Well, one by one, they’re graduating from pregnant women to actual MOMMIES, and my dear friend Liisa was the first!

Liisa (and I hate to call her by her first name, since I NEVER do, but I want to protect her privacy) and her husband Clovis are the proud parents of an adorable, cuddly, precious little boy they named Xavier.  Throughout her pregnancy, Liisa swore that they were going to name him “Commander” – I think everyone was a little relieved when we found out that he had a real name after all .   I was commissioned to create their birth announcements, and I wanted to do something unique for them.  Something that would reflect their interests, and their personalities… something different.

Clovis and Liisa are both comic book/sci-fi fans, so I worked out a handful of ideas around the phrase “Welcome to Earth, Commander.”  Clovis asked if there was a way to incorporate something from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I (having never seen the movie) did some Google research, found some very interesting inspiration, and this is the result:

The end result: a mock movie poster based on the original design for the film.

I asked Liisa and Clovis to send me some pictures of Xavier to work with, and the blue blanket worked perfectly to create an Earth-like effect around him!  I paired the A7 glossy flat card with a gorgeous deep blue metallic envelope to enhance the “outer space” feeling.

Another angle - note the movie-themed text and the beautiful metallic envelope.

The comment I’ve received the most about these (well, besides the choruses of “Oh, what a sweet precious adorable baby!”) is that people love the slightly scientific touches with the numbers on the invitation – the date, time, and height.  Those little details are so fun, and they definitely add to the overall effect.

Military time on a birth announcement - now that's unique!

“Commander,” it was an honor to be able to design these for you and help welcome you to the world in such an entertaining and interesting way!  You have the coolest parents on earth.

My birthday gift to Mom and Dad was this invitation:

The front of the mock vinyl record invitation. I based it on an old Capitol Records design.

The back of the mock vinyl record invitation, with more information and some cutesy clip-art graphics.

I initially made up both sides of this invitation as two separate design ideas because Mom liked the colorful 50’s-themed graphics and I liked the more realistic record.  In the end, I used them both so we could include all of the necessary information.

Mom asked if I could do something with The Hop’s logo, which had a cool-guy bunny rabbit leaning casually up against it.  She wanted me to add a girl bunny next to him.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to Photoshop the low-resolution photo she had of the logo, I finally just drew it by hand, scanned it, and re-worked the file from there.

The invitations were printed on glossy circular labels and affixed to die-cut black linen paper circles for a realistic vinyl record effect.  I used bright orange square envelopes (not pictured; we had to mail out every single one!) and printed address labels for the mailing and the return address.

Want invitations like these?  Purchase a sample from my Etsy store and contact me to customize the text for your order!

After the party, I made up some business cards for my parents to send out in their thank-you notes so people could see the professional photos taken at the party and share their own images.  The best part of that was that I got to reuse that bunny logo!  Here they are:

This was a business-card sized insert that Mom sent out in the thank-you notes.

It was a fun project all around, and the guests seemed to really enjoy the invitations.

The outside of our rehearsal dinner invitation - a Playbill program.

The inside of our rehearsal dinner invitation, with all of the necessary information.

The back of the rehearsal dinner invitation, with hand-drawn Photoshop map.

I used a high-resolution photo of a Broadway Playbill and Photoshopped it to include one of our engagement pictures and our own custom text.  The inside contained the necessary information, but it was set up as a program.  On the back I included a hand-drawn Photoshop map with the address and directions.

We used black envelopes for these, so I created labels for the mailing and return addresses that looked like show tickets.

The ticket label for our return address; the mailing address was printed on a similar but larger version of the same label.

The files for this invitation are also available for free download from my married bio.  If you want me to re-work the design for you with your pictures and information, contact me and we can work something out!

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!