Search Results for: watercolor

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations

A wedding ten years in the making! A destination wedding in Palm Springs! We’re starting the week off with some seriously stunning calligraphy and cactus wedding invitations from Taryn of Twinkle & Toast for an epic wedding in the desert. Copper foil, a blind deboss palm frond, burgundy edge painting, custom calligraphy, and watercolor cactus illustrations throughout. Take a look for yourself below!

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

From Taryn: This custom invitation suite was designed for a real wedding for our fantastic couple, Ali and David. Our outgoing and much loved bride and groom have been together since they were fifteen. They survived high school, long distance through college, and various other ups and downs. Needless to say, they were ready to plan an epic soirée of a weekend for all their friends and family!

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

The couple resides in Chicago and planned a Palm Springs destination wedding (with over 200 guests!). Palm Springs holds a special place in the bride’s heart, as do details and clean design (she’s a hotel interior designer), so it was really important to her to set the tone with the invitation suite.

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

The inspiration was clean white, desert sophistication, with a touch of fun. The color palette was desert greens and burgundy jewel tones. The star of the suite was definitely the main invitation. We did a blind deboss of a palm design, copper foil printing, extra thick cotton paper, and a burgundy painted edge. This piece has so much weight and texture and really left an impact on their guests.

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

As a calligrapher as well as a stationer, the whole suite had custom calligraphy on all pieces. The envelope calligraphy called for pointed pen with a diluted burgundy gouache (for a watercolor effect). We pulled vintage cactus stamps, plus some soft pinks to echo her floral palette. We created a cactus watercolor painted envelope liner, and carried the cactus elements throughout.

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

From the very beginning, Ali really wanted a fun bellyband with the phrase “a weekend ten years in the making” to tie the entire wedding invitation suite together. Telling their story was important to us, and knowing them is to love them. This day has been highly anticipated and this party was certainly worth the wait!

Cactus and Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by Twinkle and Toast

Thanks Taryn!

Calligraphy & Invitation Design: Twinkle & Toast

Floral: Catalina Neal

Ring Box: The Mrs. Box

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

Photo Credits: Society House

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations

Now that Spring has arrived, we’re itching to break out our hiking boots and spend a weekend exploring and enjoying nature! In the meantime, we’ll just have to gaze at these rustic and woodsy illustrated wedding invitations by Amanda of Wide Eyes Paper Co.! Don’t you just love the illustrated bear for the reply envelope address? Here’s hoping that’s the only bear we encounter anytime soon!

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

From Amanda: A striking watercolor scene of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains makes these invitations simply majestic. Jenny and Aaron are a hip duo that enjoys the great outdoors and wanted their rustic, quirky vibe to be reflected in all of their stationery. We were so excited to craft up a complete custom watercolor stationery suite for them. Starting with the save the date cards all the way through to the main invitation suite, we dreamed up a woodsy wonderland to announce their rustic soirée.

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

This invitation suite is certainly not shy of the details. Along with the custom watercolor scenery, we also illustrated a custom grizzly bear that is seen throughout the little details in this set. We intentionally illustrated this bear to creatively ensconce the sender’s address. We used this motif for the custom envelope printing for both the main invitation envelope as well as the reply envelope. Keeping the theme consistent, we also incorporated the Colorado Rocky watercolor scenery onto the envelope liners for a bit of pop and whimsy.

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

To enhance the natural, organic feel of the suite we printed each piece on 100 percent recyclable French Muscletone Kraft card stock. This paper lends itself to a great rustic appeal, especially paired with the nature-inspired green envelopes.

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

Jenny and Aaron are not the traditional type, so they opted for an illustrated way to let their guests know about some of the main attractions in the area. Instead of going with a more formal, written information card we created a custom watercolor map. We included many landmarks that are special to the couple such as their favorite Ski Lodge and the local marina Tiki Bar. (Everyone has gotta love a good Mai Tai!)

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

To spice the invitation suite up even more, we created a custom monogram that is seen on the wood engraved tags. These wood engraved additions are perfect for any rustic occasion and pair well with all of our woodland inspired sets.

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper Co

Woodsy Illustrated Wedding Invitations by Wide Eyes Paper CoThanks Amanda!

Design: Wide Eyes Paper Co.

Printing: Advanced Reprographics

Wide Eyes Paper Co. is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of their beautiful work right here or visit the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Kelly Wilde

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations

A rustic gray and green color palette. Nature-inspired textures. Beautiful brush hand lettering throughout. Gina of Eleven and West created these rustic succulent-inspired gray and green wedding invitations for a summer wedding in the Pacific Northwest. Gina stuck to a simple color palette to allow the natural hand lettering and stunning engagement pictures to shine through, and incorporated the bride’s love of succulents throughout the invitation suite. And seriously, how gorgeous are those brush lettered kraft paper envelopes??

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

From Gina: When designing Dustin and Denny’s wedding invitations, Dustin really left a lot of creative freedom to me. She did mention that she loved succulents and was going to be incorporating those into her wedding day and would like to see them in her wedding invitations, too. We worked to create a natural and simple design that went along with her other wedding elements.

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

I love incorporating engagement photos into invitation suites, I think it adds an even more personal touch for wedding invitations to really make them unique and special. When she sent over these gorgeous photos from Annamae Photo, I knew we had to incorporate them somehow! We actually ended up using two of them in the suite!

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

We incorporated hand lettering into every piece of this invitation suite, with gray watercolor swashes as accents and small watercolor succulents. The lettering style is using my natural hand, nothing tight or too formal in its overall look. The kraft paper envelopes further incorporated that natural and earthy feel. I hand lettered all of her guest addresses in white paint and we had her return address printed on the flap with a small succulent design.

