9 Days and Counting!

I can't believe that in just 9 days, I will be a Mrs! I head out to California for the wedding on Monday, so my week has been filled with last minute details, phone calls and packing. I can't wait!

Since our California wedding is small, we are having a large reception back home in July. I just finished up the reception invites so that they can be mailed out while we are in California. Now that school is out and my days are my own, I actually had time to take some good pictures of these invites to share with you here!

Considering I would be making 140 invitations for the reception, I decided to keep them more simple than the wedding invite, which had an envelope liner, and several pieces enclosed within a tiny pocket folder. This invitation contains just  5"x7" card, an outer envelope and an envelope for the response card.

I used a handy little perforating wheel, that I picked up for a dollar at the craft store, to make the response card that can be detached and sent in.  Cool huh? Now,  I can't take credit for this perforated design; I actually came across this idea in the Etsy shop of the talented Michelle Brusegaard.  Be sure to check out her beautiful collection of paper goods.

I went with a totally new color scheme for this invite. I was inspired by one of the typewriters I picked up to use as decoration at the reception. Feels quite summery doesn't it?

Though I do love the look of hand addressed envelopes, time was not going to allow for that.  Just as I did for the wedding invite, I created a wrap-around address label, that features our return address on the back. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out and feel proud that I was able to design, print, and cut all the pieces myself.

All of the paper and envelopes I used for both the wedding and reception invites came from the Paper Source. Love that place! The quality of the paper is outstanding, is easy to print on, and shipping is out of this world fast!

OK, I'm off! I'll be sure to post some wedding pics when we get home in early July.

Ta-Ta.

Spring Break (Work)

Well hello friends! Long time no see.

It's finally Spring Break at school and I've had some time to catch up on things I've been meaning to do for months now (like write on this blog!)

With just 51 days to go, wedding planning has been taking up a great deal of my time. It's exciting, but geez, I'm tired! This week I decided to knock off the few remaining details I need to wrap up for the Temecula Wedding, one of them being wedding favors. As an artist, I knew I wanted to incorporate my art into the wedding favor. I decided to make card sets, a gift I'd hope that my guests would appreciate and actually take home with them. I realize that the handwritten note is dying, but I hope these cards encourage my guests to write!

The artwork that I decided to feature on the cards may look familiar to some of you. This piece started its life as the backdrop for my wedding "Save the Date" card (seen above).  I came across the original watercolor and collage backdrop today, and decided to finish up the composition to use as the imagery on the cards. 

I filled in the negative space with more of my abstract flower forms and added a little more embellishment with my trusty white gel pen. I decided to add a little pop of orange in the right corner just to shake things up a bit. I'm happy with the results, and I hope that my guests will like them too!

My next artistic endeavor is to create reception invitations. We are having a small wedding at a winery in Temecula, California and then having a large reception here in our hometown when we return. Though I love the color scheme I have chosen for the Temecula affair (chartreuse green, black and white) I decided to shake it up a bit for the reception. Stay tuned for more details soon!