Since Halloween is offically over, i feel that it is now safe to start talking about CHRISTMAS!  Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year…but for some reason i never am able to get my christmas cards mailed out on time. This year, it has become my mission to create and send my cards by the time i leave on vacation Dec. 4th.

If you really want your christmas cards to be unique and not some cookie cutter style you printed out at walgreens, then you need to start thinking about them NOW!

Here are some tips to help you start getting those creative juices flowing:

1. Pick  a theme. Your theme could be based off of colors, characters, patterns, etc. whatever makes  you think of the christmas season.

2. Photos, include them or not? That is the question.  I’m not against putting photos in your cards, or making photo cards IF YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A NICE PHOTO TO USE! I’m not saying that you have to have professional pictures taken, BUT, i have seen some out there that are just terrible.  For example, my sister took a family portrait with the back drop being their big screen TV… I mean come on, who wants to see that.  We want to see the family, how the kids have grown, not your accessories in your house! Choose a nice spot like in front of the fireplace or christmas tree…. or even go outside.  Another great idea instead of using a staged family portrait is to collect some of your favorites from throughout the year… include those along with a story about that moment… it’s a great way to reflect on the past year and keep people in touch with what has been going on in your life!

3. Watch your budget. I have seen a lot of beautiful cards for sale lately, the only problem is that they are so expensive!  you don’t need to spend that much on christmas cards… instead make your own cards. Use your home printer to print out photos and attach them to cardstock.  Or start out designing your cards from scratch and printing them on your home printer or websites like vistaprint.com. You’ll find the quality comparable and the price a lot nicer!

4. Be unique.  Your christmas cards should represent who you and your family are. Don’t use a generic card you got of the shelf.  Find a way to personalize it… that way when the recipient opens it, they’ll know it is from your heart.

Last night my husband Chris and I were up til about 2:00am cleaning out our spare bedroom and setting up our home office! We got out all the junk, filed away and organized all our important papers and put our brand new desks from Ikea together (they were only $50 each! what a steal!).

My paper swatch books

Right now the only thing I have on my desk is a lamp and my paper books, but don’t worry… it will be full of Disney memorabilia in no time! I’ll keep you updated as the project continues.

Birth announcements are usually the first official presentation of your new baby to the outside world.  So when my sister Debbie came to me asking for a birth announcement I was confused…. you see, she has no children nor has she ever been pregnant.  What she did do though, was rescue a Husky puppy from Second Chance Mutts in Indiana. Debbie like many people, considers her pets a part of her family, almost a child even, that is when it all began to make sense! Why shouldn’t her “furry child” have a proper introduction to the world just like any other baby? So we got to work right away on creating Crystal Skye Martini’s birth announcement!

Pet Birth Announcement

Debbie’s favorite color combination is HOT PINK and black…so I thoght it was fitting that Skye’s announcement should fit the theme. A cute black and white photo along with all the neccessary details about Skye in a clean layout was all this piece needed to show off Debbie’s new bundle of joy.

Another aspect of this announcement that I really love is the shout out that Debbie gives to Second Chance Mutts; the rescue where she got Skye from. Being a part of animal rescue and volunteering for our local humane society is something that is close to both my sister and myself. It is just a little something that ends the announcement with a nod to others to think about animal rescue.

Despite the rain and gloomy clouds in the morning on August 1st, Jennine and Trevor had a bright and cheery wedding that went off without a hitch! The ceremony was held in a small picturesque chapel followed by a backyard outdoor reception at the beautiful home of some of Jennine & Trevor’s very generous friends.  From the handmade centerpieces, programs, and place cards, to the delicious dinner and dessert…all the details of this wedding were made with love for Jennine & Trevor by friends and family, making this a truly unique and special day!

Photos By Alexander Photography

THE INVITATIONS:

Jennine & Trevor had a short engagement and were on a tight budget. To accommodate that, Jennine decided it would be best to do digital invitations. See my earlier post for more details on how those came together HERE.

Page 1 of 2 of Jennine & Trevor's digital wedding invitation.

