Kristy + Adam’s Vintage Book Invitations

You might remember Kristy and Adam’s watercolor invitations and letterpress save the dates for their 10-year vow renewal earlier this year – the combination of Kristy’s amazing watercolor paintings with letterpress is still one of my absolute favorites.  Kristy and Adam decided to throw a party at their home in Pennsylvania for friends and family who couldn’t attend the ceremony out at Zion National Park.  And this time Kristy created the invitations using vintage hardcover books!

From Kristy: After a magical time in Zion National Park renewing our vows we could hardly wait for the big party in Pennsylvania to celebrate with those who were unable to travel.  Bringing a touch of the southwest to our party in PA was really important, so when I found this collection of Zane Grey Novels I knew I had to include them somehow.

Zane Grey was a prolific western adventure author who spent the later years of his life in Pennsylvania.  The historical landmark that once was his home is 45 minutes from ours!  The symbolism was perfect; western writer who spends his later years near our hometown….and the price wasn’t too shabby either; only $0.65 per book at a local vintage shop!

Betsy Dunlap‘s work has been present throughout our renewal invitations and save the dates so I saw it fitting to have her create an image that I could have turned into a rubber stamp.  I knew hand painting 75 books would be a chore but didn’t want to make it an impossible task.

Betsy penned a frame of text that repeated the words “Kristy and Adam 10 Years.”  I then imposed one of my Cosmo illustrations and sent the image off to a stamp maker.  White acrylic was brushed onto the stamp and – voila, our altered book invitations were begun!

Each bloom was then painted with various color inks; four shades of orange and red, a touch of gold, and three shades of green.  Rich, heavy strokes of color were added to each bloom to contrast the rough, water-stained shape the books were in when we found them.

Black velvet ribbon acted as a simple bookmark to discover the page in the book where the actual invitation was adhered.

Betsy also created the calligraphy for the kraft paper address labels, which were adhered to boxes that contained the party invitation and Zane Grey novels.

You can check out Kristy’s watercolor vow renewal invitations and letterpress save the dates here and here, and you can see lots more of her beautiful work over on Momental Designs.  Thank you so much Kristy!

{image credits: photo of kristy and adam from green apple photography, all other images by kristy rice}

{happy weekend!}

Are you all as anxious as I am to get a start on the weekend?  I’m looking forward to a weekend full of Word Cup matches (yay!), a bit of gardening, sleeping in, and trying out this coffee smoothie recipe (yum!).  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend:

…and a few favorite posts from the week:

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

{image credits: pretty swell}

Sailor Tattoo-Inspired Wedding Invitations

Happy Friday everyone!  Before we start to head off for the weekend, I have a fantastic (and definitely unique) wedding invitation suite to share, this time from Diane Faye!  Diane designed this invitation suite for recent clients Jessica and Jared – all around the central inspiration of a sailor tattoo!

Sailor Tattoo Wedding Invitations

Diane sketched out all the entire design herself, from the names of the bride and groom to the nautical elements: The couple really loved my tattoo invitations but wanted their wedding invitations to revolve more around a sailing theme.  So with a little research and a few rounds of sketching, I created the custom lettering of their names, a fun anchor with the rope forming the ampersand, and an accompanying rsvp card and reception card.

Sailor Tattoo Wedding Invitations

Sailor Tattoo Wedding Invitations

The tag and phrase “there’s a wedding on the horizon” came from a sketch I did quite some time ago, but worked so well for Jessica and Jared’s invitation project.  So I sketched out a few tags and they chose the nautical star – fitting for a sailor theme.

Sailor Tattoo Wedding Invitations

Sailor Tattoo Wedding Invitation

With the yellow baker’s twine from Divine Twine it all came together into a wonderful package that the couple loves – and is one my favorite invitations to date!

Gorgeous!  I love how the hand lettering and tattoo details come together for a playful take on a sailing/nautical theme – so much fun!  You can check out more of Diane’s tattoo-inspired wedding invitations right here.  Thanks Diane!

{image credits: faye & co.}

Hip Hip Hooray!

Speaking of cute cards, I’m loving these congratulations cards from Letterpress Delicacies – just in time for graduation season!

I love the blind pattern of trophies on this version:

And, although not in the same congratulations theme, I couldn’t resist including this card as well:

All from Letterpress Delicacies and in a ton of other color combinations.

{image credits: letterpress delicacies}