grab your sombrero rehearsal dinner invites

we're rounding out the designs for baby sister's wedding. debuting the rehearsal dinner invites before the big invite reveal (of which i still need to photograph).

we tied in all the colors and fonts of the other designs, and added in the next element - kraft paper.

i always say, a fiesta is a perfect time to break out the sewing machine. ok, i don't always say that, but it is. especially when you want the invites to look like they have fun mexican flavored banners along the top.

how 'bout we get a little close-up of my perfect sewing lines? perfectly imperfect. just like me!

no design is complete without a matching envelope. you knew that already, right?

hosting a party soon? rehearsal dinner? wedding? let's have a little chat. i've got just the thing!

west seattle summerfest 2012

yo, yo, yo, i'm at it again. come enjoy the 80+ weather with a stroll around the west seattle summerfest, and while you're at it, stop by the art dive and say hello to li'l ol' me. maybe pick up some gifties for the besty, mama, or to restock the gift closet (do you have one, too?!)

k, see ya there!

can you guess?

just for you, my 3 readers, here's a little sneak peek at a design i'm working on. have any ideas what it might be? care to venture a guess?

good luck!

a onesie, and a ...

pretty much all my designs so far this year have been for baby showers. and, most of those orders included much more than just invitations (hello, custom!). this order was no exception.

you may remember the invites:

while brainstorming designs, we both fell in love with a onesie idea. after we found the perfect paper to create the onesies, we started with stripes in the nursery color (sage green) for a classic design. then i topped it with just one(sie), giving the illusion it was drying on the line. 

these turned out sweet-as-can-be, and can you imagine what fun opening the mail was that day?!

to carry on the theme, we created menu table cards.

and strung up a welcome banner of the sweetest onesies tied together, which can be used in baby's nursery later.

doesn't it look like a fun celebration?! and, that view?! wow - talk about a great backdrop!

any baby welcoming goin' on in your neck of the woods? let's chat!

some assembly required

more like 'all assembly required'! 

this is what's goin' on around here right now as i gather all the items for baby sister's bridesmaid cards. oh! if you think you're on the list, stop reading now! good thing middle sissy gave up the interwebs for lent.

last time we chatted, we were thinking of one of these ideas. 

well, after wasting time doing research on pinterest, the design has morphed into something that will resemble this.

cute little envelopes for sweet sentiments and such. yummy washi tape to hold everything together. stickers, ribbon, punches, paint swatches, doilies.

the workshop's been abuzz. i've been printing, cutting, scoring, folding, gluing, taping, stringing, punching. no surface is safe. and, i'm just about done puttin' it all together to ship off to baby sister, so i get at least a little element of surprise! ha!

here's the most amazing thing: i only had to buy the doilies to make those (in the words of sweet p) so, so tiny envelopes. and, i got them at the $ store! can you believe? i had everthin' else floatin' around in the workshop. ok, maybe it's not that unbelievable, but i was pretty amazed i found so much cute stuff in baby sister's colors. (um, do you see that true love ribbon? adorbs!)

once baby sister puts them all together, i'll be back with a look at the finished product. i kept a few pieces secret, so y'all didn't see it all.

my stipulation for making these was that baby sister had to assemble them herself. i hope she bought the big jug of sangria - she's gonna need it!

poppin' the question

now that baby sister's "said yes", it's time for her to do some question poppin' of her own. to her little maids all in a row, of course. she's chompin' at the bit for me to create some kind of "will you be my bridesmaid?" thing, so i put together a leetle mood board for her to check out.

after lookin' around a little herself, she decided she likes top left corner's style. i personally love the cutey-cute paper dolls, but a friend of hers just did that.

what i can't figure out is why she didn't want to recreate the works of art i sent out 8+ years ago. i had to fancy up the peechure to make myself feel better. man, my design style has come a long way! that font! i maybe mighta gone thru a ma-hajor scrapbooking phase back in the day. if you're nice, maybe one day i'll show you my invites. 

how did you pop the question? was it super cute-c (inside joke)? do tell! i promise i won't laugh (see image above).

WHAM! BAM! POW!

sometimes when i get an order, i'll get a few hours into the design, wipe my brow, and think 'what did i get myself into?' this design is one of those times. but, i wasn't going to let it be my kryptonite, and dare i say...it might be one of the cutest designs i've churned out of headquarters the workshop. (that's a little horn tootin' for those of you keeping track).

superhero birthdays demand comic book style invites, right down to the pictures. well, for that, i needed to do some learnin' ... to the batcave interwebs. 

and, POW! the pictures went

and shazam, the final invite looked like this

it's got the comic book feel, right? zinger words, lightning bolts, stars, fun fonts. can you find their blaster cuffs in the invite?

could this possibly be one of THE most custom design you've ever seen? well, don't go calling me wonder woman just yet.

Around the World

lately i've been doing more kiddo birthday invites, and i tell ya - the 'rents are gettin' creative. this little munchkin has been quite the traveller, and mama wanted to use that as the focus for the invites and the party.

so, the invites were designed with an airmail slash train/air ticket slash travel feel, and was topped off with a pic of the birthday boy in paris.

for the party, they carried on the travel theme with a paper airplane making contest and these cute passports. mom asked me to design a little passport for the party guests to fill out. they went 'around the world', filling their passports with stamps from the birthday boy's travels. tout cute!

and, of course, no birthday would be complete without a birthday banner (made round, like the world!)

isn't that such a fun birthday party idea? and, what a lucky boy to be such a world traveller!

do you have a birthday to celebrate? let's whip up some goods for you!

Simple & Classic Razzle Dazzle

You might not believe this, but I designed these.

