Desert Hippie Wedding Suite

 

One thing you should know about me is I have a severe one track mind. I get going on an idea and I am consumed! For the past month I have thrown myself into designing my sister's baby shower, hence my month long absence.

And we're not just talking about making the invitations here. Oh no, the whole shebang. From the dessert table to decorations to table centerpieces, I've been all over the place making my ideas come to life. Mind you, I still have over two months until the shower but I'm ambitious like that and just wanted to fill you in a bit.

Anyways, when I ordered the paper for my sister's invites (I will be sharing the finished product soon!) I also got this gorgeous sort of watercolor painting paper for a new wedding suite I had it mind. I wanted something kind of hippie looking.

I'm obsessed with the colors. They remind me of a desert sunset. I added some coral bakers twine for a pop against the kraft and there you have it! What do you think?

Bohemian Wedding Suite

One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is oogle paper, obviously. While I prefer to see it in person so I can touch it and stare at it, I've recently started perusing the internet for new patterns and designs. The worst is when I find those little 6X6 pads (which clearly isn't big enough to make a 5X7 invite) and I fall in love with some of the samples and have to wait to order a full sheet on the internet. Now that's a serious real world problem.

I guess the point of my little story here is even though I'm a paper connoisseur, I always go back to some familiar patterns and this suite is a perfect example. I've been getting this paper at Michael's for almost 2 years now and I'm obsessed with the pattern. It's very bohemian but subtle with the colors. I made some bridal shower invitations using this paper and I'm sure this is not the last you will see of it.

If it gets discontinued I will cry. For a few days. Then something else will catch my eye and be added to the favorites rotation ;)

Paper Bag Invitation Suite

Well, what do you know? Another paper bag design! I really wish you could touch and feel this invitation because it's so nice and fluffy, for lack of a better word. The crumpled bag border adds the perfect dimension and isn't this paper great? It reminds me of the 70s for some reason. It's funky and has such a great color scheme: coral, purple, teal and brown.

I have another suite to come later this week that includes a new take on a familiar paper so stay tuned!

Artsy Wedding Suite with Sketched Hearts

If you follow me on Twitter (which you should, because I share some some pretty great pictures of my doxie on there), I gave you a sneak peek at this particular suite. I wanted to marry my love for colored pencil sketches and unique paper and this design does just that!

I literally just free-handed the hearts and arrow and it's exactly the look I was going for....artsy and funky. I didn't want it looking computer generated. The paper is so vibrant on its own, I wanted to keep the graphic and wording paper nice and neutral. This would be the perfect suite for a woodsy wedding with lots of natural elements or a downtown loft ceremony with a really industrial theme!

Gray and White Floral Wedding Suite

It's been another gorgeous San Diego weekend that went by WAY TOO FAST! Oh well, I always have fun anticipating the next one and planning some new adventures.

I had some time to work on new wedding suites this weekend and this is the newest one. I know that some people hate square invitations because you do have to pay extra to mail them but when I get ideas in my head, there's no stopping me and this paper just called for a square design.

The gray and white pattern reminds me of a chalkboard look which is so popular right now. It's definitely a versatile design that can be made more formal by trading the kraft paper backing for something white, and nixing the burlap tie. I played around with some gray font colors but ultimately came back to my one true love...brown. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I'll be posting some more suites this week! 

Vintage Floral Suite with a Hint of Hot Pink

I hope everyone had an amazing Valentine's Day! It's pretty much my favorite day ever. A whole day devoted to love?! How great is that?

Anyways, I thought today would be the perfect day to debut a new suite because the hot pink twine is so Valentine-esque. Always staying true to my rustic/vintage obsession, I knew when I saw this floral paper I had to have it and then I saw the twine and whoa, my vision just came together. Now I just need some of these pink envelopes and we are set!

Vintage Pink Wedding Suite with Burlap Wrap

I'm going to say it...I think this is my new favorite. All you crazy crafters know that a lot of scrapbook paper is double sided. I never really paid much attention to that fact but now I absolutely will because this gorgeous, vintage pink paper is the "back" to the paper from another suite! This one to be exact. 

Anyways, this suite would be perfect for an outdoors woodsy wedding, a rustic winery event or my personal favorite, a park wedding! Speaking of park weddings, have you seen this post on Green Wedding Shoes?? I used to live right around the block from this great little park and I think this was such a great idea! Simple, gorgeous and outdoors in the sunshine. 

Antique Yellow and Brown Wedding Suite

I know I say this about every design, but this one is my favorite. For this week, at least. I love the combination of yellow and brown. I think it's so perfect for any season and if you zoom in on the picture, you'll see the yellow paper has a gorgeous white floral/lace pattern. It's very vintage. 

I added a crumpled paper bag as a border for the wording paper to add some dimension and soften up the transition of the layers. 

