Oh So Beautiful Paper

Archive for September, 2008

As promised, here is part two of my recap from Crafty Bastards DC 2008:

One of my favorite booths from the day was from Something’s Hiding In Here:

(You can also check out their blog here)

Custom notebooks from Moonlight Bindery – a DC-area crafter!

Amazing posters from El Jefe Designs and Dirty Pictures Posters:

El Jefe Design

Dirty Pictures Posters

Owly Shadow Puppets

And a whole bunch of lovely paper goods from:

Bowerbox Press

rhymes with twee

Lettuce Paper (custom letterpress stationery)

And a very, very busy booth at Rar Rar Press

I hope you got a sense of how great this year’s fair really was. If you weren’t able to make it out this year, I hope you’ll come out for Crafty Bastards DC 2009!

Sorry I’ve been a bit slow in my posting today, but I wanted to provide a thorough recap of this weekend’s Crafty Bastards arts & crafts fair!  As promised, this year’s Crafty Bastards DC was a ton of fun – lots of great vendors with really great booths – and since there was so much going on at the fair, I’m going to break up my recap into two posts, so stay tuned for a second one later this afternoon.

Tons of people turned out, despite some light rain…

There was a conked-out puppy…

And a giant plush eyeball!

Sofia Masri handmade porcelain jewelry

kg +ab porcelain ceramics

The Small Object

Bags and pillows from Jenny Jen 42 and screen-printed totes and journals from tlane

artgoodies

Mignonette Designs

Screen-printed clothing from Red Prairie Press

Shirts and totes from maryink

Handmade clothing from Salt Lick NYC

Stay tuned for part two of the Crafty Bastards recap, including some lovely paper goods!

Okay everyone, this time I need your advice and suggestions!

My nephew will be turning 13 in just a few short months and my sister is already preparing for his Bar Mitzvah this coming March.  They’ve asked for some help with the invitations.  The theme is “science fiction” – which is perfect for a 13 year-old boy, but gives me a bit of pause as a 20-something woman.  I’m thinking robots and spaceships as the main elements, with either a futuristic landscape or planets as accents.

I’ve started looking around for inspiration from other bar mitzvah invitations, but I’m not really seeing anything that’s doing it for me right now.

These invitations from Bella Figura are beautiful, but a little too sophisticated for my nephew…

…and this one, even if very cute, is a bit too far on the young side.

So, right now I’m thinking something more along the lines of vintage sci-fi inspiration:

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So what do you all think?  Anyone have any great sources for sci-fi inspiration that they want to share?  Is vintage science fiction too much for a teenage boy?  Comments are most welcome!

{images from their respective sources}

This week, I’ve asked one of my very favorite wedding bloggers – the amazing Vané from Brooklyn Bride – to share her invitations with us!  As I’m sure you all know, Vané had a distinct modern and Brooklyn-inspired aesthetic for her wedding this past April.  Vané worked with Viñas Design to letterpress her invitations in a crisp green and white color palette, and with Betsy Dunlap on the calligraphy for both the invitations and table signs.

From Vané:  Since the wedding had a distinct Brooklyn theme, it was only natural that iconic Brooklyn and NY images were used on the invitations and all paper goods. We (Jaime Viñas of Viñas Design and I) used some photos I had of the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheel from Coney Island, and a water tower outside my window for some of the pieces.

The map of Brooklyn came from our save the dates, and the bagel was actually scanned on a scanner and brought down to size.  Having them letterpressed was great because all the sesame seeds on the bagel popped up.

For the font, Jaime used Neutra, which was great because it was designed by the architect Richard Neutra (and my husband just happens to be an architect!), and he used the perfect shade of green for everything on the crispest white card I’ve ever seen…the pieces had such a presence just with their thickness, I loved it!

I love the way the invitations coordinate perfectly with all the other elements from her gorgeous wedding:

Thanks Vané for sharing your beautiful invitations with us!  Invitations by Vané and Viñas Design, calligraphy by Betsy Dunlap.

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

{all images by Bethalee Photography via Brooklyn Bride}