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!

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!

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.

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!

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 .

I went through about four very boring ideas for this invitation before inspiration struck.  I used a high-resolution photograph of a $20 bill and Photoshopped it into a $30 bill with my husband’s picture in the center.  This was printed on ivory linen paper with the information about the party on the back.

Note:  If you decide to attempt a project like this yourself, be aware that Photoshop has some surprise limitations in place when you’re dealing with a photo of actual currency.   Who knew?  I had to find some interesting workarounds to actually be able to print it.

This is the final result – it was sized to fit in a standard #10 envelope:

Front of the $30 bill invitation

Back of the $30 bill invitation

Interested in something similar?  Let me know!