01/09/2017

Autumn Floral Copper Foil Wedding Invitations

We are just in love with these autumn floral copper foil wedding invitations by Lauren of Charm & Fig, featuring luxurious blind impression letterpress printed floral details. LaurenÂ drew her inspiration from the bride’s unabashed love of the color orange, incorporating metallic copper foil and rounding out the color palette with deep red, plum, and forest green. We’re absolutely loving the copper foil details on the RSVP envelope and that gorgeous floral envelope liner!

From Lauren: This wedding suite made me want to pull out cozy wool blankets and the spiked-apple cider! Taylor unabashedly loves orange, which was a no-brainer for her fall wedding and a not-so-secret tribute to her beloved Texas Longhorns. We ran with the idea of using lots of metallic copper, fall florals, and romantic details for this black tie wedding.

First impressions are important! The first thing guests would see when they opened the interior envelope was a floral envelope liner displaying sophisticated fall hues of orange, wine, plum, and forest green. True story: another client saw a sample of this envelope liner, grabbed it, and vowed to use the palette for her dining room renovation!

On the invitation, we started with double-ply cotton paper and had it blind letterpress printed with a bundle of botanical florals. Debi Sementelli’s Bellucia calligraphy font was printed in copper foil over the blind image and brought just the right amount of elegance and femininity to the suite. A chocolate wax seal with a custom monogram was affixed to the top and added another layer texture to the main piece. For extra thickness, the invitation was backedÂ with Stardream’s metallic copper paper.

In order to create some balance within the suite, we opted for more simple reception and response cards, flatÂ printed in chocolate on single-ply cotton paper to coordinate with the chocolate wax seal.Â The outer envelopes were addressed by Maureen Vickery of Pendance Studio. She sourced the perfect copper ink and calligraphy style to match our invitations. For the final packaging, we created a single copper bellyband with the same paper used onÂ the back of the invitation.

The dinner plate menus were flat printed in chocolateÂ brown with the same dogwood florals from the response envelopes, and served double duty as a place card with the name of each guest printed at the top.

By far, the response envelope was our favorite piece. It was printed in copper foil with a detailed dogwood botanical illustration and the couple’s monogram. Although it was a little tricky to foil print over the crease of the envelope, our amazing printers pulled it off and it was totally worth it. It’s kind of a secret gift to yourself to have a pretty RSVP envelopes since you’ll get gorgeous mail for weeks as the RSVPs roll in.

Thanks Lauren!

Design and Styling: Charm & Fig

Printer: Quality Printing Company

Envelope Calligraphy: Maureen Vickery of Pendance Studio

Charm & Fig is a member of the Designer Rolodex â€“ check out more of their beautiful work right here or visit theÂ real inviÂtaÂtions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits:Â Charm & Fig

01/06/2017

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! How was your first week of 2017? I spent most of the week cleaning out my office and trying to mentally prepare myself to dive into 2017. The last couple of years have felt VERY chaotic, both personally and professionally, so this year I’m trying to take a step back and focus on building a foundation that will help me grow and move forward in an intentional way. I know we all project a positive, happy, and successful vibe on blogs and social media, but behind the scenes life often feels like the exact opposite! So, last summer, I signed up for Shanna Skidmore’s Blueprint Model program to help me build that foundation. I’m only about two thirds of the way through the 12-week program, but it has been absolutely invaluable in helping me figure out the direction I want to take, both with my business and my life (more on that sometime soon!), and some of the key ingredients missing from my business model. Anyway, I’m looking forward to finishing the final third of the program while things are still fairly quiet in January, and if any of you are interested in doing something similar for your business, I’d definitely encourage you to sign up for the next 12 week round â€“ registration opens today and runs through January 12! And you can even get $100 off your registration with code “THEYTOLDMETOO”Â at checkout. And if that wasn’t enough, Shanna is offering one-on-one sessions for the first 25 people thatÂ sign up. Go NOW!Â But in the meantime…

Don’t Quit Your Daydream Unicorn pin by Little Arrow / Photo by @tokyokittengalaxy

…a few links for your weekend:

How stamps get designed. I think this is just the coolest thing ever.
Just totally obsessed with this vaseÂ â€“ and this matching terrarium
The holidays may be over, but I totally want to try Ashley’s recipe for dairy-free Milk Punch (made with almond milk!)
Have any of you tried a facial cleansing oil? I tend to get really dry skin in the winter months, so I’m very curious!
Can I please get this sweater in my size?? (I’m totally getting one for Sophie â€“ and it’s 40% off with code MUSTSHOP!)
The invisible workload. I found this article super interesting. I’m sure in some homes it’s the husband who does most of the invisible thinking work, not to mention households with couples of the same gender, but I’m guessing in most homes the invisible work generally falls to one person. In my home, my husband helps keep track of our grocery list, but I keep track of pretty much everything else. What do you think? Is it the same for you?

