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!

I knew that Stacy wanted some sparkle in her invites, so we paired up three gorgeous metallic cardstocks and a handful of crystal embellishments for these lovely gatefolds.  Take a look at how it all came together!

I used the monogram I'd created previously on the oval seal for the tucked-ribbon belly band.

A closer look at the belly band and seal. I love the tucked-ribbon look; it's a ton of extra work, but it's worth it.

The invitation panel was mounted to a pink metallic cardstock mat inside the gold metallic gatefold.

There were five crystal accents on each invitation panel - a pink one in each corner and an amber one in the center.

The inserts all maintained the graphics and fonts from the invitation panel and were mounted to pink metallic cardstock.

The only insert that didn't get a cardstock mat was the RSVP card, because it's paired with a coordinating pink envelope (not pictured).

It was so much fun designing such an elegant set of wedding invitations for what was undoubtedly a gorgeous and detail-rich affair this past June.  Stacy and Shannon, I wish you all the best in your marriage – thank you for the opportunity to create these pieces for you!

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.

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!

We kept it to one 8.5″x11″ sheet folded in half to keep the printing costs and assembly time down, but there was a lot of information to fit onto those pages!  I received a thorough education on creating a Catholic worship aid (there are dos and don’ts that I never really considered before, but now I’m prepared to do it again if required!) and spent plenty of time monkeying with the text sizing and spacing to get everything to line up just-so.  It was a challenge, but the end result is the perfect complement to their beautiful ceremony.

Pictures of the final product are below – please excuse the quality, as I’m still trying to find the places in the house with good lighting!

The front cover, with the apple graphic that also appeared on the invitation panel. I love the way these fonts look together!

This is the front and back of the program. We listed the names of all involved separately from the ceremony text as per the priest's instructions.

The inside of the program - repeating the apple motif as text dividers.

Thanks again, Kate and Chris!  Much love to the both of you, and best wishes for a happy marriage!

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!

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!

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!

Kate did some research and decided that she liked the current trend of the photobooth strip-style pictures for a Save the Date card.  I came up with the idea of making the photobooth strip a removable magnet instead of just printing the images on the postcard.   Keeping her colors (green and chocolate brown) and her theme (apples!) in mind, I whipped up the postcard portion of it in Photoshop:

The Save the Date Postcard, with blank space on the left side for the magnet.

Then, we set up a quick little faux-photobooth area in front of the living room curtains and my husband did a photoshoot with the two of them.  We chose the four cutest poses and assembled them into the magnet:

The detachable magnet with four photobooth-style shots of Kate and Chris

The magnets were attached to the postcards with a very interesting glue that worked way better than I imagined.  I tried a million different things before finding this little guy:

The ZIG 2-Way Glue Pen. Worked like a charm!

With the magnet attached, the finished product looked like this:

The completed Save the Date card.

I used Gumdrop Green envelopes and printed the return address on the back flap in chocolate brown.  They were a huge hit with the guests!  I hope they’re even more impressed with the invitations .

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.