Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements

Alright, prepare yourself for some seriously sweet baby announcements! We’re loving the combination of a colorful patterned envelope liner and a unique paper size from Alana of Bourne Paper Co.’s â€“ she made these sweet and simple calligraphy baby announcements for her daughter Peyton! This is truly a gorgeous welcome into the world, with custom calligraphy from Anne Robin and a patterned envelope liner inspired by textiles in Peyton’s nursery.

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

From Alana: To celebrate the birth of our daughter, Peyton, I wanted to design a birth announcement that was simple and sweet with some subtle sentimental touches. Peyton’s nursery is decorated in a color palette of bright pinks and soft blues including several Hmong and mudcloth patterned pillows. I decided I wanted her birth announcement to be a complement to her nursery – modern and clean but with some bright and colorful accents.

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

The announcement card focused on one of our favorite newborn photos of Peyton taken by The DeJaureguis photography team. I also incorporated hand lettering by Anne Robin. The DeJaureguis team photographed our wedding and Anne did the calligraphy for our save the dates and wedding invitations. Getting to incorporate both of their work into our daughter’s birth announcement felt like a very special and personal touch.

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

The announcement text was letterpress printed in black ink (as you can tell from our save the dates, I’m a sucker for classic black and white letterpress). I used Crane Lettra in Fluorescent White. I love the textural feel and the way it makes the impression of letterpress stand out.

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

To add a pop of color, I created a bright blue and pink envelope liner featuring a Hmong-inspired pattern. I also incorporated a hint of the pattern into the address labels. The announcement was finished with a light kraft envelope, a nod to the weathered oak wood of her nursery furniture.

 

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

On a personal note, when I was born my paternal grandmother (a talented painter and calligrapher) created my birth announcements. Both of my grandmothers were creative spirits who fostered that same sense of creativity in me. Getting to create my daughter’s birth announcements felt like a fitting tribute to these two wonderful women. I look forward to sharing their stories with my daughter one day.

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

Thanks Alana!

Design: Bourne Paper Co.
Calligraphy: Anne Robin
Newborn Photography: The DeJaureguis

Bourne 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: Bourne Paper Co.

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations

We simply love it when people stick to the classics and execute an elegant suite to the perfection. Raymond Ramirez-Manzo by KidGolightly Calligraphy designed these stunning vintage-inspired dusty blue wedding invitations with dainty calligraphy detailing. Deckled edges, spot illustrations, and stunning ribbon accents: these invitations are simply darling!

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by KidGolightly Calligraphy

From Raymond: I love creating custom wedding invitation designs for ladies and gents on their big day. These invitations pay homage to the very first invitations that I designed four years ago. My mom asked me if I could create a design for their Pearl Wedding Anniversary. At that time, I was in marketing and had no idea what to do. Little did I know, that moment would lead me to my wildest dreams coming true.

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by KidGolightly Calligraphy

So here’s the story: While doing my research regarding invitations, there was a sense of unexplainable thrill slowly filling up my body and that lead me to discover this art called calligraphy: I knew about it but it didn’t dawn on me that a regular person could do it. That discovery shook my soul. From then on, every fiber of my body knew that this was the career path I wanted to pursue. Fast forward 4 years, finally realizing the perfect branding and doing well in my first year doing calligraphy full time. The idea behind this design was to re-create that wedding invitation suite and pay homage to the invitation that started it all.

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by KidGolightly Calligraphy

With my aesthetics, I always thrive to make it feel romantic and timeless, so I wanted to breathe that same vibe into this particular suite. I also wanted it to have structure, so I played with lines in the layout to match the serif font, embossing those lines for added subtle texture. The heart of the design is the couple’s names in my signature calligraphy style, along with an illustration of a Villa on top of a hill. I wanted the design to look effortless, yet fancy.

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by KidGolightly Calligraphy

The invitation is printed on 100% cotton rag handmade paper from Fabulous Fancy Pants, leaving the natural deckled edges untouched for that organic textural element. The same handmade paper envelope was used for the main invitation. I used a Mist colored envelope a with euro flap for the partner envelope for the reply card, with the return address calligraphed as well. For this suite specifically, Little Postage House curated a romantic collection of vintage stamps that I think fits it perfectly. The wax seal stamp from Saint Signora added some old world feel as a beautiful finishing touch.

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by KidGolightly Calligraphy

I am so happy with how everything turned out. Sydney captured everything in film, while Alisha and Bethany added some floral magic to this shoot. The whole thing was extra special and it felt like I came full circle!

Vintage Inspired Dusty Blue Calligraphy Wedding Invitations by KidGolightly Calligraphy

Thanks, Raymond!

Design: KidGolightly Calligraphy
Florals: Native Bloom Floral
Postage stamps: Little Postage House
Paper: Fabulous Fancy Pants

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

Photo Credits: Sydney Tolifson Photography

December Desktop Downloads!

A couple days late, but Happy December everyone! And welcome to the final month of 2017 – yay! Maybe it’s because 2017 was a rough year, but I’m even more excited to see holiday decorations going up around our neighborhood this year, and I can’t wait to celebrate our own holiday traditions (let the holiday cookie baking commence!). Here are a couple of new illustrated December wallpapers for your phones and desktop from The Good Twin to help celebrate the season!