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

Brand new January illustrated wallpaper for your phone and desktop!
These wedding invitations combine soft watercolor illustrations with rustic mountain scenery
Don’t forget to send out your post-holiday thank you notes!
How to bring Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year into your wedding
A little inspiration for 2017 (courtesy of Mary Poppins) in the fun new brush lettering font Tropical
Elegant blush and gold letterpress wedding invitations

Thatâ€™s it for us this week! Have a fabulous weekend, and Iâ€™ll see you back here next week! xoxo

12/23/2016

Best of 2016: My Favorites

Today Iâ€™m wrapping upÂ my Best of 2016 recap with a few of my personal favorite posts from the year! 2016 was definitely a rollercoaster of a year, and sometimes it has been tough to find the bright and happy moments with so much turbulence around the world. But when I look back at our posts from the year, each oneÂ below fills me with happiness and gratitude. I canâ€™t think of a better way to say goodbye to another year (and welcome a new one!). I wish each and every one of you a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and a wonderful New Year!

Rainbow watercolor and hologram foil party invitations for Paper Party 2016. Designed by Ashley Buzzy and printed by Bella Figura. The invitations that started my love affair with hologram foil!

I’m still completely obsessed with the limited edition art print that we made for Paper Party 2016! Designed byÂ Ashley Buzzy, and printed by Mama’s Sauce on Legion Paper lavender Color Plan paper. Hologram foil for life!

I loved these two-color dip dye baby announcements by Swell Press Paper â€“ with mint green edge painting!

Our Behind the Stationery column continued to be one of my personal favorites â€“ this installment with Hammerpress was a particular highlight from 2016!

Over in our Brick + Mortar column, Emily talked about why stationery matters in these challenging times. So much yes. Greeting card by Daydream Prints.

How to Style Stationery for Photography â€“ I learned a ton of new tips and tricks inÂ this guest post by Nichole of Coral Pheasant

I got to share eleven of my favorite independent stationery and gift boutiques across the country in partnership with Etsy Wholesale!

On the personal side, I got to share our bathroom renovation! This was our first major home renovation, and we did our best to create a bathroom that both honors the age of our home and maximizes storage for a family of four.

If you made it this far, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting Oh So Beautiful Paper this year. I love myÂ job and the fact that I get to do it every single day, I love this blog and the amazing stationery community, and I love all of you for coming here to read our posts! The last couple of years have been incredibly challenging as I’ve tried to learn how to balance motherhood with entrepreneurship andÂ try to figure out how to grow a business in an ever-changing environment. Your comments here and on social media are always a highlight on even the most difficult days. So thank you for supporting, commenting, sharing, and coming back. I may pop in with a couple of quick posts next week, but otherwise we’ll be back in 10 days. See you in 2017, my friends. xoxo

12/21/2016

Best of 2016: Cocktails!

Next up in our Best of 2016 recap: cocktails! We had a LOT of fun with cocktail recipes this year. Infusions, plenty of smashes, shrubs, sparkling cocktails, beer cocktails, and more! Oh, and lots and lots of Tiki recipes, because the flavors are just the best. We’ve got at least one more punch recipe to share before the holiday break (andÂ maaaaaybeÂ another next week), but for now, let’s revisit the best cocktails of 2016!

I really enjoyed our entire Mocktail series back in January â€“ including this mock Mai Tai (aka Mock Tai)! We’ll be doing another round of mocktails next month, but you can also check out our other mocktail recipes: Apricot Tiki Mocktail, Winter Fruit Mocktail, and a Mocktail Mojito.

The perfect Valentine’s Day cocktail: a Chocolate-Fig Old Fashioned

We loved all the bold tropical flavors in thisÂ Coconut-Pineapple Rum BarrelÂ â€“ one of our favorite cocktail infusion recipes!

I’m a fan of anything involving St-Germain â€“ this Parisian MargaritaÂ is still one of my favorites!

Like mint? Try this fun frozen drink: the Missionary’s Downfall!

This Ramos Aviation FizzÂ is for home bartenders at the intermediate-to-advanced level, but how gorgeous is that pale lavender color??

Blackberries are just SO good in cocktails. We made this Blackberry Whiskey Smash and this Blackberry Tequila Smash this year! We might need to try a rum version next year!

A Watermelon-Basil Rum SmashÂ (aka Summer in a glass)

This Peach-Basil shrub is delicious as both a cocktail AND a mocktail!

An IPA Jungle BirdÂ (aka Tiki + beer = yum!)

Looking for a slightly non-traditional holiday cocktail? Try Planter’s PunchÂ (a Tiki punch recipe!)

If you’re looking for even more cocktail recipe ideas, you can check out our full archive right here! Have any of you made one of our cocktail recipes? If so, please share them on Instagram â€“ and be sure to tag us (@beautifulpaper and @liquorary) and use #osbphappyhour!

Also, if you have any requests for specific types of cocktails that you’d like to see from us in 2017, please let us know in the comments below!

12/20/2016

Best of 2016: Wedding Invitations

We still have some fun posts planned for this week, but since my goal for next week is to truly relax and rest my brain (if such a thing is even possible with two small children), I’m sharing my annual “Best Of” recaps with you this week! First up, the bestÂ wedding invitationsÂ of 2016! After eight years of blogging, my mentalÂ timeline can get kind of fuzzy, so I love doing these round ups and looking back to see all of the amazing things that I had the opportunity to share with you over the past year. And truly, there was so much gorgeousness in 2016. Tropical motifs, watercolor, metallics (especially copper), elegant calligraphy, playful hand lettering, and a return to handmade paper andÂ deckled edges in a MAJOR way in the second half of the year. What design trends do you think 2017Â will bring to us? I can’t wait to see!