Melissa and her friends are throwing a shower for their friend Nicole, and they gave me a list of what they wanted to see in an invitation:  blue, brown, green, orange, stripes, and ribbon.  And Melissa loves metallic cardstock, so of course we had to incorporate that as well.  What a combo!  How did it all come together?  Check it out:

The double-layered invitation has a printed backing - stripes of blue, brown, green, and orange frame the invitation text.

I added an orange ribbon accent to the invitation panel and a seal with the baby's initials in the middle.

The girls decided that they needed an insert for additional information, so I printed the stripes as a border instead of layering the smaller card.

I paired the invite with a deep blue metallic envelope, and I added a coordinating wrap-around label so the addresses could easily be read by the post office.

I love the whole suite together - very sharp!

These invitations strike a great balance between masculine and feminine – the script font and the satin ribbon soften the impact of the bold, almost nautical colors and lines.  Many thanks to Melissa and the crew for giving me the opportunity to create these sophisticated shower invitations!  I know the party will be a huge success.

Thanks for staying with me through this whole series of baby showers!  I’ve got more that are currently in production and will be blogged later on… and hopefully I’ll be able to share a whole series of birth announcement designs soon!

One of my first shower invites, the Building a Nest invitation, is still by far my most popular Etsy item.  I’ve customized that invitation suite dozens of ways over the past year, and a customer recently asked for it in yellow.  We were concerned that a pastel yellow would make the text very difficult to read, so I decided to go with a deep, rich gold.  I think it’s gorgeous – so lively and bright!

Building a Nest in Gold

The bright yellow makes this invite perfect for a boy or a girl.

This version makes me want to try out a whole range of saturated colors – wouldn’t Building a Nest look beautiful in red?  Or purple?  Royal blue?  The possibilities are endless!  And if you’re interested in your own customized version of this one, go visit my Etsy store and place an order!

This invitation was designed for my dear friend Katie, who asked me if I would create a shower invitation with a coordinating thank-you note.  I usually like to take inspiration from the expectant mother’s nursery design ideas to create baby stationery, and I knew she was putting together a beautiful room for her baby girl with crystals, white wrought iron, and delicate shades of gray and blue.  We shifted from blue to pink for the shower invite but kept the gray, and the end result was stunning!

The invitation, a triple-layered panel with a ribbon detail and embellishment.

A closer look at the belly band and embellishment, which is a vintage-inspired button. I broke the loop off the back so it would lay flat.

The coordinating thank-you note, with a printed gray and pink stripe across the front and a simple Swarovski crystal embellishment in the middle.

The whole suite looks gorgeous all together! Both the invite and the thank-you were paired with pink metallic envelopes for an extra little bit of sparkle.

It was a joy creating these custom pieces for Katie and her sweet little girl Abby, who made her appearance on September 4th!  Stay tuned for Part Two – more baby showers tomorrow!

It was pretty in pink for Erin’s shower… but it’s beautiful in blue as well:

Building a Nest, customized for a recent Etsy order

The Etsy listing is for a set of 10, but I’m always happy to set up a custom order if you’re looking for a different number. Send me an email or a convo any time!

Erin is a dear friend of mine whose daughter Sophia is due in December.  I was so thrilled to be able to do the invitations for her upcoming shower!  She chose one of my favorite color schemes (pink and brown) and let me be creative with the design.

Inspiration comes from the strangest places sometimes.  I opened the trunk of my car and saw a box of leftover decorations from my wedding – these cute little pink and brown birds that I used to decorate my manzanita placecard trees:

Photo by the lovely and talented Zenia of Zenia Photography

(Yes, I know my wedding was almost a year ago, and there is no excuse to still have decorations in my trunk.)

But with that in my head, I created this invitation:

Erin's shower invitation, with coordinating printed envelope.

The double-layered panel, sans envelope.

A closer look at the illustration. I hand-traced elements from four different photos to put it together.

The invitation panel was printed on an ivory metallic linen cardstock and mounted to a 5×7 piece of pink metallic cardstock.  I was worried it would be sparkle overload, but it’s lovely in person, especially with the matching envelope.

I’m adding it to my Etsy shop and offering customization of colors as well as text, so the mommies-to-be who are having boys won’t feel left out.

Erin, it was a joy to create these for you, and I’m looking forward to meeting Sophia soon!

Dina purchased one of my stock designs on Etsy.   These are digital designs I’ve created that allow for some customization.  It’s a budget-friendly alternative to purchasing a completely custom creation, and for some folks, it may be the perfect fit.

This is the stock design Dina chose:

A stock design from my Etsy collection. This can be customized with any text or color scheme.

In her purchase notes, she told me that she was creating a gift for a baby shower.  She wanted the file customized with the name of the baby, and instead of the wedding text on the sides, she asked for the following phrases:  “Apple of our Eye” and “Grown from Heirloom Seed.”  She also wanted a grass green and pale yellow color scheme to match the nursery.

Dina told me she was going to print it and modge podge it on the front of an old fruit crate to use for storage in the nursery, and she was going to fill it with other fruit and vegetable themed items – onesies with carrots and peas on them, a hand-knitted strawberry hat, and an Anna Banana stuffed toy.  Is that the cutest idea in the world or what?  I loved it!

Stock designs include two minor revisions once the initial proof has been sent.  Dina was happy with the first draft, but she wanted the color changed slightly on one piece of text.  No problem!  We went back and forth on that color a couple of times (and I still count that as just one revision, since it’s trying to correct the same issue) before I finally hit on the perfect shade of dusty rose for the last name.

Here’s the final product (the name has been changed to protect the innocent baby!):

The stock design, completely customized and ready to print!

Thank you, Dina!  I’m sure your gift will be a hit!  I may even have to steal your idea for one of the million baby showers I have coming up this year .

If you’re interested in working with a custom design and you have questions you want answered first, email me or convo me on Etsy!  I’ll be adding more designs to the shop periodically, so keep checking back and see if there’s anything new that calls out to you.