Mother's Day Cards

Mother's Day 2010 cards for my mother and my mother-in-law.

Another post I started and never posted. Enjoy! Just in time to get the ideas rolling for Mother's Day 2011. 

Baby Shower Invites

I have five friends who are pregnant and expecting within the next 3 months, so there's lots of baby showers going on. Here is a set of invitations I made for one of my oldest friends (we went to pre-school together). Her husband tipped me off to the fact that she has a mild obsession with baby feet, which drove the design. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the vellum (on which the words were printed) had a light baby feet design throughout. I'm happy with how they turned out - I think they're very classy.

Miscellaneous Cards

Here's a few of the cards I've made in the past few months. The Thank You cards were a small gift for a pregnant friend.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Symoane's Baby Shower

My coworker Symoane is due at the beginning of April, and a few coworkers and I worked together to throw her a shower.

Mei's Wedding Invitations

I helped out Patrick's coworker, Mei, with her wedding invitations a few weeks ago. We made almost 60 of these invitations, including the invitation itself, RSVP card, and information card. Mei will add a monogram to the diamond on the front of the card.

Golden Anniversary Party Invitations

My biggest project to date (aside from these cookies) was to make invitations for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party.  I originally thought it would be about 20 or 30 invitations, but it ended up being 52.  I went through several iterations before finally deciding on this layout and design, but I am thrilled with how they turned out.

I used gold 5x7" cards (on sale at my local Paper Source store), and printed the information on luxe fino cream paper from Paper Source. I used this stamp and this gold ink stamp pad to add a little shimmer.  I downloaded the font for the invitations from DaFont.com, which has been my resource for fun fonts lately.

Not only did I make the invitations, but I also made RSVP cards and inserts which show directions to the party location and information about a nearby hotel where I reserved a block of rooms.  The maps were fun and easy to make - I've made them before, using this tutorial from Weddingbee.com.  

The party is a few short weeks away and I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, so they might be making an appearance on the blog as well, so stay tuned!

Baby Shower Invitations

One of my biggest projects to date was to make invitations in the shape of onesies for Carol's baby shower.  I found the design online and after some trial and error (and a few cursewords) I am thrilled with how they turned out.  I used cover weight paper in fuschia and text weight paper in blossom (both from Paper Source) to make the cards. The envelopes were the same shade of pink as the trim on the onesie, and these labels for the addresses.  I thought the crystal gems were the perfect touch to the front of the card to jazz things up a little bit.

I am a bit late in getting this post up - the shower was in November - and Baby Fiona has arrived!  Check out this super cute munchkin!!!

Patrick's Birthday Party

Patrick turned the big 3-0 back in November, and along with the help of his family we threw him a party at his brother's house after Thanksgiving.

I had a lot of fun working on the invitations, and turned them into a spin-off of the Tour de France logo, given Patrick's love of cycling.  The map of the US shows every place that Patrick has lived.

The party wasn't a complete surprise, but Patrick didn't know the party's theme until the day of the party, so I used address labels from Paper Source that said "Confidential" on them.  I also thought the Simpsons stamps were perfect.

We had a great party with a lot of Patrick's family -- Patrick's sister, Rachel, helped me do decorate the cake!

Chocolate Truffles

My friend and coworker, Valerie, celebrated her big 3-0 birthday this past Thursday.  She and her husband have invited Patrick and I over for dinner tonight, and I wanted to bring a little gift for her.  She's a full-fledged chocoholic, and I'd been wanting to try out Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt for months, so this seemed like a good combination!

The truffles are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself, although I'm waiting for Patrick to get home from work today to submit his official opinion as well.  This recipe gave me the chance to use up some Ghirardelli chocolate bars that have seen more apartments (and more states) than they probably should have.  About 1/3 of the truffles are coated in white chocolate with sprinkles, another 1/3 are milk chocolate with sprinkles, and the last 1/3 are milk chocolate with sea salt.  Interesting combination - I'm a fan - although I'm sure Patrick won't like those.  I picked up the cello bag at a card store earlier today, and turned one of our (many) leftover  #10 backings from Paper Source (trimmed down) to make a gift tag.  I attached the paisley paper using sticky zots, and decorated it with my Happy Birthday stamp.

Happy Birthday Valerie!!  :o)

New Project - Golden Anniversary Party Invitations

This coming June, my parents will be married for 50 years!!  Quite an accomplishment, and we'll be having a party in May to celebrate.

Originally, I thought I would "take it easy on myself" and order invitations (I really like the ones at Wedding Paper Divas), but after giving it some more thought I decided I would do them myself!

I spent some time aimlessly wandering around Paper Source yesterday (the ladies that work there are starting to recognize me as a regular), and after perusing the sale items, I noticed that all the shimmery gold paper products were on sale!  Bonus!  Here's what all I came home with:

- one 10-pack of  paper in Shimmer Gold

- one 10-pack of paper in Luxe Fino Cream

- two packs of 25 - 4.25" x 5.5" (size A2) cards in Gold (sale!)

- two packs of 25 - 5" x 7" (size A7) cards in Gold (sale!)

- one pack of 25 - 5.5" x 8.5" (size A9) cards in Gold (sale!)

- one pack of 10 - size A2 envelopes in Luxe Fino Cream

- one bracket stamp

- one "love note" stamp

- stamp pad in pearlescent chocolate

I had some ideas on what to do with all of it by the time I left the store, but my ideas solidified this morning when I had a chance to sit down and put my paws on all of it.  I came up with two versions that I really like - which one do you prefer?  The version with the ivory paper on top, or the one with the shimmery gold paper on top?

(click on the image to see a larger photo)

I'm planning on printing the wording myself. I like the bracket towards the top of the page, and I'll print a big 50 to go right in the middle of it.  Underneath that we'll have details -- golden anniversary party for A&E, and the facility, on the date, at the time, and no gifts please.  

I'm so excited and honored to be able to plan this party for my parents, and to do the invitations!  Thanks Mom & Dad!