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Kelsey Baldwin at Paper + Oats

I'm the one-woman show behind Paper + Oats where I quite frankly have my hands in a lot of different things — teaching creatives how to use Adobe InDesign to grow their business, designing books for authors, creating resources for learning design, marketing, and productivity, sharing my journey as a single mother, and even making pottery in my basement ceramics studio. It's a lot. Subscribe below to follow along with my weekly updates 💛

Featured Post

big change

Hi there! Ooof. Ok. This email is hard to write. It's one I've been thinking about for months, and now it's time to put my butt in the chair and write it — and it is harrrrd. *DISCLAIMER* — I know this email is LONG. I don't like reading long-winded emails myself. But big changes are afoot. This is the context. It's like All Too Well, The 10 Minute Version, mkay? If a year ago, you showed me a snapshot of what my life looks like today, I probably wouldn't have believed you. My work life is...

bonfire on forest

Hey friends, Remember 9 months ago, when it was January, and we had all that Big New Year Energy? We were making resolutions, planning out the next 12 months, and carefully choosing our word of the year. Well I'm here to confess something. My word of the year was RESET. I've been burnt out on work since Covid hit, throwing spaghetti at the wall in the some ways, and I decided 9 months ago that this would be my year to reset my business. To find joy in it again and breath new life into its...

Hello! Thanks for all your kind responses a couple weeks ago in my email about my next book. It's still swirling around in my head, and I'll be taking more steps soon to finally work towards that goal. But for now, I need to work an old muscle that used to be more in shape than it is now. I used to share my writing a lot in the years leading up to my first book, and I just slowly got out of the habit. But I want to start sharing it again, so here goes. As always, I write for myself. I edit it...

Hi friends, today is a fun one. I’ll be honest, that last few weeks have been pretty rough for me personally, but there’s one bright spot that’s helping me get through and it might not be what you think: It’s Taylor Swift. Specifically, my most prized possession: a ticket to the Eras tour in July. I know, I know. I’m a walking cliche. A 30-something midwestern mom who’s already planning her ridiculously sparkly outfit with a group of fellow Swifties and playing the tour setlist Spotify...

Hey there! I'm back with a fresh batch of quick YouTube video tutorials to help you work smarter and faster in Adobe InDesign. I'll be releasing one each week for the next few weeks, so buckle up, open InDesign, and learn some fun new tricks with me. First up — parent pages. Parent pages are like mini templates you can create and apply to pages in your document for repeated content like a background color or pattern, page numbers, headers, footers, etc. Parent pages are one of the best ways...

Hey friends! Calling all authors and writers, today's email is just for YOU. Writing a book is no joke, it takes an ungodly amount of work and time, and once you have that manuscript finally finished, it can be tempting to want to rush through the design phase and get this book baby out into the world. But don't rush it! The design of your book can be just as important as the words you wrote on the page. Let me be your layout nerd 🤓 I’d absolutely love to be the one who obsesses over the...

A few weeks ago, I shared a bit about my journey dealing with business burn out since late 2019. It was a gradual progression — a slow burn, if you will. I felt a lack of direction and a lack of motivation, and that can be a deadly combo for any business, but especially one you run by yourself (it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me). While some of us can put an entire business on pause while we explore other options (usually thanks to a partner's income, which is great!), that certainly is...

At the start of every year, I usually post a picture on Instagram of my system as I plan out aaalllll my entire year of business in just a few days. Yes, that’s right, an entire year’s worth of projects, promos, content, etc. in about one week. And people freak out. Rightfully so! I know how crazy it sounds, 12 months of work scheduled out on a calendar is a little control-freak-ish right?! It’s okay, you can say it. But this method helps me brain dump all my ideas + plans for the coming year...