Now, on to making my next favorite... 

Romantic Whimsical Wedding Invites

A couple of weekends ago I stocked up on a whole bunch of fun paper! Thanks to the wonderful bf's Christmas gift, I was like a kid in the candy store, but in a paper store...

Anyways, I went to one of my favorite paper stores here in San Diego Paper Tales and just went crazy. This particular paper really jumped out at me because I love this teal color. I also really like the whimsical print in the background so I knew it would be perfect for the design I had in mind. 

I made the font a little fancy and romantic to compliment the vintage ribbon, but played up the whimsy side with burlap and brown hues. I'm loving it. It's going up on the wall. Pictures of "the wall" to come soon. I'm pretty proud of it. 

Vintage Black and Pink Doily Invitations

This is a crazy exciting weekend because one of my best friends is getting married!! The bf and I are headed up to LA for all the festivities but before we go I wanted to leave you with something pretty to look at while I'm gone. 

I get on these kicks and lately it's been baker's twine so I wanted to share another invitation suite I made. I love the contrast between the black and pink. I'm usually not a big fan of using black on my designs...I'm really more of a brown, earth tone person, but I think this one turned out great. When I first looked at this paper I thought it had sand dollar designs all over it but they're more like doilies. Whatever they are, I'm a fan. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Baker's Square Wedding Invitations

I'm so excited to share with you some invitation designs I've been working on! For the past couple of months I have been busy with specific designs for upcoming weddings, however, these are really just some back-to-basics invitations using some fabulous paper I found. No frills, just handmade work that lets the paper do the talking. 

This specific paper is from My Mind's Eye (part of their Indie Chic collection). I really like it because it looks worn and you know I'm all about that look :)

More to come soon! 

Sketched Wedding Invitations

I'm so excited to share with you a new line of wedding invitations I've been working on! A couple of weeks ago I posted a stationery set of chevron cards I made in my Etsy shop. I've been getting such positive feedback from them I wanted to explore that side of design and come up with some invitations that were hand drawn as well. 

While most of my other invite suites are heavy on cutting and assembling unique and beautiful paper, these are more focused on a funky, artsy theme where the drawings and patterns stand out, not the paper. I used color pencils and paint pens because I LOVE the look of colored pencil more than any other tool. It can be soft or vibrant but never harsh. 

I'm so excited to add to this collection! Stay tuned because I'll be posting some other colored pencil projects I've been working on later this week!  

Brittany + Joe

I bet you guys thought I got buried alive by all my paper, huh?! Wow, it's been over a month since I posted but I have a verrrrry good excuse! I have been working on a very special project for an incredibly special friend. 

A while back I showed you the three options for Joe and Brittany's wedding invites. Well, here's the final product! They ended up going with the fringe cut coral and metallic invites with a green skyline. Remember my skyline sketch? Yeah, don't. Doesn't this one look amazing though?! 

I seriously can't wait for her wedding because I know it's going to be full of personal detail and of course, great company. 

Congratulations Joe and Brittany!

Metallic Fringe Wedding

Good morning! More importantly, HAPPY WEEKEND! I am up eaaaaaarly ready to get these two days started but first, lets get back to business and see Brittany's 3rd wedding invite design.

This concept was the very first thing that popped into my head when I started designing. Don't ask me why...it just happens! So, I have these fringe scissors, which are seriously the greatest things ever. You should go out and get a pair even if you have no desire to fringe anything. Trust me, you won't be able to stop. 

As you can see, I have two layers of paper (4 if you count the backing and wording) and I chose a gold glitter and a coral/salmon color. Remember I told you about her color scheme? Lots of bright colors, metallics, etc. I used my fringe scissors to fringe up the sides of the paper and then I just layered them on top of one another. Looks sooooooo cool in real life. And who can forget the "probably not drawn to scale, is that even the LA skyline?!" sketch at the bottom :) All in all, there are quite a few steps to this design but it's relatively easy to assemble, and looks pretty amazing in the end! What do you think??

**I'm also going to let you in on a little hint. I had originally planned to do this with tissue paper because I think fringed tissue paper looks awesome BUT one bump to the paper and it's totally bent :( Tissue paper is really fragile and while it looks good sittin' pretty on a desk, it would never hold up in the mail. I haven't given up on it, I just think sturdy paper is much better for this project, and it still looks good!

Cupcake Wrapper Wedding

It's time for day 2 of Brittany's wedding invitation choices! When we had one of our mini consultations, she referenced the tone of her invites as a "sophisticated child's party." How great is that? Told you she was creative...

Well, I kind of ran with that theme and as you know, I love me some cupcake wrappers. I found these at Michael's and they have a really cool, colorful design on them. In order to make them lie flat, I cut them to the center and it created a really cool fan look. (To see some birthday cards I made using this same technique, visit my Etsy shop!)

