Watercolor Floral Baptism Invitations

These charming watercolor floral baptism invitations are so sweet! Megan of Honeybee Paper Co. created these invitations for her daughter Elora’s baptism – drawing inspiration from the peace, joy, and serenity that Megan feels as Elora’s mother. We love the cheerful color palette, bespoke calligraphy, and well balanced white space that make the watercolor floral illustrations truly shine. What a beautiful and symbolic suite!

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

From Megan: When it came time to have my daughter, and first child, baptized we really wanted the invitation suite to reflect the feelings she gave us — serenity, peace, and joy. We wanted a soft color palette to represent the beautiful sacrament she would receive.

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

She was baptized in the same gown I wore when I was christened as a baby, so I wanted to pull inspiration from the delicate lace that trimmed the gown. I chose to use crochet ribbon to wrap the invitation and enclosure as a gentle nod to the gown, which threaded through the matching “You’re Invited” tags. The cards were printed on white cotton paper to add an additional layer of texture.

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

All the watercolor flowers were placed individually to create the shape of the cross, and I wanted to keep a lot of white space to let them shine. For the enclosure, we wanted to use her initial in the design, as my husband and I love her rarely heard name, Elora.

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

The backs of both the invitation and enclosure card featured the same florals enlarged, to create a nice contrast to all the white on the front. The light blue envelopes turned out to be a wonderful choice and were selected to complement the colors in the suite. The names and addresses of our friends and families were each calligraphed by myself in white ink.

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

This invitation was such a joy for me to design as it was meant to celebrate such an important little person. Each detail was delicately selected. I loved these watercolor botanicals so much I even had a custom cake topper ordered to match! These invitations set the tone for what turned out to be a wonderful day with friends and family to celebrate a truly wonderful little girl. 

Floral Baptism Invitations by Honeybee Paper Co.

Thanks Megan!

Design: Honeybee Paper Co. 
Printing: StationeryHQ

Photo Credits: Megan Veliz

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy and Design

Hello to the new year (and finally some non-freezing temperatures here in New England!). As dependable as a blizzard in Maine (the great children’s book Blizzard Wizard is written by a Maine author, after all), it’s safe to assume that looking at beautiful calligraphy from the most talented and inspiring calligraphers puts you in a good mood. So here goes with today’s inspiration, Maurelle Calligraphy. Let’s take a peek! – Jen

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Maurelle was introduced to calligraphy when she was just fourteen — and fell in love with the art. “College happened, and I never picked up the pen again until six years ago,” she says. “This time around, I discovered script calligraphy (Copperplate), and I fell in love the second time around.” Maurelle channeled her natural entrepreneurial spirit and started her design business four years ago.

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Christine Pienaar Photography

How Maurelle describes herself in her own words:

“A creative soul, lettering artist, designer and teacher. A full time mother to three children (with a new baby that arrived 2 months ago) and wife to a very supportive husband living in the beautiful British Columbia.”

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Rachel May Photography

Maurelle first learned the traditional Copperplate calligraphy, with all of its rules to follow. “Along the way, I have used these essential rules to transition to a modern style of calligraphy,” she shares. “My lettering style is inspired by nature, the natural and delicate movement of foliage. It is now a culmination of old world charm, minimalism and beauty in imperfection.”

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: White Linen Photography

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Maru Photography

One of Maurelle’s favorite projects was a custom invitation for a wedding in Iceland. The invitation included a hand-drawn painting of the venue and church. “It was an incredible experience because I stepped out of my comfort zone when I used acrylic as a medium to draw,” shares Maurelle.

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Mackenzie Jane Photography

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Melissa Gidney Photography

What happens when you make a mistake as a calligrapher? People make mistakes, right? Here’s what Maurelle shared:

“Mistakes are opportunities to learn! Since calligraphy is usually done using traditional dip pen and ink, sometimes errors are just unavoidable. For wedding invitations, it is more forgiving since I have to digitize my design first and edit it with a program before sending it to the printer. For place cards and envelopes, I usually require at least 20% extra stationery, and I have learned techniques from past experiences to minimize mistakes. For custom work like a wedding vow sometimes an ink blot or wrong spelling can get in the way at the very last sentence, I just take a deep breath and start all over again!”

