Giada + Davide’s Kraft Paper and Lace Wedding Invitations

As much as I love bright pops of color, I’m just as easily blown away by a beautiful wedding invitation suite done all in soft and natural colors.  Valentina from Cut and Paste created these beautiful invitations for a recent wedding in Friuli, Italy, combining kraft paper, lace, and even lasercut wood into the wedding invitations and day-of stationery!

From Valentina:  Giada and Davide wanted a soft boho style wedding with lots of little flags and banners.  I created an invitation suite with a natural color palette, incorporating lace, kraft paper, and wood.  The kraft paper invitations were screen printed in white ink with a lace overlay at the top, then paired with white envelopes and kraft paper wrap-around address labels.

For favors, we printed copies of Giada and Davide’s favorite biscuit recipe on kraft paper and bound them to small jars of cinnamon.

 

Lasercut wooden flags served as table numbers, while laser engraved clothespins functioned as place cards.

 

Thanks Valentina!

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

Photo Credits: Valentina | Cut and Paste

Vintage Stamp Journals from Campbell Raw Press

I adore the hand-bound journals and albums from Maggie at Campbell Raw Press; I even used one as my wedding guestbook years ago!  Maggie recently combined two of my favorite things – vintage postage stamps and her beautiful bookbinding – into a brand new collection of limited edition cloth-bound journals and photo albums, called Post-Marked!


From Maggie: Post-Marked is a new series of limited edition handmade journals and photo albums.  Each book features a vintage postage stamp set into a cover made with an eco-friendly cotton-linen book cloth.  A new collection of books will be available every two weeks from October through December.  The first collection features air mail stamps and subsequent collections include U.S. states, world travel, conservation, and natural history.

 

Check out the current edition right here!  Thanks Maggie!

Photo Credits: Campbell Raw Press

Metallic Greeting Cards from Fig. 2 Design Studio + Jess LC

Right now I’m loving metallics and pretty much all things shiny, so I was thrilled to see these gorgeous new metallic foil stamp greeting cards from Jessica Constable of Jess LC and Claudia from Fig. 2 Design Studio show up in my inbox!

Jessica and Claudia recently teamed up to develop a collection of foil stamp note cards.  The collection features adorable striped and confetti greeting cards in a range of fun metallic colors – from gold to turquoise to plum to bronze – as well as some festive and colorful gift tags!

The confetti cards come with a Cheers! salutation while the striped sets come with Merci!

The gold foil stamped note sets are sold exclusively through Jess LC and come with coral envelopes.  Gift tags and boxed notes in additional colors are available through the Fig. 2 Design Studio online shop and come with matching colored envelopes.  Thanks Claudia!

Photo Credits: Mary Kate McKenna, Calligraphy by Meant to Be Calligraphy

Lauren + Daniel’s Country Elegance Fabric Pocket Wedding Invitations

Happy Monday everyone!  We’re starting the week off with a beautiful suite of wedding invitations from recent bride Lauren – Lauren worked with Lesley from Inclosed Studio for both the design and letterpress printing of her wedding invitations.  I love the clean and simple invitation design paired with fabric pockets and a few bright pops of color!

From Lauren: Our wedding took place in a barn in rural Iowa.  We were going for classic country elegance with lots of DIY details.  Lesley at Inclosed Studio blew us away with her creativity and attention to detail.  The invitations were composed of three detail cards and an RSVP postcard – all letterpress printed by Lesley.  A fabric pocket encased the cards perfectly.


We loved the combination of the elegance of the letterpress design paired with the rustic hand-sewn pocket.  Several fabric patters were chosen for the pocket in keeping with our wedding colors of red and tan.  The variety of fabrics and patterns made each invitation different and special.

 

The fabric was a huge inspiration for the rest of our decor decisions.  I took the extra pocket fabric mixed with other patterns to create banners for the eating area.  They looked so pretty blowing in the breeze!  The day was full of love and laughter and we are so thankful to Lesley for setting the tone for a perfect day with these beautiful invitations.

Thanks Lauren!

Design and Letterpress Printing: Inclosed Studio

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

Photo Credits: dpmuller photography

Friday Happy Hour: A Traditional Daiquiri

Me again! I’m popping back in for just a quick second with something a bit different. Over the past couple of months, my husband has been having fun experimenting with different cocktail recipes – and I have to admit, I was kind of skeptical at first, but it’s amazing how good a well crafted cocktail tastes compared to the kind of drinks I was used to before. So today I thought I’d share one of his new recipes with you! This cocktail is a slight twist on a classic daiquiri – not a fru-fru thing with a tiny umbrella, but a citrus-y sweet cocktail right out of the Caribbean.

Cocktail-Recipe-Traditional-Daiquiri

Read below for the full recipe!

The Traditional Daiquiri

2 oz rum
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/4 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz simple syrup

The daiquiri that most people meet is basically a fruit smoothie with alcohol – colorful, filled with ground ice, and overly sweet.  This is not that daiquiri.  This daiquiri is an old drink from Cuba, a natural development from the island’s history of sugar and citrus growing.  It balances sweet and sour, alcohol and citrus, and is remarkably crisp and refreshing.

Cocktail-Recipe-Traditional-Daiquiri

A classic daiquiri is made with just rum, lime juice, and simple syrup.  I usually substitute Cointreau – a liqueur made from dried orange peels – for about half the simple syrup called for in a traditional recipe.  The Cointreau adds both sweetness and a beautiful citrus flavor that pairs really well with the lime in the daiquiri.  Pour all of the ingredients into a shaker filled about halfway with ice.  Shake – hard – for 20 seconds.  Pour into chilled glasses.

Cocktail-Recipe-Traditional-Daiquiri Cocktail-Recipe-Traditional-Daiquiri

A couple of cocktail tips:

A general rule for mixing drinks: if the drink is all spirits, stir it; if it includes spirits and other ingredients, like juice, sugar, or a egg, shake it.  Shaking with ice cools the drink, aerates it to improve the texture, and makes sure all the ingredients are fully blended so they won’t separate out in your glass.  For daiquiris, I like to shake them vigorously, resulting in a nice frothy foam and little slivers of ice on top of the drink.

Cocktail-Recipe-Traditional-Daiquiri

You can mix large batches of simple syrup and store them in a bottle in the refrigerator for up to a month.  Just mix equal parts sugar with water, then gently heat them in a pan on the stove, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved into the water.  Brown sugar or cane sugar are best for mixed drinks, especially the daiquiri.

Enjoy!

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper