do invitations for a charity event. We get asked to do this a lot, and I am always happy to do whatever I can, but I had no idea how amazing this event was actually going to be. What a blessing to have received this request and to have been invited to the event!  Here is the invitation we created. It was an adaptation of our IV500 design.

Just in case you haven't noticed from my previous posts, I graduated from the best university in the country...and they happen to be 2010's national football champions. Coached by Gene Chizik, I couldn't have been prouder this past year to be an alumna! But this past Saturday, my pride pretty much doubled!  Coach Chizik and his wife, Jonna hosted this benefit for aTeam Ministries  It was actually Jonna's idea and vision and aTeam was blessed to have been chosen by Jonna. Long story short, 10 local childhood cancer patients were partnered with 10 renowned artists and each of the artists and children created artwork to be sold at an auction. Here is an example of the artwork:

 

The evening began with the children arriving by limo!!! Coach Chizik greeted each child, took a photo with the family, and then the children and family entered the event "paparazzi style" down a red carpet. It was SO exciting! Here are the founders of aTeam as their son just got out of the limo.

Coach Chizik spent the next hour or so signing autographs and meeting everyone. Wow, was that exciting! I don't usually get star-struck, but I so was this time...lol! Luckily my husband thanked Coach for the email he sent our brother-in-law when his wife passed away last Fall...because I could think of NOTHING to say ;) Except maybe to say, "I'm taller than you in my heals," but maybe that wouldn't have been the best choice?

Afterwards was dinner, and because Jonna sadly had to miss the event, Coach's 13 year old daughter stepped up and filled in for her mom. I will tell you, they are doing something right with that girl. She spoke so eloquently about her faith and about how much her mother and father loved the Lord. I doubt there was dry eye in the room.

Next was the AUCTION! It was SO exciting. So fast-paced and cut-throat ;)  So fun to see how much money the paintings went for and how much aTeam benefitted.

 

Being the art lover and Auburn girl I am, this was pretty much the highlight of my year...at least until my son caught an amazing hit in left field the next day at his baseball tournament ;)

Help needed to support a great cause!!!

What a privilege I had last Fall to be asked to design a State of Alabama license plate that will benefit Cystic Fibrosis research, and treatment and care for those affected by it.  Not only is it super cute ;)  but of the $50 it costs, $41.25 will go straight towards the fight against CF. It was an honor to work in conjunction with Laps for CF, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Children's Hospital.  Will you consider helping this worthy cause? The organization must have 1000 of these commitments to purchase to make the funding a reality. They still need to sell a few hundred and through this Sunday they are half off, so visit http://www.lapsforcf.org/licenseplate and fill out your commitment to purchase!

GOOP's A Day in the Life. . .

Ever heard of the blog GOOP? It is written by Gwyneth Paltrow. I am a huge fan. Today's post was SO FAB, it features a day in Gwyneth's life as well as 2 other working moms. It was great to read because of the tips given, but also just to know that my life isn't quite as crazy as I always feel like it is :)

Christmas cards recap!

I know I may be a little behind the eight ball with this recap, but I just had to share a few of the cards we did during this AMAZING holiday season! Once again this year, we were blessed beyond belief by being able to work with so many fabulous people. Thank you to everyone who chose one of our cards to send to brighten your friends' holidays!
It is beyond fascinating to watch people's lives unfold, especially those who have blessed us by being repeat clients year after year after year. We get to watch all phases of life: new babies being added, kids heading off to college, divorce :(  remarriage, and even the sweet family who said "thank you for your support for our family during this difficult year." I don't know very many of the people whose cards we proof, but catching a small glimpse into their lives give me personally the chance to pray for them and reflect on the blessings in my own life. My close friends know the past few months have been a bit of challenge for my family, and ironically, I had already designed my own card shown here and had used the verse John 1:18 "From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another."  Despite everything, I claim this verse for my family this year because I know The One who has it all figured out and am in constant amazement of how He has been giving us one blessing after another!  So here is the card my family sent out (by the way, this is Ellen writing this post). It is our trifold card design.

Next up is my co-owner, Stella's family's card. She chose our 5x5 folded design.  She has the MOST amazing kids (of course besides my own ;) and it is always fun to see her include a photo of her dog, Ryder. Maybe the reason we work so well together is because of our shared Golden Retriever ownership?

Lastly, I wanted to show off some really fun trends we saw this year. Hopefully you know that our flat photo cards can be printed with photos on the front and the back, and that our folded cards are customizable on all panels of the card. It was so fun to see people include their pets or a picture of their family's vacation or a crazy shot on the backs of our cards.  We are constantly amazed at our client's creativity. We had fun changing colors, fonts, and wording to help people create truly one-of-a-kind Christmas cards. So sit back and enjoy a VERY SMALL sampling of some of our 2010 Christmas cards!

So fun seeing where everybody traveled to this year...

An efficient use of your Christmas card is to make it a Birth Announcement Christmas Card Combination...

It is always special when you have a wedding in the family to send out a wedding Christmas card showing off the big day... 

Cute pet Christmas Cards are such fun!!!

I love Grandparent holiday cards!

And because my alma mater, Auburn University, is playing for the BCS National Championship in 3 days, I just had to throw in my favorite Auburn cards we did. There were actually many more, too many to show here. If you will remember, a certain other university in our state played for the National Championship and won this time last year. It was really funny to see the trend this year...we did a couple of Auburn cards last year and more Alabama cards than we could count, and this year it is vice versa. So funny!!! WAR EAGLE!!!

Thank you again for your business and we wish you the very best 2011!!!

So much to blog...so little time!

Oh my goodness! No words to explain how much fun we're having designing and proofing everyone's Christmas cards the past few weeks. I have SO many things to share with the blog followers, but alas, gotta get back to setting up these proofs :(  Instead, I'll just share one of the cutest cards that's come through the office this week! Photos were taken by the AMAZING Carson Studios in Auburn, AL.

This is our CC100 design, shown with the front and the back. What a precious angel!

7 week Holiday Planner from iMom

I came across this fabulous tool from iMom. Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and then Christmas right after that, this will help you stay focused and not ever feel overwhelmed ;)

 

http://www.imom.com/idea/tools-and-resources/7-week-holiday-planner