Some Firsts

I had NEVER used Photoshop to edit photos, let alone create layouts for cards.  I have lots of experience doing cards and invitations using real materials, and typically don't like "one layered/boring cards" but thought I'd switch it up this holiday season.

A great friend of mine, Lori, asked me to take her family's photographs for their Christmas card this year.  I happily accepted and here is a glimpse of what came from the day.

I'll post some of the individual photos later (I'm at my parents house in Michigan)... here is the card I created from the photography session:

THEN, I attempted to take my OWN photos for our Christmas card.  Pierson was not the best behaved, but I was able to get a few cute ones.  Then, I designed a photo card using my favorite pattern.... houndstooth!

Here are some more shots from the day...

Amazing Interior Designer and Adorable Room!

Ashley Whittaker is an amazing interior designer that I had the pleasure of working with on a piece for a little boy's room in the upper east side of NYC.

The room is red/white/blue and totally patriotic!  Check out the artwork that I did for the room.  My signature paint chip art in the design of the American Flag.  Since I did this piece, I have had a few other requests for this piece of art by people who saw Ashley featured in House Beautiful Magazine.

Ashley's website is:
http://www.ashleywhittakerdesign.com/

Her work is so inspiring and I really enjoyed working on this project!

This pic is taken from her website.  I hope that is okay!

Amy's Baby Shower Unfolded

So finally, I get to post details and pics of Amy's fun girlie baby shower!  I had so much fun from start to finish with this one!  Green and Pink was our theme...

We'll start with the sweet stuff.  I made homemade sugar cookies (my mom's irresistible recipe) and frosted them green and pink. Bibs and baby carriages.

I then packaged them 2 per cello bag and tied them shut with pink and green paper raffia.  I also added a tag, but not just ANY tag.  I made hard laminated luggage tags for each guest.  So fun!

"Silverware" was pink, napkins green.....

Red Pink velvet cupcakes with pink and green M&Ms adorning the puff of cream cheese frosting.

I even made a "pregnant" cupcake for the guest of honor, Amy!

Its mum time of year, so I cut fresh pink mums and put them in several vases on each table.  They lined up perfectly along the wrapping paper runner (green and white houndstooth (my signature OBSESSION pattern))

One of the games was guess the number of (pink and green, of course) jelly beans in the baby bottle.  We had funny guesses - like 100, and 500 ;-)  500 jelly beans would have to be pretty mini to fit into that bottle!

A couple other games were played, too:

1) Baby Price is Right (Guess the cost of each baby item without going "over")

2) Baby Animal Name Game (match the baby animal name to the mama animal)

3) Yarn around the belly estimate (cut a piece of yarn  to the length that would fit around Amy)

Here were our prizes (7 prizes given out for the games):  Its a pyrex glass oval dish that has little embossed polka dots around the edge.

Here were some of the fabulous guests.  These are Amy's neighbor friends:

Here is Amy's family (mom, mother in law, sister in law and niece... and Amy at the center of it all!)

Here are some of Amy's fabulous friends!

I didn't take pictures of the food, but you can see on each guests plate in the pic what the course looked like.  We had chicken crescents, mandarin orange almond salad and homemade cranberry sauce.  Pink lemonade punch, wine, etc... oh, and appetizers that were cheesy artichoke quiche.

It was SO sweet! ;-)

Amy's Baby Shower Invitation

I had SO much fun doing this invitation.  I could not wait until Amy's 18 week checkup so we could find out if I was going to be throwing a blue and red shower, or a pink and green one.... SO excited to hear that its pink and green this go-round!

After I heard the news that its "pink", I darted to Hobby Lobby to get some ideas for the invitation.  I knew I wanted a diaper pocket invitation.  This is what I came up with.  (Alissa helped do wording because I could not get my writer's block to loosen up! Thanks, Alissa!)

The colors are hard to tell for some reason, but the pink is a bright pinkish (not Pepto Bismol)/ more raspberry pinkish color and the green is a limey green.

I created the diaper pocket, then created an insert for the invitation details that has "lace" trim around the legs of the "diaper".  The wording pulls out and the diaper is nicely secured shut with the green and white gingham diaper pin.

The invitation envelopes have a fun polkadot border around the invite name.

Stay tuned for the complete shower get-up! (Oct 18th!)

I'm already bad at this...

I am already behind on posting, but thought I'd do one quick before bedtime!

