Mint

I’m excited to introduce Mint’s newest sponsor, peppersprouts! The peppersprouts shop is so unique—not just for the designs but for the materials used. Those animal snowflakes above are acrylic ornaments (or gift tags!), the silhouette coasters are made from wood, and the deer trivet is made of felt. Shop owner Jen Pepper is also a talented graphic designer and blogger.

Thanks, Jen!

If you’re interested in becoming a Mint sponsor, please email me at mintdesignblog (at) gmail (dot) com for more info. Holiday spots are still available!

of Meg’s wedding programs! Two new patterns now available at Hello Tenfold.

I’m sure you’ve seen all the beautiful calendar round-ups on blogs over the past weeks. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but the Two Brunettes calendar is definitely one of my top picks for 2010. Even if you’ve already chosen yours for next year, the Two Brunettes calendar would make an excellent Christmas gift. Check out how Carolynn wrapped it around that wine bottle—genius!

Carolynn hand-drew the illustrations on the border, and had them screenprinted in royal blue ink on canvas. They come with a pretty seafoam-green ribbon for easy hanging.

So without further ado, here’s how this calendar can be yours! Leave a comment with your name (don’t forget to include your email address in the form) by midnight EST on Monday, October 26th. I’ll announce the winner by Tuesday afternoon. One entry per person, except there will be one extra credit per person for tweets (just leave another comment with a link to your tweet).

A big thanks to Carolynn for sharing her calendar with a lucky Mint reader! …And go!

Once I started digging through my photographs for the Rock & Shop last weekend, I realized I had way more than I thought, and figured it was time to add them to the shop. So new at Hello Tenfold… 20 photographs perfect as art for your home, birthday gifts, or (if you’re really organized) Christmas presents for friends and family. Check out the whole collection right here!

Hi Mint readers! My name’s Margot. I’m new ’round this neck of the woods, but I’ll be popping by every so often because Ellie & I have a new project we’re working on…

Photo by Erin Hanson, the Recovering Lazyholic

So some weeks back I emailed Ellie after having read about her & her husband’s layoffs from the now-shuttered design firm, Flywheel Design. Having been laid off myself from my design job back in Sept 08, I could relate to that feeling of… Well, now what? And while I have a year of freelancing under my belt, I still feel like I’m a flailing noob when it comes to the logistics of working for yourself. And I thought maybe if Ellie & I figured out a way to collaborate then maybe we could both learn & streamline, somehow conquer this funky backwards lifestyle better. Thus we came up with Howdy Do It, a weekly column on any kind of shortcut, task, helper-buddies, ANYthing we can think of to stay focused, inspired, productive, and on top of…Life. So look for us Mondays, me over here on Mint, and Ellie will take reigns over at ma blawg, Pitch Design Union. And please, all you marvelous readers & blog-friends, I’d like to extend an open invitation for you to share your thoughts, ideas, & experiences too. We’re all ears (or eyes, rather) for your advice.

So! Now onto it!

[Illustration by Chad Kouri]

Obviously, a big part of better work flow & piece of mind is knowledge about using your tools better. And I know it’s a big no-shit-Sherlock to back up your stuff, but right now I’m only using an old banged up external hard drive that I plug in to my machine every so often, keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t have any issues in the meantime. And I’m guessing I’m probably not the only one out there doing this. That there is some Thin Ice, friends! Enter my friend, Nick Campbell an amazing photographer, blogger, and motion designer. Nick just experienced the Dreaded Hard Drive Crash of Doom, but because he already had a strategy in place, wasn’t such a doom-fest after all but instead was simply a headache plus some cash down for a replacement drive. He talks more about it on his other new blog, Make Cool Shit, which is a really relatable resource for freelancers or new small business owners.

Well we’ve got a craft show under our belts! If you missed the getting ready stuff (here and here), my husband Brendan and I had our first booth at a craft show this past weekend. It was really hectic… we were offered the booth and turned it down, and then a week before the show we changed our minds and decided to go for it. Six days isn’t really enough time to prepare for a show (unless your business is a little more established than ours)! Brendan didn’t have his work printed yet, so we raced around getting that done, and then there was our booth display to hammer out, photos to edit and print for sale, and once our note cards were back from the printer we had lots of trimming & folding to do. Then there were business cards to make, hang tags to make, bows to tie on note card sets… you get the idea. (For future reference? Paying your printer for the cutting and trimming is totally worth it).

To read more (and see more photos!) after the jump, click here:

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Have you heard about this fun project from Linda & Harriet? In honor of designer Liz Libre’s mom, Linda, Liz is sending out a free note card to anyone who emails her with their address by 12 noon on Monday. Once you get your free card, all you have to do is send the card to someone you know — just because! Liz’s mom was a generous, kind person who was always doing nice things “just because” so this is a way to honor her on her birthday. Isn’t that sweet? Read all about it and get Liz’s email address here.