Closing Shoes

I picked these beauties up yesterday at Bloomindales and since today is the last day of the government fiscal year, I was pleasantly reminded of when a few fashionistas and myself where in software sales. We would wear our best new designer shoes on the last day of the quarter or fiscal year to walk to the fax machine to see if the purchase orders for the deals we were working on had  come in. "Closing Shoes" we called them.

Here's a small tribute to my dear friends and fellow co-workers from "back in the day."

- AOH, MFT, NCH, CAM & RBH.

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

First Love

One of our first images was this sailboat and it has always remained in the top ten for me. There is something about the simplicity of the design along with the powerful combination of the colors; red, orange, green and blue that is well for lack of a better word, delightful!

 I fall in love every time I see it printed.

I just dropped off a bunch of product samples to The Dandelion Patch in Reston today. Stop by and take a look if you are at the Reston Town Center.

 

 

24 personalized correspondence cards for $40.00

Margaritaville

Need I say more?  See my new fav image below! Order items with our new margarita here.

 

 

Welcome Penworks!

We are very excited to announce that Penworks in Denver, Colorado will now by carrying Hampton Paper Designs. Contact Leigh for an appt to see the entire portfolio!

Read their story here.

 

"Know When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Fold 'Em!"

I couldn't help myself, I do love Kenny Rogers. I am super excited about the new images I received in the mail on Sat.  I can think of 101 things to do with these two new designs! See them on our web sit here and here

Halloween Trick or Treat

One might think I am living a life of leisure instead of that of a working girl given the amount of time spent working on these Halloween treat bags. There are so many great Halloween images to choose from, I am having a hard time just selecting one!

For these goodie bags, I used our gift enclosures and just punched a whole in the corner and added a ribbon. A few wording ideas:

 

Trick or Treat

Trick

Treat

Happy Halloween! From The ______Family

Have a Spooky Halloween

Boo!

 

I also just shot this photo of our best selling Small Round Stickers with our Halloween Images. They can be personalized. We have done a lot of orders for clients putting their business name on the stickers.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

Meet the Class of 2025: Back to School Party Revealed

Somebody said "Best Party Ever" again this year at our 2nd annual Back to School Party but this year it wasnt one of the guests, it was me! Seriously, I totally recommend this party to everyone who has kids in school -especially if your child is in kindergarten. What a great way to meet the kids and parents and start to build relationships in your school community. I know every one is super busy on the weekends, sports, parties, errands etc so I was so apprecitive that so many people attended. (they must have heard through the grapevine about my candy bars and goodie bags!!). I did the party as an "open house" style so people could stop by anytime as their schedule allowed and say hello, grab some pizza and dessert and be on their way if needed. Well wouldnt you know, people arrived early and stayed the entire time. I heard multiple parents comment on what a good idea the party was and how much they enjoyed the opporutnity to meet the other parents.

I did my usual candy bar plus a table with the goodie bags. Details are all below in case you wish to replicate any of the party.

I will share a few photos that I took myself so I must admit it was alot at the end trying to get everything ready and snap photos given my amateur status. I found that taking photos of glass is initself a challenge and of course the weather was partly cloudy so I would get ready and then the light would change dramatically!! scream

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions! Happy to help you plan your next party.

 

 

 

 

Invitations. I used the HPD graduation cap image and just did the year the kindergartner's will graduate - in our case 2025 but you can use this same them and just change the date. It's a great conversation piece as to look ahead at a date 13 years from now and the concept that goes with it-- it is alot of fun! I did these on correspondence cards, vertically. 24 for $40.00 and can be ordered here.

Candy Table:
As always rushed for time and doing everything 2 days before I ran to Target to get the candy. My theme was primary colors which made it pretty easy. If you have seen my candy bars in the past, you know that I ususally spend hours sorting candy by color. No such luxury this time around. Hopefully I am the only one who noticed!! I purchased, Skittles, M&Ms, Smarties, Sour Patch Kids, Starbursts, Kisses and the candy table favorite, Ring Pops. I used the jars that I purchased at Target a few years ago. They are inexpensive and great to keep on hand as you can reuse them. The scoops are from Sur La Table.

For the labels, I did HPD 2.5 round stickers which you can find here with an image and mounted them on cardstock I purchased at Michael's. I added a ribbon and used double sided tape to adhere. Very easy.