I originally wanted to have the cupcake fan in the center of the invite with the wording over the top but it wasn't cooperating with my vision so I ended up making it peek out of the corner. I love it! I added a burlap tie and there you have it! Another way to play this up and make it even more creative is to print the wording on colorful paper like a yellow or teal. I kept mine more neutral because I really wanted the colors in the wrapper to stand out but it's fun to play around with.

This design would be PERFECT for a picnic wedding, birthday party, baby shower...really anything! Since there are SO many options for cupcake wrapper designs, this is really one of those ideas that you could take anywhere. 

Hey there everyone! Another beautiful weekend down :( but I have some great new wedding invitations to share with you so :) for that!!

One of my greatest friends, Brittany, is getting married next year and I cannot WAIT for her wedding. Her style is so unique and she is soooooo creative so I know it's going to be an amazing night. I feel like I have a lot to live up to designing her wedding invitations but I'm feeling good about them so far! 

I made three designs for her to look through and get her juices flowing. You'll see that all of them have a common theme...the Los Angeles skyline. She wanted to incorporate that into her invites and since I'm not an artist, just a paper fanatic, I quickly sketched the skyline onto the invites. With that said, if you are from LA, don't knock my drawing! It's simply there for ideas sake and I will not be responsible for producing the final sketch...thank goodness ;)

This invite is super simple. The top 3/4 is just some cool paper I got at World Market, and the bottom is a crumpled paper bag. Most brides that come to me have no idea what they want until they see it, so I try to come up with a little of everything. Brittany's colors are really bright...teal, coral, metallics and golds...and she's also incorporating a lot of vintage aspects into her day like old glass bottles so I thought this invite encompassed a lot of those themes. 

So, there's option one! I'll be sharing with you the other two designs I came up with and then tell you which one she picked! 

I'm back! I'm feeling refreshed, invigorated and ready for some new card designs! I know I promised wedding invitations in my last post but I had to share this wedding card first. I made it for the wedding I went to in North Carolina last week and little did I know the theme was very rustic and included antique flowers, mason jars and burlap. PERFECT! My card fit right in...

I wanted to try something new so I attempted to wrap the braided burlap around the peach paper in a nice little border but that turned into a disaster. It was looking a little haphazard so I will need to go through a few more practice runs before I feel confident with that look :)  

Overall, I love how this card turned out and I will definitely be making a set to add to my Etsy shop. Weddings always sneak up on people so they're a great card to have on hand!

Elizabeth + Craig

If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be making one of my best friend's wedding invitations, I would have said you were craaaaaazy! But here we are...just a couple years shy of that first milestone reunion and my BFF is getting married!!! 

So for the past couple of months I have been using her and her finace's names to create all of my mock ups for brides to get their ideas flowing when they have their initial invite consultation. Well, these are the REAL deal...the winner if you will. Like I told you a couple of posts ago, she basically told me what elements she wanted to use and I made a couple of designs for her to choose from and this was the culmination of all that creativity! 

This invitation suite is very soft with the cotton ribbon and pale pink paper and the burlap tie and braid adds that rustic element to it. Overall, I'm obsessed with them and can't wait to deliver these beauties to her!

Congratulations Elizabeth and Craig!!! Counting down the days until September 1st!

Rustic Chic Wedding

I happened to stumble upon this great company called Simply Natural Event Planning and I've been drooling over their pictures all weekend! They have executed so many beautiful events and I definitely recommend checking out their site. Even if you're not planing a wedding, the pictures are to die for and I even got some ideas for decorating my house!

"Rustic Chic" has become a hugely popular theme with today's weddings. Most of my wedding suite collection fits into this category since I love using earth tones and burlap so I hope this trend sticks around for a while! I got the idea for this specific suite when I saw a table setting featuring a burlap runner with a gorgeous floral fabric runner on top of it. It was a super long table and they had added antique candles and flowers positioned down the center. It was the runners that I couldn't take my eyes off of and I thought "that would be perfect for an invite!"

For mine I just used checkered brown ribbon that I already had, but there are so many options for this design. You could use the actual fabric from your runners or just find really great ribbon that compliments your color theme. Burlap comes in all different colors as well so it would be fun to experiment with red or black or whatever your colors are! For the RSVP card I just made a burlap bow but you could always use fabric if you decide to go that route. As always, so many ways to customize this design and I think it's perfectly simple for that "Rustic Chic" wedding. :)    

Victorian Country Wedding

I want to send you off on this beautiful Memorial Day weekend with another wedding invitation set!

When my best friend and I sat down for her invite consultation she simply flipped through my designs and said "I like this, and this and this" and essentially built her dream card using elements of every invite. Wow, who's the designer here?! 

I took all of her ideas and made some mock ups and this was one of them! She didn't end up picking this design but it's definitely still worthy of a post. :)