Today we have the privilege of speaking with Michelle Jackson, owner of MiJa Loves Design who has been a Corjl seller for the last year. Michelle is a Multimedia/Graphic Designer, Illustrator and crafty DIY’er for the past twenty plus years. She had been applauded for her dedication, creativity and hard work. Being able to create memorable beautiful designs is what drives her passion to create .

Michelle recently used her creativity for a Halloween Party which also worked perfectly for a product shoot. “I love using the printables I design when having gatherings or on holidays with the family. With Corjl, they’re now easier to customize, download, print off, and assemble.”  

We asked her a couple questions on where she gets her inspiration from and the secrets behind her designing processes.

Q: Do you prefer to create your own artwork or to purchase it? 

A: Since I can remember, I have been drawing and always keep a sketchbook nearby for when ideas pop up. Being in the graphic design field, all of my designs end up being digital, however most ideas start out as sketches. When my husband and I were married, I designed, printed and assembled the invitations and all the accompanying stationary. I would design our holiday cards, and party invitations and decorations. When we planned birthday parties for the kids in their younger years, it was DIY everything! Making it personal and unique to them and us made it feel special and is what motivates me to create unique designs and even more exciting, with Corjl, a way for others to customize the designs to make it that much more personal for them.  

So, is it safe to assume you enjoy using your printables yourself for parties you throw? 

A: I love using the printables I design when having gatherings or on holidays with the family. With Corjl, they’re now easier to customize, download, print off, and assemble. We are definitely going to be festive this Halloween and will be using all of the ‘Boo and Sukoo’ printables for decoration and the ‘Boo and Sukoo’ Scavenger Hunt and favor boxes, which I’m looking very forward too. Knowing the excitement that ‘Boo and Sukoo’ have brought to my family, I’m equally excited to be sharing the designs in my store with others!

Q: What made you want to use Corjl for your business and why did you choose to stick with them after your free trial?

A: I’m a full time multimedia designer, and while I love designing for others, I needed my own creative outlet that allowed me to create things with my own designs. The challenge that I had before discovering Corjl was having time to be available to customers that wanted custom products. With a full time job, two young kids, and a long commute I would not have been able to provide the level of professional service I wanted to provide, let alone have the time to design. After doing some research, and talking with another Corjl customer, Jessica of Greengate Images, who was really helpful and knowledgeable, I was able to make a solid decision. Corjl has eliminated my biggest challenge I had before and allows customers the control of editing the designs while allowing me to focus on a full time job, have family time, run a business and have the time to design and create more. 

Michelle uses her creativity to draw characters and bring them to life for both her family’s enjoyment and her many customer’s as well.  With Corjl she is able to create fun scavenger hunt, invitations and decor templates to be the perfect partner to the already exciting party going on! We asked Michelle is she enjoys prepping for parties and product shoots, and this is what she said:

A: I’m a planner and also love photography, so preparing for parties and product shoots is fun for me. I use the photos for my social media pages, and sometimes will post them on the blog. Since the Boo and Sukoo Halloween theme colors were a little untraditional, I wanted to focus on creating a space that emphasized those colors to show how Boo and Sukoo’s soft pink, orange and gray, which were chosen from my fall color scheme, could still really make for a fun and festive Halloween. Going with the color scheme, I thought about what foods would be fun to have like the witchie fingers (with eyeballs!) and the eyeball slime drinks. They both started as a plan, but as I was shopping for these items, I wasn’t able to find some of the ingredients, and had to improvise, which actually turned out better than planned! I also thought about how the non-printable decor, like the pumpkins, iridescent fringe backdrop, and the flower filled pumpkin should compliment the products and help everything come together. I live near a flower farm, and had reached out to them to see if they could put together a few bouquets of flowers that went well with the color scheme, and they turned out amazing! Supporting local businesses and other artists is something I want to build on more as my business grows, if their brand and product fits with my brand I’d like to work with them when planning product shoots – something I hope to expand for future product shoots. 

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Q: Your “BOO” and “Sukoo” characters have so much personality! Where do you find your inspiration for new designs/artwork? How do you transfer that inspiration into templates.

Last year because of COVID, we decided to stay home for Halloween and keep it low key. We had a few decorations up but not much. We felt bad that the kids couldn’t go trick-or-treating so I planned and designed a scavenger hunt. The theme was the ‘Spooky-tacular’ Halloween and it included an invitation, pie boxes and a scavenger hunt . They liked it so much they requested one for this year. This scavenger hunt theme started out with someone crying ‘Boo hoo, I’ve lost my … will you help me find…’ and after a few drafts, Boo, the ghost, was crying ‘Boo-hoo, I’ve lost my black cat, Sukoo. Will you help me find her?’

As I was sketching out Boo and Sukoo for the scavenger hunt and drafting out the words, it started to turn into a story. To help with the flow, I designed standing cards with ‘Boo and Sukoo’ marking the beginning and end of the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt cards are smaller with a cute border and an illustrated ‘Sukoo’ in many poses of where she likes to hang out around the house. My daughter loves cats, and our memories of our last cat inspired the silliness that Sukoo embodied throughout the piece. I think my favorite pose has to be the one of Sukoo trying to get into the shoe. Our cat would go nuts and perform acrobatics when she was around our shoes and tried to show that with Sukoo. To hold little treats and candies, to be found during the scavenger hunt, I designed the ‘Boo and Sukoo’ favor boxes and made them customizable so I could put different name’s on the boxes. Other ideas that they could be used for are table setting decorations or parting favors since you can customize them to include name’s or your own message. 

After designing the scavenger hunt and knowing that we wanted to make it festive this year, the design of the banner, food tents, cupcake toppers, cupcake wrappers, gift tags, an invitation, and thank you notes shortly followed! There is also a matching ‘Boo and Sukoo’ Halloween Greeting Card.

When Michelle is not working on a design project, you’ll find her learning new illustration, lettering and design techniques, and doodling away in her sketchbook. You can also find her putting together creative projects for her two kiddos – getting messy is not a big deal; it’s all part of the creative process! She also loves DIY’ing with her husband, crafting and photography. When not DIY’ing you can find Michelle experimenting in the kitchen (most likely with a camera in hand.)

You can shop templates by MijaLovesDesign on Etsy and at mijalovesdesign.com