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Erin Sousa

Inspiring Calligraphers: Maurelle Calligraphy

Photo Credit: Minted Photography

I just love when calligraphers dabble in illustration, too. So pretty! A big thanks to Maurelle of Maurelle Calligraphy and Design for sharing a sweet roundup of her lettering work. See you soon!

p.s. Check out all of our past calligrapher features right here!

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitation

Hi everyone! Just a quick housekeeping note before we jump into today’s post: Registration for the Blueprint Model 2018 closes at 11:59 pm TONIGHT! Check out my blog post with all the details from earlier in the week, or go here to register!

We can all agree that The Little Prince is one of our all-time favorite children’s books, yes? I love that artist Kristy Rice of Momental Designs used this beloved book as the inspiration for her son’s first birthday party invitation! If you’re familiar with Kristy’s work, then you know that she always goes the extra mile to create the most special and thoughtful invitations. You’ll just have to read below to see all the details she incoporated into this “The Little Prince” first birthday party invitation – it’s absolutely dreamy!

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

From KristyIzzy’s beautiful and unique first birthday invitations were a high art twist on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved children’s story “The Little Prince.” All of the artwork for the stationery was developed in a more detailed and realistic style compared to the original book’s illustrations.

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

Perhaps the most special piece for the whole event was a calligraphy backdrop written by Sarah of Flourish Grace. We wrote a letter to Izzy and gave her the text, so all guests could share in our sentiments to him. Here is what we wrote:

“Dear Isaac our Izzy Wizzy baby guy,

You’ve shown us what it is to live, really live…to love bigger, to trust more, to make time for what matters, to pay attention, to put our phones down, to listen to God more, to love mornings, to marvel… to blow raspberries and let it be the best part of the day. 

Love, Mama and Papa”

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

For the invitation itself, we created a custom game board-style box inspired by the Little Prince. At 17 inches by 10 inches, it was even the size of a board game! A spinner asked guests “What will the Little Prince teach today?” and allowed them to indulge in a bit of play as the explored the invitation. Each box had specially sized compartments to hold a copy of the book, a sheet of custom watercolor stickers, and small trinkets inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved words.

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

And we could not send our guests home without special favors! We curated a case full of fun stuff, with the title “A Visual Map and How-to Guide to Seeing with Your Little Kid Eyes.” Each mini suitcase was stuffed with time-honored goodies guaranteed to turn back the hands of time, even just for one afternoon; candy cigarettes, garbage pail kids, balsa wood airplane, bazooka bubble gum, Lip Smackers lip balm, Pop Rocks and a Slinky!

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

In the lid a watercolor map was custom fitted, calling out the “steps” to revisiting your childhood fun! To name a few: “Pop some rocks and swig some soda if you’re brave”, and “Read The Little Prince, it’s weird and wonderful and witty, just read it…k?” We really wanted our guests not only to read the book, but to experience the lessons of this classic story in a fun and interactive way, and to take a child-like perspective on life, even just for a few minutes.

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitations by Momental Designs

Thanks so much Kristy! BTW – you can see Kristy’s whimsical adoption baby shower invitations right here!

Design: Momental Designs

Calligraphy: Flourish Grace

Momental Designs is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of their beautiful work right hereor visit the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Dolci Momenti Photography

Best of 2017: My Favorite Projects!

Today I’m wrapping up our 2017 recap with a look back at some of my personal favorite posts from 2017! We’ve already covered fun DIY projects, favorite cocktails, sweet baby shower invitations and birth announcements, playful and colorful wedding invitations, and romantic and understated wedding invitations – all of which I absolutely love – but the posts below are a bit more personal in nature. I’m planning to write a bit more about my goals for 2018 next week, but one of those goals is to share more personal content, from conversations about motherhood and family to sharing more behind-the-scenes peeks to exploring more of DC. I used to share way more personal content, before Instagram became the thing it is today and before I had two kids (I honestly have no idea how any of you with 3+ kids manage to stay sane!), and I really miss it! I’ll also be doing a reader survey next week, but if there’s anything in particular that you’d like to see from me this year, please let me know in the comments!

