Custom Design: Bounce House Children's Gender Neutral Birthday Invitations

Well, you know my niece and nephew, from previous birthday celebrations (here and here), but this year, since their birthdays are a month apart, my sister merged their parties into one bounce house birthday party.

When it comes to children's party invitations, I try to stay true to my style. I don't do a lot of illustrations, so while I know that's what a lot of party invitations have, I like to give these themed parties my own take on them. As all the little babies I know become little kids, I am doing more and more. It's always a challenge, but am enjoying how they are turning out.

Now, a few years ago, I didn't know that they have party venues with bounce houses, but at this party, I was going down the slides with the kiddos. I mean, with this adorable little guy, says 'again! again!', well, you go again!

Real Wedding: Jenny + Mikey

The way it usually goes for a stationer is, at the very best, I am shipping programs and menus off a few weeks (or days, yikes!) before the wedding. But, if they don't order any day-of paper items from me, by the time their wedding is actually here, I have moved on to brides that are getting married months down the road. Their invitations are moved into the 'complete' brides folder, into sample drawers, and I think of them fondly. And I ALWAYS wonder what their wedding day looked like…

But then…. if I'm lucky, a bride pops back in to share their photos or some awesome vendor submits them to wedding blogs… or, I google myself and find a wedding that I've been credited in on a blog. (it sounds silly, but this has happened many times!) As a lover of weddings and the sweet brides that I work with, it seriously makes me so happy to see the happy couple on their beautiful wedding day. I have been updating my 'Real Weddings' portfolio on my Facebook page, and wow, I must say, I work with some gorgeous brides with amazing style.

Jenny is no exception! Jenny and Mikey's wedding was one of the 'I googled myself' variety, and I am so glad I did, because WOW. Her wedding was featured on The Pretty Blog, and so I reached out to Laura Goldenberger, their amazing photographer, who graciously shared images of their big day.

They were married in Palm Springs at The Cree Estate. Their wedding was all white with with hints of gold - the wedding is really the epitome of timeless elegance.

I love the mismatched bridesmaid's dresses in the pale neutrals. Stunning!!!!

Photographer: Laura Goldenberger | Catering: The Butler Did It | Stationery: Lauren Chism Fine Papers | Hair & Make-up: Kacee Geoffroy Hair and Makeup | Wedding dress: Allure Bridal | Hand-Painted Menu Sign: Emily Lauren Van Orden | DJ: VOX DJs | Coordinating: The Bride and I | Wedding Decor: Artisan Events | Table Numbers: Z Create Design

Parker's 1st Birthday Photo Party Invitations

After spending the long weekend kissing the chubby cheeks of this sweet boy, I thought I should get around to sharing his party invitations before he gets any older. Because, it seems like he is, and fast.

You might remember Parker from his birth announcements. He is my best friend, Carrie's sweet son and being that I am his personal stationer, I got to create some sweet first birthday party invitations for his big day.  Carrie didn't have any big ideas for a theme, so we made Parker (and his extreme cuteness) the theme of the party. We used photos on the invitation and Carrie displayed photos of his first year throughout the party decor.

I like photo invitations, but I love that we used several photos to document how he has changed instead of just one. It's especially nice for those who don't live near him and/or can't make the party, they get to see how Parker has grown and changed throughout the year. Isn't he the cutest!?

I also like this bright color combination. This Chartreuse green prints so vibrant and I love how perfect it feels paired with the teal blue/green.

White Foil Snowflake Holiday Cards

Before the holidays get too far from us (how is it already mid January?!), I wanted to share my business holiday cards that I sent out to friends, clients, and fellow wedding vendors.

I like to use my own stationery as an opportunity to try some printing that I haven't done before, so I went with white foil on grey card stock. As I was stuffing them, I thought how pretty they would have been on navy stock and kind of wished I had tried that, but oh well - maybe next time!

The white foil was even more beautiful than I excepted it to be. 'White ink' is a pretty elusive printing technique. If you see 'white' text on a flat printed card, it's really just the paper showing through with a colored background. Therefore, you can't print white on color envelopes easily. You can typically only print in white if you are doing offset, letterpress, foil and engraving, all of which range from fairly expensive to very expensive and offer varying looks. I personally think offset and letterpress don't give a saturated enough look for my taste and I am not a big fan of engraving, so when I got the foil, I was excited at how perfect it was. I think it would be beautiful on wedding invitations and am probably going to try to incorporate it into my wedding collection.

I also sent out personal photo holiday cards that I ordered through Minted. You can check those out on Instagram here.

Featured: Black Foil Birth Announcements + New Year Cards on Oh So Beautiful Paper

This design. I love it.

Clean. Modern. Black Foil. Suzanne's requests were music to my ears. She also has some crazy talent in the photography department and then, well she made a very cute baby. This is the making of a good birth announcement, if you ask me! The combination of black foil and the semi-gloss photo (which are attached to each card) is festive and striking. Love, love, love!

She came to me before the birth of little Jackson and had some fun ideas for them, but then captured this photo. Those kissable baby lips changed the direction of the design and I think the 'newborn kisses + happy new year wishes' is the perfect sentiment. Photos are everything to birth announcements, aren't they!? It's great to plan ahead (getting on my calendar is very helpful), but I say, wait to get the photo before you think to much about the design, because it really directs me and sets the tone for the card.

When I was packing this up, I stopped and just thought about how lucky I am that I got to design this. When a sweet person like Suzanne finds my work, lives in Dallas, wants foil birth announcements and something that no one has ever gotten in the mail before, and loves paper as much as I do… well, it's the perfect storm. A storm that brings beautiful babies and beautiful paper together!

I am so excited and honored to have it featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper today! My favorite blog! Thank you, Nole!