Mistletoe Wallpaper by The Good Twin

Desktop | iPhone

Tiny Houses Wallpaper by The Good Twin

Desktop | iPhone

For personal use only. All illustrations by The Good Twin for Oh So Beautiful Paper

If you’re a designer or illustrator interested in contributing your own designs to this column, please email your design in Retina screen and iPhone 7 dimensions to submissions(at)ohsobeautifulpaper.com with the subject line “desktop downloads.” If it’s a good fit I’ll add it to the post for the following month!

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! Guess what?? If you’re in the DC area, we’re doing a special pop up with our friends Brief Assembly this Saturday from 2-5 pm! We’ll have some of our Liquorary vintage glassware and barware for sale, and I’ll even be there with some of our #OSBPxMonVoir art prints! Plus, we’ll have some brand new (!!) curated cocktail kits with our favorite syrups and bitters! (they make excellent holiday gifts, just FYI 😉) It would be so fun to meet you in person, and you can knock all of your holiday shopping out in one spot! If you can’t make the pop up in person, you can grab your own art print right here and our curated cocktail kits right here, but I really hope you’ll stop by if you’re in the area! Details are below – see you there! But in the meantime…

OSBP x Liquorary x Brief Assembly Pop-Up!

…a few links for your weekend!

Loving this sweater – especially in pale lavender and that deep teal green!

Great ideas for using paper flowers in your wedding

I’m totally doing this next year: DIY ornament advent calendar

A geology birthday party! SUCH a great idea!

An historical way of looking at trickle-down economics

Attacks on hospitals led to the Geneva Conventions 153 years ago. It is the original war crime. Since 2011, the Syrian regime has conducted more than 450 attacks on Syrian hospitals, including NICUs, nurseries, and emergency medicine.

 

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

Gift Guides! We’ve done four gift guides so far: Home + Style Gift Ideas, Gift Guide for Creatives, Gift Ideas for Kids, and Cocktail + Entertaining Gifts. 

Gorgeous and classic ocean-inspired wedding invitations

Navy and gold foil agate-inspired wedding invitations

Behind the Stationery with bi-coastal stationery duo Anne + Kate

A thank you card round up to help prepare for post-holiday thank you cards!

 

That’s it for me this week! I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday! xoxo

2017 Gift Guide: Cocktails + Entertaining

Today’s gift guide is all about cocktails and entertaining! We’ve rounded up some of our favorite bar tools, syrups, and accessories for your favorite imbiber, along with a few gorgeous entertaining pieces for the nights that you invite friends over for cocktails. There’s even a spirits tasting box that sounds pretty exciting. Here are a few ideas to help get you started!

2017 Gift Guide: Cocktails and Entertaining

1. Loving the new matte black bar tools from Cocktail Kingdom

2. Give your favorite imbiber a set of bitters and syrups to power their cocktails all year long! For Tiki fans, we love the tropical syrups from Liber & Co., which makes syrups with clean, bright flavors like this Tropical Passionfruit Syrup and Almond Orgeat and these Bittermens Tiki bitters. For classic cocktail fans, grab this curated kit of hard-to-find syrups and bitters that are essential for making pre-prohibition cocktail recipes like the Clover Club and The Martinez. Plus, each kit comes with a few cocktail recipe cards to help get you started!

3. Drinks by the Dram offers a huge selection of tasting box sets filled with award-winning samples of the finest spirits, including several spirits that would otherwise be really difficult to find or totally out of budget. It’s a great way to sample and learn about different spirits at an affordable price point.

4. This brass and matte black cocktail shaker would look amazing on your home bar cart!

5. + 6. If you can find them in your area, these two spirits make wonderful gifts: Cali Whiskey and Sukkah Hill Etrog and Besamim Liqueurs. The Sukkah Hill liqueurs are complex, with robust flavors inspired by Jewish cuisine that make fantastic cocktail ingredients – and are great for sipping.

7. An AeroGarden to grow fresh herbs for cocktail garnishes and syrups throughout the year.

8. Just a few of the cocktail books on our wish list: The Drunken Botanist, And a Bottle of Rum, and A Proper Drink (not pictured, but still on our list).

9. This Viski professional citrus juicer isn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but it makes juicing fresh citrus so easy that it will change your drinks forever.

10. Cheese and cocktails go hand in hand. This large bread board from Food52 would make the perfect cheese and antipasti board!

11. Completely obsessed with this marbled serving tray by Eliana Bernard.

12. Cocktail Kingdom Professional Ice Sphere Maker – for making that perfectly clear and perfectly round ice sphere.

13. This Alva Cocktail Mixing Vessel by Analog Mercantile is a beautiful stoneware mixing pitcher, made in the United States – and does double-duty as a vase when not in use.

14. Cozy Linen makes the most gorgeous table linens, from tablecloths to tea towels to dinner napkins. This gray striped linen tablecloth is a classic, but I’m also loving the pale pink version!