design & illustration by alex

Kimberly & Justin

2012-02-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

I had a great time working with Kimberly on her wedding invitations and menu last winter. She and her fiancé were planning a destination wedding in Cancun last June and wanted to incorporate a little bit of Mexican heritage into the design. So we adapted the papel picado design that I used with Laura and Trish and made it their own.

Invitation:

A close-up of the personalized paper picado we did for them with their names and wedding date.

Rsvp:

There was a second insert that listed a ton of information about booking a room at the resort in Cancun. It was just text, so I decided to skip sharing it. You can't get those awesome resort deals anymore anyway. :-)

I hope you had an amazing time in Cancun and that your first year and a half or marriage has been wonderful!

Chris' 30th Birthday

2012-02-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

A few months ago Kate asked me to create an invitation for her husband's surprise 30th birthday party. She was doing a beer theme and wanted to have an invitation that looked somewhat like a beer bottle label. This was so much fun to work on!

It was a simple two-sided invitation:

I love the faux wood print!

I hope the party was wonderful, happy birthday Chris!

Danica G Photography

2012-02-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of designing a logo and business cards for Danica. She's a photographer based in the Dawson Creek area of British Colombia. She specializes in photographing babies, families, maternity, weddings, engagements, boudoir... I don't think there's anything she doesn't photograph! Check out her blog and her Facebook page to see her recent work.

Here's her logo:

Blog banner:

Business cards:

Watermark:

Gift Certificate:

Danica was so much fun to work with and I wish her all the best with her photography business. Thanks!

Top Son Birthday!

2012-02-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited to post this because I've been working on this printable birthday party, making changes here and there, for over a year. And I obviously modeled after the party items I did for my son's first birthday. I just added it to my Etsy shop today! These party items are available for ages one through five.

Invitation. It fits an A7 envelope.

Wraparound Address Labels. Print these on full sheet sticker paper for easy application, available at most office supply stores. They can also be printed on plain paper and adhered to envelopes using double-sided tape. These look amazing on red or blue envelopes, navy blue too. The return address wraps around to the back side.

Cupcake Toppers. Print and cut out using a 1.5" circle punch and tape onto toothpicks. Three of these are customizable with the birthday boy's name. These can be stuck into other food items too. For an extra pop of color, back each topper with a contrasting 2" circle of paper or card stock.

Napkin Rings. The three lines of text are customizable, so you can have it be simple with a "Happy Birthday" or change it into a fun place card with each guests' name. Add to the theme and give each guest a call sign!

These can also be wrapped around candle holders, vases or cups if you don't want to use them as napkin rings.

Favor Tags:

Water Bottle Labels. 8"x2.5" and set up to be printed onto waterproof labels available from Labels by the Sheet. They can also be printed on sticker paper or even plain paper and adhered to water bottles with tape. The nutritional info on the back lists 100% daily value of good looks, charm, sense of humor, love and countless kisses. The ingredients listed are jet fuel and giggles. Only the name on the front can be customized.

T-shirt Graphic. Print onto iron-on transfer paper, then follow the instructions that come with the paper. The graphic will work with the paper for either light or dark colored fabrics.

Sunglasses Photo Props. Print onto card stock, cut out and tape onto skewers or chopsticks for a fun photo prop.

Pennant Banner. One banner per 8.5x11 page.

Thank You Card. Fits an A6 envelope.

Many of these items are also for sale individually, so check my shop for details. This party can also be completely customized, or adjusted for an adult's birthday. Contact me to discuss customizing this party for your needs.

I purchased the plastic dog tags, mini fighter planes and mirrored aviator sunglasses from Party City. Non-mirrored aviators are available too. Oriental Trading sells a variety of different colored dog tags include ones that can be custom engraved. Throw on the Top Gun soundtrack and your party is set!

Karina's Baby Shower

2012-01-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

Over the summer I had the honor of creating a baby shower invitation for my friend Karina. I have done stuff for her wedding, for her son Emiliano's 1st birthday and now a baby shower invitation for her second baby.

And the best part... her little boy was born on my birthday! Welcome to the world Benjamin!

My Son's First Birthday

2012-01-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

When my son's first birthday was approaching back in the late summer of 2010, I was stumped on a theme that got my creative juices flowing. Did I really need a theme? No, not really. It's not like he was going to remember his first birthday party. But I wanted a theme. I wanted to create fun invitations and decorations. It is, after all, what I do.

His room was decorated in a vintage surf theme, but I just wasn't feeling a surfer boy birthday party for early October. One day I had an epiphany remembering the Top Son birth announcement we did and the Top Gun Halloween costume that my husband and I were working on for him. We suddenly had a theme! We decorated the tables with rubber ducks dressed as pilots and dog tags we had custom engraved through Oriental Trading. We bought airplane kits and printed paper airplane templates for the kids to play with along with a few pair of super cheap aviator sunglasses from Party City. I created custom water bottle labels that had a photo of him wearing his aviator sunglasses. And I created a simple graphic that I ironed onto a plain white t-shirt. I had plans to do a lot more, but a hectic work week kept me from going overboard. My husband may argue that I went overboard much earlier than that. :-)

Here are some photos from the party:

I printed the invitations at Kinkos and adhered them to simple 5x7 folded note cards that I picked up at Staples. The photo on the front was printed on my HP printer. It's amazing how long it took us to get that photo. By the way, I found that awesome bomber jacket at H&M.

I purchased matching envelopes at Staples and adhered custom wraparound labels to each one. The labels were printed on full-sheet sticker paper and then trimmed. This is a super easy way to make some really nifty custom address labels. The back of the label wraps around to the back of the envelope showing the return address.

For some simple goodie bags, I purchased inexpensive paper gift bags from JoAnn's and made a custom sticker for them (also printed on full-sheet sticker paper). They contained some plastic paratrooper guys, write-on dog tags and a few airplane-themed toys.

The water bottle labels were printed onto waterproof labels from Labels by the Sheet. We opted to buy the mini water bottles from Smart & Final, but the labels fit on standard water bottles as well. The nutrition portion lists 100% daily value of good looks, charm, sense of humor, love and hugs & kisses.

Tommy's t-shirt graphic was done on a plain white t-shirt using iron-on transfer paper. I opted to use the transfer paper that's meant for dark fabrics so I could have the bright white border. But the kind meant for light fabrics would have worked just as well.

I was very happy with how everything turned out and I think everyone had a good time.

I have adapted the items from my son's party into customizable and downloadable files that I will be adding to my Etsy shop very soon. So stay tuned!

Fundraising For Team Flynn

2012-01-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

I added a new printable sign to my Etsy shop today. It is available in six different color schemes and four different sizes (8x10, 9x12, 10x13 or 11x14).

red/turquoise or blue/purple

pinks/gray or yellow/gray

red/navy or blue/green

From now until the end of February, 100% of the money I receive for this sign will go toward my friend and her family. Their five month old son Flynn, has Cystic Fibrosis. It's a genetic disease that critically affects the lungs and has no cure. It also affects the pancreas, liver and intestine. Flynn's family is saving money for a Cystic Fibrosis Vest. Having one will allow him and his family to do more respiratory therapy at home and will help him live a much more normal life. Unfortunately in Australia, where they live, this vest is not covered by medical insurance and can run between $12,000 and $15,000.

