Busy like a Bee...

Hi dear friends!  Remember me? I wanted to show you what I've been up to this last week. Joe and I launched Coach House Pictures the website (yippee)! We are still working on adding more samples to the gallery pages, like of the wedding we shot for Renee and Chris last weekend!  We had a blast capturing their special day. Head on over and check out our new site!  I'd love to hear your rants & raves about it!  Oh and while you're there Facebook friend our fan page too :)  Your the best friends a photo gal could ever ask for!

Loving: Lost Type Fonts

Recently I've been on the hunt for a font to spruce up our Coach House Pictures logo and yesterday I may have found it.  Or, so I thought!  I found this little jewel of a site called Lost Type fonts.  It's founders wanted to create a unique place where its designers get 100% of the profit they make from each font but here's the other fun twist, you decide how much you want to pay for each font!  Check out the library of fonts they currently have available.  These are some of my favorites above.  Time to start deciding which one of these will make the final cut!  Which font speaks to you the most?

New Feature: Free Design Downloads!

Happy Monday to you all!  I hope your weekend was filled with lots of enjoyment and laughter.  I have exciting news to share with you!  I'm re-introducing my free design downloads link for anyone to download and use for there crafty/blog/design needs.  They were created in photoshop in a 8x10 page layout and are ready to print out at home or to be cut and pasted into your blog/website.  The two downloads that are available for download are fun labels and tags. I used the tags with ribbon as a design detail in my last post just to give you an idea. Let me know if you have any questions about how to use them, I'm happy to help.  You can find the link button on the right side of my blog under the Free Design Downloads button.  Please be sure to include a link to your blog or website if you do decide to use them in a digital format.  If not, I'd love to see how you use them in real life! Send me a snapshot or link to your blog post. Happy designing!

 

Photography & Designs: EV Photo Chic

A New Design for the New Year!

Hello and Welcome to the newly redesigned EV Photo Chic blog.  I've been working on creating a new header and background design for a while, (mostly while on my lunch break) but here is it!!  What do you think? I'm working on adding more to the blog as well such as pages and other fun things to browse through.  I'd love to hear what else (if any) you'd like me to include.

Fallish Friday!

Happy fall Friday everyone!! It's officially here today in the Chicagoland area. The trees are starting to turn a burnt red/gold and the days shadows are no longer lingering into late afternoon. But don't you just love it?! I can't wait to go apple picking with the family and just yesterday I remembered that we never went last year, for reasons I can't seem to remember. So in hopes of trying to raise excitement back into their memories, I pulled a photo from my 2008 archives of when we last went to Apple Holler located in the heartland of Wisconsin :) I created an email to the family titling it Holla back 2010! I got a kick out of this photo, because my nieces and nephews are so innocently young and sweet...ha. On another note, check out this super easy tutorial (brought to you by the talented Pugly Pixel) on how to create a fun starburst, like the one I created in my photo.

Inspired By: Digital Paper Packs

Inspiration for me can come from anywhere at any time. But lately I seem to be filling my virtual folders with these digital paper packs. With such a great mix of color, pattern, and textures it's not easy to choose a favorite. And that's okay, really because at these price points you can say yes to just more than one! Yay!! All you need to add is paper and ink to the printer of your choice to start adding pops of stylish color to anything that you can decorate paper with . Such as candle holders, frames, inspiration boards, the inside of cabinets, canisters, file folders, and even furniture. Oh, and may I suggest Modge Podge as a great adhesive tool. It's a great adhesive and sealer in one that will make any paper application to just about any surface virtually effortless. Happy printing :)

Kate Spade-Fashion Adventures

You can add Kate Spade to your list of online shops to check out. And not just for their beautiful wears but for their behind the curtain archives! A fun fresh way to showcase whats new and now. My favorite featured is the 3 ways to wear archive. Kudos to Kate Spade for playfully merging fashion and design!

Work in Progress

I've been keeping busy this week with a fun design project that I'll share with you later next week. But for now I thought it was fitting to share with you an illustration in progress by the talented Kris Atomic. There are few artists (that I know of) that capture the progression of there work. I don't know about you, but I enjoy seeing all the pen and eraser marks before the magic of color begins its transformation. What are you creatively working on these days?

Blog Redesign Complete

New background, header, tabs, and button....oh my! I'm proud to share with you the my completed blog designs for my friend and lovely Interior Designer, Amy Leafblad. I'm so thrilled that she is happy with all the designs and I hope she feels more confident to start promoting all that inspires her to keep designing new interior spaces. So stop by and take a look. Oh and don't forget to check out her awesomly redesigned home photos too! I am in lust for her open layout kitchen and master bathroom suite! Thanks again Amy and happy promoting to you as well :)

If you know of someone who is looking for a redesign of any kind-blog, web, or print. Feel free to send me and email to evphotogal (at) me.com to discuss your design ideas!

Blog Header Design Concepts

I recently came back into contact with a childhood friend of mine from middle school. She's just as sweet and talented as she was back in the day ;) A creatively passionate Interior Designer, Amy launched her own design firm A.L Design in 2007. She recently wrote me asking if I could help with redesigning her blog header. I jumped at the chance, as I had such a fun time with my recently redesigned header. To give me an idea of what she was looking for she sent me an inspiration page with ideas, colors, and fonts. Her logo is a leaf, so I made sure to incorporate that into the design as well. I am SO excited to share with you my design concepts that I have been working hard on all this past week!

