Poinsettia

Abstract poinsettia leaves in light and dark green, red berries, and looping script combine for a beautiful holiday greeting.

Peaceful Tidings

This might actually become my own holiday card this year. I love everything about it. It’s a unique style: a folded layer mounted to a single green piece, with just a minimalistic message.

Cookie Exchange

What an easy card this was to whip up… We chose a small trifold card with a bright green damask pattern on the back, printed large cookie graphics on the white side, and threw it into a red envelope. One layer, simple layout and no assembly made this cookie exchange invitation a walk in the park.

Mary Oliver Quote

“Tell me- what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” This Mary Oliver quote was a request from a customer who wanted to give these framed as gifts. We fully justified the text and made key words stand out, turning a quote into a piece of art.

Woo Pig Sooie!

This year’s triumphant return of the Pig Roast invitation adhered to the ultra-trend of using reverse type and a chalkboard background (don’t knock it too much- it’s part of our logo, too…). The stripes on the back were a fun surprise for anyone who turned the card over, or happened to drop it and have it land back-side up. Whatever will we think of next year to top this design?

Old Balls 40th Birthday

Oh buddy… this invitation kept us laughing from the moment the customer brought the idea to us. She saw something similar elsewhere and wanted to know if we could recreate it for her… and it was truly our pleasure. This surprise 40th birthday party for the client’s husband played up the golf theme while humorously incorporating various innuendos throughout.

Andrew the Rock Star

These VIP backstage pass invitations were being inserted into lanyards and distributed to the party guests. We tried to make them fun and authentic at the same time, complete with a bar code at the bottom.

bird and nest stationery

Noni’s Nest

A lovely logo I designed for a private residence in Michigan, fondly named Noni’s Nest after the nickname the owner’s grandkids call her, which we then incorporated into stationery sheets and personal calling cards.

 

Winter Landscape

If you’re a little tired of all the red and green at Christmas, a lovely alternative for a holiday greeting is to go with a winter landscape in snowy tones of blue, white and chocolate. This Tag and Co. design boasts a sort of calm tranquility and the elegant, white script at the top is a perfect complement to the rich color of the evergreen trees.

Holiday Mendhi Twist

Twist cards are a great way to include a photo and greeting on opposite sides of the same card, without actually turning the card over. Just gently pull on the left and right edges of the card and the photo twists around to reveal the greeting. They chose this color palette to coordinate with the soft shades in their clothing, with emphasis on the pale pink in baby Victoria’s dress.

Utopia Salon & Spa

In addition to designing business cards for many of the stylists at Utopia Salon, I recently put together some new gift certificates for the salon. The tea length ivory card slides into a black portable pocket sleeve, which is then paired with an ivory envelope bearing the Utopia logo. The certificate is intentionally worded so it would work for many potential services or dollar amounts.

Peace

Who says you have to use traditional Christmas colors on a holiday card? This customer chose pink and green shades to coordinate with the colors they were wearing in their family photo. Also by Tag and Co., this is a more contemporary design and was a different choice from years past that was fresh and fun.

Holly Holidays

There’s just something about a few bursts of bright holiday red that is absolute perfection when paired with light blue and deep mocha. This card found the perfect balance of soft blue, vibrant red, and rich brown.

Davis Holiday Card

Tag and Company does exquisite photo printing, which is why they are a big favorite of ours for any holiday card that uses a photo. This monochromatic card stays clean and simple with a black and white photo and grey tones for the rest of the design.

Adelyn’s 1st Birthday

The baby daughter of a photographer friend of mine turned one, and they gave me the privilege of working on her birthday party invitations. This simple 5×7 card incorporated a photo of Adelyn wearing a bright pink tutu, sitting next to a chalkboard with the number one drawn on it (she’s very advanced for her age…). We added a hot pink metallic envelope to make it extra special.

Midwest to the Mountains

Five years after we did a birth announcement for this family, they moved to Colorado and asked us to find a truly unique moving announcement that would include a photo of their new digs. After looking through some ideas, we landed on a cool tri-fold announcement patterned after a design featured on the Envelopments website. It worked beautifully with the photo of their house and the fact that they moved from here to there (love the zig zag line.)

