Prepping for ALT

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Some of you may have noticed the ALT button on my sidebar the last few months. It’s a cool-looking button, eh? Well, I’m proudly going to be attending the Altitude Design Summit this weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited. The speakers are going to be out-of-this-world awesome and the activities are going to be glam-fabulous. I’m super excited.

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In preparation for the conference, I needed to print more business cards. Of course it wasn’t going to be a simple re-print of the cards I gave out at BlogHer. Oh no. I need to redesign my site, cards & everything. It kind of snowballed into this huge thing. As you can see the site hasn’t changed, yet. Lame. I’ve been a little busy getting the business cards perfected.

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Didn’t they turn out beautifully? I bought some small envelopes a while back, and decided I’d use that to package the business card. I also designed a die-cut vinyl sticker that says “i still love you” in my own handwriting to stuff in the envelope. They’re gold. You really need to see them in person to really appreciate it, but they’re beautiful. It’s so funny how a printer can make or break your day.

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The printer who did the stickers for me gave me a good deal, so long as I weeded and cut them myself. Weeding is when you peel out the negative space of the die-cut sticker, which is time-consuming and unusually fun. The weeding was a piece of cake, and so was the cutting. . . well, until about 11pm last night when my rotary cutter slipped and took a turn for the worse.

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You want to know how sharp brand-new rotary cutter blades are? Effing sharp. It went clean through my nail and through part of the pad of my finger. It even took out part of my middle finger. It was a good thing Chris was around to help. Penelope wouldn’t be much help in a situation like this. Gross, hu?

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I was thinking about giving myself a manicure for ALT, but this was clearly not the one I had in mind. Chris so kindly scoured the entire Salt Lake valley for steri strips and got me some old fashioned liquorice to bite down on for the pain. Man that hurt. He’s thoughtful, isn’t he? Besides the minor set-back of having my index finger out of commission, things are moving right along in preparation for ALT. I can’t wait for tomorrow!!

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Tomorrow night is a 1920s social and I have the perfect dress for the occasion. It’s orange (awesome, right?) it’s real hand-dyed silk, it’s from the ’50s and it was my grandmother’s. I love it. Are you going to ALT? Are you excited, too?!?

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    1. nicole says:

      i wish i was going to alt…next time.

    2. susan says:

      Lets here it for gold metallic! It doesn’t get classier.

      And I always thought a rotary cutter would make an awesome mystery weapon on a CSI.

      Please post a photo of you in that dress! Its gorgeous, though I worry I’d sweat out the silk pits within 5 minutes.

    3. Kathleen says:

      The stickers turned out beautifully, though I’m sorry about your injury. Oh, what we do for art…

      ALT sounds like such fun, though a trek from PA isn’t in the plans. Hope you have a great time and can’t wait to read about your experience.

    4. Erin says:

      oh, ouch! your wound looks horrible! on the plus side your business cards look awesome and that dress is sweet. you will look hot in it, i am sure!

    5. Gennifer says:

      Melissa, those business cards look so good!

      I wish I was going to be there, too, if nothing else, just to see that dress in person… looks amazing!

      Have fun!

    6. Jenn says:

      Gorgeous! I want a pretty sticker! And a pretty vintage dress! Hope you document everything for those of us not able to make it. Sorry about your finger. Blade cuts are nasty, but there is always a little blood during some of the best creative processes, right?

    7. Trisha says:

      Now THAT’S dedication!

      I have a friend who lost all the feeling in her left hand’s pinky, ring finger, and birdy finger because of an x-acto knife.

      Be careful, crafter!!!

    8. I’m not able to go after all but I DID pick out all my outfits! :D

    9. Gene says:

      I cringe just by looking at your fingers, major ouchie! But those stickers are lovely.

    10. AmberLee says:

      you are so brave! hope it heals really fast.
      the stickers are totally beautiful. and your grandmaother’s dress, wow. have a great time this weekend!

    11. Faith says:

      I live in Utah and wanted to go to Alt but didn’t register because 1) we got a ticket package to Sundance and the times conflict and 2) my blog is just a wee little thing and I would feel like enormously out of place. (To be honest it was more #2 than #1.)

      But I love the dress and cards and stickers (even if seeing your sliced up finger almost made me throw up a little in my mouth–blarg.) Have fun!

    12. The business cards are great! I spent the day yesterday helping my friend design some stickers for her photography business. I had no idea logos could be so complicated to design and figure out! haha
      Anyway, yours look fabulous!
      Have a fun time at alt!
      -CK

    13. Camille says:

      Ouch! Looks like a dangerous job! Lucky everything’s still “in-tact”. Have fun at Alt. P.S. I envy your creativity!

    14. Molly says:

      Melissa I can’t believe after all of your art projects this is the first time you have done that. It is like a right of passage. I did it to myself on the day of my publication final at BYU with Adrian.

    15. Lillian says:

      Oh my gosh your finger! I hope it heals up well. I’m in love with your business cards! But that’s no surprise. I don’t think you could ever do something I didn’t love:)

    16. Lisa says:

      Ouch! Your finger looks painful! Hope it feels better soon.

      Your stickers and cards look great though. Nice job :)

    17. Neva says:

      I would like to talk to you about doing some calligraphy work for a tattoo…can you email me?

    18. brandi says:

      i have SO cut my finger like that before with my xacto knife. yours is definitely one heck of a battle wound. i’m pretty sure you’re covered for the next 10 years though because thats about how long you’ll be super careful whilst cutting as to avoid a similar accident. :)

      on the bright side, you cards and stickers are beautiful!

    19. Kelly says:

      so nice meeting you at Alt, if only for a few minutes. the design book you so sweetly parted with is sitting on my coffee table! {and thanks for going through the pain *eek* of those stickers – they’re fabulous!}

      xo
      kelly

    20. Jones says:

      That dress was AWESOME! I thought maybe you had gotten lucky on a great thrift store find or something. That is even cooler that it was your grandmother’s dress! It fits you so well. Fun! I love your business cards!

    21. gwen says:

      That dress is so fantastic.

      Found you via the ALT best-of panel wrapup, this is a wonderful blog and I’m subscribing :]

    22. i was admiring all that beautiful gold script and then, eek, i saw your finger. hope that’s all better now!!

    23. […] first draft of the redesign that I had created. I didn’t, thankfully. Looking back, I hate the design that I came up with. It also doesn’t help that the printer thought a slightly less glossy cover was in fact […]

    24. […] really liked passing out stickers last year at ALT & BlogHer so much that I think I need to keep up that little trend (but not make the same […]

    25. […] This is the safest paper cutter I’ve seen. Ever. That’s a good thing for me, since I’ve almost cut off my finger before from using a rotary cutter. By the way I don’t have feeling in the tip of my finger, nearly two years later. Yikes. This […]

    26. […] the art boards to Alphagraphics and they cut the paper for me. It saved me a ton of time and the potential flesh wound. I sort of regret not going with the I Still Love You motto, but I really love these little diamond […]

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