Designer Spotlight: New Smock Volumes 4 & 5!

As you all know, we are Smock-aholics! We just can't get enough of their whimsical designs, incredible embellishments and superior printing. So, we were oh-so-delighted at this year's National Stationery Show in NYC to find out that they were releasing 2 new volumes of wedding designs. Hooray!

The new designs round out an already stellar collection. Smock's outdone themselves this time: there are new digital printing and embossing options (hooray!), incredible new calligraphy styles, new die-cut shapes, new sleeve options, new inks, new patterns and...well, you get it, just lots of NEW!

Check out a few of the new designs below and then call for an appointment to come see this album for yourself. We're gaga over it and know you will be too!

 

(All photos courtesy of Smock)

Gabe & Christa's hand-drawn save the dates

Gabe & Christa came to us last fall to discuss custom save the dates and invitations for their August 2011 nuptials at Gabe's family home in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. These 2 make the most adorable couple and we were immediately head over heels with them and their idea for having custom illustrations of the house and its surroundings be the center of their invitation suite! Nate Duval drew this awesome tree that sits on the lawn outside of their house and I wrote out all of the save the date info by hand. We letterpress printed the piece in a bright, chartreuse green and purple and adhered it to a matching purple card stock. The custom liner featured a pattern made up of leaves. 

Check back next week as I will be posting pictures of the fabulous invitations and a few of our favorites of the happy couple from their wedding! 

All photos by Brea McDonald Photography.

Designer Spotlight: Bella Figura

I'm so wildly excited to introduce y'all to Bella Figura - our newest album of invitations. To say that Whitney and I love Bella is like saying that we're fond of breathing. Or that Gus is a fan of eating. It's a massive understatement.

We heart this album so, so much. Why, you ask? Well, let me count the ways:

1. Bella comes from the same fabulous team that brought us Smock. And you know how we feel about them. We adore them; they have the BEST customer service, the BEST printing, and they walk the walk and talk the talk about corporate responsibility. They use eco-friendly printing practices, donate a percentage of their proceeds to 3 different environmental charities and are members of 1% for the Planet. Truly, we couldn't ask to work with a better company and are so super stoked to offer their amazing products to our lovely customers.

2. There are 200+ designs. Yes - you read that correctly. 200+. The albums are truly eye candy galore. From whimsical to minimalist, modern to traditional, floral heaven to typographers' dream - there is, quite honestly, a style for everyone.

3. And, of course, all these designs are hugely customizable! Change fonts, colors, size, shape. Or add illustration, hand calligraphy, mix and match patterns like mad. Jazz up envelopes with liners or add edge painting to your thick, luxurious invitation printed on 100% cotton. If you can dream it, you can do it.

4. Finally, to make a fabulous company and album even more fabulous, Bella Figura is offering a "Design of the Month" promotion for the month of April. Until April 29th, all orders for the Cecilia design will be 20% off! Say what!?! It's true. (see the design below and a few modified versions - you can change/create so much here, people!)

Now, a bit of visual delicacies to feast your eyes on. They are even prettier in person, so book an appointment ASAP to get your Bella groove on. For reals.

(all photos courtesy of Bella Figura)

Birth announcements for a future fisherman

Birth announcements are one of my absolute favorite projects, mostly because the designs are so freaking cute (almost as cute as the babies that inspire them), but the main reason is because in comparison to the number of wedding invitations I design, birth announcements seem like a rarity. This particular design was inspired by the father's love for fishing. He's borderline obsessed with it and lucky for him, his first-born is a boy (which in my mind means that Dad has a better chance of taking his kid fishing than if he was a she, not to stereotype or anything).

Instead of going over the top on the announcement with the fish theme we decided to keep it quite simple using a rusty orange ink, a monogram and simple border and incorporated the fish using an envelope liner. We bought the Flora & Fauna Marine Fish & Irish Algae Wrapping Paper from Paper-Source and trimmed it down into about 8 liners per sheet so that there were a bunch of different cropped images from the 1 large design. What I love most about the liners is that the images aren't small detailed fish illustrations. The fish are so large on the original sheet that when they are trimmed down you see these crazy big eyes or detailed scales. The immediate thought when you open the envelope isn't necessarily that it's lined with fish drawings - it takes a few seconds to realize what you're looking at.

While I was initially a bit put off by the idea of designing around fish (realistic fish, not cutesy cartoon-like fish), I was thrilled with our end result! Take a peek:

{Photos by Brea McDonald Photography}

{Wrapping paper via Paper-Source}