enter to win: festive gift tags

This charming little set of gift tags really does make giving better! Each set of twelve tags (two each of six exclusive february 13 creative designs) comes in a jewel case for convenient storage and includes plenty of colorful string for attaching the tags to your prezzies. Whether you're giving a bottle of wine, a kid's birthday gift, or a plate of holiday knishes, you're sure to find just the right design for the occasion.

We're giving away three sets (one set each to three different winners) via a random drawing and there are four ways to enter:

1. Comment on this post
and/or
2. Fan us on facebook
and/or
3. Follow us on twitter
and/or
4. mention february 13 creative and the giveaway in your own blog (send us the link via email – info[at]february13creative[dot]com, twitter, or comment on this post)

And yes, if you do all four, you will be entered in the drawing four times!

Winners will be drawn at midnight, December 10th and announced on this blog on December 11th. Be sure to check back to see if you’ve won. Good luck!

….. amy, betsy, pam …..

P.S. If you're interested in creating your own custom gift tags, check out our “how to” on Cardstyle this week!

crafting: diy holiday photocards and ornaments

We’re on view from the bay again today! In this live tv segment Betsy shares instructions for fantastic holiday photocards that you can create yourself.



Check out the instructions for creating these mod CD ornaments, using old compact discs and tissue paper. It’s a highly addictive little project... many of our intrepid testers in the f13 craft lab found they couldn’t stop once they got started.And the best part is, you can put a photo on the back, pop it in a 5” square envelope, and mail it as a holiday greeting!




Amy discovered another ingenious use for old magazine pages, in this project inspired by all the fun jewelry and home decor pieces we’ve been seeing in craft and museum shops lately. Check out her instructions for these beautiful paper weave wreaths.

And last but certainly not least, Betsy will be touting our brand new collection of holiday photocard, invitation, greeting card, and thank-you note designs, available exclusively at Cardstore.com. Jump right to our Holiday Card Showcase to see our favorite new designs, all of which can be personalized online with your own photos and text.

Now is the time to get a jump on the season! Sending out cards early equals more relaxation and celebration. We hope that you enjoy the fun ideas and art that we’ve put together this season!

….. betsy, pam and amy…..

inspiration: color harmony

I’ve always been fascinated by color combinations, and often, it is a special color harmony that calls my attention and draws me to an object. That was exactly why these beautiful bracelets caught my eye. They evoke an earthy, rich feeling, and yet feel calm and serene. So I just had to have them. They ended up inspiring the color combination that I used in my “Bottle and Rocks” art print (available in our Etsy shop.)

….. amy …..

celebrating : el dia de los muertos

Saludos de Tepoztlan, Mexico. My mom brought me to this beautiful town for a little culinary vacation at La Villa Bonita and we’ve been fortunate to be here during Day of the Dead, a major cultural celebration that takes place throughout Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America (as well as in many homes in the United States, of course). Beginning around October 31st, families prepare to welcome the spirits of deceased family members back into the home for a brief visit. Day of the Dead is actually celebrated over two days, the 1st and 2nd of November. Although it may sound sad or even macabre to non-Latin sensibilities, it’s a very joyous occasion here in Mexico and I’ve been so delighted to learn more about it and to take part in the celebrations with our hosts. Here are several photos and a bit more information about this wonderful tradition.




Marigolds play a huge role in the Dia del los Muertos celebrations. They decorate doorways, altars (ofrendas), and graves and—perhaps most important—they’re used to create a pathway leading into the home, so the deceased souls can easily find their way back inside to enjoy the elaborate offering of food and entertainment the family has prepared for them. With our La Villa Bonita host, Chef Ana Garcia, we visited the market in Cuernavaca to buy masses of marigolds to create the many beautiful decorations and pathway shown above, as well as food and other decorations for her home and the ofrenda.


We helped Ana prepare the ofrenda, dedicated to her grandmother and great grandmother. The altar typically includes a cooked whole chicken, salt and water, pan de muertos (sweet bread, often baked in the shape of skulls and other figures), incense, candles, more marigolds and a photo of the deceased. It may also include any number of other items, often things that the deceased greatly enjoyed during their time in this world. For example, tequila is popular in ofrendas; for the spirit of Ana’s grandmother, we left her favorite cocktail ingredients: vodka and tonic. I love to imagine her strolling in along our golden path of marigolds and kicking back with a tall, cool glass of vodka tonic, taking in the beautiful vistas of Tepoztlan.

On the evening of November 1st, many Mexican families open the doors of their homes to anyone and everyone, offering hot beverages and treats and an opportunity to view the altars they’ve created for their loved ones. Ana and her husband Robb took us to nearby Ocotepec, where this tradition is particularly lively. There were lines around the block for many homes! We also took a dark walk through the cemetery, where some families had begun to clean and decorate the graves of their family members in preparation for the big celebration the following day.

