12/17/2013

A New Year’s Eve Cocktail Dinner Party with St-Germain

Only a couple more weeks left in 2013! I always look forward to New Year’s Eve â€“ both as an opportunity to celebrate with friends and as a chance to welcome change with open arms. Ever since I read The Night Circus earlier this year (so good!), I’ve been intrigued by the idea of formal midnight dinner parties. Invite a few close friends, give them an excuse to dress up in their best party clothes (something I don’t get to do nearly often enough), and have a wonderful evening full of great food and cocktails. And what better occasion for a midnight dinner than New Year’s Eve? So we’ve teamed up with our friends at St-Germain, Karson Butler Events, and Meant to Be Calligraphy to offer some inspiration for those of you planning some New Year’s Eve festivities: a cocktail dinner party!

As always, let’s start with the invitations! Because we were aiming for something a bit more formal this time around, I decided to go with calligraphy from start to finish. Michele from Meant to Be Calligraphy created a stunning invitation in classic black ink on white paper and a calligraphy flourish on the back. We paired the invitations with slate gray envelopes (with a colorful DIY envelope liner) addressed in shimmery gold ink.

We set up a side table as a makeshift bar to welcome guests with cocktails and appetizers â€“ a little something to keep everyone happy through the countdown to midnight! We’ll be sharing the recipes a little bit later, but our menu included a cheese plate (a party requirement, yes?), a punch, a classic cocktail recipe, a champagne cocktail, and a mocktail for any designated drivers.

Slate from Brooklyn Slate Company / Wood serving board from Target

Vintage punch bowl set and ladle / Coasters from Linea Carta

I’ve been obsessed with these constellation matchboxes for the longest time â€“ they seemed like the perfect favors for a New Year’s Eve party! We paired them with gray and white striped favor bags from Shop Sweet Lulu with Michele’s calligraphy in gold ink.

I found these heart shaped cards at Paper Source a while back (sadly no longer available in black), but wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Michele came up with the brilliant idea of giving them to guests to inspire resolutions for the new year and conversations with fellow guests. Michele wrote out phrases on each card, again in gold ink â€“ they’re now pretty much my favorite thing ever!

After midnight, time for dinner! Amber and Emily from Karson Butler Events created a backdrop of white streamers and a mixture of tissue paper fans and honeycombs in various sizes for a really beautiful layered texture. It’s so pretty against the white brick wall!

I had so much fun with the floral arrangements! I created a single centerpiece for the dinner table with peonies, garden roses, black and white anemones, paperwhites, silver brunia, white hypericum berries, and seeded eucalyptus. Smaller arrangements with the same flowers were sprinkled around the bar, along with a large bunch of seeded eucalyptus and bay leaves in an antique metal pitcher.

I also did a simple swag of greenery down the center of the dinner table using small clippings of seeded eucalyptus, bay leaves, olive leaves, hypericum berries, and gold spray painted pepper berries (for a bit of extra sparkle) â€“ all tucked around the centerpiece floral arrangement and small mercury glass votives. No floral wire necessary! We also created a table runner using layers of burlap â€“ a plain loose weave burlap over silver polka dot burlap from Joann Fabrics.

Our place settings included place cards with Michele’s calligraphy in silver ink on slate gray paper, metallic rimmed plates with gray linen napkins, and gold flatware.

Full cocktail and mocktail recipes are coming up in just a bit!

Styling: Oh So Beautiful Paper and Karson Butler Events

Invitations and Calligraphy: Meant to Be Calligraphy

Floral Design: Oh So Beautiful Paper

Location: Karson Butler Events Design Studio

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

12/16/2013

Quick Pick: Oh My Deer

Chelsea from Oh My Deer combines two of my favorite things: inspirational quotes and beautiful hand lettering! With both large posters and small prints, there’s a little something for everyone â€“ and even a few special things for the holidays. Now I just need to figure out how to make room in my office for the flower poster. So gorgeous!

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Lots more over at Oh My Deer!

Photo Credits: Oh My Deer

12/16/2013

DIY Hand Painted Envelopes

We all love to dress up our envelopes with beautiful postage stamps, gorgeous calligraphy, and pretty address labels. But what about cards (and envelopes) delivered in person? I always try to personalize the front of my hand delivered envelopes, whether it’s a simple hand drawn border or a pretty flourish around the recipients’ names. This week I thought I’d share a few of the ways I’m personalizing my hand delivered holiday cards, although you can totally use these ideas year round. These aren’t really tutorials â€“ just a few ideas that I wanted to share. Today we’re starting with my favorite idea: hand painted envelopes!

