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Shining Baptism Announcements

A couple weeks ago Hudson’s mother asked me to design some baptism invitations that were subtle and elegant, but also fitting for a 4-month-old baby boy. So this is what I came up with, I hope you all like it!

click here to see Hudson's baby announcements!

I'm off like a...

...well I would say prom dress, since it is the season, but that is not quite the case!

I am off to the National Stationery Show in NYC! I booked my tickets and hotel yesterday and I'm making a weekend of it! I can't wait for May 14th to get here! YAY!

I went to the same show two years ago and it got me so excited to create and expand my business, so here's to hoping for the same experience (and some pretty fabulous shopping as well, if you don’t' mind me adding!)

Paper Wreath

I found these two beautiful book page wreaths on some blogs and I quite like them! I think that they could even be made out of some of my scrap paper I have lying around. Stay tuned; someday when I have some extra time to create…I will be sure to post what I fashion up.

From Homemade by Jill

From Living with Lindsay

A Bride’s Best Friend!

Oh the joy of that little blue box! I think that any girl, whether she admits it or not, will have an increase in heart rate and butterflies in their stomach when she sees that blue box tied with a white ribbon.

Well get ready world because about 160 women (and men, but they probably won’t care as much) out there are now going to have that tiny bit of pleasure delivered to their door. While these invitations are not the real deal arriving from a tiffany store, they certainly have the feel of it and as the bride of this invite would say: “These is even better than the tiffany blue!”

To create this Tiffany & Co. look, I took some lovely shimmery tiffany blue (well ‘Caspian’ in my swatch book) colored pocket folds and paper paired it with some lovely patterned vellum that I think mirrors the facets of a diamond and added a bit of bright white shimmer. Tie it all together with a 7/8^th” White satin ribbon and - VOILA! - A Tiffany inspired wedding invitation! What better way to get your guests excited for a wedding than to remind them of diamonds!

As a side note, check out my FAVORITE Tiffany line of jewelry by Frank Gehry. I have a few of the silver pieces and the next item on my wish list is this lovely little diamond ring. I’m not holding my breath, but I know it will be mine someday!

Boston Marathon Alzheimer's Fundraiser

My older sister is a rock star when it comes to marathon running and tomorrow she is running the Boston Marathon for the 4^th time!

For those that do not know, one must qualify under a certain time to run in the Boston Marathon and Erika, without even trying, keeps re-qualifying with a better time every year.

On top of the amazing feet of running 26.2 miles each year, she also is dedicated to raising funds for Alzheimer’s research.

This past month our grandmother passed away after suffering for over 13 years from Alzheimer’s, living the last years of her life without the ability to even communicate. The disease is truly a HORRIBLE one and the Alzheimer’s Association can use every penny it receives to fund research, find out how to prevent, diagnose and hopefully, some day, find a cure.

So for those than can, please help support this cause and my sister's 4^th Boston Marathon run by clicking here and donating to the Alzheimer’s Association.

THANK YOU!

Save the Date: Library Card Catalogue

A childhood friend of mine, well actually the annoying younger sister of a childhood friend of mine, is getting married this fall at a beautiful library up in Minnesota. She didn’t really want to do too much with the whole library theme for the invites, but to be honest, I’ve been just waiting for the perfect person to do a library themed card for. So, I put my thinking cap on and sent her 3 unique designs. Deciding to be a bit annoying myself, I snuck in one library themed save the date in the mix.

And guess what? She picked it! Yay!

So, I have since decided this younger sister of my childhood friend isn’t quite so annoying after all. (Actually, she is quite an accomplished, articulate and absolutely lovely young woman, but sometimes I just can't get her 5 year old tantrums out of my mind)

Here is the finished product!

For those of you who are either too young or just never made it to the library, here is a brief explanation of my inspiration: I mirrored the outside flap of the save the date to look like an old card catalogue. Then on the inside of the flap I took all the wedding details and laid them out like an actual catalogue card is set up. (Now some of you librarians out there, please note I took a bit of liberty with the exact details…so no harping on my design if it doesn’t line up just perfectly with the dewy decimal system and other such Liberian nonsense. I do hope I did this archaic research system justice!)

Oh The Excitement Of It All!

