Baby Shower Invitations x 35

 

The next best thing to becoming a grandma, is being a great aunt...and that is just what I'm going to be this coming Thanksgiving!

My niece Leia (my brother's only daughter) is having a little girl soon and I offered to help with her baby shower...and of course, that meant making the invitations!

I suppose I could have designed something new, but between getting the flu a few weeks ago and work, I decided to use something I had already designed.  Where better to look than my one & only baby card class, Heaven Sent.

I made a few changes: Leia's shower colors are pink and yellow, so I changed the big color to yellow.  I ran out of the tiny little silver wings that are part of the kit and use some other ones I had on hand.

 

To customize the invitation, I got a beautiful picture of Leia for the inside of the card (compliments of her photographer hubby, Brandon Burk).  I wanted the color to match, so I took the photo into Photoshop and adjusted the hue & saturation to match the pink.

I ran out of space on the invitation text, so I created a little slip-out tag for where she is registered.

Can't wait for this little one to arrive!

Timeless Bridal Shower Theme

My philosophy: every great celebration starts with a good invitation!  It sets the tone, emphasizes the theme, adds anticipation and becomes a intergral part of the memory. So, I'm putting my "good Aunt Sue" hat on and will be hosting a bridal shower for my beautiful niece, Leia next week.

I decided a few weeks ago to use a card design I came up with a few years ago.  You can see and read the original post here. It starts with an large oval, folded lengthwise to meet in the center.  I used Bazzill's embossed polka-dot cardstock. 

Leia's colors are perfect for her dark coloring; red, turquoise and black.  Striking! 

Next priority was the photo.  This bridal shot was SO Leia.  It's all about those red shoes!  I loved how both her face and shoes peek out because of the curve of the card front.

The belly band was easy, as I knew I had to add a splash or turquoise and some black lace.

At this point, I hadn't decided on a theme, but after playing with all sorts of centers I decided an Around-the-Clock theme was perfect.  I created this a digital roman clock after all my clock stamps didn't size properly. 

Lastly, I worked on the insert and all the text I needed to incorporate. I was almost done when I came up with the 'bright idea' (read: more work!) of creating a clock that opened to reveal Leia's & Brandon's monogram on the inside and the theme of the bridal shower.

I found this circle shaped mini card on Fabulous Finds Cricut Cartridge.  I added a fun dimensional gem to the middle of the clock, but because of it's dimension I had to place a mini glue dot on the backside.  What worked with this is the slight stickness of the glue dot helped to keep the circle closed.  You may want to de-tackify the glue dot a bit, by rubbing it with your finger.  The natural oils on your finger will make it less sticky.

If this is something you'd like to use for a bridal shower in your future, you can download the clock and bridal shower circles.

Stay tuned...I'll post more photos after the event!



It's almost time...

Earlier this year, after my daughter got engaged and had decided on a late summer wedding, we started planning an invitation.

I was sorely tempted to design a completely graphic invitation, (just because I enjoy that process so much), but in the end we decided to go with a photo invite.

But how do you create the 'look' of a summer wedding in early spring? The trees are bare, the ground is soggy, the flowers barely starting to bloom.

Solution? The Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City.

The pictures were taken in mid-April and even though we do get some nice warm spring weather in Utah, we knew we could just have easily gotten a cold, rainy and windy day. Instead we got 80 degree weather, an almost cloudless blue sky and no wind. Perfect!

Summer dress, barefoot, balloons and what looks like a beach and there you go: Summer invites!

When we got to the rest stop along the I-80 (just shy of the Nevada border), we quickly realized we would have to wade through a few inches of water to get to dry land...or really, salt. So, off came the shoes, rolled up the pants and started wading. I quickly realized that looked pretty cool and so we took several pictures there and ended up using those for the invitation.

If you ever decide to do this, may I recommend you bring baby wipes to wipe all the white salt that dries on your skin? That and flip flops? Man, that salt is ROUGH on the feet...ouch!

The sun started setting and gave us a perfect silhouette opportunity.

Here's the other part of the invitation, simple and just how Emma wanted it.

We had such a great time that day with Emma & Christian...even Steve got into the romatic spirit of it all.

As a side note, the Salt Flats are used for land-speed records and the movie 'The World's Fastest Indian' was filmed there. I highly recommend this movie, it's kind of quirky and really inspirational. And Anthony Hopkins stars in it, so what more can you ask?

We just finished her wedding and bridal photos at the Young Living Farms last week with all that beautiful lavendar. I'll be sure post many more pics after the wedding. Thanks to everyone's well wishes and concerns. Two more weeks! Yikes! Still have to make a cake! Will be sure to blog about that whether I succeed or it's a big flop!

4 down. 1 to go.

My 4th child/1st daughter graduated from high school last week. I was doing just fine until I saw her after the ceremony was over. It was truly a watershed moment in more than one way.

After pulling myself together, I got into photography mode. Not the easiest thing to do when you have thousands of people milling about. I can't tell you how wonderful it was for me to see how happy my Emma was that day. Here's a little collage...



Always one to multi-task if possible, I did a graduation themed segment for Studio 5 a few weeks ago and have gotten a few requests to post the invitation and album I made for Emma on my blog.



