Nesting Baby Shower Invite

I haven't posted any work in quite some time. I am not the best when it comes to documentation of a finished job. Besides that, I'm not sure any one would find the glamour in every brochure or direct mailer that come off the press. Today however, I'd like to share a little piece I came up with for a baby shower invitation (the fun stuff) given for a friend of mine.

The hosts of the shower decided to use "nesting" as an underlying theme for the party but rather than your standard baby-chick-decor they decided to go with the beautiful paper crane as somewhat of an icon. I thought this was a fun way to also symbolize marital bliss, happiness, good fortune and peace for a mom-to-be. The colors for the party were pink, orange and yellow.

All of the above inspired me to come up with the following 3 part invite.

The first page in the set is the actual invitation to the party. The second page is a how-to diagram on folding paper cranes. Since this job was gifted (for non-profit) I decided to use a beautiful instruction sheet created by My Trinh Ha I found on papercrane.org then I just added my own elements to form a cohesive look. This second page was printed on vellum paper for a variation in texture as well as opacity.

Through the vellum you could see the third page which was a piece of decorative rice paper in which the prospective party goer would be able to fold their own crane using the provided instructions. A strand of colored crafting floss accompanied the invite for displaying the crane after folding.

Everything was clipped together, stuffed into a square and labeled envelope, then sent off to the post.

The end.

Michael

(image via lucky pony)

As a preschooler, I really did have a thing for Michael. I even had a poster of him on the back of my bedroom door. I laid on my bed facing the closed door making him the last person I would see before going to bed each night and the first person I would see when waking up each morning. Thriller was of course my favorite music video. Although this may have been partly due to the fact that I knew I was getting away with watching something I probably shouldn't—at least not at that age. I was super brave for the entire (lengthy) video until the very end when his eyes turned yellow again; I had to cover my face for that part.

I also remember red leather jackets and a glove on one of two hands being very fashionable among people I was actually related to, not to mention Beat It karaoke sessions during family get-togethers. My mom would try to teach me how to moonwalk, she can still do it and I still can't. I've also seen old videos of my mom and her sisters dancing to Rock with You but that was witnessed later in life.

It seems a little incredible that a fairly good portion of my memories as a three and four year old are accompanied by memories of the late "king of pop." I know its dramatic, but loosing Michael feels like some of those childhood memories don't really exist anymore and I guess that's a little sad for me. Thankfully there is the music to authenticate the past.