Wedding Talk: The Invites

It's been a while since I blogged anything wedding related, so I figured I would share my invitation suite today! My degree is in Digital Media Studies, so I took a lot of graphic design classes. I thought it would be kind of sad for me not to put all that school to good use for my own invitations. Here's the suite laid out all together...

It was SO HARD for me to pick out colors for the wedding. I just like all colors! I ended up just picking gray and yellow, but I also used blue and purple here and there. It was just really mis-matched, but I like hodge podge, so it's all good! I knew that I wanted something consistent throughout the whole suite, so I came up with the idea to use this bouquet of white paper flowers in all the designs. The lovely and talented Katie of Lemon Jitters made the bouquet for me and I photographed it on white. I loved the subtle photo with simple type...it's just a great reflection of my style. It's kind of a reflection of Rhett's too, I guess. We are both pretty simple people. After the save-the-dates came in, I realized the gray was too light, so that's why the rest of the text is darker.

detail of the beautiful bouquet that Katie made

This is what went out with the invitation. I had the folded yellow pocket envelope (seen open and closed), and it was sealed with a sticker showing the bouquet on it. Inside the pocket was a card with a map on one side and a photo on the other. A lot of people have put the photo on their fridge, which makes me happy! The pocket also held the RSVP card and envelope. I pre stamped the envelopes and had a stamp made to add our address as well. That address stamp cost me about $12 and saved me a TON of time. I definitely recommend getting one! The big part of the invite had the address and date and whatnot on it. I put all of that inside a gray envelope and stamped our return address on the back. It seems like a lot, but it was actually really easy! It was also pretty cheap for the number that I had to get. I got all of the prints on gotprint.com and the envelopes at envelopes.com

I did a long card for the programs, rather than something folded. I was honestly just trying to save money! I also didn't want to have to tie or staple or fold stuff, so a single card was my best option. I had the ceremony schedule on the front and the wedding part stuff on the back. 

I also went ahead and printed thank you cards with the same design. Unfortunately I received WAY too many, so I have a ton left. Got Print is very strange about quantity. If you order 100 prints, you may get 150 or you may get 99. That kind of frustrated me because I don't understand. I guess they just fill up whatever box they are sending it in? If anyone knows why they do this, I would love to know! 

I know this isn't the most interesting post in the world, but I put a lot of time into this aspect of the wedding, so I really wanted to gush about it. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing it all! 

Tiny Confessions on Etsy

Let me introduce you to Tiny Confessions. I found this shop late last year and just laughed and laughed as I looked through the prints! The one above was my favorite, and my super sweet friend Gabrielle got it for me for Christmas. It hangs on my bedroom wall, and I smile every time I see it. It's perfect for my unstable cat, Dudley. He is the craziest cat I've ever seen! He is one of those cats that will just purr and purr while you pet him, then a split second later he's got your arm in a death grip and is ripping you to shreds. Luckily he's calmed down a bit in his old age....my arms are happy with that.

Here are some others that made me laugh. I highly recommend the seller, guys. You really can't go wrong with pet illustrations + funny text + pretty colors.

Ok, I know that last one isn't a pet...there are actually several non-pet ones that are worth checking out. And of course there are lots of funny dog illustrations too! Anyway, just thought I'd brighten up your Tuesday with a little fun art. Hope you enjoyed them! Here's the link again to Tiny Confessions.

Wedding Talk: Asking my Bridesmaids

Well hello! Sorry for the lull in posts this last week. I got back from Florida a couple of days ago, and I'm just now getting back in the swing 'o things. It was pretty nice not being connected during my trip. I'm one of those losers that still doesn't have a smart phone, and I didn't feel like lugging my laptop around on the plane, so I just read a lot! Anyway, I'm glad to be back, and I have something fun for you today.

I came across a tutorial on a blog that showed how to make your own scratch-off card, and I'd been looking for a way to use it. I came up with a design and used the scratch-off tutorial to make cards for my bridesmaids. It was fun to do, and I think they enjoyed them! I documented my process in case any of you would like to try something similar.

