Recent Project: Holiday Party Invitations

Here are some of the other designs I created for the Jump Trading holiday party invitations. You can see the design the client chose here.





I'm signing off for the weekend. Have a safe and happy new year! I can't believe it's going to be 2011. Yikes! The husband and I are just going to our friends' house for a low-key shindig. :) Any big (or small) plans for the holiday?

Happy Holidays!

Sorry for being MIA the past couple weeks! I got bogged down with last minute Christmas shopping, holiday prepping, and keeping my SIL company while she's in town. Here are a few photos from our annual Christmas Eve gathering at my husband's aunt's house. We always get together for dinner and then open presents around midnight. Never before have I ever seen so many presents under a tree (except for on tv) until I joined the husband's family. A-mazing. Every Christmas, we stuff our bellies full until we can eat no more. Then we get together and open all of the presents. Afterwards, all the "adults" play poker while the "kids" play board games, doze on the couch, or watch movies. By 4am, we are all ready to pass out. So we call it a night and head home or crash on one of their couches.

[I post processed the Christmas tree photo using Sydney's awesome tutorial
here. I love love LOVE how all of her photos look...so soft and warm.]

What is a holiday tradition that your family has?

New-to-Me Blogs: Paper • Crafts • Food

Here are a few of the blogs that I have recently discovered. They are filled with beautiful photos, great design, crafty projects and delicious recipes. [Click on their logo to go to their site.] What are your recent blog discoveries?

A Sweet & Thoughtful Client

Gayle is the sweetest and most thoughtful client EVER! I designed this dinosaur party invitation for her son's 1st birthday. Since she was thrilled with the invitations, she asked me to design a few more paper goods for her. I'll be showing those in the near future. As a thank you, she sent me this care package all the way from Hawaii! Isn't she so sweet?? She sent me her favorite honey glazed macadamia nuts along with some chocolate covered ones and 2 bags of Hawaiian coffee!. Mmm...I can't wait to try everything! You're too kind, Gayle!

Shabby Chic

I'm in the process of designing a shabby chic-inspired invitation for a 1st birthday party. As I was perusing the internet for inpiration, I came upon this fresh & beautiful Shabby Chic Bridal Button Shower on Wedding Chicks. The rest of the photos can be seen here. I love, love, love the gorgeous cake and the color palette.

To all of my girlfriends turning the BIG 3-0...

Just a little birthday card I made for a couple of my lovely, sweet-toothed girlfriends
for their big, BIG birthdays. Happy birthday!! Hope it was a sweet one!

Real Parties: A Very Hungry Caterpillar

I love seeing how my designs look at a real party! Thanks for sending me these photos, Sunny! I designed various signage, tags and raffle tickets for Owen's 1st birthday party. Don't you just love the Hungry Caterpillar theme Sunny chose for the party?

(Photos c/o Frenzi Visuals)

DIY: Holiday Garlands

I found this fantastically colorful & festive felt garland tutorial on Momtastic (I came upon the link via another blog, but I forgot which...sorry!) It sounds super easy to make. It is very similar to the paper garlands I made for my nephew's birthday last year. You just have to cut out a bunch of circles and slowly feed them through the sewing machine. Easy peasy! I really like how they coordinated the garland to the stockings.


Here are some more fabulous felt and dot garlands I found around the blogosphere:
A Curious George Inspired Birthday Party - My Bride Story
Twisted Felt Garland - Purl Bee
Felt Pom Pom Garland - Truly Smitten
Felt Garland - Style & Sensibility
Sticker Dot Garland - Martha Stewart

Paperless Post

I just discovered Paperless Post. They provide electronic invitations and other stationery...similar in concept as to Evites. But you don't have to forgo style and elegance when going the paperless route. I really like these contemporary invitations by the Brooklyn design studio, Linda & Harriet.

[found via Simple + Pretty]