I'll change it up a bit.  I'm going to post a piece of art that I did recently.  I have an obsession with children's "things".... everything from their clothes to their rooms, playrooms, etc etc.

I did this little monkey for Jeffrey and Pierson's bathroom.  They love it!  I also did one for Kristin's lil boy, Jude.... similar styles, different colors.

FUN!

The Victim - Orange Bunny.  Orange bunny was given to me on top of one of my shower gifts from my brother and Diana www.moxie-photography.com  I loved Orange bunny because he was hand sized and so soft, and he was bright orange (one of my favorite colors).

Little did Orange Bunny know the torture he would endure during the next 4+ years of his life.  When Jeffrey was 5 months we decided to "Ferberize" him.  They recommend giving  your baby a "security object".  Orange Bunny was the perfect pick because he was not too big (no suffocation hazard) and he was so soft.... oh, and he matched Jeffrey's nursery perfectly (blue and white with orange accents).  Within 2 nights of the "Ferberization Process," Jeffrey was hooked.  He would take Orange Bunny's and suck his thumb while simultaneously holding the orange bunny's ear.

Orange Bunny went everywhere with Jeffrey.  Jeffrey could be screaming and having a tantrum and face bright red and we would bring out Orange Bunny and like magic, he was smiling and laughing.  Poor Orange Bunny- the thing lost both eyes, and even the little embroidered Y shaped nose.  His ears got unevenly worn (Jeffrey seemed to pick one of the other).  We ended up buying 2 more backup bunnies online after doing a hard search for them.  (They have since been discontinued)

I tell you all of this to help explain why we chose the theme we did for Jeffrey's 1st Birthday Party.

Happy 1st Birthday Jeffrey and Orange Bunny.  It was BOTH of their birthdays, and Jeffrey loved no object or commercialized piece of junk toy more than Bunny!  (Thank goodness, I wanted a unique party!)

Jeffrey's nursery was done in all blue and white w/ orange accents.  SO, the color scheme for this "Happy Birthday Jeffrey and Orange Bunny" party was orange and blue and white, of course!

Here is the invite!  The main cardstock is a white corduroy textured cardstock and there is an orange band w/ blue/white gingham trim.  A blue matching embossed oneside is on the front.  Inside there is a pic of his Orange Bunny!

It reads:

"Guess who is turning onesie?"

We hope you will join us for the first birthday party of

Jeffrey Hiram Anders, III

&

his Orange Bunny

date, place, etc

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Gary's House

The party was a blast!  We had it in Michigan because Jeffrey's birthday was the day before my brother got married, so naturally it made sense to have it up there.  Grandma Kathy did a great job helping with the theme.  Check out some of the pics:

Yummy cookies (orange bunnies and carrots, of course!)

There he is with his orange bunny!  All dressed in orange and blue!

Thanks to my mom, it was a hit!

Saving the Date

Save the dates for Caroline.... oh what options we had put together.  I find it fun to work up lots of different options for my clients.  This was about 3 years ago!  She wasn't sure of the design she wanted, so we played and tweaked and came up with this set of proofs.  She went with a chocolate/red and ivory color scheme with chocolate ribbon.  I think she had 125 save the dates!  Big wedding!

A Party at Durham's Museum of Life and Science

My amazing friend, Anna, hired me to do little Alexander's 4th birthday party invites.  She was holding the party at The Museum of Life and Science in Durham.  J and I went to a wedding rehearsal dinner that was held in the Butterfly House at this museum and it is INCREDIBLE.  There are literally hundreds of butterflies flying around this greenhouse type room with tropical plants and flowers.  You will be walking and have butterflies in your hair and on your shirt.  So many unique, colorful butterflies!

The invitation read:

Bugs, Butterflies, Dinosaurs and more

and the Museum of Life and Science

there is so much we can explore

Come celebrate and explore at

Alexander's 4th birthday party!

Details, details, yada, yada, yada.

I though it would be cute to do a color block invitation.  1, 2, 3 and then 4.  Using cutout punches of different species, I laid out 1 dragonfly, 2 butterflies, 3 frogs and then the # 4 in the bottom corner.

Partnered with a vellum / translucent envelope to give the guests a "sneek peek".  I thought it would set the right tone for a fun day of exploring and celebrating at a very awesome museum!

A little contrasting textured firefly on the inside was the final touch!

I also cut out shapes on the name label on the envelope.