Eat, Drink & Make Merry

My famous annual pig roast customers wanted a Christmas celebration invitation that would generate a lot of excitement for the second of their yearly shindigs, having set the bar high with their summer pig roast. Phyllis and I looked at a lot of ideas and this festive gatefold style invitation won out. We used a graphite plume pattern for the bottom layer, a crisp red for the accent layer, and a shimmery white top layer reminiscent of a snowy day. To close the gatefold and add a piece of flair to the outside, we added a two-layer square seal with the return address, allowing the outer folding piece to become the “envelope.”

Evergreen Christmas

This super fun couple comes in once a year to order holiday party invitations as well as their Christmas cards, and catch up on the latest news around the shop… this was the traditional Tag and Co. design they chose to send to friends and family.

gender reveal party

Gender Reveal Party

Heather and Matt got married at the Dayton Art Institute in November 2010 and are expecting their first bundle of joy. They decided to find out the sex of the baby at a “Gender Reveal Party” that included all of their closest friends and family members. The Gender Reveal is a new trend that just recently started making headlines across the country as couples started coming up with unique ways to find out the sex of their baby at a celebration with family and friends. Heather scheduled their Gender Reveal Party for the day after her 20-week ultrasound…she and Matt shielded their eyes at the appointment and had the ultrasound technician put the determining photo into a sealed envelope, which was then delivered to the bakery that was responsible for creating the shower cake. The bakery was instructed to use pink filling for a girl and blue for a boy, and to carefully frost the cake to conceal its contents so it wouldn’t ruin the surprise before the big moment. Heather cut into the cake at the shower to reveal……blueberries! They’re expecting a little boy in early 2013, and couldn’t be more thrilled. Congrats to the parents-to-be! (To see Heather and Matt’s beautiful winter wedding invitation, click here.)

 

Baby, it’s cold outside

This is my baby (who isn’t a baby anymore) staying warm on a chilly Fall morning in 2007. The morning I snapped this pic he had gotten into my closet and dug out my pink slipper socks and some striped hot pink fuzzy gloves. Still in his pj’s, he brought them out into the living room, took all the cushions off the couch, put on the socks and slippers and proceeded to sit in his cushion fort watching Bob the Builder, oblivious to me taking about a dozen photos of this precious morning moment that I might not have remembered had it not been for the camera (another reason I love photography so much).

I’m one of those people who prefers candid shots over staged photos, and as soon as I started planning my Christmas card in 2007 I kept thinking of this picture of him with the fuzzy gloves, and the expression “Baby, it’s cold outside….” In the end I opted for a different sentiment and decided to tone down the hot pink by converting the photo to sepia, but this was the most elaborate holiday card I’d done to date. There were about nine layers of paper and ribbon, including a 5×7 Envelofold from Envelopments, layered with a light blue polka dot paper and rich chocolate brown accents. I went with a lustrous silver printed card and matching envelope; most of the layers were handcut from larger pieces of card stock in order to create the framed look around the photo, the “Peace” seal on the back, and the greeting itself. It was worth it- every time I look at this custom creation I remember what the holidays mean to me- embracing love and family, and appreciating those moments in life that sometimes you’re just lucky enough to capture on film.

Holiday Splendor

All year I look forward to my annual October-ish visit from Mary Ann…She’s one of these awesome fiery ladies with a personality that keeps me laughing almost constantly. And every year when she and her friend stop in to work on Mary Ann’s holiday cards, we are tasked with coming up with something “even better than last year’s” (which is no small accomplishment since we’ve been designing her holiday cards since we opened in 2005.) Last year’s card was a beautiful creation from Tag & Co.  but in 2010, we created this whimsical dancing reindeer card. Mary Ann loves bright colors, particularly red, so that was an obvious choice as the top layer, and the tiny dot pattern adds a sweet and simple touch. The most important decision each year with her cards is the sentiment- always unique, heartfelt and sincere, it can’t be something we’ve ever used before. Mary Ann challenges me to keep reinventing her cards, and keeps me giggling well into the New Year.

Pig Roast Extravaganza

The Van Overs roast a pig every year and I adore that even though they live in Indiana, they call me every summer and ask for new ideas for their annual shindig. (That just gave me an idea for next year’s invitations….hmmm, “Pig Shindig”!) This year’s invitations blew the others out of the water- this was by far, the prize hog at the county fair. We used an indigo bottom layer of cardstock and a nice deep blue ink to match, coupled with a rusty red envelope and accent ink to coordinate, and printed everything on a pale grey stock called London Fog that gave it just the right amount of grit. I particularly like the “seal of approval” we used as a design element- this is one of those invitations that makes me happy just looking at it because it’s such a happy marriage of things I love…fonts, graphics, stocks, colors… it’s bacon-tacular (much like this clever site, which meat-lover computer nerds will appreciate).

