Rrroooouurrrrr! Dinosaur Baby Announcements

I thought I'd share these super cute baby announcements I just sent down to Kansas.

 
How adorable is Baby Miles?

Friday Ramblings

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my desire to travel more. The more I think about it the more I notice others that are currently on the move and jealousy kicks in. Not the bad green envy kind, but just the general desire to know everything about their travels so I can live vicariously through them. I’ll do this just for a while until I have the funds and the time to hope on a plane myself. (you will notice much of the jealousy stems from my immediate family’s travels, tickets are much less expensive when you are on the east coast)


Tops on my to-visit list:

Ireland

Photos from my sisters’, Erika & Andrea, first trip to Ireland

Ireland has always been on the top of the list. How could it not? I have red hair, my middle name is named after one of their counties (Clare). My sister was just there over the holidays and loved it. Even better my cousin lives there so I’d have a place to visit and meet her charming little girls who, from my sister’s opinion, have adorable little irish/british/american accents. In fact I have far off dreams of living there myself.

India

Photos by Jacob Murphy

India has been on my mind more and more. The culture fascinates me. I’ve been involved with planning several Indian weddings in the past few years and the more I learn the more I would love to truly experience their culture. Plus, the food is AMAZING.

Scandinavia

Mostly Norway and Sweden

Photo from my sister’s, Andrea, trip to to Norway while my brother was studying there.

My heritage is half Norwegian.  In fact on my mothers side, we still have very distant relatives living on a farm that has been family land for centuries. Not to mention I so love and respect the modern sense of Scandinavian design. We also have family friends in Sweden, so of course it would be lovely to visit.

There are far more locations and cultures I’d love to see and experience, but I’d be writing for days on end.

Happy weekend everyone!

What Is Your Favorite Color?

Well I thought I would solicit all the brides (past, present and future) out there and grooms too.   I am submitting the final drafts of my winning save the date to minted this week and they asked for 2 additional color options.  I will already submit Red and White from the original design win, but am torn between 4 additional color schemes. 

Let me know which you like the best:

A - Turquoise & White

B - Raspberry, Turquoise & White

 C - Black & White

D - Eggplant & Ivory

Busy, But What Can You Do?

Hi All! Sorry for my absence over the past week. I have been so busy lately that as soon as I am done working each day, then all I really want to do is just relax...I haven't even taken my Christmas Tree down. (I know, I know, I will get it down before the end of the week. I am so embarrassed it is still up! Ugh!)


Anyway, I thought I’d share a quick post and show the ad I have in Wedding Essentials Magazine. (Sadly, as you will notice the design was cut off, but the gals over at Wedding Essentials, were so nice about it and are doing their darnedest to make it up to me)

More Photos if the Boxed Invite featured in the ad:  CLICK HERE.

Still I am overall happy with the design and it will look so much better in the next issue once my logo isn’t cut off.

I also did up the design for the Embassy Suites LaVista, check it out here.

Also, make sure to check back here tomorrow. I need some advise form all the brides out there on some winter color schemes!

Color Inspiration

I am always looking for new fun color ideas and I discovered this color site today.

It is actually a launch page to 12 different home shopping blogs that are dedicated to individual colors. So fun, especially when you are trying to figure out wedding colors, nursery colors or even how to spice up your home décor.   

Black & White Delight

Pink & Brown Love

The Chocolate Blues

Pink & Green Scene

Just Blue & Green

Purple Punch

Pop of Red

Could totally by a fun new Card Box at a wedding.

House of Turquoise

Love Notes…FEB14 is just around the corner!

As Valentines Day quickly approaches, I am just sure everyone has their ducks in a row, reservations made, love notes written and special gifts gotten.
Well, I don’t…and I am sure others out there don’t either, so I thought I throw out a lending hand:

Download & Print your own Valentines!

These are such lovely designs and not pricy at all. Especially if you want to shower all your friends and family with these lovely love notes, this is the way to go.

by Vicinity Studio

In a new relationship or not quite ready for the big Valentines leap?

Order this card for your liked one.

by Power & Light

I love this Eye Chart Card, but be careful who you give it to.
If they can’t see well they will miss the lovingness in the smaller print. Ha!

by HawkGerber Ink

I hope this gets you in the mood…for valentines day that is!

Mystery Solved!

Rumor has it that my Snowy Heart Design is the design that won an editors pick in the Minted Getting Hitched Save the Date Challenge.   Apparently an email went out on Thursday, but my copy of the email must have been lost in cyberspace.  So, I’ve requested a copy of the email and hope to get it soon!

In the interim, check out the winning design!

(I know I know...there is a heart on this design and I am not typically one to infuse hearts in any part of my style...but I did notice that designs with hearts tended to get selected, so I took a stab at it...looks like it worked.   Also my initial title for this little design was "Cold Hearted".  hahaha…but that isn’t very romantic nor would a bride pick such a negatively named save the date.  I think it would have been ironic and funny….but not everyone really gets my nerdy/warped sense of humor.  Oh well, Snowy Heart it is!)

Coming Up Next :  Minted is holding a Business Card Design Challenge, so I will be sure to post on this topic soon. 

ICA Boston : Stunning.

While in Boston this weekend I spent some time at the Institute of Contemporary Art.  I am so inspired.   It has been some time since I sat down to really create a physical, make a mess, get my hands (and clothes) dirty, work of art.

