secret 2nd anniversary

Chris and I celebrated our secret 2nd year anniversary...meaning it has been 2 years since we eloped! time flies!

Last year for our one year we made a point to go to Mission Beach and ride the rickety roller coaster. It was so fun and symbolic in many ways.

This year, I'm too pregnant to ride a roller coaster, so I just made him a card about it instead.

Thank You Card from Baby Charley

Here is the adapted Thank You Card I personalized for Baby Charley. I love the banner and the font.

If you are interested in a customized baby shower thank you card, please let me know!

a special blog banner

Grace Choi found me via kim-squared, then found gracieKdesigns, and then precious soul. She connected with me after she found out that we knew some of the same people (small world) and how we both struggled with infertility issues. She started a blog about her journey and wanted me to design a banner for her.

She had great ideas, which I incorporated into the above banner. I love the name of her blog and her tag line. I also love her concept of the picture. It is of her and and her husband on the road to start a family.

I know it is a private journey that she and her husband are on, so I am grateful that she allowed me to share her blog with you. If you want to feel inspired, please visit her blog, Chois-R-Us.

precious soul banner

oh yes, did i mention that i have a new blog to record the lovely joys of my pregnancy? well, i do. and you can read it, if you want.

the banner design was quite simple, and again the illustration was recycled from our wedding program.

i'm discovering new fonts, which is always fun. yipee!

simplicity: Beatles

okay, i lied. i have been designing things..but just for myself.

i made these simple cards that have my favorite Beatles lyrics on them, with very simple illustrations, and sent them to my friends.

why?

because my new years resolution was to write more handwritten letters.

whoah its been a long time

hi. its been a while. yes, i stopped designing after the wedding...burnt out, i suppose.

well, i'm pregnant. and i adapted one of my old pieces, pregnant karen, into a new piece: pregnant grace.



yay!

thank you card-wedding

here's our thank you card for our wedding.

I recycled our program illustration and slapped on one of my favorite wedding pics on the back.

Done.

brochure

I designed this brochure in PAGES, which is a Mac program. It was so easy to make!

Here is the front of the brochure that gives a little welcome blurb:


Here is the inside of the brochure. I used photoshop to add details to maps I downloaded off of google maps.

Chris and I listed our favorite bars, restaurants, and things to do in the Pacific Beach and Mission Beach area where most of guests will be staying:

We also added some information about Mission Bay and areas of interest in the greater San Diego region:

Beautiful!

welcome card

Here are the welcome cards for the out of town bags.

I scanned a card I bought with this Vintage San Diego illustration. I used photoshop to add in our names at the bottom.


Then I just wrote a simple welcome paragraph and highlighted some of the weekend events:

menus

I bought 100 of these butter cards before paper source discontinued them a year ago. I know, I plan waaaay too far in advance.

But there is something so perfect about the color that cannot be found in any other yellow paper I come across!

Anyways, here are the menu cards. I used the same font and lines as the invitations, as well as that darn milk bottle that keeps showing up everywhere.

Here is the menu:

On the back, I printed walking directions to the after party. I edited the map in photoshop before I put it all together in illustrator.

wedding programs

Okay, I have been working long and hard on designing and printing all the stinkin stationary for the wedding.

I'll start off with these programs.

So at first I had this elaborate design for them, but then my friends reminded me that people just throw them away after the ceremony..so they advised me to not put forth that much effort.

Hmm..okay. Well, if you know me, you know that I love to draw people. So I decided it would be fun if I drew out the program.

First I drew a picture of me and Chris on the front. Yes, Chris is wearing is dress blues (can you tell?) and there you have a sneak peek of my dress (yes it's short..and sexay!)

Then I drew the heads of all the people in the bridal party. I think they look like each of them, but some might disagree...(Vince has hair??)

The actual order of events is a design in my original program. The tree and tandem bike were items I was going to use in the invitation, but then I took it out. I drew these on illustrator.

So I scanned in my pencil drawings and then finished putting it all together in illustrator. I love it and I hope it makes people smile and laugh and my silliness.

wedding invitations

(the rsvp card tears off)

I tried to leave plenty of time to work on the invitations.

I kept with the Beatles theme ( did anyone notice the Beatles songs?) and simplified the text and pictures to follow 2 themes: bicycles and milk bottles.

I designed them in Illustrator, free hand drawing the bike and milk bottle.

I played around with lots of different fonts. My favorite free download of fonts came from Fonts From Peas !

I printed about 50 test prints, then cut the paper (this was the worst part), stamped and embossed the invites and envelopes with a darling stamp from Japan, and then printed each piece of the suite on my printer. I was surprised at how well the printer held up.

After I printed the 400 sheets, I cut them down to size and then hole punched them. The hole punching part was very annoying as you had to have the strength to go through 6 pieces of paper. Chris broke 2 hole punchers during the process, but my friend Kimmy did it seamlessly.

We put the ribbon through and then I printed the labels (I love the font...looks handwritten, doesn't it?), placed the stamps, and sent them.
I hope you liked them! I think they represent me and the theme of the wedding well. Plus, I think they are pretty creative, no?

Paper from envelopper and paper source.
Labels from kootie's closet shop on etsy
Ribbon from Michaels
Stamp from Japan

gracie K designs tag

So, I decided to make my own tag for gracieK designs.

I typed using my typewriter and a stamp. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the ink from the typewriter also allows for embossing!

Extra cool!

for allison

So, remember the baby shower that happened this past weekend? It wasn't only for my sister in law, but also for her BFF, Christine, who is also having a girl...named ALLISON!

I wanted to customize something for her as well, so I decided to make bookplates that she can stick into all the books she receives so she doesn't lose them. I actually printed out the labels (bought from Paper Source) on the computer and then used stamps and embossing powder to create the little girl.

Here are the steps:

1. Print labels from computer (do a test run on the back first).
2. Use ink and stamp and press firmly.

3. Pour embossing powder on top of each stamp.
4. Shake off the powder (I dump it back into the container so I can reuse it).

4. Use embossing heat gun to emboss each stamp.

5. Voila! Bookplates are complete!

I LOVE how the embossing gun brings stamping to a whole new level!