Oh So Beautiful Paper

Archive for November, 2010

You guys, the last couple of days have been pretty rough – in large part due to a middle-of-the-night emergency trip to the animal hospital for our cat, Leopold.  The poor guy gave us a good scare, but luckily my husband and I caught the problem early enough; he’s now recovering and we’re hoping to bring him back home tomorrow.  Needless to say, I’ve had some things on my mind this week.  Right now I’m just feeling thankful and looking forward to getting back to normal this weekend.  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend!

• Beautiful style inspiration – floral dresses with red tights
• Creative wedding menu ideas
• This might be the coolest chandelier ever
• Classic books get beautiful new covers (note: adding to wishlist NOW)
• Oh my, these birth announcements might be the cutest ever
• Pretty paper leaves and white paper flowers are my fave
• I have a new font crush (and it’s free to download)
• Remember these save the dates?  Check out the corresponding invitations!

In case you missed it, a quick round-up of this week’s posts:

• It’s holiday card time!
• An absolutely stunning quilled wedding certificate
• Beautiful illustrated wedding invitations from South Africa-based studio Me + E
• Art deco invitations for a garden party wedding
• Lovely details from Melissa’s golf-theme wedding
• Modern b’nai mitzvah invitations
• Erin + Brent’s vintage glam wedding invitations
• An awesome cross-country letterpress project

That’s it for me this week!  I’m really excited about some beautiful wedding invitations and save the dates that I have planned for you all next week, along with more holiday cards of course.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!

{image credits: galaxy by tamara lichtenstein, found via rachel}

Love, love, love these wood clipboards from Decoy Lab (and found via SeeSaw) – such a beautiful gift idea, too:

Looks like they’re momentarily sold out, but I’m sure there will be more soon – check back right here.

{image credits: decoy lab}

Courtney Callahan sent over these invitations that she designed for Erin and Brent’s wedding at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  The wedding took place at the zoo’s event facility, Café Brauer, which complemented Erin and Brent’s vintage glam wedding theme.  For the invitations and day-of stationery, Courtney went with a soft gray and pink color palette and vintage-inspired typography selections.

From Courtney: Erin’s overall vision for wedding was vintage glam and the reception venue provided great inspiration.  The art deco designs on the top and bottom of the invitation are a direct nod to the stately windows at Café Brauer, while the typefaces are reminiscent of those used in the 1920s.  With the text printed in slate, touches of papaya were added for a pop of color in the invitation suite.

In addition to the invitations, Courtney created the day-of wedding stationery details, including ceremony programs, guestbook sign, Mr. and Mrs. signs, and a menu complete with a custom monogram designed just for the couple:

So pretty!  Thank you so much for sharing Courtney!

{image credits: invitation photos by jennifer kathryn; wedding photos by molly grace at vrai photo}

Ready or not, it’s holiday time!  With the arrival of the holiday season, it’s definitely time to start thinking about holiday cards.  There are so many beautiful holiday card designs this year, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from – and of course mix and match.  Just like last year, I’ll be doing several round-ups over the next few weeks, so let’s get started with Part 1!

{duet letterpress}

{egg press}

{smock}

{wild ink press}

{mr. boddington’s studio}

{rifle paper co.}

{wiley valentine}

{letterpress and wood veneer cards from night owl paper goods}

{parrott design studio}

{byvik ink}

{bailey doesn’t bark}

{simplesong}

So many beautiful cards – and I’ve got lots more coming up soon!

{all images from their respective sources}

*Wild Ink Press, Smock, and Wiley Valentine are some of my fabulous sponsors; for more on my editorial policies please click here.

Tova from Brighten My Day Studio created these super-colorful and modern invitations last year for the B’nai Mitzvah of twins Sydney and Robert.  The family wanted to go with a slightly different approach to the design, so Tova created the entire invitation suite using a colorful orange and purple color palette, complete with pop-art inspired save the date and envelope liners!

From Tova: This family loves art.  Their home is a gorgeous canvas for the amazing, bold artwork – from life-size mosaics to the classic paintings – that hang on each wall.  Since the evening celebration was being held at their home, we wanted the invitation to reflect their home and the party to come: bold color, modern feel, some drama and a nod to art.

The save the date was a great introduction: cherry red and beet papers featuring white engraved text and hand-illustrated Lichtenstein-inspired drawing of Sydney and Robert (which was mounted 3-dimesionally to the card).  In-town guests received a folded card, while out-of-towners received a tri-fold card which contained the weekend events.

We wanted to keep the design of the invitation really simple and clean, to showcase a huge wow factor in the color palate and the invitation size.  The invitation was 9″ x 11″ (huge!) and tri-plexed into a heavy-weight board of tangerine on the front and beet on the back.  The accompanying enclosure cards were also duplexed – tangerine on one side, purple on the back – in the same style as the invitation, but in a variety of modern shapes.

The typefaces were a fun mix of clean and crisp, paired with a fresh, hand-writing inspired script.  And the kicker – the envelope liner was the Lichtenstein image from the save the date, blown-up and digitally printed in colors to mesh with the new tangerine and beet color palette.  Custom stamps were created for both the invitation envelope and the response card.  And, the envelopes were addressed in white gouache calligraphy by the uber-talented Crystal Kluge.

I LOVED creating this invitation, in huge part because the Goldstein family was so incredible and trusting.  I am still obsessed with the color palette – and just love that we were able to incorporate the “photo” of the twins into the pieces in such a funky, non-traditional way.

Beautiful work as always Tova!  Thank you so much for sharing these incredible invitations!

{image credits: brighten my day studio}