Motivated by all the beautiful and thought provoking art, I’ve decided that I need to spend more time creating the cut paper drawings and the rusty aerial landscape paintings of my college days.   It may be slow and slightly fleeting to make extra time to add this back into my life, but as I do so, I’ll share my works as they progress.

Back to the ICA – they had some pretty spectacular paper based pieces that were truly beautiful.   I thought I’d share two of my favorite pieces.

Mark Bradford, "Strawberry," 2002.

Collection of Barbara and Bruce Berger

 Fred Liang, "Dream of a Thousand Springs," 2010.

Courtesy of the artist and Carroll and Sons, Boston.

Detail of "Dream of a Thousand Springs" 

via the AIB Foundation Blog

These photos do NOT do this piece justice.   The wall piece is actually very intricately cut paper that is just AMAZING. 

Overall this was a lovely part of my mini-vacation and I will for sure be visiting the ICA/Boston many times in the future.  

I DID IT, but what does it mean.?.?.?

The results for the Minted's most recent design challenge (save the dates) came in yesterday and since I had a VERY busy day I didn't think about checking the results until I was sitting in the Chicago airport during a layover to Boston.   Since Wi-Fi cost $7 (and I am cheap) I didn't think paying the sum just to be online for 5 minutes was worth it.   Thank goodness I have a mini computer for a phone and I used my trusty blackberry.  

Guess what:  I WON AN AWARD!!!  A "Jury's Pick".   I was so excited I pretty much skipped onto the plane (you can ask my younger sister Andrea, she was a witness). The problem was...I didn't quite know what a jury's pick meant or which of my designs won, and on top of that I had to turn my phone off.  (Stupid FAA rules, but I guess it is for our safety, bla bla bla.)

And the problem still is, after surfing around minted's website and scouring the design challenge terms and conditions, I still don't know.... All I see now is a star next to my profile stating that I am a winner! 

So for now, since I am uber-excited, I thought I’d just share my joy and once I know more I will post the design that won and the details on what it means for Inkblot! 

I am pretty much over the moon!

And now what better way to celebrate than to spend the long weekend in Boston with my two sisters? 

Happy weekend everyone!

Photo Cards

I thought I would share these with you, even though they are New Year’s cards and a bit overdue.

I love this design showing the multiple photos and the banner graphic. These could easily be converted to a save the date card, birthday invitation card or even baby announcement as well as holiday card.

Don't you just love his eyes!  Hudson will be a heart breaker some day for sure!

Themed Wedding Invites : Mini-Challenge

I hinted at this last week...and here is it:

Nebraska Wedding Day is having a mini design challenge on themed wedding invites. I designed up a fun carnival themed invite and now the voting is up.  Fun!

Now I know there is already a blue ribbon on the design…but just because I put it there, doesn’t mean I already won! So help me out if you can by clicking here and voting for the carnival design.

OMG 100 FREE Wedding Invitations...Yes Please!

Welcome Nebraska Wedding Day Blog Followers!  I hope you are all as excited about today’s Friday Freebies post as I am!

For those of you that did not find your way here by clicking on the Nebraska Wedding Day Blog, I’ll clue you in:  Inkblot Paper Designs is featured in the first ‘Friday Freebies” post of the year.    100 FREE wedding invitations will be awarded to one lucky bride/blog reader.  Click here to enter and read more about the details!

This past fall I had one of my favorite wedding photographers here in Omaha, Colleen with Colleen Dustin Photography, take a couple shots of some of my more recent invitation designs. 

Colleen sure knows how to make my invites look FAB, what do you think?

A BIG thanks to Colleen for taking such fabulous photos and best of luck to all the brides entering for this pretty great giveaway. 

Themed Wedding Invites

I found these two themed wedding invitations over on my favorite paper blog: oh so beautiful paper.

The first is a vintage book invite…and if you haven’t heard me say it before, listen now…my dream is to have a library some day in my house filled with beautifully illustrated hardback books. So with tid-bit of knowledge about me you can only imagine how fabulous I think these invites are. For more photos click here.

These next invites I just think are so clever especially for a destination wedding, a couple that like to travel or even if you are having a wedding with most of the guests coming in from out of town. It really gets your guests in the mood to travel. For more photos click here.

Coming up…another themed invitation design all of my own. NE Wedding Day Magazine gets first shot at posting it, so I won’t say a lot only that I am pretty excited to share this fun invite design with you all here in the next week, so stay tuned!

Some Pretty Happy Post Card Save the Dates

I am excited to share these save the dates with you!  I am sure you can, not doubt, tell that this couple truly is so fun to work with. 

They have a very modern view on design, which I, of course, love.  

I did an English version as well as a Spanish version...the grom helped me a bit with translation. 

How much do you LOVE their faces in this photo?!?!

Wedding Invite Designs soon to follow :)

Happy New Year & Peacock Programs.

As a little bonus for the start of 2011, I thought I’d share a program I just created.

The wedding is today, 1.1.11 and from the looks of the program, it should be a pretty wonderful winter wedding. 

Oh and I am also excited to point out my added link loves to the right, papery love, crafty love and weddingy love!  Have fun checking them out!  (Click through at your own risk.  I cannot take fault should you waste many hours away clicking through these blogs...be warned: they are addictive)