We returned to Ocotepec the next morning to find the cemetery transformed into an explosion of color and festive activity, including live music and picnics at many grave sites. Even the humblest graves were tidy and festooned with bright flowers. Those who have died during the past year receive the most elaborate decorations (see Roberto’s, below). It was an amazing and undeniably upbeat scene... a real eye-opener for this gringo (gringa?!)






There have been many other incredible experiences on this trip, including lots of great food, of course! I’ll share more in my next post.

Hasta pronto!

..... betsy .....

celebrating: spooky entomology

My husband and I have hosted a party every October 31st for 7 years now. I love decorating in general, but I love Halloween decorations so much that, despite our lack of storage, I end up adding new ones every year! I especially love creating mood through lighting. Here’s what I just finished putting together for this year’s party.

Black light is the only source of illumination on these apothecary jars, which I’ve placed in our guest bathroom. They’re filled with spider webbing, glow sticks, plastic centipedes and tarantulas. I also did a third jar that contains bats! This project is a cinch to put together and the effects are positively spooktacular, don’t you think?

Happy Crawl-o-ween!

..... pam .....

paging dr. izzie stevens!

Hi there. I’m Pamela Nudel, one of the Three Musketeers here at f13 creative. I’ll share a little more about myself in a future post, but today I’m just excited to jump right into some exciting news: we’re celebrating the arrival of fabric samples from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. These represent the very first licensing deals for me and Amy!

Amy’s butterfly art and Pam’s feather heart art

Just this past May, february 13 creative debuted at SURTEX (the surface and textile show in NYC). We came home from the trade show with a lot of terrific leads, including Robert Kaufman Fabrics. The very nice people at Robert Kaufman didn’t waste any time getting down to business with us—not only did they license several of our Christmas patterns for bolt fabric, but two of our everyday patterns were selected for medical scrub uniform fabric! Yes, medical scrubs! Who knew that scrubs would be in our future?! At any rate, we are so excited and thrilled! The final fabrics turned out beautifully, as you can see above. They used a lovely lightweight seersucker fabric that complements the artwork so nicely.

So now we are waiting to see just how the scrub designers decide to stitch-up these adorable fabrics! I’ll be sure to remind you in a few months when the scrubs will be available to purchase. From what we’ve been told, the finished uniforms will be available to buy in January 2010 at whiteswanscrubs.com. In the meantime Betsy, Amy and I are smiling big, and busily designing more art for the fabric and scrub world!

….. pam …..

celebrating : my new orange teapot

Our blog has been a little higgledy-piggledy over the past year, as we’ve tried to come up with some sort of topic that would inspire us to write regularly and that might hold some small bit of interest for readers in this content-saturated webosphere. Then one day recently, up bubbled an idea we think just might do the trick.

So today I’m inaugurating our very first soon-to-be-somewhat-regular feature: “celebrating.” As you might have noticed, we have this thing about celebrations. “Celebrate every day,” we say. Yes, it’s a little pollyanna. But it’s a great exercise in looking on the bright side, if nothing else! From the momentous to the miniscule, from the absurd to the awe-inspiring, reasons to celebrate every day abound and we’re gonna talk about what we’re celebrating at random given moments. We might be talking to ourselves for now, but hey—that still counts for something. We hope one of these days our comments section will overflow and you’ll let us know what reasons you’re finding to celebrate every now and then... if not every day!

At this very moment, for example, I am head over heels (or should I say “handle over spout”?) in love with my new orange teapot. I like to brew up a big pot of tasty herbal tea every morning and keep it at my desk. It helps me down those innumerable recommended daily ounces of H2O. This design is so perky and the color is so cheerful, I can’t keep my hands off it. It’s keeping me hydrated and happy and that’s a little something worth celebrating.

..... betsy .....

e is for elie and emma : interns extraordinaire

The summer flew by and I’m just now getting around to writing about some of our happiest news from the whirlwind that was junejulyaugust... We had our first summer interns! Elie and Emma came to us via a high school here in San Francisco and they worked with me at f13 world headquarters, providing expert help in so many ways—from production design on our cardstore.com collection, to data entry, to inspiration-scouting, to manufacturer research and more. Their skill and efficiency at this wide variety of tasks—on top of incredible creative talents, intelligence and professionalism— just blew us away.

They even contributed to our calling card collection with two of our favorite new designs, seen above (Elie’s is on the left, Emma’s on the right). Elie’s beautiful watercolor monogram design is now available for personalizing and ordering here. Emma’s cool constructivist design will be available in mid-October and also comes as a folded notecard. Order lots, order often and tell your friends... all proceeds go directly to the respective artist!

We were so fortunate to have their help and miss them dearly. A million thanks to Elie and Emma and best of luck in school this year!

