Search Results for: calligraphy

Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

Hello everyone! I’m excited to share some pretty calligraphy inspiration from that captures a fluid and organic calligraphy style. Nowadays, it’s easy to find fonts and digital graphics that incorporate fanciful lettering, and I’m all for calligraphy taking over the world. But when you see an artist doing calligraphy in a way that looks so uncalibrated, so imperfectly perfect, with brushstrokes that you simply can’t create with the click of a mouse, that makes me appreciate this art form that much more. So take a peek through the work of Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design!

Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

Ettie, an East Coast native, shared on her Instagram that she took the leap into a full-time creative career after a detour through law school. It’s clear Ettie has a love for handmade papers, and the delicate raw edges feel like the perfect canvas for her delicate calligraphy. I also love all the botanical patterns she mixes in with her work. Ettie Kim’s website includes a just-launched shop where you can hire her for projects from semi-custom invitations to address labels, and she shares her inspiration: “My lettering work is inspired by the asymmetrical, irregular forms found in nature, and I aim for unique design that is organic yet refined.”

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Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

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Simplicity rules, as you can see in this sweet save-the-date by Ettie.

Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

These invitations were designed with a dusty rose ombré to match the bridesmaid dresses.

Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

A vintage crate adorned with sweet calligraphy is just about the perfect spot for cards and gifts for a rustic modern wedding.

Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

Honey jar wedding favors with custom calligraphy tags. | Photo credit: Nikki Kauzlarich

Calligraphy Inspiration: Ettie Kim Calligraphy and Design

On Ettie’s site, she notes you can contact her “for other bespoke inquiries” (which I love) including non-paper projects like designing a calligraphy tattoo. Let me just say, I have no tattoos and I was not the teenager who was ever pining for a tattoo. But recently (late thirties crisis?!), I’ve had this newfound desire to get inked in part because of all the amazing calligraphy tattoos I’m seeing popping up on inspiration boards. I’m still not sure I’ll ever take that big permanent leap, but if I were to get a tattoo, Ettie would be one of the first artists I’d look to for the design.

Photo Credits: Ettie Kim Design, except where noted

Thanks for following along and be back soon with more calligraphy love!

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations

Kids often have all the fun when it comes to celebrating birthdays. I’m always so happy to see adults celebrate some of their own milestone birthdays, especially when the invitations are this pretty! Clara of Goldie Design Co. created these traditional black and gold screen printed invitations for a 40th birthday party at an historic hotel full of southern flair. Clara brought the elegant feel of the venue into the invitation design with the moody black and gold color palette and a crest inspired by the hotel logo, along with custom watercolor envelope liners inspired by the hotel’s tile floors. Beautiful!

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations by Goldie Design Co.

From Clara: This design was for the invitations for Courtney’s 40th birthday celebration to be held at the Hotel Emma in San Antonio, Texas. This hotel is Courtney’s all time favorite, and she wanted the simplicity and elegance of this hotel to shine through in the paper pieces. The Hotel Emma is a historical building that used to be a brewhouse, but now houses the 146 rooms of this riverfront hotel. The elegant and traditional, yet modern and warm southern feel was exactly the look we were going for with the birthday party invitation suite.

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations by Goldie Design Co.

Courtney wanted to incorporate her initials into a crest similar to the hotel’s logo, which she planned to use throughout her stationery for the event. This crest sits centered at the top of the invitation card, with a simple double lined border around the text to give it a traditional feel.

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations by Goldie Design Co.

The invitation card was screen printed in metallic gold ink on a smooth black paper. The typefaces used in the invitation were kept fairly simple, except for her name done in a flowing modern calligraphy, that would tie together with the hand addressed calligraphy envelopes.

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations by Goldie Design Co.

The black and gold color palette brought in that moody southern feel of the hotel, but we wanted to incorporate a pop of color. Courtney mentioned that she loves the beautiful tile floors seen throughout the hotel. After researching these gorgeous floors, I decided that a soft watercolor painting of the tile pattern would provide the perfect pop of color for the invitation suite. So each envelope was adorned with a custom envelope liner featuring a hand-painted watercolor of the floor pattern. It really tied the suite together and gave it that last bit of southern flair.

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations by Goldie Design Co.