For the Cupcakes I used the same 2.5 rounds sticker mounted and purchased cupcake sticks at Michaels. They are by Wilton and in the cake decorating section if you havent purchased them before. I ordered the cupcakes from HolyGanache. They were delicious and I was so happy to have cupcakes that didnt have colored frosting sprayed on like I had at the firetruck party!

I needed a bit in inspiration on my candy table once I had it set up. I reached for my copy of Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas and sure enough I saw her polka dot party and decided to create some colored circles. It was just what the table needed!

Supplies
I learned my lesson (no pun intended) last year as I tried to buy supplies for the party in August. It was a huge mistake. Did you hear about the woman camped outside of Target in July the day before the schools supplies went on sale? Ummm it was me. ( just kidding). In all seriousness I purchaesd the supplies on the day they were put out on display. It was July I know but everything was available and on sale (super cheap) and last year I had to travel to all Targets in a 50 mile radius ( ask my husband - he will testify as I made him drive me!) to get the supplies and a wood ruler was nowhere to be found!!

I included the supplies below, ruler, markers, crayons, scissors, notepad and glue. Total per box was less that $5.00

 

Halloween Sticker and Favor Bag

I have Halloween on my mind today! I just posted this on Etsy. 24 round personalized stickers and 24 glassine bags. It's great for a Halloween Party, for your Trick or Treators or if you live in my neighborhood, Friday BSHH. (Bus Stop Happy Hour!). We have alot of other images available. Proofs are always complimentary!

 

 

Thank you Milieu Magazine!!

Thanks so much to Milieu Magazine for featuring our new Lunchbox Notes in their Sept/October issue.

You can purchase them here. $26.00 for 150 loose sheets.  I just heard from one of my clients that purchased these for her daughter that her daughter takes them out of the drawer every morning so that she doesnt forget to include a lunchbox note!!

Full Page- Love all these amazing products and ideas.

Class of 2025

Remember when we mentioned we were having a Back to School Party for my son Jackson who started Kindergarten this year? Well the weekend for the party has finally arrived. Cant wait to share with you all the photos and party details next week.

Dont you just love the theme, Meet the Class of 2025?

TGIF!

 

An Anniversary Gift

Forescore and seven years ago,  Fifteen years ago, on a beautiful September day, much like today Greg and I got married. It was a beautiful venue at what was the ANA Hotel just outside Georgetown, with an amazing wedding planner, Engaging Affairs.  We celebrated with 100 family members and close friends.

 

What does this day have to do with HPD you may ask? Well, for one without the support of my husband I must admit HPD wouldn't be where it is today. As many hours and late nights as I have clocked, I venture guess Greg has clocked just as many. We are total opposites and  we disagree on almost everything. Making business decisions with HPD was no exception. Here's an example " Who cares about packaging?" Greg exclaimed on one very late night circa 2008, ummm "EVERYONE!" I cried! In the end like this and many other arguments, Greg came around and realized I was right yet again.....

 

In any event several years later, a booming business off the ground a heartfelt thank you to Greg for all his support especially on my low days when I was ready to call it quits.

 

Now since I have been married for 15 years and have experience in 14 years of  last minute I have no anniversary gift for my wife followed by a panicky question "What do you want???"  I am going to make it easy and inexpensive for Greg this year and only ask for one thing....

WYSIWYG.

That's techno speak for what you see is what you get - its the ability for you to type in text on the HPD web site and see the text and the product as it would look so you can edit on the fly.

 

We'll see if Greg take that first offer of if I need to find an expensive sparkly back up at Tiffany, Van Cleef  or Cartier......

 

PS. Yes I had to scan these photos - 1997 was film photography!

 

 

I loved loved loved this dress and would wear it every day if possible. I wanted to have it put in display in my living room after I saw the Jackie O exhibit. It freaked Greg out a bit!



Greg's childhood friends were the groomsmen.

Greg with my sister, roomate from college and 2 best friends growing up. The flowergirl is my neice and she finishing up college this year at Villanova.

Make Your Own Calendar - Q & A

We are happy to hear you all loved the idea of Make Your Own Calendar for 2013. There were a few inquiries based on yesterday's blog so.... let me clarify....

The product is a 12 month desk calendars printed on white heavy stock paper. The months and dates are printed in grey. The pages measure 6 by 6 inches.

The calendar comes with the 2013 calendar & a hand made silver easel in a gift box. 