Bre’s Graduation

Bre came into the store for the first time with her mom, brimming with excitement over her upcoming graduation from medical school. She informed me that she never goes “all out” for things, but she wanted something really special to announce the graduation she had worked so hard for, and the degree she was so proud to earn. She chose a fun geometric pattern in a cool chartreuse green and paired it with a navy blue border which gave it a tailored look. We kept the feeling lighthearted with a casual and fun script for her name, and lent a modern lilt to the invitations with one of my favorite go-to fonts, Century Gothic for the rest of her text.

 

 

Red Stripes Photo Card

Another by Tag and Co., this holiday greeting features a full bleed photo with a few red stripes across the bottom where the text is placed in reverse type. If you have a professional quality photo, let it speak for itself by keeping the photo as the main focus.

Ginger’s Baby Shower

There are two things I love most about this baby shower invitation: the cool pink and brown polka dot ribbon from Midori, and the adorable font. Those two elements, combined with a metallic pink bottom layer and white micah printed invitation piece make this a simple yet fun invitation, perfect for a baby shower announcing the upcoming arrival of a sweet baby girl.

Joe’s 75th

This was a “think outside the box” project, to say the least…when I got an email from a long-time customer telling me her latest theme (she’s a Party Planner Extraordinaire), I couldn’t wait to sit down and design it. Her father is a Sweepstakes fanatic and she decided to have a Sweepstakes-themed party for his 75th birthday. We used parchment paper, found some cheesy graphics and bold fonts, and even added gold seals and manila envelopes to make them look more official. How awesome is that?!

Baby Gavin

Welcome to the world, Baby Gavin! What a sweet surprise to have one of my brides from a few years ago wander into the store…8 months pregnant! A few weeks later, she and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby boy. For his birth announcement we decided to go with something special- a brown textured folded card with blue satin ribbon that showcased his gorgeous pictures on the right and gave the stats on the left. Absolutely perfect, just like him.

 

Mary Colleen Birth Announcement

To announce Mary’s post-Valentine’s Day arrival her parents wanted to include a 4×6 photo with the announcement so family and friends could have a momento to keep, so we chose a portable pocket that was large enough to accommodate a full-size photo mounted onto a pink and white paisley card. The alabaster satin ribbon pull tab at the top of the photo card serves as a cute way to pull the photo out of the pocket and adds a little bit of shine at the same time. Mary’s stats from her arrival day are printed in a pale pink ink on the white linen card that we adhered to the front of the pocket, and finishing off the ensemble is a lower case “m” graphic which makes this announcement distinctly hers and gives it a little modern flair.

Courtney’s Princess Birthday

Courtney is one of my favorite 6-year olds because she loves paper so much. She even came in to order her own stationery before she started school! This special invitation was for her sixth birthday party, and since it was a princess party we had to make it extra sparkly. We used two layers of metallic card stock and finished it off with a glitter tiara at the top.

Land and Sea birthday

Mason and Ryan are best friends with birthdays four days apart, and they both happen to love the same two things: dinosaurs and sharks. To compromise, we decided a “Land and Sea” theme would be fun, and created an invitation with a reptile texture wrap, and an accent layer in ice blue that had a wrinkled texture (that I was convinced represented shark skin). The party was held at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, and their cake was done by Dorothy Lane Market to match the shark and dinosaur theme and was absolutely INCREDIBLE. We cringed when we finally cut into it, but made sure to take plenty of pictures beforehand to capture it’s awesomeness.

Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah

This was the most elaborate Bat Mitzvah invitation we have done to date, with three colors layered inside a pocket, a delicate satin ribbon, a Star of David punch and plenty of purple. The pocket worked well because there were plenty of family members coming in from out of town to celebrate with Sarah, and her mom wanted to make sure we included a directions card for the guests as well as a celebration card detailing the events of the weekend. We frequently use this format for wedding invitations and it worked beautifully to incorporate all of the elements of Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah celebration.

Lobsterfest

Every Memorial Day Weekend, Dorothy Lane Market hosts what is known as “Lobstermania”, which is an all day event at which they sell {super cheap} lobsters until they run out. It’s first come, first served; you get in line as early as you want, you get as many lobsters as you want, and you take them home, invite over a couple dozen people, and feast on lobster as you welcome Summer.

