Nature-Inspired Quilled Marriage Certificate

Last year, I was thrilled to feature an amazing black and white quilled wedding certificate by paper filigrée artist Ann Martin.  Today I’m thrilled to welcome Ann back with another stunning wedding certificate!  The bride and groom were married last week in the Jurassic Park section of Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.  Given the jungle-like atmosphere of the theme park, the couple asked for autumn colors, leaves, mushrooms, birds – even a few small forest animals!

Nature-Inspired-Quilled-Marriage-Certificate

Nature-Inspired-Quilled-Marriage-Certificate

Ann took on the challenge of creating a non-traditional wedding certificate design for a very unique wedding.  The couple was thrilled with the result, which includes acorns, an owl, blue jay, squirrel, and even a tiny mouse.  Riva Brown of Living Letters Studio did the lovely calligraphy in dark brown ink.

Nature-Inspired-Quilled-Marriage-Certificate

The certificate will be signed by the bride and groom, as well as the wedding guests as a sign of support for the couple in their marriage.  Wedding certificates can be a lovely alternative as a wedding guest book, and of course can be framed and displayed at home after the wedding.

Nature-Inspired-Quilled-Marriage-Certificate

A bit of background from Ann on the art of paper quilling:  Paper quilling is a rolled paper technique that originated several hundred years ago in Europe.  As a DIY aspect, I encourage brides-to-be to quill their own certificates and have posted quite a few tutorials on my blog.  Place cards and favor boxes can be beautifully accented with just a few quilled elements.

Nature-Inspired-Quilled-Marriage-Certificate

Nature-Inspired-Quilled-Marriage-Certificate

So pretty!  Ann has so much more beautiful paper quilling examples over on her blog, which you can check out right here!  Thanks Ann!

{image credits: ann martin}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  As you all read this, I’ll be in the middle of a long drive with my husband to visit his family in upstate New York.  I’m not looking forward to the long drive up, but it’ll be nice to chase after our niece and nephew all weekend.  Before I head off, I’ll leave you with one last reminder to enter the holiday card giveaway from Satsuma Press – the contest closes tonight at midnight!  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend!

And in case you missed it, a quick round-up of this week’s posts:

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

{image credits: cheska annellise via mary ruffle}

Quick Pick: Seesaw + Satsuma Press

Today I’m loving these new cards from SeeSaw and Satsuma Press.  Between playful patterns, beautiful calligraphy, and modern flags, it would be so lovely to receive one of these pretties in the mail!  First up, from SeeSaw, a variety pack of the most important greeting cards – birthday, thank you, congratulations, and hello – in some seriously fun color and pattern combinations:

seesaw-modern-letterpress-greeting-cards

seesaw-yellow-gray-thank-you-cards

{seesaw}

From Satsuma Press, I’m loving this collaboration with Mara from Neither Snow, featuring her lovely calligraphy next to Lynn’s feather illustration on these bird of a feather cards:

Birds-of-a-feather-calligraphy-cards

Simple-Flag-Letterpress-Cards

Simple-Flag-Letterpress-Cards

{satsuma press}

And speaking of Satsuma Press – have you entered the custom holiday card giveaway?  It closes tonight at midnight!

{image credits: seesaw and satsuma press}

2011 Calendar Round-Up, Part 6

Now that November is upon us, I’m getting ready to move on from calendars to holiday cards.  But before we wrap up the calendar round-ups for 2011, I’ve got a few more lovely designs to share with you!  If you missed any of the previous round-ups, you can check out Parts 1 – 5 right here!

First up, I love the limited edition 2011 letterpress calendar from Parrott Design Studio – featuring some of Sarah’s favorite vintage illustrations and calligraphy from Li at Fat Orange Cat Studio!

Parrott-Design-Studio-2011-Calendar

Parrott-Design-Studio-Calendar

{parrott design studio}

This circus-theme calendar print from illustrator Judy Kaufmann would be perfect for a child’s bedroom!

{judy kaufmann}

The annual calendars from Hello Handmade are always incredibly romantic – and this year is no exception.  The calendars are divided by season, each featuring a quote from Mary Oliver along with Betsy Dunlap’s gorgeous calligraphy and Shanna Murray’s beautiful illustrations:

hello-handmade-2011-calendar

hello-handmade-2011-calendar-feathers

{hello handmade}

I’m loving the bursts of color in this year’s desktop calendar from Delphine.  In addition to the brightly colored illustrations for each individual month, the back of each month is also printed with a solid ink color for an extra punch. The calendar comes with a magnetic bull clip so you can hang it on your fridge, magnetic bulletin board, or even a filing cabinet:

Delphine-2011-Calendar-May

{delphine}

For those of you from or living in the Pacific Northwest, this calendar from Mossière is the one for you.  Screen printed in four colors, the design features 13 flora and fauna specimens from the region, along with calligraphy from Kathryn Murray.  Bonus – it can be trimmed and framed as a square print at the end of the year!

{mossière}

The 2011 letterpress calendar from Lark Press has a different theme for each month of the year:

{lark press}

Albertine Press has two calendar formats this year, a wall calendar with beautiful illustrations and a star-shaped accordion calendar in an argyle pattern.  The accordion calendar is really cool – it can sit right on your desk or table, spinning around as the year progresses!

Albertine-Press-Wall-Calendar

Albertine-Press-Star-Accordion-Calendar

{albertine press}

The 2011 calendar collaboration from Bird Dog Press and WonderBound Press features twelve amazing handmade woodcut illustrations of heritage breed farm animals – all designed to pay respect to homesteading. Each month includes a month of days, the phases of the moon, a heritage breed, an heirloom crop, a feedsack-inspired pattern and is handprinted on an antique letterpress on sustainable bamboo paper:

{available for pre-order here}

This colorful 2011 wall calendar from Perideau Designs has plenty of space for keeping track of upcoming appointments, events, and tasks:

Perideau-Designs-Wall-Calendar

{perideau designs}

For bright color in a monthly format, check out this illustrated desktop calendar from Alex Winjen:

Alex-Winjen-2011-Calendar

{alex winjen}

In addition to other larger-format calendars featured earlier, both Pistachio Press and Blackbird Letterpress are releasing these cool tear-away calendars:

tear away letterpress 2011 calendar

{pistachio press}

blackbird-letterpress-pelican-calendar

{blackbird letterpress}

{all images from their respective sources}

*Delphine is one of my fantastic sponsors; for more on my editorial policies please click here.

Watercolor Wedding Map

I love custom maps for wedding invitations, but sometimes they can fall a bit too far on the cartoonish side.  Luckily, this hand drawn map from Courtney at Swiss Cottage Designs strikes the perfect balance of modern and whimsical.  Courtney created this gorgeous custom map of Boston Harbor for a recent bride – I love the watercolor details and hand lettering!

Custom-Wedding-Map-Boston

Custom-Wedding-Map-Boston

Custom-Wedding-Map-Boston

Custom-Wedding-Map-Boston

So pretty!  Courtney has also some designed some pretty awesome wedding invitations and save the dates – check out some of her past work over on her blog!

{image credits: swiss cottage designs}