{Amy's Blog Banner inspiration}

{These concepts included a photograph of some of her work.}

{ These were my first concepts, simple and sweet

with colors and whimsical touches I hope she'll love!}

I'll keep you posted in which design she chooses. I really enjoyed this process and hope to do more in the near future. If you know anyone who is looking for a fresh new look for there blog, I would love to talk to them! Or if you would like some tips on how to help you with your own design (including photography questions) email me with your questions and ideas to:

[evphotogal@me.com]

Free Font Friday!

To kick off the installment of my newest weekly post and to share my love for fonts I've found the free download and my font crush of the year, FLING! You may remember it as it graced the cover of the beautiful Blueprint magazine a few years ago. Honestly, I can't tell you how excited I get when I have free time to hunt for my next favorites and organize my font book application in the process. Does anyone else share my nerdy love for fonts?

{How I miss you, Blueprint!}

{Textile Republic}

Textile Republic is a unique interactive community. Founded by Kimberley and Brian Osborne in the spring of 2007 to promote the work of aspiring textile designers across the globe. Textile Republic not only presents a forum for designers to show off and display their talent, but also provides them with a real chance to earn money for their designs. Every 4 to 6 weeks Textile Republic will select the most creative and popular (based on user voting) patterns to be printed and will be used to create a line of fabrics, clothing, wallpaper, stationery, and other merchandise. Designers whose patterns are selected to be printed and sold by Textile Republic receive $1,000 cash for their design and a 5% royalty on profits. They are currently seeking design submissions for their upcoming competition entitled, "Preppy with a Twist" that ends December 1st, 2008. Here are a few samples of what designers have already submitted. I couldn't think of a better way to start off a new week than with some healthy design competition!

Photos & Designs by Textile Republic}

{Design Freebies}

Head over to Mujka Design shop for free delightful design downloads like these contemporary & vintage swatches. Aren't they lovely? Design makes me uber excited!

{ Let's Pretend... }

That I was selected to design a cover for the first issue of Tasty Bites magazine. It's all for pretend, but I like to give myself assignments from time to time to see where it might lead. Here are some of the photographs and fonts that I am using.... with more to come!

{ DIY: Business Cards }

I've been busily working to get this tutorial put together & now I'm excited to share my finds and photos with you to help you create your custom business cards or other promotional materials. I'm a big fan of finding new print materials to play around with and these Avery clear labels + shipping tags are all you really need to create cards that look as stylishly presentable as you are! Enjoy making these in a wide variety of sizes (because the clear labels are actually 8 x 10 sheets of printable goodness!) Make an afternoon of designing, printing, and putting these together. BONUS: I've included this design as a free printable download under the Fresh from EV's Studio column to the right of my blog. Enjoy & happy promoting!

{1}.Laptop
{2}.Printer
{3}.Avery Labels 25/pk. $23.99
{4}.Shipping Tags

_______________________________________________

STEP 1: Design & Layout

Using Photoshop or another photo editing program create a new 4 x 6 sized document. I find that designing one label in this smaller document size is easier and allows you to save a smaller file for future revisions. After I'm happy with my design and type placement I create an 8 x 10 document (this is a little smaller than the 8.5 x 11 Avery paper size). Copy & paste your finished label into this new document and arrange your label to desired printable size. (see photo below) For my labels I printed them 3.5 x 1- 3/4 to fit onto my shipping labels. Continue to copy & paste your label until you fill your 8 x 10 document. I was able to fit 17 onto one page. Make sure to leave enough space in between each label to allow for cutting.

_______________________________________________

STEP 2: Printing

Adjust your printers settings to match your paper size & paper type. For this printing material I used the paper size 8.5 x 11 and the setting for luster paper.

_______________________________________________

STEP 3: Cut/Peel & Paste

Once printed I recommend using a straight edge and exacto knife to trim away the excess white around your labels.

Gather your shipping labels and printed labels. Peel the backing off your printed label (yes, these are like stickers)! Place and secure onto the shipping label.

_______________________________________________

STEP 4: Add Personal Touch

Add your finishing touch to your personalized cards & start handing them out! Yay.

{ Fossil Love }

I'm not a big fan of shopping from one shop to pull a look together but after receiving the new Fossil Fall catalog I couldn't help myself ;) There style has definitely evolved from much more than watches and handbags. I'd consider there style to be part J.Crew with a mix of American Eagle, very easy going, comfy pieces with a touch of fun prints and nature inspired accessories. Perfect for Fall!

-----------------------------------------------------

{Shopping Cart}

1. 3 Charms Pendant~ $28
2. Kelly Blazer ~ $98
3. Gold Leaf Hoops ~ $28
4. Geometric Tote ~ $20

-----------------------------------------------------

Bonus!! Get a look at some of there photography, design, and fresh new fall looks! Makes me renew my love for commerical photography, yay!

{ 9-5 Project }

Hello. I've been chained to my desk today coming up with concepts and a design for the layout for one of our newest studio clients, Kmart! We are working on creating a fresh new look for there shoe division. I had fun looking through all the piles of shoe samples they sent to the photo studio last week. So many shoes...only two feet. ;) Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

{ Design Bug }

Just wanted to share with you a few designs I've been working on for my portfolio. You might recognize some of the photography but the text and designs are newly added. I love when photographs can serve as visual appealing pieces you can frame and display in your home but also as marketable objects (its the commercial photographer in me ;) Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy!

{Photography:Courtney Bruesch}

{Photography:Courtney Bruesch}

{Photography:Courtney Bruesch}

{Photography: EV}