To raise money for Cystic Fibrosis, Flynn's family is participating in a 65k 4 65 Roses Walkathon on February 25th. I created a couple of posters for them to post at local businesses:

If you'd like to donate to their cause search for Team Flynn on www.mycause.com.au. If you'd simply like to donate to Flynn's family to help them buy a CF vest, purchase one of the signs from my Etsy shop and I'll make sure they get the funds. Thanks!

New Birth Announcements

2012-01-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

I have been working on some new birth announcements for my Etsy shop. One of my dearest friends Krista, was gracious enough to let me borrow a few newborn photos that she took recently (with permission of the parents too). Check out more of her work on her website and blog.

Each of these are available in a few different colors and the text is customizable.

All of these are currently available for purchase in my Etsy shop, and I'm working on more, so stay tuned.

Sanford Cellars

2012-01-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of designing a wine label for my Uncle Mark's winery. He has become quite the winemaker and has won a bunch of awards from a couple of California county fairs and the California State Fair. For me, the fun part is how much I have been able to learn about the winemaking process from him. And well... drinking the wine!

The wine labels are printed on waterproof labels from Labels By The Sheet. They're great for when the wine is chilled and the label doesn't wrinkle and the ink doesn't run.

The first label I designed was pretty simple. I did the grapes using Prismacolor pencils and the text was added in Adobe Photoshop.

A couple of years later I designed a second label that was inspired from a photo that a friend took of my uncle when he was harvesting grapes. This one was done in watercolor and the text added in Adobe Illustrator.

By the way, the Viognier was just bottled a few weeks ago and MAN it's good!

It's about time for a new label, so I'm hoping to have one going soon!

Debora's Birthday

2012-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

Debora is one lucky lady. Her children organized an amazing party to celebrate her 60th birthday. One of her daughters, Brandi (I've done a few things for her) contacted me to design invitations and some items for the party. We went with a travel theme since Debora has done a lot of traveling and the party included a slideshow showing the journey of her life.

Brandi was gracious enough to send some photos from the event.

Faded in the background of each item is a vintage map of Michigan, where they all live. The edges are adorned with passport stamps.

Invitation:

Images from the party:

On the menu we listed a short schedule of events for the party along with the evening's menu.

Each table was labeled by a location where Debora has traveled. Some locations included Jamaica, Paris, Rome, Switzerland, Egypt and several US locations.

And Debora's table had its own special sign.

The dessert table:

The birthday girl with her children.

It looks like the party was a blast. Wishing you a very happy birthday Debora!

Holiday Card - 2011

2011-12-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share our holiday card that we sent to family and friends this year. I was stuck at home with a dead car battery for a couple of days and unable to make the trip to JoAnn's that I had planned. So I scrounged up all of the random cardstock and envelopes I had to make these and get them sent before Christmas. The one pictured is done with metallic purple cardstock. Some are done with red cardstock, some are navy or light blue, some have linen texture, some are matte. And about a dozen are a different size entirely as I only had so many envelopes of the first size. It was a super-DIY year with our holiday cards. Next year I'll try to get them started a little earlier so I can be better prepared. Either way, I'm happy with how they turned out.

I purchased this return address stamp from Etsy seller 2impress and am loving it. I actually couldn't find an ink pad in my house, but I was able to use a Prismacolor marker instead and I really like how it worked. Talk about scrounging!

The front is a watercolor painting I did, celebrating the new climate we are currently living in. Too bad we haven't actually had enough snow to make decent snow angels yet. Hopefully we will by Christmas. This could possibly be the first white Christmas for both my husband and me.

On the other side, I placed a photo I took of my son checking out a nifty ornament on my grandmother's Christmas tree just a couple of weeks ago along with our greeting.

I'm really happy with how they turned out, especially since I printed them all using my kick-ass HP printer. I can't rave about it enough.

Have a happy holidays everyone!

Erin & John, Engaged!

2011-12-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share the engagement party invitation I created for Erin and John earlier this year. They got engaged while on vacation in Venice, so we used photos from their trip and went with an aged, vintage-y postcard look. I really love how it turned out. Erin had them printed by VistaPrint.

On the front I added a vintage treatment to their photos.

On the back, there was space to write in the guests' names and we even included the date they got engaged in the postmark.

This was so much fun to work on and I hope the party was a blast. Congratulations you two!

Georgia's First Birthday

2011-12-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of designing some fun items for Georgia's first birthday party a little while ago. Georgia's mommy wanted to do an Alice in Wonderland theme, but since Georgia (her mommy & daddy call her Gia) was born in December, it evolved into an Alice in Winter Wonderland theme. She went with a color scheme of wintery pinks, blues and accents in silver glitter and I am so pleased with how it all turned out. I wish I could have attended!

Gia's mommy used Cards and Pockets for printing the invitations on shimmery metallic cardstock. They turned out lovely.

We created a custom sticker to seal the pink envelopes.

Keeping up with the Alice in Winter Wonderland theme, we made signs and labels for the party.

I adore the silver chair card holders that she found. They fit with the style and theme perfectly.

Such a beautiful cake!

For party favors, Gia's mommy set up a little candy buffet. I designed the sign and the Thank You labels that adorned the polka dot bags.

Gia's mommy bought this wonderful teapot (to keep the theme going) as a time capsule. Guests were asked to write a message to Gia that she'll open and read on her 18th birthday. What a fantastic idea!

I didn't work on this, but I wanted to share it anyway. What a fun and beautiful way to decorate the high chair. A ribbon banner.

Such a beautiful birthday girl!

aaaaand, she's done!

I hope you and your mommy and daddy had an amazing time at your first birthday party. Happy happy birthday Gia!

Ashlyn's First Birthday

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago Ashlyn's mommy wanted to do a rainbow theme for her first birthday party and I was lucky enough to get to help. We did an invitation, high chair banner, t-shirt graphic and some stickers for rainbow lollipops. I really love how everything turned out.

Such a beautiful girl! I hope you had a wonderful birthday party, happy birthday!

Holiday Card - 2008

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Along the lines of holiday cards, I wanted to share the card I made for my friends and family back in 2008. My husband and I were living in the Long Beach area in southern California, so I did a little watercolor of the two of us making "snow angels".

I printed them on cardstock and adhered each "painting" to blank red notecards I purchased at Target. They came with wonderful red envelopes and I just added a short hand-written message inside each one.

This year's holiday card to my family and friends will have a similar theme, so stay tuned for a pic of the finished product in a few weeks.

Holiday Card - Tim Colbert & Associates

2011-12-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of creating a holiday card for a small company based in northern California. They only have a handful of employees, and we had a lot of fun with the design making a cartoon of each employee from reference photos. They work with milk products, hence the milk cartons and glasses of milk.

Enjoy!

It was a ton of fun to work on! Happy holidays!

Allison & Eion

2011-11-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of working with Allison over the summer on items for her October wedding. She wanted to do a simple winery theme, but she didn't want to use grapes or grapevines or images of wine bottles and glasses. Instead we decided on a simple, elegant look... wine glass rings. Everything fell into place from there and she used a lovely shade of burgundy and sage green for accents.

Invitation:

Inserts:

The following photos are by Sachs Photography.

Program, a simple booklet consisting of an 8.5x11 sheet folded in half:

Table numbers:

Menu:

Escort Cards; two cards were held together with the green ribbon. The second card listed the guests' table number assignment.

A sign for the candy buffet:

Door hanger, a fun little item that we did last minute:

I had an absolutely wonderful time working with Allison and I really love the simple and elegant design we came up with. I hope she and Eion had a wonderful time at their wedding, congratulations!

