Love Lucy Design

Between Christmas cards, holiday gift tags, and party invitations, there’s no shortage of needs for personalized, pretty paper products this season! There are many options to choose from, but we favor classic designs that can be personalized for your family. Today, we’re sharing one of our favorite Dallas-based small businesses for hand-designed, custom cards and invitations: Love Lucy Design.

Photo by Summer Spooner Photography

Lucy Murchison, a mother of three, started Love Lucy Design a few years ago to share her personal creativity with local and national customers. Thank goodness, because her original products fill a big need for busy mamas like me! Lucy and I have been friends since high school, so it’s especially fun to get to support and share about her flourishing Etsy shop of hand-designed invitations, cards, gift tags, stationery, and more:

Lucy not only designs everything, but she also shares fabulous gift ideas to pair with her gift tags on Instagram, like gifting Pop Rocks candy with a “Jingle Bell Rocks” design for class Christmas gifts. If you follow Lolli and Me on Instagram, then you’ve seen us feature some of her gift tags in the past, especially around Halloween and “back to school” season! Read on for our Q&A with Lucy, and note that if you’re interested in holiday orders, get your purchases in soon…The last day for printed orders is November 25th, and the last day of orders accepted for printable downloads is December 5th!

How did Love Lucy get started? How long have you been in business?
I started Love Lucy Design 3.5 years ago. My youngest was six months old, so it was probably the worst time to start a business. But is there ever really a good time?

I was already creating invitations for my own children and their friends, so it was just a matter of taking the next step. A supportive friend told me to just go for it. She literally purchased the shipping materials for me to get started. It was that “What are you waiting for?” push that I needed.

What is your design process like? What inspires all of your cute ideas?
We are inspired by everything… book covers, classic children’s clothing, interior design, vintage toys, fabrics, heirloom monograms, nature… I could go on.

I always begin the design process with brainstorming and sketches on paper. If it is a custom design, we ask our customers what they are envisioning. We want to know what inspires them, what they’ve been dreaming up and what their child adores. Our goal is to make our customers’ vision come to life and to make sure it really fits them. Children’s invitations have no limits. That’s why I love them!

Once we have the inspiration, the design begins to evolve. I work best when I have a few hours blocked off to fully focus on my new design. But often times the brainstorming starts in the carpool line on the back of napkins or receipts (you take what you can get when you are a working mom).

Teddy Bear Invitation // Strawberry Wreath Invitation

From there, I create the artwork for the invitation – either as a line drawing or as a watercolor. The entire process for each design is always a bit different, but every design is the result of many hours of brainstorming, drawing, and it doesn’t end when I get the design loaded in the computer. I often tweak my illustrations in the computer as well. I then begin the steps of laying out the invitation, picking fonts, and bringing the entire piece together. It tends to be a long process as I’m a *recovering* perfectionist.

What is one of your family’s favorite holiday traditions?
We spend Christmas Eve with my family. It’s my favorite night of the year. My dad serves a beautiful spread of caviar and blini pancakes. With Christmas music in the background, we toast with champagne, pop Christmas crackers, wear paper crowns, and celebrate the most beautiful gift of all.

Love Came Down Gift Tags // Valentine’s Gift Tags – coming in January! // Merry and Bright Gift Tags

How do you maintain a balance between work and family?
This is a constant struggle and something that I work on weekly. My family comes first… every time! Love Lucy is something that I adore and am committed to doing well, but it’s also important to make time for work. One can’t be successful at something without committing time to it. This applies to family and Love Lucy.

There is so much noise in life. Cutting out the noise to focus on what matters makes me more intentional with how and where I am spending my time. When I’m working, I try to give it my undivided attention so that I’m efficient and produce work that makes me proud.

I am also blessed to work with my sister Claire.  She helps reply to customer messages, sets up listings, and does her best to make sure I am focusing on the right design at the right time. We constantly text throughout the day, checking in on all things Love Lucy.

Sailboat Personalized Stationery // Scalloped Lily Pulitzer Stationery // Shadow Embroidery Personalized Stationery

What special products do you offer for the holidays?
We love inspiring our customers by providing gift tags with corresponding gift ideas. We post the ideas in both our Instagram stories and photos. Our goal is to take the stress out of gift giving, so you can focus on what truly matters. We also offer family holiday cards… more on that below.

What is your personal favorite from your holiday designs?
Oh my. This is a hard one. I have favorites but not a favorite. There is so much more to it than just the design. We’ve been blessed with incredible customers who have become friends over the years. From helping with birth announcements, to baptisms, first birthdays and so on, we have had the honor of watching our customers’ children grow and lives evolve.

Around the holidays, Claire and I love having the opportunity to work on our customers’ holiday cards. It is always so fun to see how much their kiddos have grown in the last year.

“O, Come Let Us Adore Him” Card // Border Frame Holiday Card and Gingham Card

Do you have any fun holiday gift ideas for teachers, friends, and classmates?
Yes! Our favorite gifts for teachers and friends are our notepads. We are actually running a sale on our square script notepads until November 25th! They are $20 (usually $30) and available in a handful of fun colors. If you are needing something quick, grab a Swell water bottle and coordinating gift tag.

Square Script Notecards

For classmates we have quite a few ideas this year! Check out our Instagram highlights for suggestions to pair with all of our holiday gift tags. From reindeer headbands to cookie cutters, playdough to Advent candles, we’ve got you covered. *Hint: Target’s “dollar aisle” is a great spot to pick up gifts to pair with our tags.

When is the last day to order in 2018?
In order to make sure we are focusing on our families and the true meaning of Christmas, we will be closing our shop before the holidays. The last day to order printed items is November 25th and the last day to order printables is December 5th!

Shop the post below:

Photos via Love Lucy Design
Next Post

Loading Next Post