Car Cruising: Birthday Invite Year 2

Hendrix’s second year birthday party was more like a second year get-together. At this event, Hendrix had 3 friends over for cupcakes and a craft; Flintstone style ride-in cars made from cardboard boxes, construction paper and paint.

Since the only item scheduled on the party agenda was to make cars to cruise around in, I thought a car that traveled alongside a countryside scene would be most appropriate.

To make the car move this invitation had to have three parts. The first part of the invite displays a computer illustrated outdoor nature scene and road. This portion of the invitation is actually a folded pocket that the second part of the invitation slips into.

Pulling the side tab on second piece reveals all the party information. While the tab is pulled the car moves across the page. The car is the third portion of the invitation which completes the design.

My favorite thing about the end result is that the invitation is truly intended for the enjoyment of the invited child rather than for the child’s parent—although the design includes all the crucial event details that a parent should know.

Getting Buggy: Birthday Invite Year 1

We are still full swing in holiday season around here because besides celebrating the birth of a new year we have so many family birthdays to honor this month. In fact, today my oldest's is five! His 5^th year party invitations were hand delivered yesterday morning and the festivities will take place this Saturday. In tribute to birthday month, I decided to use this week of blogging to share some of the other b-day invitations I have designed for Hendrix in years past. Shall we?

His first birthday party was bug themed. I created this invitation using a felt-like Astroturf, plastic bugs and tiny dried flowers found at a yard sale. I also used a nice cover stock for the information portion of the invite.

The invite itself was postcard size and in postcard format so all the information was on the left panel of the card and the right side was left blank which would eventually be filled with the recipients mailing information—just like a standard postcard.

Next I cut rectangles from the Astroturf to match the size of the postcards. With glue I applied the turf to the front of the card and from there I added the other nature-like elements.

Each postcard was then inserted into clear cellophane bags in effort to protect the add-ons, labeled and then off to the post. There you have it, the great outdoors in a bag—or at least the appearance of such. 

Happy (belated) Christmas

Lookie what I found; cellie photos of the third annual company holiday greeting card I designed for a company called CSI. Since the assembly of these cards required a couple all-nighters, I decided to dust these images off (not really because they were on my computer and I just clicked the upload button) and share them with you today for a little (belated) Christmas cheer.

Because the good folks at CSI like me so much, they pretty much let me have free rein when it comes to the design of their seasonal greeting card. The only thing they asked was that this year's message have an emphasis on the Christmas holiday. I knew these greeting cards would be hand delivered with a box of chocolates so beyond coming up with a Christmas-appropriate copy, I decided these cards should double as Christmas tree ornaments.

The inspiration for this project came from some beautiful paper mobiles a friend and I had used on a collaboration project a couple months previous to this assignment (but more on that later). For my paper stock I choose a gold patterned one from French Paper's Mod-Tone line and after much cutting, paper punching, scoring, folding and gluing, I assembled three different sized medallions together using thin jewelry wire. The greeting itself is inscribed on a flag that is attached to a gold cording from which the mini mobile hangs. As a final detail, I attached a greenish-gold bead to the top of the threading.

I liked the look of all the greeting cards hanging on a hook in one big bunch like a bouquet of flowers (don't mind the low quality phone photos). Now that I have had plenty of time to recooperate from this project I might have to pull out the paper cutter and repeat this craft for a little home decor, or maybe I'll just sit at the computer and look at these pictures instead which wouldn't require nearly as much effort...yeah, I choose that.

Check out past holiday greetings HERE and HERE

Bread Crumbs: Another Decade

That is indeed a chocolate chip rainbow pancake-cake and crayoned birthday greeting you see, a little breakfast surprise from my sis and the boys. Getting old is the best.

Bread Crumbs: New View Part Two

We moved...again. The view out the living room window helps me forget

we're still living out of boxes even though we've been here for over a month.

Guesting

(letterpress 2011 fox calendar)

I almost forgot to tell you that the Jorgensen's of Sycamore Street Press have had me over at their place for the last two days as a guest. Yesterday I shared 5 random things I have been into as of late and today I am sharing a marshmallow making how-to.

(letterpress fortune teller)

Remember last year when I was showing off my own homemade squishy treats? Well this year you can show off too by following these 5 simple steps!

(Letterpress whiskers poster)

By the way, I have taken the liberty of including a few images of lovely letterpressed goods you can add to your holiday wish lists. Actually maybe you want to work on being a little less greedy as we are entering the new year and start shopping for others instead of yourself...you should knock out everyone on your list in a one stop shopping spree at SSP. Hmmm, I can't choose a favorite...just surprise me.

Mustard and Blue

Just thought I'd share a wedding invitation suite for your Wednesday afternoon. The theme for this wedding was mustard and blue and so I responded accordingly.

The invitation contained 3 main pieces; a reception invitation, a map and a ceremony invite insert. The reception invitation and map were stacked together and bound with bakers twine while the ceremony invite was enclosed in a transparent 4bar envelope and then tucked under the twine to complete the package.

This was my very first wedding invitation that was almost entirely hand illustrated and hand lettered (The grey text on the invites were computer rendered). 

I'm posting this work about 10 months after it was completed but that is probably because I have been SUPER busy working on tons of projects, nurturing my children, darning socks (if people still do that), cleaning my house spotless on a daily basis, baking homemade bread every night, cooking gourmet meals, sewing stuff slash being domestic in every way and making the world a better place. Certainly my lack of postings have had nothing to do with failure to charge the camera for photo documentation, sleeping in, catching up on TV with my friend HULU, painting nails in animal print patterns like zebras and tigers, or any other acts that might fall under the category of being lazy—most certainly not.

My neck is begging for you, Diamond in the Sky

I spotted this while browsing the internet in effort to lengthen my wish list Christmas shop for friends and family. It's being sold for a mere $300. If someone buys this for me I promise I won’t wear it bare breasted with a patent leather jacket draping off my shoulders like the model on the website.