I’m still editing pics of Em’s first birthday party. I hope to have them finished very soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d share this pretty stationery I designed + printed for a dear friend.
letterpress
em’s first birthday invites
I’m so excited to finally share with you the invitations we designed, letterpress printed + mailed out for our daughter’s first birthday party! After a bit of brainstorming, Kacey and I decided to make Em’s party a celebration of her firsts. The first time she giggled. Her first word. The first time she sat up. First time she crawled. Her first food. First steps.
I wanted her invitation to be interesting plus a little keepsake for each recipient. So, I designed multiple parts. The largest card is a certificate. The smaller pink card is her party invitation. We included a picture of the birthday girl, put it inside a glassine envelope and bound all the parts together with pretty metallic + cotton twine.
Below is a closeup of the certificate. This was a three color print job. A dark pink, a light pink and gold for the text. It was stamped, well letterpress printed really, with “First Year Certified.” Lots of her milestones and the dates for each were listed.
I turned Em’s first foot + hand prints into graphics so that we could letterpress print them in a pale pink ink on each card. Fun fact? They are printed in the actual size of her first foot + hand prints.
Each envelope was adorned with pretty pink and cream vintage stamps + an envelope wrap. Since we only needed to print a small number of invitations, we letterpress printed each envelope wrap with our return address plus the address of the recipient.
A closeup of the parts all grouped together inside the envelope.
I love how her invitations turned out. They’re exactly as I pictured them in my head. And, I love the idea of the certificate so much that I’m going to be designing + letterpress printing similar first year certificates to sell in our little shop soon!
sneak peek // em’s invite
So sorry I haven’t been blogging as much these last few days. Between work in the studio, Kacey’s new 12 hour work days, watching Em [we're going to have a nanny soon, yay!], being out of town every weekend and planning Em’s first birthday party, well I’m just flat out busy! I have a lot of great things to blog about, though. I promise. Like these invitations. They are for Em’s party. I’m looking forward to showing you the whole invite suite soon. Very soon!
shop update // gender announcements
Remember those gender announcements we printed for Lauren back in November? Well, after receiving several inquiries about them, we decided to contact Lauren to see if it would be alright if we sold them in our shop. She loved the idea! So, we printed a new batch in a lovely golden metallic + added them to our little shop. You can find them here. Enjoy!
recent work // less than perfect
Business cards we recently designed + printed for a family friend, Jim. Jim works with individuals with mental health challenges to create beautiful handmade cedar Adirondack chairs. During the process, he teaches them skills that can lead to independence. The chairs are then sold at a local farmer’s market with the proceeds going to the mental health individuals.
The work they do is pretty incredible. I chatted with him and what struck me was what he said he gets in return. He said, “In the process, they teach me the skills of risk management, tolerance for individual differences and appreciation for the fact that people with long time mental health challenges can create beauty.” It sounds therapeutic all the way around!
For the card design, I bumped up the size of the type and adjusted the spacing to increase its readability. We printed the cards in a rich, custom brown metallic ink. My favorite part is the custom chair illustration. I’m quite pleased with how nicely the small lines held up.
Thanks for the opportunity to work on these cards with you, Jim!
bunnies
I noticed some tracks when it snowed Friday. The tracks weren’t from our little pooch. The bunnies had returned!
Bunny tracks:
Doggie tracks:
Our neighborhood has little wild bunnies. I noticed them last spring when we moved in but they disappeared during the winter. Thursday night when it was snowing, I peeked outside and noticed two bunnies hopping around in the snow in our backyard.
Also in other bunny news, we added this sweet card to our shop. Enjoy!
you are loved // a closer look
I wanted to highlight this frameable heart print from our Valentine Collection. It is the first ever art print we’ve offered in our shop, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. Each is a limited edition as only 25 were printed. On the back, every print is signed and numbered.
It’s a small print at only 4.75″ x 4.75″ but it’s full of sweetness! It fits nicely in the 9″ square RIBBA frame from Ikea.
The print itself is a two color job. Two soft pink ink colors were used, so each print went through the printing process twice by hand. “You are loved” is featured on each print and I think it’s a great message – either for gifting or as a self-affirmation.
2011 valentine collection
We just updated the shop with Valentine goodies. Enjoy!