I know, I know, no bright colors, no crazy font, no urban/gritty background. Well, I'll have you know, I can do simple and classic. Hey, stop snickering. It's true. I know when I leave the house, I'm supposed to take off one accessory. Really, I do. Tangent...

The couple held a very small wedding ceremony over Thanksgiving and wanted a classic, art deco feel, so for the wedding, we mixed it up with paper texture (gold flecks, too) and a variety of envelopes (cream, kraft paper, silver). Personality was infused with a custom name design (seen on the rsvp, program, thank you notes).

The Invitation:

RSVP:

Guest info card (this did triple duty as a Direction card, Rehearsal Dinner invitation, and Reception Save the Date):

We also designed a Wedding Program:

And, Thank You note cards with the yummiest lined envelopes. Notice how the liner paper mimics the scroll work on the invite components.

After seeing this post, the bride needed her own custom hair flower. We used material from her wedding dress; matched the jewel to her fabulous earrings; And, added a feather for some Art Deco spunk.

In addition to the small ceremony, the couple is celebrating with friends and family this weekend in an amazing Art Deco building. They asked that their colors for this event (black, cream, purple) be incorporated into these invitations. We tied the two invitation suites together - can you tell how?

Congrats on the wedding, Carley and Brandon. I hope the party this weekend is full of razzle and dazzle!!

Husband of the Year

Today's Mr Man's birthday, so I thought I'd wish him happy thoughts here. This will be the 14th time we've celebrated this momentous occasion, and I have to say, he's had some pretty stellar celebrations.

Since his birthday is so close to Halloween, we sometimes have a costume party (are you noticing a theme here?)

Then, for his 30th birthday, I "surprised" him with a trip to see his favorite college team - Notre Dame - play. That trip has created a tradition, and though it isn't always on his birthday, this year, it happens to be.

So, in a few days, we're off to Tallahassee and Auburn, where they eat, sleep and breathe football. Mr Man will celebrate for a week (or longer) with stadium tours, halls of fame, and all the BBQ he can eat. 

But, no complaining here - it's his birthday, remember? And, Lord knows, he's put up with my silly requests all these years. And, he always works in somewhere for me to lay in the sunshine (like Hilton Head, down below); I've seen parts of the country I never would have; and sometimes we meet new friends, or re-connect with old friends.

We've had a running joke lately that I should win 'Wife of the Year' (I might be the only one who thinks that), because I attend all these football games. In the rain. Next to drunkards. Watching teams I have NO idea about.

But, truly, if you knew all the things Mr Man does for me, and puts up with (I'll save you the details. Ahem.), you'd see he is definitely deserved of 'Husband of the Year'.

Happy Birthday, Mr Man. I love you to the moon and back.

Bilingual Invitations

A while back, a bride-to-be sent me a message wondering about a double-sided invitation with graphic floral patterns that could have the invitation in English on one side, and in Vietnamese on the other.

I said, of course, of course; set about searching for fonts containing the Vietnamese alphabet that were pretty enough for a wedding invitation, and created a graphic peony in the wedding colors of red, black & white.

I have to say, these invitations turned out beautifully. The colors were amazingly rich, and we chose a bright white linen paper that made the colors pop off the page.

English/Vietnamese invitation

RSVP

Vietnamese/English Ceremony Invitation

Close up of the paper texture. (Believe me, this image does not do it justice!)

All wrapped up and ready to go.

Congratulations to Khue-Nhi and Shane. I hope their day was lovely!

A Work of Art

Remember this post?

Well, I'm back to show you the goods. Now, when I met with this bride, we discussed a garden theme, using greens & purples to convey the casual feeling they were planning for their winery wedding. And, I got to working.

Fast forward a few weeks, and the bride decided she wanted her invitations to feel a little more personal. And, since her mother's an artist, and just happened to have a painting of said winery, why not use the art to announce the wedding?

I think it was a fantastic decision - these invitations might be some of the yummiest I've done in a while. 

The hand torn edges...

the textured paper (swoon. suhwooooon. i.love.this.paper.)...

the depth of colors in the artwork...

the finished package, all wrapped up ready to go...

Best wishes to Michelle & Bill - they're set to tie the knot in just a few short weeks.

The Babies Are One

So, about this time last year, I had, oh, about 6 or 7 friends, family, and bunko buddies birth their first babies. It was the 2009 baby boom.

Well, fast forward a year, and guess what? . . . They're all turning ONE! Their first birthday! Just one more first of many. So exciting! So fun! And, you know what first birthdays mean? Cute first birthday invitations.

Here are a few that have gone out recently. Funny thing is, I'm always complaining about there being no girls, but look at all these girls. (Don't you just want to gobble them up?!)

I'll start with the cutest (ok, I'm a little biased because she's my niece, ok? ok?). Mom wanted cupcakes, so she got cupcakes. If you knew about her sweet tooth, this would totally make sense.

Now, how adorable is this? Mom wanted cowgirls. She's giving the girls tutus & the boys cowboy hats as favors, and her only request was pink/black. PS, I love tutus; if it were ok for adults to wear them (not like Ace Ventura), I would totally rock one all the time.

For Charlotte, owls were the theme, so we pulled from the plates and napkins. Whooo's cute?!

See all those girls? What am I complaining about? Well, for good measure, here are a few boys.

Mom asked for teals, reds, oranges, and greens, so we came up with this cute polka dot design. But, you probably aren't even looking at the design, because Rylan is so darn scrumptious!

And, how's this for creative? Instead of sending a baby announcement when Cooper was born, mom &a dad decided to send a "One Year" announcement. Dad whipped up the sweetest poem about Cooper's life for the back of the card, and I think it turned out so well. You want to read the back of the card, don't you? Too bad!

Now, you don't have to be turning one to have a birthday. So, if you're looking for invitations, I'm your gal. Talk to you soon!