Be Merry

This was my own little grinch (pretending to be mad), and I thought it would make a great holiday card especially with an ironic message blazing across the top. Just a friendly holiday reminder not to let the stress of the season get you down…

Scavenger Hunt Birthday Party

Disclaimer: the first major thing to note about this invitation is that due to licensing laws I was only able to use the Scooby Doo graphics because it was for private use- these invitations were for Ryan’s 5th Birthday. I’m not legally allowed to sell invitations with licensed or protected graphics, however I wanted to post this invitation because it would be easy to do a more general scavenger hunt or mystery-themed birthday invitation. The best thing about this invitation was that I included the first clue for the scavenger hunt in the invitation and instructed guests to bring it to the party to receive their next clue. We played on the idea of a “birthday bandit” stealing the party favors, and the kids had to read the clues and follow the trail to eventually lead to the party favors and balloons, which the kids got to take home with them. It was a really fun activity and kept them busy and running around outside as they tried to figure out where the next clue was hidden and work as a team to find it.

Whitney’s Graduation

Whitney, oh Whitney, where do I start…..Whitney bounced into the store one day applying for our internship position, and even though the first time I met her she reminded me of a bubbly, red-headed Hannah Montana, she quickly found a niche at the shop and was a complete joy to work alongside. Whitney became one of our legendary interns at the shop, and this energetic, Texas-bred girl taught me a lot in her time at The Envelope: she explained the ways of Cotillion and hair weaves, taught me how much pugs love to “dress up,” and discovered that it’s never a good idea to use a shrink-wrap gun as a blow dryer (she ended up burning a hole in her shirt).

When she graduated from the University of Dayton she moved to London to study design, and like most things Whitney did, she wanted to announce her commencement in her own unique style. We designed a 4×5 portable pocket in hot metallic pink, and incorporated a lime green paisley accent stock and a swirly, handwritten font. Simply put, her announcement was *almost* as much fun as she is.

Nina and Bill’s 50th Anniversary

Occasionally we have the honor of creating invitations for milestone events- this 50th Wedding Anniversary was on the contemporary side, as reflected in the chocolate and turquoise kaleidoscope patterned backing. We kept in the 50th Anniversary tradition of gold by printing the top layer on a pyrite stock.

Grace’s First Communion

Grace is one of three lovely sisters for whom I’ve had the pleasure of creating some pretty special announcements and invitations, ranging from birth announcements to First Communion invitations. We took a more traditional feminine approach with this particular invitation, using the palest of pinks and ivory to create a softer feel, and paired it against a chocolate brown backing to coordinate with the mocha ink, adding a delicate, simple cross at the top. This invitation would also make a lovely baptism announcement.

 

Andrew’s 1st Birthday

I love this hippo. This was the very first thing I ever attempted to draw in Illustrator and I can’t tell you how proud I am of the way he turned out (not bad for being self-taught in CS!) Andrew’s mom came to us looking for a cute hippo invitation and she had found a few online that she liked but like most of our customers, she was nervous about ordering online (understandably so…you just never know what you’re going to get). None of our invitation lines carried a hippo invite, and since I’m one of those people who doesn’t understand the phrase, “Sorry, we can’t do that,” I sat down and decided to draw it myself – and he came out pretty darn cute, if I do say so. 🙂

Porter Wright Holiday Party

The holidays always come faster than we’re ready for, and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur asked us to help them prepare for their annual holiday party by putting together an invitation that was festive yet professional to send to their extensive client base. This 5×7 folding invitation had a rich red paisley design on one side and a solid pale gold metallic color on the other. We printed on the same pale gold paper as the back of the folding piece, and kept the fonts basic and professional with a script accent for holiday spirit.

Truman’s Puppy Party

Truman is the adorable son of one of my favorite former employees, and I have to say that Molly throws the best kids’ birthday parties I have ever seen. She spares no detail, and makes everything come together like something out of a magazine (or Pinterest). Truman’s second birthday was a puppy party, so we wanted to use plenty of shades of brown, but what makes this invitation so distinct are the paw-print ribbon, the 3-dimensional puppy embellishment and the playful font.