The outer envelopes were addressed with calligraphy in metallic gold ink and dressed up with some hand picked vintage stamps to go along with both the theme and color scheme. My favorite stamp used is the Texas statehood one that not only is perfect for the venue of the the party, but also brings out the blues of the watercolor envelope liner. The back flap of the envelope is blind embossed with a simple return address. The invitation was wrapped in a very thin white twine.

Traditional Black and Gold Screen Printed Invitations by Goldie Design Co.

Thanks Clara!

Design, Calligraphy, and Styling:Goldie Design Co.

Screenprinting: Atmosphere Printing Company

Envelopes: Cards & Pockets

Photo Credits: Clara Odgen

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations

These beautiful monochromatic illustrated botanical wedding invitations from the ladies of Fourteen-Forty are the perfect balance of elegant and understated. Inspired by the Hudson Valley wedding venue, the invitations feature a subtle sage green paired with pearly gold foil. With fern and flower botanical illustrations woven throughout the suite, these wedding invitations are full of traditional beauty with elegant natural touches!

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations by Fourteen Forty

From Rachel of Fourteen-Forty: Christine and John’s wedding invitations were inspired by their love for nature and their wedding venue. The wedding took place at Grasmere Farm in Rhinebeck, New York. We drew our inspiration from the simple elegance of the venue and its natural surroundings. We couldn’t resist drawing an illustration of the beautiful reception hall on the farm, which ended up as a recurring motif throughout the invitation suite. We played up the outdoor venue by adding in botanical illustrations. We incorporated ferns and flowers, which grew from the corners of the main invitation and RSVP card.

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations by Fourteen Forty

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations by Fourteen Forty

During our first design meeting it became evident that letterpress printing with some gold foil elements was the way to go. Once we decided on a lovely shade of sage green for the letterpress printing, a light and pearly gold foil seemed like the perfect complement to the very soft color palette.

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations by Fourteen Forty

We always look for ways to add an extra something special to wedding invitation suites, whether it is a wax seal, a map, calligraphy, or in this case, a belly band. It literally tied all the pieces together into one neat package and added a nice strong band of color to the suite. We love how the sage green belly band served as a wonderful finishing touch to this elegant wedding invitation suite.

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations by Fourteen Forty

Thanks Tricia and Rachel!

Invitations and Styling: Fourteen-Forty

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

Photo Credits: Fourteen-Forty

Happy Weekend!

Yay Friday! Do you all have fun pre-Halloween plans this weekend? Our neighborhood is hosting a big Halloween block party for all the kids in the area tonight, but official trick or treating is always on Halloween proper in DC, so we’ll have to wait until Monday for that. But in the meantime…

Green Feather Envelope Liner Pattern by RSVP Paper Co via Instagram

Illustration by RSVP Paper Co. via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend!

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

That’s it for us this week! Check back a bit later for a cocktail recipe (yay!) and I’ll see you back here next week! xoxo

Printable Halloween Treat Bags

Happy (almost) Halloween! Are any of you hosting costume parties this weekend? For those of you who might have little costumed guests in attendance, I thought I’d share one more project from our Halloween collaboration with Fiskars: printable Halloween treat bags! I made the bags using a combination of vellum, kraft paper, and black paper and filled them with some of my favorite treats. You could even fill the bags with snacks to enjoy during the party, like popcorn or pretzels!

DIY Printable Halloween Treat Bags

The favor bags feature five of my favorite Halloween puns and phrases along with a few hand drawn patterns using white Pen-touch paint markers on the black treat bags. The bags themselves are so easy to make – just print the designs on a sheet of letter size paper, then cut in half, fold, and tape shut with double sided tape. I even cut little ghosts from white printer paper and used a glue stick to apply them to the treat bags. You can find all five printable designs plus the ghost template for download over on Fiskars right here!

DIY Printable Halloween Treat Bags

DIY Printable Halloween Treat Bags

I love the idea of a black and white Halloween color palette, but since the printable designs feature only black text you can print them on ANY color paper using your home printer. Traditional Halloween orange? No problem. Non-traditional pastels? Definitely! Or go with all vellum for a ghost-like vibe!

DIY Printable Halloween Treat Bags

DIY Printable Halloween Treat Bags

Bugs + hisses! Ghost treats! Spook-tacular! So fun for Halloween costume party guests of all ages. Check out the full post and grab all the printable files over on the Fiskars website right here!

p.s. Printable black and white calligraphy Halloween treat bags

This post was created in partnership with Fiskars. All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!