Jon's 30th Birthday

2011-11-17T13:16:00.000-08:00

Jon's wife Jennifer asked me to design an invitation for her husband's surprise birthday party a few months ago. Once we got started on brainstorming design ideas the gig was up and the surprise spoiled. Thankfully for us, Jon added some input on what he'd like the invitation to look like and the idea of using a graphic of his beloved BMW was born.

Happy birthday Jon, I hope your party was a blast!

Nikki & Damienn's Baby Shower

2011-11-09T13:59:00.000-08:00

I love the baby shower invitations I have had the honor of creating this year. They have been for the same amazing women whom I created wedding invitations for. I can't gush enough!

Nikki and Damienn are one such couple. They welcomed a new baby girl into their lives this year and Nikki fell in love with a pink Eiffel Tower print she saw on a random car seat. So we used the pattern as inspiration for her baby shower invitation. We also wanted to include big brother Xavier in the wording.

We included registry information on the back.

Congrats guys!

Welcome Baby Bria

2011-10-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of creating a birth announcement for Brandi a couple of months ago, and I can't even begin to explain how much I adore working with the same customer over and over when a big event happens in their life. With Brandi, I did her bridal shower invitation, baby shower invitation and now the announcement for her new baby girl. I love it!

Welcome baby Bria!

Photography by My Marvelous Images.

Ray of Sunshine Baby Shower

2011-10-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I added this new baby shower to my Etsy shop. It's somewhat gender neutral... meaning it could be for either a boy or a girl, but it's definitely more feminine in style. It would also work for a mama who doesn't know the sex of her baby yet.

Click on any image to see a larger version.

The invitation and insert are customizable. The insert is optional; you can use it as an RSVP card or for registry information.

Favor tags and favor boxes.

Cupcake or food toppers can be customized with the mom-to-be's name and come with both "It's a Boy" and "It's a Girl" toppers.

A front door sign that can also be customized.

Customizable place cards, napkin rings and a thank you card. The thank-you card fits a standard A6 envelope.

This baby shower also comes with a full sheet of the yellow and white pattern that can be printed and used as place mats. It can also be printed on the back of the favor boxes or shredded and used a filling.

Here are all of the items in this baby shower package:

invitation* (fits A7 envelope)

invitation insert* (fits 4 Bar envelope)

cupcake/food toppers*

folded place cards*

favor boxes

favor tags

napkin rings

door sign*

folded thank you card (fits A6 envelope)

Items with a * can be customized using Adobe Reader, a free download from Adobe.com.

More to come!!!

Feather the Nest Baby Shower

2011-10-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

I just added this baby shower to my Etsy shop. It's gender neutral and great for a new mama who's chosen to wait until the big day to find out the gender.

The invitation and insert are customizable. The insert is optional; you can use it as an RSVP card or for registry information.

Favor boxes and customizable water bottle labels. The water bottle labels have a fun, baby-themed "nutritional info" label on the back.

Cupcake toppers and folded place cards are customizable. Either of these can also be used to label food items in a buffet. Each party comes with both "It's a Girl" and "It's a Boy" toppers if the gender of the new baby is known.

The folded thank you card fits an A6 envelope.

I have created this shower with for mamas celebrating the arrival of their first, second or third babies. Every baby deserves a party!

Here are all of the items in this baby shower package:

invitation* (fits A7 envelope)

invitation insert* (fits 4 Bar envelope if needed)

cupcake/food toppers*

folded place cards*

favor boxes

favor tags

napkin rings

water bottle labels*

folded thank you card (fits A6 envelope)

"Welcome Baby" pennant banner

Items with a * can be customized using Adobe Reader, a free download from Adobe.com.

Here are some ideas for favors that would work with this shower:

Scented egg soaps from Too Cute Baby Gifts.

Bronze nest tealight holder from Too Cute Baby Gifts

Feathering the Nest salt & pepper shakers from Too Cute Baby Gifts

Empty miniature bird nests from WeddingAccessories.net. Fill them with candies like Peanut M&Ms or Jordan almonds in a coordinating color.

If you are interested in a similar baby shower but with different colors, fonts or graphics, please contact me about placing a custom order.

Getting back to work

2011-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a very slow process with moving and settling into a new house, unpacking and acclimating to a new area (where I don't know anyone!) and a new climate... all while chasing a toddler around. And of course, last week he learned how to turn doorknobs.

But things are finally starting to settle and I'm getting back to work on some custom orders and items for my Etsy shop.

Here are a few new items that I added to my shop this week. They are printable wall decor for your home and are available in four sizes: 8x10, 9x12, 10x13 and 11x14. The item for sale is a print-ready PDF file that your print yourself. he picture frames are not included.

Playroom Rules

Great to hang in your child's bedroom or playroom. Available in four different colorways.

We Do Love - Design 1

Available in three colorways.

We Do Love - Design 2

Available in three colorways.

I plan to add new wall decor to my shop soon along with blog entries from some of my recent custom orders. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Christine & Paul

2011-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is another wedding invitation I worked on a couple of years ago. Christine contacted me through ProjectWedding and we had a lot of fun working on her wedding invitation, monogram and program.

Here is her invitation:

Just two inserts:

The simple monogram:

Place cards:
They opted for a simple paddle fan program.

Christine was wonderful to work with and I hope she and Paul are enjoying married life!

Jade & Noel

2011-07-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of working with Jade last summer on the wedding invitations and inserts for her November wedding. She wanted to use a deep red and chocolate color palette and I love the landscape format she used. This particular script font is sometimes tricky to use. In the wrong colors and with the wrong graphics, it can look like a teenager's birthday invitation. But with the rich red and brown colors, it looks quite elegant.

Here is the invitation:

Map and directions were printed back to back:

Rsvp card, accommodations card and Sponsor card:

I hope the wedding was fabulous. Congrats!

Jenny & John

2011-07-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

This is a wedding invitation suite I actually worked on over two years ago. As I'm getting ready to move and backing up all of my files, I'm finding wedding projects I did a while ago (before I was actually updating this blog with any regularity) and I'm excited to share some of them.

Jenny and John's invitation was one of the first weddings I worked on where we used Chinese text, other than my own wedding invitation. It was a fun challenge to figure out which fonts would support the characters. Naturally, the fun script fonts don't support them.

In the end, I was really happy with the final product.

Here is the invitation, both the English and Chinese versions:

The inserts:

She had a little basket in the restrooms full of toiletries for her guests to use as needed along with this sign:

Place cards:

Table numbers:

It was wonderful working with Jenny and I hope she and John are enjoying married life!

Nikki & Damienn's Thank You

2011-07-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this year, I had the opportunity to work with Nikki again on the thank you cards from her October wedding. She wanted to use a few photos from the wedding and the same fonts and graphics that we used on the invitation and program.

I will add credit to the photographer when I get their name.

This is the front:

and the back:

I love the postcard look we gave it. It was wonderful working with Nikki again on such a fun and unique thank you card. I hope the guests loved them!

Baby Shower Thank You

2011-07-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share the thank you cards I created for my baby shower back in 2009. I kept them simple and straightforward.

Here's the front:

And the back:

I printed them on plain white A7 note cards that I picked up from JoAnn's. On the front, I used adhesive to attach the photo. I wrote a personal message at the top of the inside of each card.