Julie’s 35th at Thai Nine

Julie was turning 35 and decided it was time to get the girls together to celebrate with a night on the town. She liked the compact size of the portable pocket card, but we jazzed it up a bit by adding a cool patterned black and white accent layer which made it feel a little bit more sophisticated. The seal on the front announced the event and gave a sneak peak at the layers we used for the invitation inside the pocket. The hot pink and Tiffany blue were just the right combination of city style and girlish fun (which was exactly what her birthday turned out to be!)

Annie’s 30th

Yep, this one belongs to me…One of the perks of owning an invitation business is that you get to have the coolest invitations (and tend to have more parties just so you can send out fun invites). The thing that makes me laugh about this invitation is how I made a (failed) attempt at making it look as though the invitations were from my then husband. Like anyone who received one wouldn’t know that I sent my own invites, ha….

This design says it all…turning 30 means “kissing goodbye” to a lot of things – that it turns out you won’t actually miss (and for the record, tequila hasn’t been completely banned). Now at 34, I can actually say I have enjoyed my 30’s way more than my 20’s….I’m more settled, I have some amazing people in my life, and I feel like I finally know myself and my niche in this world.

This invitation was so much fun to design…the multiple fonts, layers, and graphics blend beautifully, and the bright green and orange create just the right statement to go with a gathering of friends at El Meson. The only downside was that they were $1/invitation to mail but I have to say…it was worth it. The overall feel wouldn’t have been the same without the square detail. I particularly love the oversized seal on the front featuring a chandelier and a reminder that “29 is so last year…”

If you’re turning 30, I recommend you do it in style with a portable pocket invitation like this one, complete with a list of all of the things you’ll be saying goodbye to….I have a hunch that even if 30 seems old now, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this new chapter in your life, just like I have been. Welcome to the club. 🙂

Caroline’s Graduation

Small pockets are perfect for graduation because they give all the details in a tiny, succinct package, and let’s face it- by the time we graduate, sometimes less reading is better! Caroline decided she was up to the task of additional reading and went on to law school, which she announced on a petite bright green and metallic brown textured announcement, with just enough sophisticated patterned border to make it interesting.

joy & love

Another lovely creation for Molly, who did the going away fiesta for her friends, was her holiday card from 2007. There are three things that stand out to me about this holiday card: first, the gorgeous photo of Molly, Chris and Truman (who now has a little sister, Tenley); the generous dupioni silk ribbon; and the words “joy & love” that express their Christmas wishes to friends and family in a bold yet simple fashion. This card was a perfect blend of texture, color, and expression.

Kathryn’s 1st Birthday

Sweet things come in small packages, and this lovely lollipop of an invitation was the perfect way to invite close family and friends to Kathryn’s first birthday party. Bubblegum pink and lime green were cheerful colors to use for a first birthday and the square size made it a little bit more unique. We added glitter on top of the lollipop swirls and used a whimsical curly font to make it as girly as possible.

 

Bode Jackson

This little guy has kept me company on the shop’s “wall of fame” ever since he arrived in November 2007- it’s hard to believe he’s turning five this year! This announcement includes a 3.5×5 z-card with three panels, metallic white printed cards, and a satin ribbon that ties it all together. On the first panel we used sweet verbiage that Bode’s dad came up with; the center panel features his photo (by Mark Garber) and the third panel lists his birthdate, weight and length. The bottom layer z-card is a pale blue polka dot stock, with three white micah metallic cards layered on top and a 5/8″ ribbon from Midori with “le bebe” written in a repeating pattern.

 

Ryan’s Adventure Golf Birthday

Fore! I don’t recommend taking a bunch of 3 year olds putt-putting…however, if you do, and it happens to be for a birthday party, I highly recommend this custom invitation complete with a faux suede putting green. Ryan is now 8 and doesn’t get into birthday parties as much anymore (this year he just wants to “hang out” at home with us) but when he was younger there was ALWAYS a theme. His first birthday was a monkey safari, his second had a cars and trucks theme, fourth was Hot Wheels, fifth we had a Scooby Doo scavenger hunt complete with clues, sixth at the Boonshoft Museum was a “Land and Sea” party (think dinosaurs and sharks), seventh was all about Angry Birds….whew! And I got a little crazier every year with his invitations- check the links- but the golf theme was one of the best. I designed the insert card to look like a score card that fit inside a green square pocket, used popsicle sticks for the flag poles and found an awesome green faux suede for the putting green.

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