Last week a lovely box full of goodies was delivered to my door. As I had about a million and one things going on (3 sets of invites, 1 save the date, 3 invite designs, a family emergency and then family wedding to attend, plus my full time day job…just to name a few), I didn’t have the time to give my new swatch decks, envelope samples and favor boxes the appropriate amount of gushing. But now…here I go!

For those of you that don’t know, my main paper supplier is Envelopments. The Envelopments Team is at the forefront of paper design and they just came out with TONS of fabulous new colors, patterns, textures, shapes, sizes and I just can’t get enough!

Here are a few pics of some of my favorite new things.

Click on this link to see even more. (If you have even a tiny bit of obsession with paper and office supplies, much like me (click here for more on that), get ready for some giddy butterflies to fly around your stomach)

Beautiful Boxed Invites

Just this past week I dropped some lovely boxed wedding invitations in the mail. They are pretty fabulous letterpress cards, printed in black and celadon green, and placed in a celadon box mailer from Paper Source.

I really enjoyed working on this design. The simple, clean, elegance of the typeface really reflects the wedding couple and their style perfectly. (Click here to see the save the dates for this same couple)

Once again, Porridge Papers did an amazing job with the printing and paper. Thank you for making my designs look so good!

HIL-LAIR-E-US

Now that I am a new, proud, owner of a MacBook Pro I am just a tad obsessed with all the lovely accessories.

Check out these decals that I found on etsy. Frickin’ hilarious!

From the Lil Decal Shoppe on Etsy

And I am a HUGE Lost fan/dork, so I love this one quite a bit!

Hmmmmmm....which shall I get?

Real Weddings #1: Lisa & Jim

A few weeks ago I introduced you to my good friends Lisa & Jim. (Click here to view their story save the date.) I am happy to say that they are now officially Mr. & Mrs!

The wedding was an absolute blast and I couldn't wait to share all the little details! When Lisa and Jim started planning, I of course volunteered all my own creative talents, from the invites to the event design. Basically Lisa wanted Pink and Sparkly, so we came up with an eggplant, silver and PINK color scheme accented with crystals, rhinestones and feathers!

The Invitation

(Photos of Invites by Colleen Dustin Photography)

The Ceremony

The Program

The Guest Book

Silver cards with notes to the happy couple posted on a bulletin board covered with glittery pink and silver paper.

The Cake

From Graham's Goodies - the best wedding cake I ever tasted in my ENTIRE life.

The Cake Topper

from The Small Object

Brooch Bouquet for the Bride

This was a great fun to gather brooches, add stems to them and then see the final product once the talented floral designers with Florals etcetera were done with it.

Jim and Lisa

in their get-away car

More AMAZING vendors not mentioned above:

Chair & Linen Rental: AAA Rents & Event Services

Wedding Photographer: Janine McClintock Studios - If I can I will try to get some professional shots and post them ASAP.

Location: Paxton Ballroom Omaha

Calling Cards, oh the Decorum of it all…

The other day I got to talking with my mom about Victorian calling cards. -She is taking some antique classes at the local historical society, so the topic really did come up in everyday conversation.- She basically told me about the etiquette and use of the calling card during the 19th century, so that got me thinking:

"If it worked in the 1800s why not modern times!"

In the 19th century, ladies of leisure would circulate amongst their social circle and if they ever expected to be received at a home of a friend, acquaintance or even an enemy, then she must present a calling card stating her name.

This was essentially a way for the lady of the house to screen her ‘calls’. She could either choose to receive her guest or “not be at home.” -Total slap in the face if you ask me-

Now that we have FANCY technology such as cell phones with caller ID, texting and email, there is so little need for such formalities of returning a social ‘call’ in person. In fact that would be considered rude to just show up on a person’s doorstep.

What we do have need for is a way to convey our numerous numbers, emails, blog links, facebook, etc.

Here are two quick designs I came up with today: both could work for male or female, depending on the colors used, and the one on the right is a kids design.



I love the idea of children walking around with their own business cards/calling cards! Just imagine a little boy walking up to you, shaking your hand and saying:

“Nice to meet you, my name is Owen, I’m 5 years old and here’s my card!”

Ha! I LOVE IT! And what a cute little gift to give your son/daughter, nephew/niece, god child…or little friend of the family.