Since my son arrived a few weeks early, I hadn't been able to get all of my thank yous sent. So, after he arrived, I made a second thank you card:

Front:

Back:

For this part, I scanned his actual footprints.

Photos by Krista Lucas Photography.

Crystal & Jason

2011-06-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Last year I had the privilege of designing wedding invitations for Crystal and Jason for their summer wedding (their first anniversary was just a few weeks ago!) Crystal had found a few invitation designs that she loved and wanted to combine their elements into a design that was her own using her bright yellow and navy blue colors.

Here is the invitation we created:

The inserts:

A simple monogram:

A couple of signs for guests:

For the program, they did a simple paddle fan: a two pieces of printed card stock sandwiched together with a wooden handle between them. It's a great way to do a simple program that gives guests a little relief during an outdoor wedding in the summer.

I had a great time working with Crystal and I hope she and Jason are enjoying their life as a married couple. Congrats!!

Taking a break

2011-06-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

As of this week, I am booked for the rest of the summer with custom orders. If we have already been in communication about a custom order, then you're good. I cannot accept any new orders that need to be completed in the next few months. My family is moving this summer and I'm going to close my shop for a couple of months as we get settled.

In the next few weeks I will be finishing two baby shower invitations, one birthday invitation, six wedding invitations and their accoutrement, two event company logos and the paper goods for one Las Vegas vow renewal. I am having a blast at the eclectic mix of projects!

During my down time, I plan to add some new items to my Etsy shop and hope to have a portfolio website up and my blog redesigned. At least, that's the plan. As an artist, I find it funny how difficult a time I have designing stuff for myself.

I am always happy to answer questions, so feel free to send me an email if you have any: alex.tebow.designs@gmail.com. You can also visit my Etsy shop or my Facebook page to see some of my recent work.

Thank you and have a wonderful summer!

Brandi's Baby shower

2011-06-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last year I had the privilege of creating a bridal shower invitation for Brandi. I was thrilled to hear that Brandi was expecting a baby girl (some time this month!) and that she needed a baby shower invitation!

Her theme wasn't technically a theme; it was simply bright and cheery with lots of colorful gerbera daisies and white linens. Here's the invitation we designed:

I really love how the colors came together.

And I love this wording!

I had a blast working with Brandi and I wish her and Damian all he best in the coming months. Congratulations!!

youPLUS makeup

2011-05-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

I recently had the privilige of designing a logo, business cards and web graphics for Lexie. Funny enough, we actually went to the same high school but didn't know each other back then (I think she was friends with one of my younger brothers). Lexie is starting her business as a makeup artist and I really love her philosophy of teaching her clients how to use makeup to enhance their natural look rather than to look like someone else. As someone who doesn't really wear makeup very often, I have rarely felt that I look like "me" when I've had my makeup done by a pro. I'm very tempted to schedule some time with her next time I'm in the Bay Area to learn more.

Lexie wanted a pinup/rockabilly look to her logo and I had a ton of fun with it. We came up with a few business card designs and couldn't pick just one. So she's ordering two. Here are the business cards we came up with:

These graphics are being used as Twitter, Facebook and blog avatars:

And this is her blog with the banner at the top:

Check out her blog to learn more. I had a blast working with Lexie and I wish her all the best with her business. Thanks!!

Kari & Nathan

2011-04-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled when I found out that my cousin, Kari was getting married this spring in beautiful Kauai, Hawaii. But it was truly and honor when she asked me to design her wedding invitations. Kari and Nathan were planning a very small wedding and Kari wanted their invitations to be simple and elegant.

First we did a simple save-the-date that asked guests to rsvp as to whether they were planning to make the trip to Kauai for the wedding. I can't find the photo I took of it right now, so this jpeg will have to do:

Here is the invitation:

She went with a square invitation printed on linen-textured paper. I handled the printing through the custom print shop at Cards and Pockets. They were really wonderful to work with and affordible when compared to local printing shops.

We made custom wraparound address labels that Kari printed on her own, trimmed and adhered onto papaya colored envelopes from Paper Source. I love the pop of color that the orange envelopes bring.

Only two inserts were needed, a map of the ceremony and reception sites:

And instead of doing a traditional rehearsal dinner, she invited all of the guests to a lu'au.

Lu'au map printed on back:

The wedding reception was at the Plantation Gardens Restaurant. At each place setting was a menu that we designed and a personalized luggage tag favor.

Kari and Nathan had the luggage tags engraved with each guests' initials on the back. We designed a place card to fit inside. It was a really wonderful and unique favor. The little paper palm trees held personalized M&Ms, and the pineapples on the table were perfectly ripe and smelled amazing!

It was such and honor and a ton of fun to work with Kari. The wedding was gorgeous and I'm so glad my family and I were able to be there.

Congratulations!

Emiliano's First Birthday

2011-04-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

I had a blast working on the paper goods for Emiliano's mom, Karina, when she was planning his first birthday party. She planned a cowboy-themed party in ivory, brown and aqua and was gracious enough to send me some photos from his birthday party.

For the invitations, Karina made these folded cards using her Cricut machine and I designed the inside that she printed and inserted.

Front:

Inside:

I designed lables for S'mores and Trail Mix baggies for the party. Karina printed them on pre-cut sticky labels.

Water bottle labels:

The nutrition label lists ingredients: Sweet potato, oatmeal and lots of drool. Plus 100% daily value of good looks, charm, sense of humor, love and hugs and kisses.

We weren't able to get a photo of the cupcakes, but here are the toppers we created:

As a fun favor for the kids attending the party, I designed a coloring book cover and Karina filled the inside with fun western and cowboy-themed pictures.

Here's what the back of the cover looked like:

Yee Haw!
How to follow the cowboy code:
1.) Look out for all the other cowboys
2.) Take care of your ma and your pa
3.) Finish all your ice cream!

Sounds like a good code to follow. :-)

I really love how everything turned out and the adorable photos of Emiliano in his cowboy shirt and boots were the icing on the cake!

Happy Birthday E!

Trish, Matt & Zachary

2011-04-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

If this invitation looks familiar, it's because I have posted it already. I should have waited a while before posting because Trish was gracious enough to send me one of her invitations so I could share photos! We also made a menu for her wedding after my blog post. So, I have deleted the old post and present you with this one:

I had the honor of working with Trish on her wedding invitations and I adore how she kept the invitation wording casual and elegant and is really celebrating the union of her family including their son Zachary. I has thrilled to be able to take the papel picado design I did for Laura & David last year and adapt it for Trish's wedding.

Here is her invitation:

One thing that I was especially proud to do was to make a banner that looked like the Swiss flag. (if you aren't sure, it's the one with the cross in the middle) Trish's late father was from Switzerland and making a banner for him was a small way for him to be represented at their wedding. I'm sure not all the guests will pick up on that small detail, but Trish and her mom know it's there and can be reminded that Dad is there too.

Here are the two inserts:

Here is the menu we created:

I had a great time working with Trish and I hope that she, Matt and Zachary had a wonderful wedding day!

Ken & Carolyn's Celebration

2011-04-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

Last summer my grandparents were both celebrating their 90th birthdays and 67th anniversary. So my family thought it was a perfect opportunity to have a family reunion in Kansas City to celebrate. I was honored to create an invitation for the big event. Since there were multiple get-togethers over the course of the weekend, there was a lot of information that needed to be given to guests. I thought using a pocketfold invitation was the most logical choice.

