You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘INVITATIONS’ category.
Back in June, I mentioned flowers I arranged with a friend for a baby shower we hosted — the shower came and went, the baby is almost a month old, and I never shared the invitations. But they were too fun to leave off altogether, so here they are, finally.
Our initial plan was just to order something from a stationery store – keep it easy – but turns out any options we liked required way more lead time than we had and cost more than we imagined. Those that seemed reasonable were way too far in the rubber ducky camp — which didn’t quite fit with our vision.
Nothing wrong with a baby-themed baby shower, but since it was co-ed and none of us hosting are terribly into pastels, the pirate look seemed much more fun!
We bought the materials at Paper Source – and then did the rest ourselves. We designed the basic look, which we simply printed on cardstock with my home printer. Katy & Catie then took turns embossing the red pirate & heart, mounting the pieces and cutting the red lining for the envelopes, while I did the addressing. I love embossing a little something when everything else is done on a home printer — the texture makes everything seem much more luxe.
For a little afternoon project, I think they turned out a-okay!
Oh, and we embossed the same little pirate on the placecards…
I recently made these fun invitations for a couples shower for client (and good friend). The evening was not going to be ‘themed’ but just good food, good drinks and good fun, and we wanted to start that PARTY feeling with the invite. These hand-cut streamers exude excitement & a good time to come — they are a bit reminiscent of confetti, but without all the mess.
I think it is important to set the tone with the invitation, and a killer invite makes people really want to attend the party. I tend to notice a higher attendance rate when the invitations are particularly fun or different, so keep that in mind for your next soiree.
From what I heard, these were a big hit!
Want help with invitations, menus, ideas and the like for an upcoming event, shoot me an email and we’ll see what we can do! :)
So let’s just call it what it is – I was way late in getting our Christmas cards out this year. But they did make it before the 25th and didn’t have to be swapped for New Year’s cards, so I guess that counts for something.
But now they should safely be in everyone’s mailboxes, so I figured I could post a pic of them here.
Pretty snazzy if I do say so myself.
I used a picture snapped by the talented Katie Murphy from our NY ‘photo shoot‘ – which I ordered from photoworks.com. They are my fave! It is one of the few places I can still find 3½ x 5″ pics – which I really like for a lot of projects. And definitely the only place at that price (something like 9¢ a photo).
As for the rest of the cards, I used 5 x 7 notecards from Paper Source in gravel, heavy-duty card stock, my own little Lexmark printer and some ribbon from the floral supply store. The red and chartreuse really are fun!
Generally I like to add a little note to each card – or at least the recipient’s name and a ♥ - but it looked a bit junky on this guy. I am marking the hand-tied bows as my ‘personal touch.’
I know it is a bit late for these to be your own holiday cards, but I think that would be super fun for a child’s birthday or other ‘fun‘ soirée. There is something particularly about the added texture that I really love.
Hope you are enjoying this time – where friends and loved one’s pictures and notes pop up in your mailbox daily – you should see me when the mailman comes, it is embarrassing!!
xx
With a recent swing of summer weddings (congrats Mr. & Mrs. L and Mr. & Mrs. S) and our one year anniversary quickly approaching, I have had a bit of wedding brain lately. And since I never really shared too many details from our own nuptials here, I figured nows as good a time as any. So if you don’t mind indulging me…
(Yell uncle if you don’t want these posts to continue – I figured I scatter a few here and there in the coming month(s)).
Since most parties and events start with the invitation, and with my recent blurb about ours, I figured all the printed goodies may be the best place to start.
As I mentioned before, my mom has really great handwriting – her basic check-writing penmanship is the stuff that people pay oodles for, so I knew we wanted to use that as the base of invites. Something about the having same handwriting on school-lunch-napkin-notes and our wedding invitations that I thought was pretty rad.
It is amazing what a calligraphy pen can do to jazz up your standard penmanship. In elementary school, I remember trying to learn calligraphy with tracing paper, dated letters and a squared-off felt tip pen. No surprise the results weren’t pretty.
I’ve always liked calligraphy, and simply cool handwriting, partly because my mom has mastered both. In fact, I like her handwriting so much that all our wedding invitations and stationery were engraved and printed from her writing. But since my school-time trials, I haven’t done much to improve my own writing. Unless you count writing my name and those of every person I knew in class when I should’ve been taking notes. Because I have names down pat.
So as I was making invitations for an upcoming birthday weekend for Billy and a friend, I decided to give calligraphy another go. But not with the felt-tip version of my youth, but with actual nibs and ink and dipping and the whole lot. While my first attempts were hardly Jenna Hein worthy, I think they look more than okay for a boy’s b-day weekend at the lake. Plus, who can resist the white ink on dark envelopes … you know magic is inside!
The best part about it all is it is super easy to try. You can get started for under $10 – a standard black ink, a few nibs and pen holder and you are all set. For a bit (but not much) more, you can get a set or kit that has everything prepackaged and includes basic lettering styles. Once you get the hang of it, then add inks and more nibs to fit different styles and occasions. And maybe at some point I’ll even move past just prettying-up my standard handwriting using fancy supplies to actual calligraphy.
But regardless, I think this might help my letter writing and sending. The thought of putting such pretty things in the mail regularly gets my heart beating a bit faster. And yes, I know that means I need help – but we already knew that.