(on a related note: our calling cards were featured recently on "View from the Bay"!)

send some love, send some hope, send a (free!) card

We’re delighted to let you know about a cool project—Hope is in the Cards—started by a fellow designer, Russ Haan. It’s a simple effort to spread some good vibes in these vibrationally-challenged times.. one person to another, via good old-fashioned snail mail. The idea is to get millions of individuals to send one greeting card each—to a friend, relation, or colleague—to express a simple positive message. Maybe it’s love. Could be encouragement. Perhaps it’s support, thanks, or admiration. The uplifting specifics are up to you!

Many greeting card companies and retailers are supporting Hope is in the Cards by giving away free stamps and/or cards to customers during Week of Hope, September 1-7. Our friends at Cardstore.com are giving away the cards AND the stamps. They have put together a collection of 50 designs in a special “Hope Collection” (including Amy's sweet-talkin' penguins, above, and a few other f13 beauties!).

You can see the Cardstore.com Hope Collection here.
Enter the code SENDHOPE at checkout. This will cover the entire cost of one card, including postage (anywhere in the world).

We hope this movement ignites a year-round passion for spontaneous expressions of love, support, thanks and encouragement. Imagine the power of that!

Happy sending!

[update : Apparently the response to this offer at Cardstore has been huge! Traffic may be a little slow on their site so be patient and remember, you have until 9/7 to create and send your free card.]

succulent inspiration

Inspiration this week was in the form of a little fieldtrip out to Flora Grubb Gardens, where we encountered more succulents than I ever imagined existed. The variety and charm of these plants just astounded me... and they represent only a portion of the many beautiful plants and gardening goodies offered by this wondrous San Francisco nursery.









Many of the close-ups are taken from the "vertical garden" you see behind us in the photo above. (And that's Elie, one of our fabulous summer interns, on the right!)

And, because no february 13 creative gathering is complete without great food, we followed Flora Grubb with succulence of a different variety: lunch at Schmidt's, a cool new German place in my neighborhood. Schmidt's is just one of many great new restaurants that seem to be springing up around here... including Stable, which we waddled down to for coffee and cookies at the end of the afternoon!)

surtex diary, part 1

After all the years that I've dreamed and schemed about exhibiting at Surtex—and all the months that have gone into the actual planning and preparation—it's hard to believe that it's behind us now. It was a really successful and incredibly enjoyable experience all the way around. Here are some photos and thoughts about some of the best and most memorable moments.

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Somewhere inside this imposing edifice lies 80 square feet that we can call our own for the next 5 days.


Amy and Pam, as we arrive at the Javits to set up our booth (Friday, May 15th.)


We were surprised to find the place pretty much empty on Friday, and a little incredulous that this dowdy, dirty, bland space could be turned into an inviting and colorful wonderland of artwork within 24 hours. But it happens... you'll see the "after" in tomorrow's post.


Booth 362, home to february 13 creative! What our $3900 paid for: corner 8'x10' with 2 hard walls, furniture, signage, carpeting, cleaning, and storage, for 3 days.


The boxes that I wept for (twice... once in despair—thinking they would never reach their destination intact—and once again in joy, when we found them in pristine condition, waiting patiently for us in our booth).


Unfurling our banners. Our motto for booth decoration (and for most of this show) was "easy, cheap and beautiful." Despite much advice to the contrary, we decided not to mess with elaborate product mockups or look boards. Instead, we designed nine banners (approx. 3'x8' each) to cover our booth walls and counter, and ordered them online at Empire Banners for a cost of $675 including shipping. We hung them with a nifty little system of wooden yardsticks (inserted into top and bottom pole pockets on each banner) and s-hooks. The entire booth went up and looked...


fabulous (pow!) in less than 45 minutes. (We hadn't put up the counter wrap when this photo was taken, but you'll see it later.) It was just as easy as we had imagined (honestly, how often does that happen?) and left us plenty of time on Friday afternoon to take a little field trip.


One of our favorite NYC destinations is the roof garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Starting in May each year (as if they were anticipating our arrival!) it becomes the "Roof Garden Cafe and Martini Bar." Combine gorgeous weather, panoramic views of Manhattan and Central Park, a fantastic contemporary art installation, specialty cocktails, and some really first rate people watching, and you have the girls of f13 in the palm of your hand. The installation this summer ("Maelstrom" by Roxy Paine) is phenomenal. I'm not sure these photos do it justice, but you can read more about it and watch a great video of the installation at the Met's website.






After exploring all 130 x 45 feet of this gleaming, tangled forest of stainless steel, we settled down for a lovely and refreshing beverage (featuring vodka, fresh lemon juice and thyme-infused simple syrup) and toasted our "easy, cheap, and beautiful" booth. Cin Cin!