Olliegraphic kids cards

Speaking of kids and cards...I am loving these. They are from olliegraphic and there is a range of options available for whatever your card or invitation need may be.  All of the customizable options are adorable.  I love the clean and fresh look of their illustrations with maybe a bit of a stylized fifties feel. 

As soon as we get our referral photo for our new little one (say a prayer it's in December!) I am definitely going to make a card with my three little one on it.  These will make for great thank-you notes coming from any one of them or all of them at once.  I'm wavering between the thank-you notes and individual prints of each kid.  Decisions!

For a little bit more, you can fully customize the look of each child.  Oh, and one of my favorite buying options is that they sell just the graphic so you can print up as many cards as you want from home.   I also think that these would make a great personal gift for friends or family.

These are just the standard customizeing options.  Cute, no?

And the Christmas cards!  If I happened to be organized enough to send out Chrsitmas cards, these would be them!

Spotted here.

the lost art of penmanship

I love beautiful handwriting nearly as much as I love chocolate.  And for those of you that don't know me, I love chocolate a bit too much.  So I was half fascinated and half heartbroken when I read the slate article "Why Your kids Have Such Terrible Handwriting and What to Do About It" by Emily Yoffe, that Tawny sent to me on the dying art of lovely handwriting.  The article details the reasons for the rise and fall of perfect penmanship and asks the question, in this computer age, if it even matters.  Well you can guess how I feel on the subject.  I hope to be nearly as stringent in my children's lesser academics (like mathematics) as I am with the important subjects (like reading, writing, art and of course, handwriting.) 

The article also discusses the opposing views of Palmer style of handwriting - what most of us learned - versus Italic script which was popular in Europe and America since the Renaissance. 

Yoffe's article makes a great case for the latter and I must say that I am tempted to give it a go.  Nan Jay Barchowsky is has been championing this dying art of Italic script for decades and offers her course in book form.  It is available here.  I think I will be getting it myself, or at the very least, my kids.  End of subject.

"i am 5" announcements

When I asked Eva how she wanted to celebrate her birthday this year she said that she wanted to pass out invitations.  She didn't so much want to have a party but she really wanted to distribute lovely hued envelopes.  I have no idea where she gets it.  We decided on creating 5 year old announcements, a take-off of her birth announcement that she has always loved to hold and inspect as often as possible.  These are what we came up with.

We only sent them to family and a few close friends.  We addressed them to any little people in the home to avoid any chance people might think we were looting for gifts.  Certainly not!  (You can read about my thoughts on that over here.)  All in all, it was a really fun project to work on together and Eva was just thrilled with the whole thing.  Love that.

misc. wedding paper

These were our rehearsal dinner invites - letterpress coasters from Snow & Graham.

We set matchbooks beside boxes of Swisher Sweets in the mens room.  (Sexist, I know.)

We had lots of little signs made that led to the ceremony site and then were scattered about at the wedding. All of our calligraphy was done by Rebecca Trawick of Bluebird Studios. 

Labels for the water bottles are from my own labels.

 

Each of our guests signed our Ketubah as legal witnesses.  Tawny painted the Ketubah and our vows were written out by Rebecca at Bluebird Studios. 

the invitation

 

We though these were kind of funny as Sean Was living in the coach house of my house at the time of our wedding.  We liked these as proof that we kind of had different addresses. 

This was our invitation.  The top was open so the entire thing was like a pocket - all the inserts went inside.  

Front side of our RSVP

Back side of our RSVP.  We invited our guests to wear red, brown and/or pink and to tell us a song that they would like to hear at the reception. 

Tawny painted these portraits for the front & back covers of a little book that we made & included in the invitation.  

{invitations by Wedding Tulle}

wise words

 {images from swissmiss, lovely little things, Simple Lovely, ffffound}

Jennifer Collier

These pieces by UK-based paper artist Jennifer Collier are sewn together.

Really extraordinary. 

{spotted on Richardsonshine}

JessGM

I can't let Jess get away today with showcasing some of her fantastic work. Between her etsy shop, photography site & design portfolio I had trouble narrowing down what I like best. 

I'm loving her portraits:

And her awesome gocco paper goods:

And her exquisite custom work:

To visit Jess' website, click here. 

twig & thistle valentine

I am loving this fantastic DIY valentine idea by twig & thistle.  All you have to do is make some yummy brownies.  Use a heart shaped cookie cutter. Download their fantastic graphic - (for free!) onto a paper bag or sticker. And there you have an adorable, handmade valentine!  Perfect for your postman or the love of your life. 

{first spotted here}

well stated

I saw this here.  You can find them here.

love notes

Alas, I was too late.  By the time I got to Stephanie Congdon Barnes' site, Love Notes, all of her gorgeous sewn Valentines were sold out.  Granted, I appreciate these far more then Sean ever would but a girl can send herself a Valentine every now and again, can't she?  Sigh.  Perhaps next year. 

Pants Optional

I spotted these cards over at Double Takes and thought they were hilarious.  

The set of cards is called Pants Optional and is by conceptual artist Kasey McMahon.  

Etsy on the 4th day of Christmas

I haven't had personalized stationary in years. Probably since high school, a time when I would never consider using it. I feel like I am finally at an age when I would actually use it. I love these sweet cards and I really love that they are from Etsy, one of my favorite places to shop from. If you have never been there you need to go check it out. Take some time to stroll around the place. It can be intimidating at first but after a little while you can find some amazingly beautiful stuff. There are a kajillion artists on there selling their homemade goods. I love getting to support small artists rather then choosing from only the artists that big stores offer us.

You can find these ones here at EnfinLaVoila. 

They look just like the bumble bees floating around the artichokes on my dream farm.

write it down

Do you think I have time to whip some of these things up by Thursday, say four-ish? Sure, I could just buy them from Paper-Source {which I love, by the way} but I am really just wanting to find an old letterpress machine on Craigslist (with manual) read up on it for several minutes and go to town. Welcome to my fantasy world.

Ok - how about this. I go buy some nice, thick, cream-colored cards from Hobby Lobby and I jot down "I am thankful for:" with a pretty pen. Welcome to my reality.