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Watercolor paints are one of my favorite ways to dress up light color envelopes â€“ the pattern options are endless! I’m partial to stripes and line borders, but you can also create a watercolor wash by using more water to dilute your chosen color. For this example, I used a deep cobalt blue and emerald green on Mohawk Superfine White envelopes.

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You’ll probably want to play around with colors and patterns on some scrap paper before moving on to your envelopes. Normally, watercolors would be used on super thick paper, so depending on your particular envelopes there will most likely be some warping/wrinkling in the paper. I’m not bothered by this, but just make sure that the envelopes are completely dry before you insert your card or address the finished envelope.

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For darker envelopes, I like to use opaque acrylic paint for a fun light-on-dark effect. Here I used white acrylic paint on Mohawk antique vellum envelopes (in Iris) paired with my favorite gold and copper metallic Sharpie markers.

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To create a dry brush effect along the edge, simply start out with a small amount of paint on the edge of your brush. Too much paint, and you’ll loose the feathery texture. Starting at the top left corner of your envelope, paint a horizontal stroke â€“ moving in a single motion until your brush runs out of paint. Repeat down each side of the envelope. Let dry, then write the name of your recipient on the envelope!

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For the border effect, I like to start with the small curves in each corner to serve as guides. Then draw lines to connect the ends of each curve. I used the flat edge of my brush for the outer frame to achieve a thinner line, then switched to the broad edge of the brush for a thicker inner frame. Don’t worry about painting perfectly straight lines â€“ any wobbly lines or changes in texture will only add to the hand painted charm. Let dry, then write in the name of your recipient â€“ and done!

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I’ll be back with a couple more ideas later in the week!

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

12/16/2013

Phoebe’s Floral and Gold Foil Birth Announcements

Erin of BerinMade and her husband recently welcomed their first child â€“ a darling baby girl named Phoebe Rose! Erin designed a floral birth announcement inspired by Phoebe’s middle name, and featuring Phoebe’s darling silhouette! Ah, baby silhouettes. There is nothing sweeter! Erin also hand lettered Phoebe’s name, which was stamped in gold foil over the digitally printed floral background. Such a beautiful combination!

From Erin:Â My husband and I were started thinking about these birth announcements before Phoebe was born because we were so excited! The suite is inspired by her name, Phoebe Rose. Phoebe’s name means a “bright, shining light” and we really wanted concept to stand out on the announcement. We knew we wanted gold foil for her name.Â I incorporated my hand-painted roses as the floral background of the card and hand-lettered her name. The card was then digitally printed on watercolour textured stock, then gold foil was pressed on top.

A silhouette of her face was traced from the very last scan we did prior to giving birth! And because we had received so many presents and well-wishes by that point, we also had matching notecards printed with the rose motif. On the back, we printed a verse which reads “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.”

Congrats Erin!

Photo Credits: Kirsten Mavric Photography

12/13/2013

Friday Happy Hour: Le Japonais

Cocktails are a malleable bunch. There’s no recipe out there that can’t be tweaked or deconstructed to suit your tastes or your mood, no matter how classic or venerable. Here’s a good example: a classic, the Japanese Cocktail (which, despite its name, has nothing to do with Japan) and a modern update, incorporating the enormously versatile St-Germain, Le Japonais.â€“ Andrew

Illustration byÂ Shauna LynnÂ for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Le Japonais

2 oz Brandy
1/2 ozÂ St-Germain
1/4 oz Orgeat Syrup
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
2 Dashes Orange Bitters

Combine everything in a mixing glass filled with ice and stir well until chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the biggest piece of lemon peel you can carve. Enjoy!

The original Japanese Cocktail paired a full half ounce of the sweet, almond-flavored Orgeat syrup with a half teaspoonful of bitters, probably to balance the richness of the Orgeat. Le Japonais adds in the sweet floral notes ofÂ St-Germain, along with some additional bitters to balance out the extra sweetness. It’s a pretty mellow drink, thanks to the smoothness of the Brandy and the balance between the sweet and bitter elements.

Ok, so: the Japanese Cocktail? It’s not from Japan, it wasn’t invented by anyone from Japan (or even in Japan!), and it doesn’t contain any Japanese ingredients. Brandy and Orgeat are decidedlyÂ notÂ Japanese in origin. So what gives? Well, David Wondrich â€“ who should know, because he does this for a livingÂ â€“Â identifies it as the creation of famed bartender Jerry Thomas, who may have invented it in 1860 to commemorate the first Japanese legation to the United States. Maybe. Apparently, they finished up their trip in New York, where Thomas worked, and were pretty fond of cocktails, which Thomas made lots of.Â In other words, the first clever, commemorative cocktail name. 153 years ago. Go figure.

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

This post is brought to you in collaboration withÂ St-Germain.Â AllÂ content, photos, recipes, and words are our own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!