I absolutely love these business cards from Ice Cream Social for writer Caitlin Hall. Growing up, my Dad always used to cite this quote from playwright David Belasco: “If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea” – and these cards put the concept behind that quote to great use!  Plus I’m loving the bright colors, which seems to be a theme here this week.  Nicely done!
Photo Credits: Ice Cream Social
Carmela from Fiore Press created these adorable pink and orange letterpress invitations for her daughter’s 4th birthday party a couple of months ago. Â Carmela incorporated bright colors, floral design elements, and a cute bunting illustration in the main invitation, along with matching thank you cards and floral envelope liners. Â So fun!
From Carmela: I’ve always loved flag banners and I really wanted to print something with bright colors for Gabby’s birthday.  I always hand mix the ink, and I just love the poppy and fuchsia in these invitations –they remind me of rainbow sherbet and summer.  Printing two colors with such tight registration can be tricky, but I love how these came out!
I also printed corresponding thank you notes, and the envelopes are probably my favorite part of the entire invitation.  I love printing on the corner of the envelope and having it spill over onto the flap – who wouldn’t love to get these in the mail?  I used both poppy and fuchsia colored envelopes (mainly because I couldn’t decide between the two!) and used brown ink to print the envelopes, and lined the envelopes with wrapping paper from Snow & Graham.  I loved being able to do these for my daughter.
Carmela even used the same Snow & Graham wrapping paper to frame the invitations after the party!
Thanks Carmela!
Photo Credits: Carmela | Fiore Letterpress
It’s the ladies of AntiÂquaria, back with another fabÂuÂlous and creÂative DIY project for you all!  This project is for wedÂding save the dates, but you can easÂily apply this tutoÂrÂial to any party inviÂtaÂtions or announcements!
These Save the Dates and matching Thank You Cards combine the use of our custom rubber stamps with hand painted watercolor accents. Â This DIY project is inspired by Emma’s reception invitations that we did a while back, after her wedding. Â The calligraphy ended up having variegated shades, giving the illusion that it was watercolored. Â We ended up loving the way that the calligraphy looked and Emma embellished the invitations with a bit of color on one side, changing the look of the whole thing!
Using beautiful turquoise and blue shades of watercolor and our custom rubber stamps, this DIY save the date looks modern and organic at the same time.  The best part of this is just how easy it is to do!!  You don’t have to be an artist to master these painting techniques.  Also, we love how using different color combinations or shapes yield different results – making each card totally unique and its own little work of art.
Step One:Â On pre-cut pieces of watercolor paper, get creative with painting. Â We played with uneven painted stripes for the thank you cards and organic watery shapes for the save the dates.
Painting Tip: Go easy on the water to achieve a nice flat card. Â Too much water will make your paper buckle or ripple when drying.
Step Two: Once your paint has dried, on a hard surface, ink your stamp and place it in the center of the card. Â Apply even pressure and remove the stamp from the card.
For the Save the Date, we used the “Vintage Label” custom save the date stamp.  For the thank you notes, we used the “Simple but Sophisticated” monogram stamp – using a monogram stamp for your thank you notes can be a fun way to personalize them without breaking the bank after the wedding!
Step Three: We used the “Calligraphy Accent” return address stamp to finish everything off.
Now all that’s left is stuffing and addressing your envelopes!
Materials List:
Custom Save the Date & Monogram rubber stamps. Â The ones used in this tutorial are:
“Vintage Label” Save the Date Stamp, Â “Simple but Sophisticated” Monogram Stamp, Â “Calligraphy Accent” Return Address Stamp
Color Box Stamp Pad (we used a variety of teals and blues for this project)
Watercolors and brushes (you can purchase at any craft or art store)
A small dish and a jar of water (used to mix paint and wash brushes)
A6 Envelopes (shown above in Curry)
B4 Thank You Card Envelopes (shown above in Peacock)
Paper Options:
You can have large watercolor sheets or pads – the thicker the better, (purchased from your local art store) cut to size at your local print shop.
Just tell them the dimensions you need based on your envelope choice, the cut cards should be at least 1/4″ smaller than the envelope measurement.
