The Beginning

I graduated college in May of 2014. In my last year, I took an illustration class with a delightful old Polish man name Nikolas. One day, I was walking behind him in the art building where hanging on the wall were all of the self portraits we had painted for his class. Suddenly, he jerked his head to stare at me with a face of surprise and mischief. He sprinted forward stopping right in front of my own portrait. He looked at me again, smiling ear to ear, pointed to the portrait and proclaimed (in a thick polish accent) "This! This one is my favorite!" to the entire hallway. He then quickly turned back around and hopped down the stairs before I could get a word in edgewise.

After this interaction, at our end of year reviews, he told me that he wished I would pursue illustration instead of graphic design. He said "Your work, it is so full of whimsy, it needs to be seen!" I thanked him, but continued the course that I was set on. It was around this time that the idea to start my own greeting card business had popped into my head and the name Full of Whimsy, just seemed right.

When I told my best friend, Margit, about Full of Whimsy she loved it. She had just graduated from college with her photography degree and graciously offered to take photos for the greeting cards I was designing. This was the very beginning of Full of Whimsy Design & Photography. Soon, the greeting card idea was scrapped and instead morphed into a company focused on wedding photography and stationery, the perfect combination of both of our creative talents. 

Full of Whimsy Photography is still alive and well, minus the wedding invitation side of things. Instead, we started 2019 as two sister companies, which is where Grateful Paperie came to be. The logo for Full of Whimsy features a dandelion seed. The symbol of all things whimsical, floating along the breeze and plating seeds wherever it may land. In the same respect, the logo for Grateful Paperie is a kite, which also flies with the breeze. We made sure to keep "full" in each of the names to truly express to our current and future clients that we are working together. 

I am forever thankful for the encouragement and support I receive from Margit. If it was not for her, Full of Whimsy never would have come to fruition as it did. I am so beyond excited for the potential both Whimsy and Grateful have in this new year. I'm even more excited to use our creative gifts to reflect the light of God into this world, one tiny spark at a time.

-Kellie

**The image included in this post is the first ever logo I designed for Full of Whimsy five years ago. My how times have changed**