I started with the graduation pictures we took last summer. I always purchase the CD and the rights to use these pics, because I always do! I also dug out a few photos of her school journey and created a little filmstrip in black and white. This quote by e.e.cummings fit the theme perfectly. It really was a simple card to make. This paper is by American Crafts. I used black photo corners, die-cut "AF" and printed the other sentiments from my computer. The card measures 5" x 5".

I had a 6" x 8" storybook album by Fancy Pants on hand and decided to transpose the basic elements from the card to the cover. I added that amazing "open" die-cut (from the Cricut Graphically speaking cartridge), cut a slit in the paper and threaded my filmstrip through it, so it could be pulled out.

I printed out some simple sheets for guests to write down some of their thoughts on (and they were GOOD!) and made sure to take pictures of Emma with all her guests to print out later and put together. There should be enough room to add pictures from her graduation ceremony as well.

I'm always a better 'before-hand' scrapbooker than after the fact! If you need more details on how to re-create these projects, please let me know.

Studio 5: Graduation Card & Panini Party

In preparing this segment I realized what a great opportunity highschool graduation can be for parents to 'fuss' over their child. Really, just birthdays, their wedding (which they share with spouse) and graduation(s).

In some ways this milestone is more than just finishing a course of study, it is moving from childhood to adulthood (at least we can hope!). It's a great time to celebrate their accomplishments but also encourage and support them in their future endeavors.

I hope you enjoyed some of my ideas for cards, invitations, announcements etc...

Below is the free download we mentioned on air. Please visit my download site and enjoy my road card. You could easily make a dozen of these in less than an hour. I have to tell about my road photo. Steve took me to fish at Strawberry Reservoir last May and while we were driving around I noticed a sign on a steep part, got out of the car, took my picture and then noticed how cool the road looked with it's incline, cracks and yellow lines. I lay down on the road to capture this angle.

A few months later Susan Opel at PaperCrafts magazine asked me to create a photo card around the quote (on card). I immediately remembered my road photo and the rest was easy. It's in the current issue of PaperCrafts magazine in the Photo Finish column.

So, don't forget to take pictures of odd things you normally wouldn't and create a photo library. These are easy and effective cards. I am planning on doing a tutorial on adding text to a photo soon, so stayed tuned.



Important note: Rebecca from Montaque Photography alerted me to my mentioning on air about scanning in a professional photograph to copy. I must apologize to all of you. This is illegal; please don't do it. I knew this, but obviously forgot it when I was trouble-shooting my "if you didn't buy the CD scenario". Really, if you didn't buy it, your photographer (if they offer this service) will most likely still have your pictures on file. And please take a moment to visit Rebecca's website, her work is truly stunning.

And here are my yummy panini recipes! We sat around after the show and munched them all up! Crunchy, buttery bread. Melty, crunchy bits of cheese, the zing of mustard and horseradish...you just can't go wrong!

Visit the Studio 5 website for more details about the Graduation card segment and the Panini Segment.

Lastly, the winner of my Studio 5 Sneek Peek Give-away is LeAnn! I guess I need to make my photos a little harder as so many of you got it right!

You're Invited...

I was chatting with Alice Golden this weekend about how much our "papercrafting for family" skills have waned over the years. Where we would once create elaborate ensembles for a birthday party, we're now lucky to get a proper invitation off.

It reminded me of my last-minute birthday party invitation I whipped up for Savannah's 12th birthday last year. I went to look at it, in my invite file (yes, I have one) and found a few others I took the time to scan and save. Thought I'd share them with you this morning.


We were going to see "Horton Hears a Who" for Savannah's birthday, so I grabbed some images from the HHAW website and created this very quickly on Photoshop. I added a little Ranger Glitter glue to the flower puffs (my only little 'touch') and I was done.



Here's another quick invite (I think they almost always are 'quick'. This is a few years old, but again, found a cute picture of a baby boy, did most of this on the computer, but did punch out a star and staple a little jute to the top. Sometimes my laziness amazes me :).



Another 'oldie'. This was another birthday party for Savannah, Hawaiian style. Both of these images are rubber stamps...way easy. I'm thinking now it would have been fun for Savannah to color in the surf boards, but if I remember correctly, it was pretty last-minute...again. Seeing a pattern here?


This was intented to be an email invite, so I created this in Photoshop. This is my handsome brother, Andy!




I love the story behind this invitation. One of Steve's co-workers was giving his wife a surprise trip to New York for Christmas and asked me to create a fun card to enclose the tickets in. Maybe I should make one for me and leave it on Steve's desk as a hint?



For a while, a few years back, I had a business making custom invitations & other papercrafting items. This was a very custom ensemble I made for a couple from Texas celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows. The ensemble included a save-the-date card, an invitation, a thank you tag (for the favor), knapkin holders (the wreath) and a memory album.



I made this pocket invitation for my son's wedding in 2005. We had a really short planning window, so I had to keep it pretty simple.


My sister-in-law had a bridal shower for Tiffany, but I offered to make the invites.



Lastly, I created a wedding announcement/invitation for my nephew. I did most of the work in Photoshop, but wow, with such gorgeous pictures it was pretty easy.

So, Alice, now that I've reviewed a few of my personal (non-published) creations, I realize that maybe I've haven't been quite so neglectful. Then again, I could always take it up a notch. Savannah's 13th birthday is less than 2 months away, so I'd better get started. Those notches always a lot of work!