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

With wedding websites being so popular, we added a detail card that pointed guests to their wedding website for all of their information. We added another engagement photos on the back of it and I incorporated a hand lettered overlay of their names to add a graphic touch to their suite. We kept the RSVP simple with just a white card and light gray hand lettering and we printed a small watercolor detail along the bottom.

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

A piece of twine helped tie the invitation suite all together. This adds not only a more tangible aspect to the piece but also builds on the overall texture of the suite. Overall, we kept everything simple with a personal and natural feel to the suite.

Rustic Succulent-Inspired Gray and Green Wedding Invitations by Eleven and West

Thanks Gina!

Design & Lettering: Eleven and West

Paper: Mohawk 120# Uncoated

Photos in Invitation Suite: Annamae Photo

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

Photo Credits: Gina Paulson Photography

Seasonal Stationery: Easter Cards

Can you believe it’s almost April?! Along with the eager anticipation of spring (flowers! warmth! allergies!), it’s time to celebrate the first holiday of the season: Easter! Whether your personal celebration skews more religious or more towards the chocolate (or both!), we’ve collected a handful of cheerful Easter greeting cards to share. Let the bunny onslaught begin! â€“Shauna

Seasonal Stationery: Easter Card Round Up

From top right:

1. If the elegant calligraphy doesn’t do it for you, the striped foil liner certainly will. The die cut egg shape is the clincher. From Sugar Paper.

2. This super adorable bunny employs neon details and an overprinting letterpress technique to achieve the perfect level of cuteness. From Hello!Lucky.

3. With three color letterpress plus gold foil, this Wild Ink Press nest design is a real bang for your buck.

4. Wild Hart Paper uses a clever reverse out design and pretty hand lettering to celebrate this annual rite of spring.

5. With so many bunnies out there, aren’t you glad to see a chicken? Illustrated and designed by North Carolina-based Wit & Whistle.

6. This sweetly illustrated bunny from Gingiber is actually a downloadable greeting card. Load up some nice card stock and you are good to go!

7. This engorged bunny clearly enjoyed his easter candy a little TOO much (those peeps can be rather addicting). Illustrated by Barbara Dziadosz for Red Cap Cards.

8. Finally, some much-needed vegetables! This sweet watercolor illustration comes courtesy of E. Frances Paper.

9. I’m pretty envious of Dear Hancock’s stellar egg decorating skills. The cute bunny paw doesn’t hurt either.

10. Cleverly entitled ‘Easter Egg Hunt’, this Fugu Fugu Press design features not one, but six eggs, two bunnies, and two singing birds letterpress printed in three colors.

12. One of my favorites in this mix is this lovely rose gold foil printed design from Bespoke Press.

13. Idlewild Co.’s take on this holiday includes hand painted Ukranian inspired eggs in a modern color palate.

14. Not a bunny or egg in sight from this modern take on the holiday by Ferme A Papier.

Nine Awesome Design and DIY Books

Hi everyone! I have a growing list of books that I’ve been meaning to share with all of you – so today I’m sharing them all in one fell swoop! We’ve got some fun illustration instruction books from some familiar faces around OSBP, creative ways to customize your things at home, a peek into the lives of creative business owners, nature-inspired prints and patterns, and so much more!

Nine Awesome Design and DIY Books

1. Erin Austen Abbot of Amelia is known for curating amazing wares for her shop in Oxford, Mississippi. With her first book, How to Make It, Erin takes us behind the scenes with 25 makers to share a behind the scenes look at what it takes to run a creative business. Yay Erin!

2. Dinara Mirtalipova is one of my favorite illustrators; we’ve been lucky enough to feature some of Dinara’s work here on OSBP, and I’m constantly in awe of her intricate folk art-inspired illustration style. Her new book, Imagine a Forest, includes 45 step-by-step tutorials for creating your own folk-inspired illustrations – along with plenty of illustration inspiration to gaze throughout the day.

3. Christine from Yellow Owl Workshop is a genius when it comes to stamps, stencils, and fabric dyeing. Her latest book, Make it Yours, is all about customizing your favorite objects around your home, from scarves and tote bags to quilts and dressers.

4. If you’ve ever wanted to learn the art of watercolor illustration, now is your chance! Everyday Watercolor from Jenna of Mon Voir will teach you everything you need to know for creating gorgeous watercolor florals and nature illustrations.

5. I love following illustrator Carolyn Gavin on Instagram, and I was thrilled to see her new book: Draw, Color, and Sticker Things I Love Sketchbook. The sketchbook is full of ready-to-color illustrations and partially illustrated pages that you can fill in using your own imagination. So fun!

6. How to Draw Type and Influence People is basically an activity book for grown-ups with a focus on hand drawn type and the role that type plays in advertising. If you’re interested in the grown up coloring book trend but not into traditional illustrations and patterns, this might be for you! 

7. Print & Pattern: Nature celebrates beautiful nature-inspired surface design, patterns, and motifs – including from a few stationers that are familiar faces around OSBP!

8. Rubber Stamping offers a comprehensive guide to the art of block printing and reduction printing using traditional rubber blocks, hand carved designs, and roller printing techniques.

9. I’m a huge fan of watercolor artist Kristy Rice of Momental Designs, so I was thrilled when she came out with a series of adult coloring books for watercolor featuring her original illustrations! The books are printed using thick watercolor paper and feature floral illustrations, woodland illustrations, and fun patterns. Check out the full series here!