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This is one of the recent projects I am really excited about — it’s our first booklet-style invitation. I’ll be blogging about it in depth later this year after I have some photos of the big day from the bride and groom. In the meantime, I couldn’t resist posting a little bit of it now!
It’s an orange and gray soft-cover booklet printed on bright white stock and bound with bright orange satin ribbon. Four pages tell the couple’s story, invite, and inform, while a tear-off panel acts as a reply postcard. The design itself is also really fun and preppy, so we’ll be adding it to our Ephemera collection soon along with a few others.
Fun!
–Tara
Source: Randy Heisch, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
We’re back! We were in the great state of Texas for a wedding over Easter weekend. It was a total whirlwind of activity, and lots of fun. The wedding was also totally blogworthy, so look for that on the horizon.
The Texas Hill Country was looking pretty spring-like with tons of bluebonnets and other native flowers springing up all over the highway. Dave and I took a drive to Austin to visit a few of our favorite places, visit old friends, and eat chicken fried steak (ever elusive in the Pacific Northwest):
Yowza.
On our drive around Austin, we passed a turnoff for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which made me think of Ashley and Matthew, who are getting married there very soon. It’s sort of funny… Back when we had all that insane weather in December, the whole city kind of shut down and I snapped this picture of their poor little invitation stuck with me in the snow!
Not to worry, Ashley and Matthew… Spring has sprung in Texas! Actually I’m sure it’s been sprung for awhile down south. I think it’s finally arrived in Western Washington as well. Hopefully brighter evening hours will help me blog a bit more often this season. Lots to say! Thanks to all you loyal readers… I endeavor to deserve you 
.
–Tara
This is the part of the story where you find out that my husband, Dave, makes awesome hand-crafted soaps! On one of our earliest trips to Orcas Island, he got hooked on some handmade soaps he found in one of the great shops there. He works very hard at his day job as a computer tech, and was in desperate need of a fun hobby, so a couple of years ago, he decided to try his hand at making some himself.
The first attempts were… interesting… (right, Dave? I still have a bar of the original batch in the shop sink downstairs!) He experimented over and over with different formulas for the basic mixture, adjusting this and that, and having his friends and family try them out. Over time, he has gotten REALLY. GOOD.
So good, that he just started selling them on Etsy last month. Behold:
I helped with packaging — each one has a label with the logo letterpress-printed in black ink on Hahnemuhle Bugra paper. The soap’s scent is hand-lettered by me in opaque white gouache. I’m glad I’m doing this for him — it is a good excuse to practice my own calligraphic style every once in awhile! I’m calling it “Casual Copperplate” because it’s basically just my own relaxed writing while using some of the rules of that traditional hand.
The soaps are all-natural, vegan-friendly, and the scents are incredible — my favorite ones are anything with mint (I think they are perfect for helping you wake up in the morning). He’s got some tea-tree mint and orange-mint coming out soon, and I can’t wait to try them out as soon as they are done curing. He also makes plenty of decidedly “manly” soaps. Don’t ask him to make anything with chocolate. He’s leaving that to Jessica Simpson.
They make a great gift — check it out!
–Tara
I don’t do business cards very often, but these were too fun to pass up! Bunnies!
One of my former wedding clients, Kathleen McGivney, approached me last October about creating a ton of business cards for a new venture of hers: Hanne Apparel — a line of organic and recycled clothing.
One of the partners, artist Lola Ramona, had already created the bunny illustration, and the group had a basic idea of what they wanted. I simply helped fine tune their design and then we were off, were printing 3000 dark charcoal-colored bunnies (they really do multiply).
I love the jewel toned teal color they chose for all the wording, and that cute little “Love Thyself” tag line.
In keeping with Hanne’s organic, recycled company vision, I recommended some of Porridge Papers’ handmade recycled paper for the cards. The color we used is called “Bad Taste,” and it is literally junk mail recycled into very cool letterpress paper. As in: I called to order the paper, and they said they’d have their employees start bringing in all their junk mail for a few weeks. It’s amazing… Every card was different, smattered with mulitcolored specks and bits, and even the occasional piece of embedded plastic (I assume from those pesky commercial window envelopes).
Porridge makes a ton of great recycled colors — even custom, vivid, deep-colored papers, and seeded papers your guests can plant after your wedding. If you have something special in mind, or are committed to having an extra-green wedding, they are a great option. Just let us know what you’re looking for, and we can price it out for you!
Thank you, Kathleen, Lola and Elizabeth — I wish you much success with your venture!
–Tara
ps. Don’t you wish your name was Lola Ramona? I always wanted a rhyming name. You can check out more of her illustrations and artwork here.
If I ever get around to creating a blogroll here, I will definitely be adding Coveiter, a style blog updated daily by two designers down south in Louisiana. (I promise that improving this old blog is definitley on my ever-expanding list of things to do! I have ideas!)
Coveiter is a verb that means to desire avidly. Lindsey and Julie approached me about printing their gorgeous notecards sometime last year. I am in love with what they created — they are truly spectacular — and I feel lucky I got to pull each print off my press for them. I totally coveted them, I admit it!
The note cards (below) required 3 separate runs: The purple and light gray you see easily, plus an un-inked pattern printed in the background. This technique is called “blind printing.” The texture created by the blind printing combined with the contrast in design elements is just to-die for…
The matching envelope flaps (below, left) also featured more of the same the blind-printed background, with the text overlaid in light gray.
I think this kind of look would translate really well to a booklet-style or folding invitation — anything that has a cover that needs to stand out and command attention. So stylish!
Thanks Lindsey and Julie! Keep up the great blogging and wonderful work .
–Tara
Where to begin???
I suppose with HAPPY WEDDING DAY TO DEBBIE AND MIKE! Today is their big day, and even though we have never met, I am way excited for them — I’m pretty sure they and their guests are in for a wedding like no other.
Exhibit A:
What’s that, you say? Why yes, that is a wedding invitation. And yes, it has a typewriter on it. And candy! Loads of lollies, peppermints, and a swirling line of very cheeky gumdrops. And it’s going to be ok, because that’s just how these 2 roll.
Debbie is very creative and a writer, and wanted to do something totally out of the ordinary, so she came up with a theme of old fashioned typewriters and candy. You can read all about how she’s been weaving this into her wedding right here (she’s also the much-loved Miss Mrs. Lovebug from Weddingbee!)
All the images are quirky, cute, detailed custom illustrations, and were so fun to make. The invitations were printed in 3 colors: a very light blush pink, a deeper (but still light) petal pink, and silver, which looks like a pewter-y, graphite gray when printed on a white card). We also made a custom pink dotted envelope liner that complimented the set beautifully.
One of my favorite details, however, has to be the calligraphy that Brigitte Hefferan did for this project — she was able to mimic the “Feel Script” typeface used in the suite. It all came out so well that I actually asked Brigitte to address one to me just so I could keep it! I so wish I could do this:
All my clients are fantastic, but sometimes I get the feeling that I could become really good friends with a few of them — if only they lived closer. As a part of their wedding ceremony, Debbie and Mike will eat bitter chocolate and drink sweet red wine — to symbolize taking the good times with the bad in their new life together. Chocolate. During the ceremony. Doesn’t that sound like a couple I need to meet?! If you 2 are ever in Seattle, I’d love to buy you a drink In the meantime, I hope today is everything you imagined and more.
Much love,
Tara
PS. Thanks to fab Tucson-area photographer Chris Richards for allowing us to post these beautiful engagement photos. Credit for the letterpress pics goes to Debbie who was goodly enough to share.
