Big News! and Hand-Lettered Baby Announcements...

What do these beautiful baby announcements have to do with my life? For starters, they are absolutely gorgeous, and you know how much I love stunning hand-lettering. And...

Wait for it...

Baby Bolton is expected to make his/her appearance towards the end of March!!! Reid and I are beyond thrilled to welcome this new addition into our life. Let's just say the first few months of pregnancy have been nuts. But we are trying to soak it all up (good and bad) and enjoy the experience before our little one arrives. Needless to say, I had to put the blog on the back burner during the first trimester :) But my energy is back, and so is the blog.

So, is it bad that I am already dreaming of what our announcements will look like? The three below focus on custom typography and have simple, elegant features that look and feel as precious as the babies they were designed for. Hope you enjoy!

A beautiful hand-lettered, letterpress baby announcement by the amazing Jessica Hische.

I adore the saying here as well as the lettering done by Greg Christman for the birth of his son.

The whimsical lettering and color palette in this announcement designed by Moglea is so playful and perfect for a new born little boy.

Free Fall Printables: Chena Design for World Label

from worldlable.com

Towards the end of summer, World Label contacted me about designing a few free printables to showcase their adhesive labels on their blog. With my crazy schedule lately, it took a bit longer than desired to get the first batch designed and finessed for them, but I wanted to share the final product with each of you!

The Harvest Collection (which can be downloaded here) came to mind after walking around on the first crisp fall day craving a cup of hot apple cider – yum! I mentally started brainstorming ideas, and as soon as I got home began working on the simple, graphic and playful patterns. I am really drawn to the autumn color palette because it blends the expected with a bit of modern flare. There are five different printables in the series and each can be customized to fit your needs. This is my first attempt at a free printable, but I might be hooked. I hope you enjoy!

a WAY overdue post: Ashley and Garret's Bright Wedding Suite

After a "way to long" hiatus from blogging, I'm back! I promise. I don't have a good or valid excuse for my slacking other than this summer was BUSY, BUSY, BUSY with both work and some personal stuff (which I will get into in another post). I have been working non-stop for the last two months, and am very excited to share new work with you in the next few weeks.

Ashley and Garret's bright wedding suite is a perfect way to bring summer to a close and jump back into posting regularly.

I had such a wonderful time working with Ashley throughout her wedding design process. She came to me after a not-so-great experience with her Save the Dates (which always makes me so sad). Ashley envisioned a classic letterpress invitation with a LOT of bright colors. She is head-over-heels in love with yellow (a girl after my own heart), and wanted to incorporate as much bright, sunny, summer yellow as possible with out loosing readability. We decided to combine the yellow with a stunning (and also bright) periwinkle blue.

For Ashley and Garret's monogram, we created a classic meets modern lock. It is so original to the couple and matches their fun personality.

Everything is letterpressed on cotton paper with yellow envelopes with a custom label to give a last pop of color and design. In my opinion, getting this invitation in the mail would just lighten up my summer day!  Hope you enjoy and I am so glad to be back!

Close up of the monogram

Two Color Letterpress Invitation

Entire Suite Including the Invitation, Response Card, Accommodation Card and Thank You Stationery

Everything wrapped in a Yellow Belly Band

A Few More Monograms...

Over the past few months, I have started doing a lot of monograms for clients that plan to use the monogram on their own. The request have ranged from brides that are doing a diy wedding and want the monogram to use throughout to grandmothers wanted monograms for their beautiful grandchildren. I love meeting people from all over the country through my monograms. Since the monogram is such a hands-on process, I feel like I really get to know each of my clients; their style, their visions and their crafting abilities. Below are four new monograms that have been lovingly designed over the past couple of months. Hope you enjoy!

Designed for a grandmother who was giving them to her granddaughters (or their moms)

Designed for a bride that wanted a classic monogram with a little extra flair. 

Designed for a Southern bride that wants to use her monogram everywhere! I was also able to work with the lovely mother-of-the-bride on this one.

Catherine and Derek's Military Wedding

Catherine is actually the little sister of my little brother's best friend (long winded way of saying "we grew up together"). I was thrilled when she contacted me about designing her wedding invitations. Catherine's fiance, now husband, returned from his deployment right before the wedding. Needless to say, Catherine wanted to have elements in the invitation that honored Derek's service, but also wanted an elegant, modern and simple invitation. We incorporated the colors of Derek's formal blue uniform (which he would wear at the ceremony) into the invitation by using navy and gold letterpress on a thick cotton paper. The off-center alignment of the invitation gives it a slight contemporary flair, and allows Catherine and Derek's custom monogram to become the hero.

This was the second military wedding I helped design invitations for this summer. I have so much respect for both of the couples I worked with. They have such a strong bond of love, patience and understanding. It is such an honor to be a small part of their wedding. I hope you enjoy.

 

Courtney and Chad's Destination Wedding

Courtney and Chad are a wonderful, fun-loving, energetic couple from Chicago who got married in an elegant and modern ceremony in the "one-and-only" Las Vegas. They wanted their wedding invitations to encompass them as a couple, as well as set the tone for their destination wedding. This suite needed to be elegant and modern enough for their stunning pool-side wedding, but also whimsical and playful to fit the Vegas destination. In the end we printed the custom invitations that included the actual lace from Courtney's dress with gold ink on white gold paper (talk about sparkle). The suite included a response postcard and wrap around labels to pull everything together. Courtney was a blast to work with, and from the few wedding pictures I have seen her wedding was equally amazing! Enjoy!

New Blog Design: On the Purple Couch

Bahia, the owner of On the Purple Couch, came to me awhile ago looking for a website and branding for her new consignment store in the DC area. I was instantly sold on her vision for the store. She wanted to create an experience for everyone that walked through the doors. The Purple Couch represents the state of mind when we are relaxed and content. It is much more than a consignment store. It blends fashion, home and the creative drive that everyone has.

Since I was so excited about the overall concept, it was easy to create a modern, relaxed and feminine look for the store. Bahia and I worked together for a few months perfecting the cohesive branding, design and collateral that included signage, paint, mailings, tags, bags, etc. And, right before the grand opening events, the simple, elegant and functional website (that Tony from Evenpar Solutions developed) was live. I am thrilled to show you the website design for On the Purple Couch. I hope you enjoy.