Stacy and her friend had already designed and printed magnets for the save-the-dates, and she was looking for a card to attach them to that gave her guests some additional information.  This was an interesting challenge, as I had to find a way to coordinate with her existing design and introduce the monogram and color scheme.

We started with the monogram.  I presented her with three different options:

Monogram #1 - the colors look different on screen, but it prints out as a lovely rose pink/beige combination.

Monogram #2 - a little more sleek and modern

Monogram #3 - a slight variation on #2, more pink, less brown, and capital letters.

Stacy and Shannon chose Monogram #1.  I love the ornate swirls – they give you so many opportunities to embellish with rhinestones or hand-painted accents!

From there, I worked out a design for the A2-sized save-the-date card that incorporated the monogram and used the font from the existing magnet.  Since the monogram is fairly tiny on the card, I changed the text in it to a chocolate brown for more contrast.  The design was printed on my favorite natural white linen pearl cardstock and paired with a beautiful pink metallic euro-flap envelope.  Here’s the end result:

The card, with the attached magnet and coordinating envelope.

A closer look. So shimmery and pretty!

Stacy, I hope all of your guests love them!  I’m looking forward to working with you on the invitations in the coming months as well.

Since Kate’s wedding colors are apple green and chocolate brown, I used a vintage fruit crate for the inspiration for her invitations.  I printed a barn wood pattern on metallic linen cardstock in a champagne color (gorgeous paper!) and created a gatefold to frame the invitation panel, which used a combination of chocolate brown text and a green apple graphic motif.

The closed gatefold with the fruit label belly band closure.

The back of the closed invitation, with the RSVP postcard and reception card tucked into the belly band.

The opened gatefold, showcasing the invitation panel with a chocolate brown cardstock mat. You can't really see the champagne linen metallic cardstock on the sides of the gatefold in the picture, but it is absolutely stunning in person!

Kate wanted the invitation to ride the line between traditional and modern, and to help with that, I created a postcard RSVP that could easily be personalized with each invited guest’s name.  For meal choices, I used icons in order to conserve space on the card and add a whimsical touch.  The front of the postcard repeated the vintage fruit crate label design that appeared on the belly band closure.

The RSVP postcard with space for personalization and meal icons. The white space left on this card is required by the postal service so they can add their labels and marks to it.

A closer look at the back of the RSVP postcard.

I included a simple Reception card using the same green apple motif and tucked it behind the chocolate cardstock belly band with the RSVP card.

The full suite, with the open gatefold, belly band, RSVP postcard, and reception card.

The whole invitation package was outfitted with an apple green envelope – I printed the return address on the back flap in brown and created a set of wrap-around graphic labels for the mailing addresses.  These labels were printed and sent to Kate and Chris with a template to add the addresses, and they printed and cut them to size themselves (and they did a great job!)

The mailing address label and apple green envelope. These labels were sent to Kate and Chris as full sheets of wood-grained stickers with blank areas for the addresses, and I sent them a template so they could print and cut them themselves. The barn wood pattern is the same one that appears on the outside of the gatefold.

The back of the mailing envelope, with the address printed in brown on the back flap.

Congratulations, Kate and Chris!  Can’t wait for the wedding – it is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

Since the SLCs are sort of like mini-schools that operate under the umbrella of the larger school and campus, the logos should have some unifying elements and some elements that set them apart from each other.  Each should reflect the SLC’s theme and course of study.

So, given these overall guidelines, I set out to create four distinct logos, one for each of the following SLCs:

• SHAPS – Sports medicine, Health, And Public Service
• ACCER – Architecture, Construction, Computers, Engineering, Robotics
• CALS – Creative Arts and Liberal Studies
• Green House – for incoming Freshmen students

I unified the designs by housing each one inside a giant “G” (for Gardena) and by keeping the outer ring of text and color the same.  Within that outer frame, each design reflects the unique offerings of that SLC.  Here’s what I put together:

Logo design for SHAPS; I incorporated the caduceus for Sports Medicine/Health and the scales for Public Service.