We went with Persian Blue pocketfolds and matching envelopes from Cards and Pockets and set about organizing the wording and information in a way that wasn't too confusing. I'm quite proud of the finished product. We did some of the printing at home and some at Kinko's.

Here's the envelope with wraparound address labels and the closed pocketfold. They were held shut with just a circle of the patterned paper cut with a 1.5" punch and some double-stick tape. The address labels were printed on full-sheet sticker paper and trimmed.

Inside was the invitation with six... count em... six inserts. Six is a record for me and a we learned a valuable lesson with them: when you have a lot of inserts, print them on plain paper rather than brochure paper. They barely fit!

I really love the wording, I just wish I could remember where I found it so I could give credit.

The inserts included information about each of the three events, map and directions, a list of local hotels and tourist attractions, how to rsvp and information about a surprise gift for Grandma and Grandpa.

The reunion was really wonderful. This was the first time many of my family got to meet my son. And it was my grandmother's first opportunity to have a tiered cake, apparently she didn't have one when they got married.

Here they are with their great-grandchildren:

All of the family in attendance:

What a legacy!

Nathan's 1st Birthday

2011-03-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Nathan turned one a couple of weeks ago and his mommy, Cari, wanted to do a frog theme for his first birthday party. We worked on a variety of items for the party, and I love how it all turned out. And since Cari is a photographer by trade, she was able to snap some wonderful photos to share.

Here is the invitation:

Water bottle labels:

The nutrition facts list the ingredients as blueberries, peaches, sweet potatoes and chicken along with 100% daily value in good looks, charm, sense of humor, love and hugs & kisses. Part of a complete breakfast! I love customizing this little detail that often goes unnoticed by most guests. Then, once someone notices it, the rest of the party quickly starts oohing and aahing the fun little detail. It cracks me up every time!

Banner:

Cupcake toppers:

We created a t-shirt graphic that was printed on iron-on paper. Here's Nathan in his t-shirt:

Which he got plenty dirty once he attacked his cake!

Thank you so much Nathan, for inviting us to your birthday party, both Tommy and I had a blast. Happy birthday little man!

Nancy's Birthday

2011-03-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun working with Ashley on the invitation for her mom's 60th birthday party. Ashley wanted something elegant and different, but we really didn't want it to look like a wedding invitation. I really love the final result and Ashley was gracious enough to snap some photos of the invitation, map and menu to share.

Printing was done by Avalon Printing & Graphics in Roseville, CA. Ashley said they were amazing to work with. I hope the party was a blast, Happy Birthday Nancy!

Andrea & Joe

2011-03-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time working with Andrea last summer on the paper goods for her October wedding. She wanted more modern graphics and fonts for her invitation and I was happy to oblige. I really love her wedding colors too.

Last names have been changed to protect privacy.

Their invitation:

Inserts, these were printed back to back

Response insert, she had a separate rsvp for the kids.

Table sign:

These were printed back-to-back and placed at each table to let guests know about their photo booth and to challenge guests to some fun instead of the traditional clinking of glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss.

They went simple with their program: a two-sided 8.5x11 page. The image on the left was essentially the program cover. I really love how it turned out.

The quote she used on the cover is really lovely, "Life has taught us that love does not consist of gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."

It was truly a pleasure working with Andrea and I hope she and Joe are enjoying their married life. Congrats!

Cootie Catchers

2011-02-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

Since adding a few cootie catchers to my Etsy shop. I have been asked a few times what the heck a cootie catcher is. When I have shown the questioning person, they usually reply, "you call it a cootie catcher? I call it a (insert whatever they call it)." When I was a kid, it was a cootie catcher. Recently I have heard paper fortune teller, scrunchie, flipper, flexigon, chancer, snapdragon and chatterbox. Wikipedia has some excellent folding instructions but I'm having a hard time finding out where they come from and what their relationship to cooties is? Wikipedia does have an article explaining the history and origin of Cooties (yeah, that surprised me too) and there is mention of cootie catchers being made by children to trap cooties so they can be discarded. One website I ran across said they probably originated in the early 1600s in Japan. That makes sense with Japan's history of paper folding. And I imagine they made their way to Europe in the following centuries because they were pretty popular among children in Europe, Asia and North America by the 20th century.

Either way, I'm sure I will run across a more detailed history one of these days. Here are the cootie catchers I have listed on my Etsy shop.

These are for baby showers:

These are for weddings:

These are a fun way to add a very inexpensive favor or place card holder to your wedding or baby shower. If you are interested in having a cootie catcher made that has different wording or fonts, please contact me about placing a custom order.

Christina & Flo

2011-02-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

Last year I had the pleasure of working with Christina on some items for her September wedding. Her awesome wedding invitations had already been designed by Taylor Shore of Taylored Designs. But Christina needed my help creating a couple of different programs that used the same design elements. I was happy to help.

Both of the programs we made were relatively new to me. First we designed a set of two accordion programs that contained both Chinese and French translations of their wedding ceremony. It was a fun challenge and I was really happy with how they turned out. (Last names have been changed to protect privacy.)

The little notches on the sides are to secure a ribbon, as shown here:

Since most of Christina's family is from Hong Kong, she wanted to show the old Hong Kong flag from back when they were still under British rule.

The second program we created is what's called a "petal fan program." Each of the pages is somewhat tear drop shaped and bound with a single brad or ribbon allowing the pages to fan out. It's a really elegant program that can also function as a nifty fan if the weather is warm.

Professional photos by Fox Photography.

A couple of months later, Christina contacted me to help her with designing recipe cards to use as Christmas gifts. At their wedding, they gave away a selection of baked goodies as wedding favors.

Their cookie bar:

The goodies were such a big hit they decided to bake them again and share the recipes with friends and family as Christmas gifts. Christina wanted them to look worn and well used. Here are the recipe cards we came up with:

And here are the recipes she shared:

Almond Blueberry Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg york
1/4 to 1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest, about 1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted
1 cup frozen blueberries, thawed and drained

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using a hand mixer. Add egg and beat to incorporate. Add milk, almond extract, and lemon zest. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the almonds, then the blueberries. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Using two small spoons, dollop mix onto cookie sheets. Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Citrus Shortbread

Ingredients:
3 clementine oranges or small tangerines, washed and dried
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 pound unsalted butter (3 sticks), softened

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 12 1/2-inch baking sheet pan, line with parchment paper, and butter the paper. Finely grate the zest off all 3 clementines. Puree the zest with 1/4 cup of the sugar in a food processor until minced, about 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk the flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar on medium, until light and fluffy, about 8 minutes. Add the clementine-sugar mixture and beat for another minute. While mixing on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not overwork the dough. Transfer dough to prepared pan, spreading it out as evenly as possible. Cover with plastic wrap, then press and flatten using your hands over the top to smooth and even out the dough. Cut the dough into bars about 1 by 3 inches with a sharp knife, while still in the pan. Prick a decorative pattern in the shortbreads with a fork or a wooden skewer. Bake until golden, about 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes and then re-cut the bars along the previous cuts. Let cool completely on racks. Store the cookies in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.