Learn Watercolor Painting with Skillshare

One of my goals for 2017 was to get myself in front of the camera more often, which is DEFINITELY stepping outside of my comfort zone since I’m used to being the one behind the camera. But at the end of the day, it’s just me behind this mighty little blog, and it’s important to show my face more often. I teamed up with photographer Anna Meyer to visit some colorful walls in DC, and I can’t wait to do another installment in 2018!

The Best Walls in DC

Dallas Clayton’s #kindcomments wall at Union Market

The Best Walls in DC

The Best Walls in DC / Photo Credit: Anna Meyer for Oh So Beautiful Paper

2017 was a fairly big and transformative year – I celebrated my 9th blogging anniversary and introduced you to Common Room Studio! So far I’ve shared the design inspiration for Common Room Studio and we hosted our first set of workshops, but I still need to do a full reveal! Stay tuned in 2018. Oh, and if you’re in the DC area, you can sign up for our newsletter right here

Write Your Own Story / Frankie's Girl

9 Years of OSBP + Introducing Common Room Studio! / Image Credit: Frankie’s Girl via Instagram

Common Room Studio Style Board and Color Palette

Design Inspiration for Common Room Studio

On the home front, we shared our backyard makeover and talked about kitchen renovation inspiration! These days, my back yard looks more like a winter wasteland since everything has died back from the freezing temperatures, but I can’t wait until it looks like this again in the spring and summer! Oh, and we may have kickstarted our long-awaited kitchen renovation over the holiday break, so stay tuned for an update on that, too.

A Backyard Makeover in Washington, DC

OSBP at Home: Our Backyard Makeover / Photo Credit: Yetta Reid Photography

Qanuk Interiors Kitchen via House & Home / Photo Credit: Donna Griffith Photography

OSBP at Home: Kitchen Inspiration / Design: Qanūk Interiors / Photo Credit: Donna Griffith for House & Home Kitchens & Baths Fall 2013

That’s it for me this week! Have a wonderful weekend, stay warm, and I’ll see you back here on Monday! xoxo

Best of 2017: Adorable Baby Announcements and Shower Invitations

Aaaah, babies! Even before I became a mom, I loved seeing festive and exuberant baby shower invitations, sweet birth announcements, and even fun birthday party invitations! Let’s take a look back at some of our favorite adorable baby announcements and shower invitations (and one first birthday party invitation!) from the year, from copper foil baby shower invitations to vellum first birthday party invitations!

Copper Foil Star Inspired Baby Shower Invitations by Bourne Paper Co.

Alana of Bourne Paper Co. sent two adorable baby stationery projects in 2017 – first, the invitations for her baby shower! The copper foil stars are the perfect complement to the crisp and clean modern design!

Copper Foil Star Inspired Baby Shower Invitations by Bourne Paper Co.

Copper Foil Star Baby Shower Invitations

And a bit later in the year, Alana shared the sweet birth announcements for her daughter, Peyton – with beautiful calligraphy by Anne Robin and a fun batik-inspired envelope liner!

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements by Bourne Paper Co. and Anne Robin Calligraphy

Sweet and Simple Calligraphy Baby Announcements

Can you imagine anything more fun than sprinkle-inspired baby shower invitations?? I love these festive baby shower invitations with a white foil sprinkle pattern from Samantha and Whitney of Gus & Ruby Letterpress!

Festive Confetti-Inspired Baby Shower Invitations by Gus & Ruby Letterpress

Festive Baby Shower Invitations with Foil Sprinkles!

Vellum was one of the biggest trends of 2017 – and I’m expecting we’ll continue to see more of this translucent material in 2018! How lovely is this eucalyptus overlay on these first birthday party invitations from Mint for Hue??

Eucalyptus and Vellum Birthday Party Invitations by Mint for Hue

Eucalyptus and Vellum First Birthday Party Invitations

Looking for more adorable baby stationery? Check out our past baby shower invitation and baby announcement posts right here!