If you are using the Paper Source A6 and B4 sizes that are shown above, ask for your pieces to be cut to
6 1/4″ x 4 1/2″ (A6) and 3 1/2″ x 5″ (B4).
If getting paper cut is too much of a hassle, you can use the luxe papers from Paper Source and buy them pre-cut.
Just be careful with how much water you use with your paints. Â If you are using lightweight (90 lb) watercolor paper or the luxe papers from Paper Source, these papers will tend to buckle if you use too much water.
Photo Credits: Antiquaria
My husband returns from his deployment exactly three weeks – I can’t wait to have him back home! I’ve mentioned some of the house projects I’ve been trying to finish up before he comes home, and today I thought I’d do something a little different and share the inspiration for our bedroom!
Somehow the bedroom received the least amount of decorating attention after we moved into our apartment in early 2010, so my husband’s 6-month deployment seemed like the perfect time to take the entire room apart and put it back together, bit by bit. So far I’ve painted, ordered the fabric for the curtains, and am in various stages of accumulating the right furniture for the space. We already have two antique dressers and bamboo roman blinds in the room, so the overall look will be on the eclectic side, but I’m really happy with the way everything is coming together.
The headboard is a longer term project that won’t be finished before my husband comes home; eventually I’d love to DIY our own in a style similar to the Room and Board headboard above, but in the Hable Construction fabric that I’ve always loved. Of course, my favorite part so far has been finally getting to hang some amazing artwork that I’ve been accumulating over the last few years. It makes me so happy to see pretty things up on the wall!
Today I’m super excited to feature the wedding invitations from Whitney of Gus & Ruby Letterpress!  Whitney and Samantha are two seriously talented stationers, so when it came time for Whitney’s own wedding I was dying to see the invitations!  Whitney worked with Love*Jenna Calligraphy, incorporating Jenna’s beautiful script into a bright and colorful invitation suite inspired by dahlias and the bridesmaids’ wedding attire.  Cyd from The Sweetest Occasion is featuring the full wedding today, so check out all the beautiful details right here.  But now, time for the invitations and coordinating wedding stationery!
From Whitney: Â The entire wedding was planned around the color of the bridesmaid’s dresses (a vibrant, warm purple shade) and shoes (a bright shade somewhere between peach and coral) and the invitations were no exception. Â I felt strongly that while I wanted our invitations to be different, I didn’t want to do something so over the top that it didn’t mesh with my and A.K.’s personalities, which are laid back and fun, but not flashy. Â This was a struggle for me as a designer, printer and owner of a stationery boutique, but I think I succeeded in the end. Â Overall I wanted the invitation suite to set the tone for the wedding: a fun, backyard garden-party with saturated mid-August colors.
We used dahlias as our main flower and I created abstract versions of them to use as the design for the paper goods.  I didn’t want them to be obvious flowers so I spread them around the invitation at varying sizes and heights so they would feel celebratory – almost in the way fireworks do.  We chose Jenna Hein from Love*Jenna Calligraphy to write choice words for each piece because of her playful, whimsical style that also has traditional undertones.  The muslin bag came into play because I have never been a big fan of opening an invitation envelope and having numerous pieces fall into my hands.  The bag housed all of the pieces and also tied in to the numerous textures we used throughout the wedding.
The biggest challenge aside from the number of runs through the press (most pieces were 4-color) was hand-mixing the inks to match the fabrics. Â None of the colors I ended up with were actual PMS colors!
In addition to beautiful wedding and rehearsal dinner invitations, Whitney created several coordinating day-of stationery elements, including letterpress ceremony programs that honored the memories of family members, beautiful table numbers, and fun cake menus. Â And of course, as a stationer, Whitney couldn’t forget to print herself some matching thank you cards!
So pretty! Â Congratulations again to Whitney, and don’t forget to check out her beautiful wedding right here!
Design and Letterpress Printing: Gus & Ruby Letterpress
Calligraphy: Love *Jenna Calligraphy
Photo CredÂits:Â Brea McDonÂald Photography