The refill is for those of you who have purchased in the past and just want the calendar.

We have several templates available for you to choose from. The 2013 Calendar is what we have selected for next year. You can use one of ours, modify one of ours or start from scratch and make your own. You can also order multiple copies of your custom calendar. 

The image on each month is embellished by hand giving it a little and in some cases a lot of sparkle!

Here are a few we have created. Guess what, we want to hear from you too! As I noted in my blog yesterday, I love to see the images our clients choose! Share with us your image picks for 2013 and we may just create a calendar suggestion based on your selections.

HPD 2013

The options are now located on the top left hand side of our web site.

 Traditional Holidays

 Animals 2013 Calendar

  For Men

 Flowers

                                                                         

  Nostalgic

      

 Seaside

2013 Make Your Own Desk Calendar

I worked on this Make Your Own Desk Calendar for 2013 this weekend and am seriously obsessed with the images this client choose. It was so fun working on the embellishment - each one like its own little work of art.  I love the Gingerbread House for December. I enjoyed the putting the glitter on the lollipops! They jumped right off the page.

You can make your own right here . You can choose any 12 images from our portfolio of over 350. You can also use one of our preselected templates such as Standard 2013, Flowers, Gourmet, Men's, Traditional Holiday or start with a template you like and modify a few months. 

Want to see a proof? Just let us know, they are always complimentary.

 Enjoy! 

Turn the Page

Just picked these Halloween themed bookmarks up from the printer. I just finished Bond Girl - a hysterical read and a recommendation if you liked The Devil Wears Prada. Now on to Light Between Oceans . Thomas is reading Goosebumps and Jackson is reading a  new and updated version of The Hardy Boys. Makes me think of my first love Parker Stevenson.... Happy Monday!

 

 

Lily's Candy Bar Party

No detail was left to chance on Lily's Candy Bar Party. Inspired by a love of Dylan's Candy Bar, my friend Kim set out to recreate her famous candy bar party. Months or ordering, coordinating and organizing lead to this spectacular 9th birthday celebration that has been the talk of the town! Each place setting was a masterpiece in in itself and the coordination of all the colors - so perfectly done. The party included a Step and Repeat ( my favorite) for photos along with fun accessories for getting dressed up, chocolate bar, candy bar, snow cones, frames to decorate and fabulous little buckets full of girlie goodies including nail polish and lip gloss. What a fun and fabulous celebration!

Adorable star lollipops and sheets of dots lined each plate.

Can you see these candy straws? Ummm LOVE!!

Striped fabric completed the look of the table. We added HPD Medium Round Stickers to the cups to tie into the theme. Did I mention we worked for hours the night before??!!



Candy bar for about 30 seconds...

Love this display of Rock Candy.

If you are planning a candy bar - marshmallows is a great way to fill up a big jar.

Don't blink at this candy table or you will miss the candy is how I felt one the girls arrived. They made a bee line for the table and grabbed the bag with their name on it and filled it to the top. Literally 5 minutes and the candy table was "no more". I think that's the way it should be!

We made tags for the candy with HPD large round stickers. I am glad had little helpers with the Small Round Stickers on the Hershey's Kisses.



This girls went crazy for these little buckets filled with goodies.  Love the 8 ball. "Will the party be a huge success?" " It is decidedly so!"




Kim purchased wood frames and stickers and markers for the kids to decorate. The girls could then put a photo from the step and repeat in the frame after the party. Great idea!!





A great shot of the birthday girl, Lily, and her mom in front of the custom step and repeat. I have no idea how Kim looks so fab as I mentoined it was a late night and an early wake up to get everthing ready on time! We used the 2 lollipop images along with the invitations to make the Step and Repeat.



This cake was AMAZING!!! Our only recommendation is that the baker use spell check next time! (check out how Birthday is missing a letter!!!)



One of my fav pictures - Lily, Lauren and long time friend, Ella. Beautiful girls!

Mommy and birthday girl - photo strategically taken to edit out part of the cake.

Little sister Lauren  all dressed up and ready to party!

Birthday Girl - All Smiles! What are we going to do next year?

New Stripe Style for Hampton Paper Invitations.

Thanks to Kelsey Gerhard from  Kelsey Gerhard Phototraphy for allowing us to post her amazing photos that captured the party.

Invitations, Stickers on Cups, Goodie Buckets and Candy Bar from Hampton Paper Designs.