Oakes’s Nature-Inspired Letterpress Baby Announcements

These beautiful baby announcements come to us from Bonnie and Currier of Tenn Hens Design – and were created for Bonnie’s new baby boy, Oakes! Inspired by Bonnie’s childhood family farm, the announcements feature nature-inspired motifs like deer, oak leaves, and herons, a hand painted patterned envelope liner, and of course an adorable baby photo!

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From Bonnie and Currier: We wanted to create a special birth announcement to welcome Bonnie’s baby boy, Preston Oakes Cross, into the world. Our concept took its inspiration from Bonnie’s family farm where she grew up, married, and where Oakes will be baptized this summer.

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The property is bounded by a beautiful river which brought to mind the natural world of trees, foliage, deer, canoes, and herons. Illustrations of these elements were incorporated throughout the announcement, and Currier hand painted a soft watercolor graphic pattern for the envelope liner.

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The announcement is letterpress printed and duplexed to another card printed with images of the natural world around Bonnie’s family farm. The photo was printed on metallic paper to add a crisp note to the overall color palette. And of course Oakes provided his adorable baby face. Don’t you just want to kiss those cheeks?!

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Thanks Bonnie and Currier!

Photo Credits: Tenn Hens Design

Happy Weekend!

The peonies are blooming! After the most miserable winter on record, I want to drink in every single drop of spring this year. My beloved lilacs have sadly faded, but the peonies started to emerge just at the right time, and my roses are just behind them. I wish it could be Spring all year long! I’m gearing up for a busy weekend preparing for the National Stationery Show – it’s the last weekend before the big show! But in the meantime…

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Photo by me via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend!

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

Check back soon for this week’s cocktail! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week! xoxo

Caroline’s Strawberry Storybook Baby Announcements

Happy Monday everyone! I’m thrilled to start the week with these darling baby announcements! I’ve known Kathryn from Snippet & Ink since before I even started OSBP, and we’ve often bonded over our shared love of beautiful paper. When Kathryn welcomed her daughter Caroline last spring, she turned to the talented Cynthia Warren to create a storybook birth announcement – with stunning results!

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From Kathryn: Since Caroline was due in early June, I thought it would be fun to incorporate something seasonal and sweet like strawberries. I also love some of Cynthia’s storybook lettering. But really, along with about five images for inspiration, that was all the direction I gave her – Cynthia is so incredibly talented, and has such a unique style, I wanted to let her work her magic without me micromanaging things.

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From Cynthia: With her baby girl arriving in late Spring/early Summer, Kathryn wanted strawberries to be part of the design. She also wanted my hand-lettering style to be reminiscent of vintage children’s books. With such a sweet color palette we thought it would be great to tie the announcements and Caroline’s photograph into little bundles with red and white twine. The envelopes were addressed in the perfect grass green ink by the fabulous calligrapher and artist, Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls. Maybelle’s charming style added such elegance and whimsy.

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From Kathryn: Maybelle’s whimsical calligraphy was an obvious choice (she also did the day-of calligraphy for our wedding and I absolutely love working with her), and we went with grassy green ink to play off the strawberry leaves in the announcement.

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Something you can’t see in these images is that once the stamps were cancelled, the butterfly on the front of the envelope was almost perfectly perched on the end of the cancellation mark. I loved this little detail that Cynthia put in!

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Thanks so much Kathryn!

Design and Letterpress Printing: Cynthia Warren

Calligraphy: Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls

Photo Credits: Christina McNeill

A Little Announcement

I’m afraid I’ve been keeping a little secret from all of you – we’re expecting a second baby!

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I’m due in late September – just after Sophie’s second birthday! – and so far my pregnancy experience has been pretty similar to the first, except of course with the added exhaustion that can only be caused by having a toddler around the house. We’ve shared the news with our families and with Sophie, although we don’t know how much she understands at this age (I’m hopeful the books above will help!). I’m happy to be out of the first trimester and slowly getting back to my normal energy levels, especially with the National Stationery Show coming up in just a few short weeks! We’re both excited to welcome a new baby (we don’t plan to find out if it’s a boy or a girl) and nervous about making the transition from one child to two. I still can’t believe we’re going to be a family of four!

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! It’s officially spring here in DC – the cherry blossoms are blooming, there are buds on my lilacs, peonies are coming up, and green is slowly returning to our bare, brown yard. Yay! Sadly, Sophie came home early yesterday with a fever, so I’m heading out a bit early today to take care of my sweet girl – and hopefully she’ll be feeling well enough to enjoy some of this gorgeous spring weather soon. But in the meantime…

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Photo by me via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend!

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

Check back soon for this week’s cocktail! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week! xoxo