The End Is Sweet

A year ago if you had asked me if I thought my silly little business would become successful, I would have told you probably not. Had you asked me if I thought my products would make it into the hands of celebrities at a celebrity gifting suite hosted by GBK Productions, I would have thought you were crazy. It's amazing what a little hard work, determination, and a can do attitude can get you. Of course, I didn't accomplish any of this all by myself. If it wasn't for Valerie Guerrero, Nikki Cutro, The Artisan Group & Gavin B. Keilly, none of this would have been possible. If my business flopped tomorrow, I'd be the happiest person because this year has been one of the craziest, busiest and most nerve wracking of my entire life. Every paper cut and freak out was well worth it.


(The extremely handsome Wes Ramsey from The Playboy Club and the very funny Zach Woods from The Office with our iPhone 4 case.)

I have so many plans for the future of Fancy Designs and myself and I wouldn't be making these plans without the support of such an amazing organization and such terrific members.

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from the terrific event here!

Hello Emmy's

Our stuff is off to the Emmy's this week. I've been so nervous and excited, which hasn't helped with the other stresses in my life. I'm a little relieved that it's here, sad to see it go and hoping for the best! After seeing everything that has gone into our swag bag, that will go to the press, that will be displayed on our table, I know it's going to be a hit. The swag is pretty amazing!

Here's a little sneak peak at the Emmy's Event Guide!







Did you know The Artisan Group has an official Gift Guide? Check it out! Perfect for the holidays that are right around the corner!

GBK's 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards Gift Lounge

It's so hard to believe that it's already August. It's even harder to believe that September is right around the corner and with that brings the Emmy Awards Gift Lounge. I've been so excited up until now. I started packing all my bags and my display piece up to send off to California and it struck me just how real this is. It's 46 days away! Seeing the amazing nominee list had butterflies in my stomach (what if some amazing actress like Melissa McCarthy or Betty White likes my stationery or some stud like Hugh Laurie or Timothy Olyphant just looks at them for a slit second before tossing them out...) BIG butterflies!

Sadly I can say, without a doubt, that none of us will be heartbroken to get these bags out of the house. Marie and Martini will be very happy to not be banned from any room that I happen to be storing them in and Will is going to be happy that I'm not constantly cursing because I'm tediously pinning Fancy Designs pins onto bags.



I can't say enough how thankful I am for The Artisan Group. Thank you so much Valerie and Nikki for having faith in me. And of course, thanks to GBK Productions and their amazing gift lounges! Without them none of this would be possible!

Emmy Day Now

My Emmy's prep is coming to an end and September is right around the corner. It's exciting but a little sad at the same time. I've had a lot of fun with it, learned a few things about packaging and met some really incredible people along the way. Two weeks ago I finished my bags and this weekend I came home to find that I had to replace a few bags (thanks to Marie and Martini.) It's a good thing I made extras for that very reason. It's my own fault. I forgot to put them back in the safe spot after photographing them. Will brought home a box that's big enough to fit all my stuff comfortably so now I'm patiently waiting for the okay to ship it all off to California!





I LOVED my little pins up until it came time to put them on. I've learned that when you have to deal with 100+ tiny pins, it's a bad idea and it will cause you to despise the adorable little pins you ordered for the occasion.

Emmy One Wanna Help?

After packaging my stationery into the cello-bags, I realized that I forgot one key component. THE ENVELOPES! I thought, this will be a breeze! Order some envelopes, pop them in the bags and you're done. Little did I know that I would order the envelopes and they wouldn't arrive for another 3+ weeks due to flooding. Then I encountered the first hurdle.

The envelopes are SPECKLED. No where in the description did they say "speckled." The brand might be Stardust but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are sprinkling dust into the envelopes...apparently it does though. All I could think is who can I pawn these off on and where can I order some more? After spending many, and I mean MANY, hours starring at the speckles, I realized the speckles actually contain the same colors that my stationery designs have (can I pretend like I planned that?) The more I looked at them, the more I liked them, so I decided to keep them!



Now I come to hurdle number two (have I ever mentioned I'm not a very good jumper?) The envelopes arrive but I don't immediately get to work on stuffing because I've already sent my Emmy's prep to my mom's house incase of flooding. That means I was given two weeks to broad about how I was going to package this up in the end. In my head, I no longer liked the placement of the stationery. I didn't like the one I picked to be front and center so I knew I had to change it, which meant a trip to my mom's house to bring all my stuff back here.