Granola Bars

Ingredients:
8 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats, approximately 2 cups
1 1/2 ounces raw sunflower seeds, approximately 1/2 cup
3 ounces sliced almonds, approximately 1 cup
1 1/2 ounces wheat germ, approximately 1/2 cup
6 ounces honey, approximately 1/2 cup
1 3/4 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/4 cup packed
1 ounce unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit, any combination of apricots, cherries or blueberries

Directions:
Butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved. Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Key Lime Sables

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated Key lime zest (from about 15 limes)
2 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice (from about 5 limes)
1 tablespoon fine sanding sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour and salt. Beat butter and confectioners' sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in lime zest and juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough in half, shape each half into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour (or overnight). On a piece of floured parchment, roll out each portion of dough to 1/4 inch thick. Place dough and parchment on baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes. Using a 2-inch fluted cutter, cut out cookies, and space about 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Freeze for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake until bottoms begin to turn golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly on sheets on wire racks, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. Sables can be stored in airtight containers for up to 3 days.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Blackberry Jam

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (recommended: Hershey's)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 packed cup light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup blackberry jam

Directions:
Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside. In a medium bowl, sieve together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, peanut butter, 3/4 cup of sugar, and light brown sugar together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until blended. With the machine running on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture until incorporated. Put the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl. Form the dough into tablespoon-size balls and roll in the sugar. Arrange balls of dough, evenly apart, on each baking sheet. Using a round 1/4 teaspoon measure, or the thin end of a wooden spoon, make a hole in the center of each ball of dough (don’t go too deep or the jam will leak). Spoon some jam into each hole. Bake for 11 to 14 minutes until the dough has spread and the surface of the cookies are crackled. Cool for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes.

So far I have made the Citrus Shortbreads and they were delicious! Thanks Christina, for sharing and I wish you and Flo all the best!

Danielle & Benjamin

2011-02-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Danielle and Benjamin got married last June and I had a wonderful time working with Danielle on her paper goods. In the beginning I sensed that Danielle was struggling on an invitation design. Her vision of what the invitations would look like was different than her mom's vision. And since her parents were paying for the wedding, I sensed that Danielle was torn. (well, as much as one can "sense" through email) I was up for the challenge and was absolutely thrilled that I was able to take Danielle's vision and her mom's vision and mix them together into a design that they both loved. It was a very satisfying feeling.

They went with bright red pocketfolds from Cards and Pockets with the secondary color in turquoise.

In wedding invitation lingo, this invitation has a belly band. It adds a splash of color and helps keep the invitation closed without adhering anything to it. The monogram we created was used in a number of places: on the invitation, on favor tags and printed onto their unity candle.

The inserts:

We made wraparound address labels continuing the floral motif:

The menu included a monogram once again:

We did a tri-fold program that was printed on both sides of an 8.5x11 page and then folded. Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Danielle was a pleasure to work with and I wish her and Benjamin all the best in their new life together. Congrats!

Lovin & Ian

2011-02-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of working with Lovin last spring on her beautiful wedding invitation. She wanted a cherry blossom motif and I really enjoying working on a few different options for her. In the end she went with the design that was my favorite. I love when that happens!

This was her wedding invitation:

She used navy blue metallic pocketfolds.

Her inserts:

Lovin wanted to have a few reserved signs for her and Ian's parents:

We did a simple monogram:

and added it to the menu:

and petal fan program:

These petal fan programs are pretty nifty. They are bound with a single brad or tied with ribbon. They can fan out and double as a fan on a warm day. I think they are a very elegant variation on wedding programs.

I had a blast working with Lovin and I hope she and Ian had a wonderful time at their wedding. Congratulations to you both!

Surf Baby Showers

2011-02-08T23:27:00.000-08:00

These two baby showers were listed on my Etsy shop this week. They are modeled after the baby shower invitation I designed for my own baby shower in 2009. I had a ton of fun elaborating on the basic look. I imagine it would be pretty easy to change the wording for this baby shower to a child's birthday party too.

First I'll show the surfer girl baby shower:

The invitation and wraparound address label are customizable using Adobe Reader.

Napkin rings can also be used to wrap around vases or candles. You can punch a hole in the top of the favor tags to string around a thank you gift or print them on adhesive paper to use as a label.

Print these favor boxes two-sided with the patterned hula print to add a pop of color inside the boxes. The water bottle labels have a baby-themed nutritional info label on the back.

This is the surfer boy baby shower:

Both of these parties come with full sheets of the patterned hula prints in two sizes. They can be used as place mats or pieced together to make a table runner. I picked up the square bamboo party plates at Party City (they are biodegradable!) Decorate your tables with sea shells and flower leis, put on some Beach Boys or your favorite ukulele music and you have a complete party!

These items are included in each of these printable baby showers:

invitation* (fits A7 envelope)
wraparound address labels*
cupcake toppers
favor boxes
favor tags*
napkin rings
water bottle labels
thank you card
thank you card envelope
patterned paper

Items with a * can be customized using Adobe Reader (a free download from Adobe.com)

If you are interested in a similar baby shower but with different colors or fonts, please contact me about placing a custom order.

King of the Jungle Baby Shower

2011-02-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

I just listed this customizable and printable baby shower on my Etsy shop. Anyone you know having a baby boy? This King of the Jungle themed baby shower can be a lot of fun.

The invitation can be customized using Adobe Reader.

The napkin rings can also be wrapped around vases or candles and the lion and palm tree standees can work as napkin rings. Write each guest's name on the bottom of each standee and they can work as adorable place cards.

I used a flower-shaped hole punch to back each of the cupcake toppers with a contrasting piece of card stock. It adds a little extra pop of color.

Favor boxes can be filled with anything you like, with or without a bow. For a little extra fun, print these two-sided with the polka dot patterned paper. Full sheets of the patterned paper can also be used as place mats or pieced together to make a table runner.

Favor tags can be personalized and used in a variety of ways. Water bottle labels have fun, baby-themed "nutritional info" on the back.

These items are included in this printable baby shower:

invitation* (fits A7 envelope)
cupcake toppers
small standees
favor boxes
favor tags*
napkin rings
water bottle labels
thank you card (fits A6 envelope)
patterned paper

Items with a * can be customized using Adobe Reader (a free download from Adobe.com)

If you are interested in a similar baby shower but with different colors or fonts, please contact me about placing a custom order.

Sharalyn & Demontray

2011-02-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun working with Sharalyn on the wedding invitations for her October wedding. She was doing them completely DIY and following a set of instructions I posted on ProjectWedding on how to make your own pocketfolds.

Sharalyn was gracious enough to send me one of her invitations so I could share photos.

They used re-usable adhesive to stick the monogram on the front. (great idea!)

I love how she used the aqua card stock for the RSVP card. It added an great splash of color. I also love how they had all of their guests RSVP online. It saved them the expense of having to include an RSVP envelope and postage. Which is great since a lot of people still forget to properly RSVP.

Sharalyn was a pleasure to work with and I hope she and Tray had a fantastic time on their wedding day. Congratulations to you both!

Nikki & Damienn

2011-02-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time working with Nikki last summer on the paper goods for her October wedding. She was having a black tie event, so the invitation needed to reflect that level of formality. She went with a matte black pocketfold and used Stardream metallic card stock for the inside. The finished product really turned out stunning and she was gracious enough to send one to me so I could share photos.

Here is her invitation closed with their monogram displayed in front. She was very smart and closed the invitation with a little piece of Velcro. (I wish I had thought of that for my wedding invitations)

When opened you can see the formal font and flourish we used for the invitation. I love the bright green metallic Rsvp envelope.