Logo Design for ACCER - the gears, ruler, and light bulb can all be relevant in the different fields of Architecture, Construction, Computers, Engineering, and Robotics.

Logo Design for CALS - since this SLC also includes two smaller SLCs (AME and SCIBA), I listed those on the pages of the open book.

Logo Design for Green House - this SLC was already designated and implemented prior to the formation of the others, and its focus is on preparing the incoming 9th grade class for success throughout high school.

Thanks, Gardena High, for giving me the opportunity to create these for you!

*Edit* – Thanks to copious amounts of Russian spam, comments on this blog post are now disabled.  Please feel free to email me with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Kelly contacted me on Etsy and wanted me to design a custom vintage fruit crate label for her wedding to Jeff.  They’re planning a charming affair with the theme “The Perfect Pear,” and she wanted the label to involve pears and Southern California, since that’s where the two of them met.  The colors they are using are primarily clover green, yellow, and brown.

I asked her for a few more details – names, dates, places, etc., – so I could have some interesting text elements to incorporate in the design.  For a wedding design like this,  I like to know if the bride is planning to take the groom’s name; I respect and appreciate that many women make different choices about this issue, and I don’t want to offend anyone by showcasing one last name  when it wouldn’t be appropriate to do so.

We discussed the fees, and I created a custom listing for Kelly on Etsy that covered our agreed amount and the cost to ship the printed product.  As with all of my custom digital designs, this fee included two preview designs for her to choose from and three minor revisions to the design she chose.

Once the listing was purchased, I got to work!  Here are the two preview designs that I sent her:

Preview Design #1

Preview Design #2

Kelly and Jeff chose Design #1!  From that point, they were entitled to three revisions.  Kelly, sweetheart that she is, only asked for one – they wanted the label to say “Jeffrey” instead of “Jeff.”  Simple!

This is the final design:

The finalized design, with the text edited as requested.

Once Kelly approved it, I sent it off to get printed as a 12″x18″ sticker, then packed it up and mailed it to her.  She should receive it in just a couple of days.

Thanks again, Kelly and Jeff!  It was an absolute pleasure working with you, and I wish you all the best with your wedding and your life together!

The invitation in its lined envelope

The pocketfolder was handmade from leather-textured paper with a satin ribbon bellyband and monogram.

The inside of the pocketfolder, with three inserts and a double-matted invitation panel with a rhinestone accent.

Closer view of the panel and inserts. Two of the inserts were matted on chocolate brown cardstock; the RSVP card used the chocolate brown envelope as a backing piece.

All the pieces of the invitation. The Directions card included a map created in Photoshop; the RSVP cards were personalized for each guest attending. and the RSVP envelopes were lined with the same paper as the outer envelope.

I put some serious blood/sweat/tears into the invitations for our wedding, and the response from our guests was overwhelmingly positive.  People wrote notes on our RSVP cards raving about how gorgeous they were, and I had a number of friends ask if I could design items for them.

I never intended to make my own pocketfolders, but I found paper that I just couldn’t resist.  The pocketfolders were made from a double-sided, leather-textured 12″x12″ sheet of scrapbooking paper; the panel and inserts were printed on text-weight ivory linen paper and mounted on chocolate brown cardstock.  I added one Swarovski crystal accent on each invitation and closed the whole thing with a satin ribbon bellyband and a triple-layered monogram square.  The envelopes (both the outer and the RSVP) were lined by hand.

I spent a LOT of time on theknot.com’s message boards while planning my wedding, and I got a lot of inspiration and assistance from the fabulous ladies on the Los Angeles and DIY boards.  In light of that, I created a “married bio” that included templates for the vast majority of the paper products I created for my own wedding.

The templates for each piece of my own wedding invitation (as well as many of my other projects) are still available for free download in my bio for anyone who wants them, and I am going to leave it that way as a sort of thank-you to the community who provided so much inspiration when I was starting out.  If you don’t have Photoshop and/or don’t want or know how to customize these files, I can very easily do that for you for a small fee and send you the customized digital files, or I can go the full-service route and print, cut, and assemble it all.