THE PROGRAMS & PLACE CARDS:

To coordinate with the design of the invitations, I created simple half page programs and cute fan style place cards. We used some left over cream paper that I had on hand and printed them out on one of Jennine’s other bridesmaid’s home printer.  We then cut the programs and place cards out and had a fun night of assembly and dinner!

Close up of ceremony programs

Close up of fan-style place cards

To assemble the place cards, I first designed them so that 2 fans would fit on 1 piece of paper…that way we could make only 1 cut per page and use half the amount of paper. Once we printed them and made our cut down the center, we then had to score each piece in half so that we could fold the card over our popcicle sticks.  We held the cards to the sticks with some double-sided tape.  Then we tied pink, brown, and green ribbon around the sticks to create a variety of color and interest when we placed them all out on display at the reception.  These place cards worked out great because the reception was outside on a warm day and it gave the guests something to cool off with, plus they made a great decoration to each place setting and added a pop of color to the tables.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY:

The photography was provided by Kelly Alexander, owner of Alexander Photography; a long time friend of Jennine’s. Kelly has such a great style and she is so friendly and easy to work with! (that’s why I chose her to be the photographer at my own wedding!) She captured every special moment that day! For more information on Kelly’s services, visit her website HERE.

All photos in this post courtesy of Alexander Photography!

Wow this summer is flying by and I realized I have neglected my swell little blog. Although it looks like my summer has been slow, that’s not the case. I have so much to share with you, from the planning to executing of Candice and Landons weddings elements HERE to more details of Kristen & Jeff’s beautiful wedding  HERE.

And coming soon some photos and the details from a dear friends wedding that just finished up a few weeks ago. Plus did I mentioned I have 2 new projects coming up?! Get excited! Please keep me in your google reader as I know you won’t be disappointed.

In the meantime, head over to http://www.eluckyme.com/home/2009/8/10/giveaway-the-lucky-30-birthday.html and help her to celebrate her 30th and enter to win some of her great give-a-ways.

Envelopes are always something that I struggle with when doing invitation suites. The main reason: they can just be so darn expensive.  I have just stumbled upon a great resource though French Paper’s line of pre-made envelopes.  The great thing about these, are that they are already converted into many popular sized and they come in a variety of colors & textures.

French Paper’s envelope line:  http://www.frenchpaper.com/envelopes.asp

Now that I know French Paper has so many affordable standard size envelopes I can start quoting jobs on French Paper as well for the main invites!

Well, Jennine & Trevor’s wedding is in just 3 days! Today & tomorrow Jennine and the other bridesmaids are getting together to decorate the cupcakes for her cupcake tree centerpieces. Then tonight all the girls are meeting to get our nails done, tomorrow is the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, then saturday is the BIG day!

Everything seems to be falling into place… i’ll be sure to post pics as soon as i can.

Below are some beautiful shots of Candice & Landon’s wedding taken by the talented Katerine Salvatori.  For more information on Katherine Salvatori Photography visit their website at: http://katherinesalvatoriphoto.squarespace.com

Candice & Landon

Menu Cards

Table Numbers

Fan Style Programs

Close Up Of Programs

Candice & Landon’s wedding just so happened to fall on one of the hottest weekends we’ve had yet this summer… luckily, Candice had thought ahead and asked me to design her fan-style programs for her outdoor ceremony.  We used the pink and green argyle pattern from her other collateral pieces along with some bright pink ribbon to attach them to the white chairs… this not only helped the programs from blowing away, but it also served as a nice pop of color against the stark white chairs.

Here are some amazing photos from Kristen & Jeff’s wedding. Their photographer Alix has an awesome style and great technique.  You can find out more about her at: http://alixklingenberg.com/home.html

Kristen & Jeff

The ring bearer: their pug Angus.

Custom birdie cake toppers Kristen had made!

The table setting. Including the table numbers (which are a bit hard to see in this pic).

Close up of favor cards.

Close up of place cards.

I just saw today that Candice & Landon’s wedding invitation set is featured on Yorke Printe Shoppe’s website.  They are the wonderful print shop that I send all of my work to!

enjoy!

http://www.yorkeprinte.com/work.html