She had the menu printed on Stardream card stock:

I was thrilled to see how lovely her program turned out. She debated going with a black cover, worried about her printing options. Thankfully she was able to find an amazing printer and I have to say, the final product turned out gorgeous, and perfect for a black tie event.

She used the back cover to pay respect to family members who had passed away; specifically her dad and her fiance's brother.

We are currently working on designing thank-you cards using some of the images from her wedding day. I'll post them as soon as we're done.

Nikki was really amazing to work with and I hope she and Damienn had a wonderful time at their wedding. Congrats!

Lace Bridal Showers

2011-02-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

These two bridal showers were just listed on my Etsy shop. They're perfect for a lingerie-themed bridal shower or they can easily be adapted for a bachelorette party or even a birthday party if you're looking for something elegant and a little bit sexy.

First is a pink lace motif:

The text on the invitation and folded place cards is customizable.

Favor boxes can be filled with candy or perhaps the tiniest pair of panties. :-D

A folded thank-you note with matching envelope continues the look even after the party is done.

The black lace motif:

I love how the black lace and sexier font change the mood.

Tie the favor box with satin ribbon in black or the contrasting red.

The folded thank you card and envelope.

Continue the theme by covering your tables in white satin and black lace. Use white, pink or red satin napkins and tie them with strips of lace or contrasting satin ribbon.

These items are included in this printable bridal shower:

invitation* (fits A7 envelope)
favor boxes
folded place cards*
folded thank you card
thank you card envelope

* These items can be customized using Adobe Reader (a free download from Adobe.com)

If you are interested in a similar baby shower but with different colors or fonts, please contact me about placing a custom order.

Sullivan's 1st Birthday

2011-01-28T22:54:00.000-08:00

For his first birthday, Sullivan's mommy took him to the aquarium! To mark the occasion I had the honor of designing a t-shirt graphic for them. Sully's mommy printed it out on special transfer paper and ironed it onto a onesie. Doing this is a really wonderful way to have a custom piece of clothing to mark a special occasion.

Here's the aquarium-themed graphic:

And here's Sullivan in his birthday shirt:

Such a handsome boy! Happy birthday Sully, I hope your second year of life brings your mommy and daddy more and more joy.

Welcome Baby Logan!

2011-01-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of creating a birth announcement for Logan along the same design as the one I made for my little guy. Logan's mommy is a big fan of 80s movies and his daddy was in the Air Force. The Top Son announcement was perfect for them!

Welcome to the world Logan!

Erin and Anthony

2011-01-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

Last year I had the privilege of working with Erin on her invitations and other paper goods for her October wedding.

First off, here is the Save-the-date we did. She did a double-sided postcard that let all of her guests know their wedding website address.

For the invitation Erin went with metallic card stock in black and burgundy. I love how simple and formal it looks. She added a couple of rhinestones to give it sparkle.

Photo by Tammy LaBar

Inserts:

A simple, two-sided postcard response card:

We did a custom wraparound address label for the envelopes:

A simple table-top picture frame held custom table numbers:

Photo by Tammy LaBar

A poster picture frame held the seating chart that instructed guests where to sit:

Lastly, we used two of the gorgeous photos taken by Tammy LaBar for thank-you cards.

It was a lot of fun working with Erin and I wish her and Anthony all the best as they start their new life together. Thanks!

Cootie Catcher Favor

2011-01-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

Remember making a cootie catcher when you were ten years old? Back in 2002, when I had the privilege of being maid of honor to one of my best friends, I designed a wedding-themed cootie catcher as her wedding favor. It was a fun and very budget-friendly favor that she had at each place setting. We actually did part of hers in German to pay homage to her heratige.

Inspired by that favor, I made these:

A wedding themed cootie catcher using the font: Edwardian Script.

This one uses one of my favorite script fonts, Beautiful Script:

These two cootie catchers are for a baby shower:

This one uses a great whimsical font, Feel Script.

This one is another of my favorites and little less formal: Honey Script.

I just listed these new items on my Etsy shop as printable downloads. If you're interested, all you need to do is buy the listing and I will send you the file. Then you just print, trim and fold. You can print on colored paper to coordinate with your wedding or baby shower colors.

They look great at each place setting as part of your party tablescape or have a few scattered on each table. They can also work wonderfully as place card holders.

If you are interested in ordering a cootie catcher with different fonts or different wording, please contact me about placing a custom order. Thanks!

New Birth Announcements for Sale

2011-01-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

I'm am currently working on building a shop on Etsy where I can sell pre-designed, print-at-home files to customers... this shop is one of my goals for 2011. Right now I have a few birth announcements up there with plans to add some customizable baby shower and birthday party items. I'm finding it difficult to get one party finished when I suddenly get more ideas for something else. I guess I should just be happy that my creative juices are flowing... they just need to flow with a little bit more order. :-)

Here's the link to my shop: Alex Tebow Designs

These birth announcements are currently available for purchase in a few different color options. All the customer needs to do is purchase the item on Etsy and then send me the photo(s) they'd like to use and their baby's birth info. I then send a JPG for approval. Once all is well (and spelling has been triple-checked) I will send a high resolution PDF file that can be printed at home or sent to a professional printer. If someone would like a similar announcement but with different fonts or colors, they are welcome to contact me about placing a custom order.

also available in lavender, pink, or orange

also available in teal, army green and tan

also available in pink and mauve

also available in tan and green

also available in a brown/pink colorway

also available in a lime green/royal blue colorway

The photos used in these birth announcements were taken by Krista Lucas Photography.

When I add new items to my shop, I will show them here first. Once I have a sufficient amount of stuff for sale, I will create a Facebook page and send a mass email to everyone I have done custom work with advertising my shop. Hopefully a few will actually read it. :-)

Shenell & Omar

2010-12-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

I was honored to create a wedding announcement for Shenell and Omar last month. They eloped in early November in the Bahamas and wanted to send an announcement to their friends and family.

Front:

Back:

Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos and congratulations!

Kellie's Baby Shower

2010-11-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to be able to work on the paper goods for Kellie's baby shower, especially since I did her wedding stationary just last year! The theme for her shower was "King of the Jungle" with a lovely blue, green and orange color scheme.

Here is the invitation we made:

Favor tags were placed on food and favor bags:

Lastly we made cupcake toppers:

I had a wonderful time working with Kellie again and I wish her all the best in the last few weeks of her pregnancy. Congratulations K, you are going to make an amazing mom!

Custom Parties!

2010-11-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

Here is pricing information for custom birthdays, showers, and other events that don't fit under the categories of weddings or businesses.

Custom Birthday Party Suite: $65

Includes the invitation plus four items from the a la carte list below.

Custom Baby Shower Suite: $65

Includes the invitation plus four items from the a la carte list below.

A la carte items:
(The links just show an example, your item will be customized to your party needs.)

invitation: $25
address labels: $15
water bottle labels: $15
t-shirt graphic: $15 (for use with DIY iron-on paper or you can choose to have t-shirts printed through Zazzle.com, minimum quantities apply)
favor tags: $10
cube favor boxes: $15
place cards: $15
cupcake toppers: $15
napkin rings: $10
thank you cards: (can be folded or flat) $10
food and drink labels: $10 to $20 depending on quantity
patterned party hats: $10 (for 3 different patterns)
front door sign: $10
Happy Birthday banner: $20
Welcome Baby banner: $20
highchair banner: $20
custom banner: $30

Please send me an email, alex.tebow.designs@gmail, if you have any questions.