What you need:

• print out of your design
• metallic acrylic paint
• paint brush
• cardboard sheet
• glue (stick works well)
• dishwashing liquid
• contact paper (I couldn't find a small roll, so I used clear sticker paper instead)

Since I was doing four, I printed the design 4-up on an 8.5x11 sheet and cut them. Don't forget to make one of them say maid of honor if you have one! I almost forgot :) Also, mark the MOH card on the back so you know which one it is when you give them out...unless you want it to be a surprise or something. ha! Cut your cardboard to the same size for each card.

Use your glue stick to carefully glue the paper to the cardboard piece. I was afraid I'd screw up and make it uneven, because I'm the messiest crafter alive, but I did alright with it!

Cut out your clear sticker to a size that covers your design and place it.

Mix about 1 part soap with 2 parts paint and start painting! I tried really hard to keep it on the sticker part and make it look tidy. I think a more haphazard, messy look could be cute too, especially for a grade school game or something. I had to do SO MANY LAYERS. I was probably not using enough paint or something, but I eventually got it all covered up. The soap makes it kind of sticky when it dries, so I let it dry over night just to be sure. As long as it doesn't come off on your finger, it should be fine.

And there you have it! The original tutorial used this as a sort of promotional game for the blogger's Etsy shop, and I can also see this being a fun way to do prizes for a Kindergarten classroom or something. Scratch off to see what your prize is for not biting the other students, or whatever it is that kids get prizes for. I've also seen these used as save-the-date cards! You scratch off to reveal the date...so cute. That kind of thing would be printed on though...it would take an eternity to DIY a large number of these. As you can see, there are lots of ways you can use this. I might even try to find a way to use it again soon!

Critiquee Becomes Critiquer

 Scott critiquing a student

If any of you have been in art classes, you know how important critiques are! It's when you get to show off your hard work and hope that your professor/client has good things to say about it. It's good to get some constructive criticism (that's kind of what it's all about), but you definitely hope for more positive comments than negative.

Since I work a little bit on graphic design at Union University (and the other designer was out that day), our creative director asked me to go with him to a typography class critique. This is one of the things I love about my job! It's actually not that uncommon for me to get to participate in other aspects of the campus. It just makes work so much more fun to be able to contribute in other places. For this class we were critiquing the chapel guides that the students made for consideration. They do this every year, and it's always kind of fun to see what they come up with!

students presenting their chapel guides

Our favorite was the one from the girl on the left. She did some drawings of places on campus and made a great collage of these places. That attention to detail and her nice layout really impressed us. I think the Spiritual Life department will definitely pick hers.

I really enjoy getting out of the office and doing fun things like this. I'm thankful every day that I was able to get this job! It's really a great place to work, and the people I get to work with are pretty alright :)

ALSO. I'd like to draw your attention to the very top button on my sidebar! I decided to be a St. Jude Hero for the Country Music half marathon on April 28th. I'll do another post about it closer to the time, but I wanted to point it out. I know I set my goal really high, but I know I can do it! By clicking that button, you can give any amount to sponsor my run (every dollar helps!) Even if my awesome readers can't afford to give (which I totally understand), I will be forever grateful just for folks spreading the word :)

Running Inspiration

A friend of mine shared a quote with me once: "No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch." I try to remember this when I run, because I'm not a fast runner. I still keep up with my time, even though it doesn't really matter...because it's nice to see improvement here and there.

Anyway, the aforementioned friend (Malarie) had a birthday coming up, so I set out to design her a poster as a gift. She had mentioned that this was one of her favorite weight-loss inspirational quotes, so I thought it was perfect.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I don't do much design anymore, so I like to practice every now and then. I don't want to lose everything. Designing posters as gifts is a great way to keep myself from stopping completely.

I hope you all are inspired by this quote as well. It's great to get moving and get your blood stirring, no matter how you do it. Running, walking, going on a picnic, or even jumping on the trampoline (that is actually an excellent way to burn calories from what I've heard). I'll be doing either a 6 or 7 mile run tomorrow...and I'll be repeating this to myself when I feel like I can't pick up my feet anymore!