After I changed the placement, I got excited! It was time for the "fun" part. Boy was I wrong. There is nothing fun about stuffing 500 envelopes into 100 cell-o bags, as I am learning. In two days I am literally only 20 bags in and at this pace, I'm never going to get them done!

The Peacock Is Out Of The Bag

After tons of deliberation, and some much needed advice from Valerie, our display piece for the Emmy's Gift Lounge was decided upon! I knew I needed something eye catching, trendy and something you'd be able to pick out of a crowd. I knew from the beginning I needed to go with one of my iPhone 4 cases, I just couldn't pick WHICH ONE. Thankfully Valerie was there to give me some advice and we tweaked an existing design and made it even better!



These are customizable and you can add your name, a catch phrase or a funny slogan to the blue sash in a lovely gold tone!

Cute As a Button

When I was brainstorming how I planned to package my stationery for the Emmy Awards, I knew I wanted to add something to the organza bags. I thought about some really over the top bows, but I changed my mind. I didn't want it to be too much and I decided against having to make 110 bows (why give myself more work?) Then I thought about how cute a little button would be on the bags! I found a few places but they had crazy prices and refused to make the extra 10 I needed, they would only do 200. I really had no need for that many. Then I found Button Arcade on Etsy. Not only were their prices amazing but they were super friendly and were willing to do 110!

How cute are they?

Getting My Swag On

Preparing for the 2011 Emmy's has been a bit of a battle. It seems like no matter how many lists or charts I make, I find myself forgetting something or not accounting for something. With that said, I have to admit that this is stressful but TERRIFIC all at the same time. I recently discovered that I failed to account for the fact that I needed 550 envelopes...how does someone forget that? At the same time, we received amazing news that our products will not only be represented by The Artistan Group but we have the honor of being represented with GBK Productions.

Recently I received my clear bags that my stationery, envelopes and business cards will go into so I started the process of putting those together. We also made some improvements to our business card design and ordered some new ones and they look fabulous!

After finding out we got invited to the GBK gift lounge we also found out that one of our bags would go straight to the CEO of GBK Productions, Gavin B. Keilly. When Valerie said that it would be okay if we made something customized for him or his daughter, I think we all took advantage. I've seen some pretty amazing things being made for him, I hope he likes everything as much as I have so far!

I re-designed these note cards just for the occasion (and then regretted not ordering a set for myself.)



I couldn't be any happier with how they came out. I love the modern simplicity of the design and I hope he does too!

Exciting News: The Artisan Group

Our products will be attending the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards Gift Lounge in Beverly Hills, California. It still seems a bit surreal but I'm very excited to get started on my gift bags and picking out a display product! I'm so blessed to have wonderful representatives like Valerie Guerrero and Nikki Cutro. Without the Artisan Group this wouldn't be possible!

What is The Artisan Group you ask? Are you familiar with those huge and lavish gifting events that take place before award shows such as The Emmy's, The Grammy's, the Golden Globes, etc? I'm sure you know what a swag bag is, if you haven't been living under a rock (we've all seen the Geico commercial, we understand.) The Artisan Group provides samples from a lovely group of artisans for the celebrities at these pre-event lounges.

Each one of the artists gets the opportunity to display one of their items on the display table so the celebrities can stop by and sneak a peek at all the goodies and hear a little bit about that artists work. Celebrities can even stop and pose for a quick picture with your display piece! How neat is that?


(Giuliana Rancic, Host of E! News, and star of "Giuliana & Bill". *with a former promotions group.)

Are you thinking this sounds too good to be true, this has to be a scam? Well if you were, I can assure you, that this is not a scam and it's the real deal. The Artisan Group was legally formed as a DBA organization. You don't have to take my word for it, you can contact the owner, Valerie Guerrero.


(Paula Abdul, formerly of American Idol. *with a former promotions group.)

Now that we have established that this is indeed legit and not a scam, are you an Artisan who would be interested in participating in events such as the ones described above? The Artisan Group is a collection of talented, supportive and unique artists, it's possibly the best group of people I've ever found myself working along side. The Artisan Group is always looking for unique, talented artisans to represent at the next major award gift lounge. Do you think you have what it takes? The group is exclusive and only the best of the best will be selected, is this you? You can find registration here.

Keep in mind, the next event is The Emmy's Gift Lounge on September 18th, 2011. Don't miss your chance to be seen :)

**Fancy Designs does not own or claim to own the images seen in this post.