Thank you!

Laura & David

2010-10-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of working with Laura over the summer on her and David's wedding invitations, menu and a whole bunch of signs.

Paying homage to their Mexican heritage, Laura and David went with a papel picado motif. Papel picado is a Mexican folk art of paper cutting, usually into very intricate designs.

Here is the papel picado we came up with for Laura and David:

Their wedding invitation:

Inserts:

Signs:

It's becoming more common to leave toiletries in the bathrooms of a reception as a courtesy to guests.

Guest book table sign

Menu:

As you can see, I had a great time working with a few different fonts and different text alignments.

I hope Laura and David had a wonderful time on their honeymoon. Congratulations you two!

Charesse & Iva

2010-10-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Charesse and Iva were married a few weeks ago and I had the pleasure of working with Charesse on a number of wedding items over the summer.

Their invitation:

Their inserts:

RSVP Postcard:

I love adding the little message box on the back of RSVP postcards. It can create a bunch of wonderful keepsakes for the bride and groom to keep in a wedding scrapbook.

Their monogram:

We had fun coming up with a unique way to do table numbers. Charesse said that she and Iva love to play games, especially Spades, so we did a deck of playing cards with their flourish and colors.

Charesse printed them at 5x7 and I really love how they turned out.

I hope you both had a wonderful time at your wedding and I wish you all the best in your new life together. Congrats!

Abby & Mark

2010-09-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

This summer I had a great time working with both Abby and Mark on their wedding invitations, monogram and few additional items. They were gracious enough to send me one of their finished invitations so I could take photos. And a real treat was being able to share some professional photos from their gorgeous wedding. Professional photos were taken by Bill Denison and Grant Gibson.

We came up with a fun monogram that included a crab and lobster, paying homage to their seaside Massachusetts wedding.

Their invitation:

They only needed two simple inserts:

Mark and Abby had their monogram printed on pint glasses for their guests:

We did a very simple program:

and a simple menu:

To go along with their nautical theme, all of the guest tables were named after boats owned by friends and family members. They included the boat's name, type of boat, the shipbuilder and the year it was built.

For their escort cards, we just went with the crab and lobster, having the guest names and table numbers separate.

I imagine this made things easier as they didn't have to be printing escort cards to reflect last minute changes. They just clipped the guest name with their table number.

I love the seashells and sand!

It was a real treat working with Abby and Mark and I wish them all the best in their new married life. Congratulations to you both, and thanks!

Amanda & Daniel

2010-09-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

Amanda and Daniel were married this past June and I had the pleasure of working on their wedding invitations.

I like the non-traditional layout of the RSVP card. We actually created six different cards with space for one, two, three, four, five or six guests; depending on how many were invited in the household. It was a great (and somewhat subtle) way to prevent guests from bringing extra people. Of course I don't know if it actually worked. ;-)

Because of the distance between their ceremony and reception locations, we did two maps that were printed back to back.

I hope the wedding was beautiful! Congrats!

Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay

2010-09-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend I had the opportunity to see some art that rarely leaves France. The Musée d'Orsay is currently closed for renovations. While being renovated a group of paintings from its permanent collection is making a few stops. The first exhibit was on display in Madrid, then spent a few months at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and will finish its tour in Nashville before heading home to Paris. The Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay, was a really breathtaking exhibition, and it was a real treat for me to see these works. Despite having visiting Paris twice, I have not been able to spend any time at the Orsay.

The first half of the show introduced us to the pre-Impressionists... works that most wouldn't associate with Impressionism.

The Birth of Venus, William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I really love this painting, and seeing it in person for the first time was really wonderful. It seemed to have its own glow, like light was coming from the painting itself. Plus, I really love Bouguereau's women, they are always so beautiful and real... and, well... tastefully landscaped. :-D

The Floor Scrapers, Gustave Caillebotte

This one was also a treat to see in person... to see the details in the strain of these men's shoulders, to see how the artist used their extended arms to emphasize the perspective lines.

The Swing, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

This painting was interesting to see in person as well. Up close, it's just plain splotchy, and it's not easy to see what's going on. When you see it from across the room, you can clearly see the light coming thru the trees and leaving spots of light on her dress, on his suit and you can more easily see the shyness in her pose.

The Dancing Lesson, Edgar Degas

This is my favorite of Degas' paintings. I adore the ballerina on the far left, awkwardly scratching her back. Within my own interpretation of this painting, the artist is showing us that despite how ethereal and graceful these world-renowned ballerinas are, they are still just young girls, complete with the awkwardness that comes with adolescence.

The second exhibition opens this weekend: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. The de Young is the only museum in North America to host this exhibit and the only museum in the world showing both exhibitions from the Orsay. I will write about it when I get a chance to see it... sometime before January.

Claudia & Ryan

2010-08-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Last Fall I had a fantastic time working with Claudia on all sorts of beautiful wedding products. I was working with a new color scheme to me and new some design elements. I love the elegant chandelier that she went with. The design is inspired by the Chic Chandelier invitation from The Event Essentials.

Her invitation:

Her inserts:

Monogram:

Table numbers:

Menu:

Random signs:

And finally, escort cards:

I really had a wonderful time working with Claudia and I wish her and Ryan all the best!

LaDawn & Kyle

2010-08-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

LaDawn and Kyle were married a few weeks ago and I had the pleasure of working with LaDawn on their wedding invitations and menu. She chose a wonderfully bright spring green and yellow for her wedding. I'm also a fan of the script font she went with.

Here is their invitation:

Here are the inserts:

And here is the menu:

Congratulations you two! I hope you had a blast on your honeymoon!

Angela & Rudy

2010-08-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

Angela and Rudy were married last month and I had the pleasure of working on their invitations and menu. I really loved the rather unique shade of pink we worked with. I have seen a lot of pastel pink and plenty of fuchsia, but this was a new pink for me.

Here is their invitation:

I love how she wanted to use lyrics from All I Ask Of You from The Phantom of the Opera on the invitation.

And their inserts:

And the menu:

Menus always make me hungry when I work on them.

I had a wonderful time working with Angela on these and I wish her and Rudy all the best! Thanks!

Everything Bella Events

2010-04-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of working with Genae on some branding for her event planning business, Everything Bella.

We created a logo:

A mini logo: (it's an abbreviated version of the full logo and I'm not sure if it has an official name, so I'm going with mini logo.)

a website banner:

and business cards:

Be sure to check out Everything Bella's website and blog if you are ever in need of event planning services in the Atlanta, Georgia area. It was a pleasure working with Genae again and I wish her all the best with her new business! Thanks Genae!

Brandi's Bridal Shower

2010-04-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago Tiffany contacted me to help her design a stunning bridal shower invitation for her friend, Brandi's bridal shower. She wanted lots of hot pink with a lovely chandelier design. I love how the invitation turned out.

Brandi, I hope your bridal shower was a blast!

Monograms

2010-03-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Monograms have been around as early as the third century B.C. and have been used as a signature for artists and craftsmen on paintings, sculpture and pieces of furniture. Traditionally, a monogram consists of three initials with the surname in the middle and the first and middle names shown on either side.

In these modern times, monograms have been a popular way for a bride and groom to have a personalized piece of art to use on their invitations, inserts and all sorts of wedding stationary. Some even have their monogram printed on napkins, champagne flutes and even projected onto the dance floor.

Here are some examples of monograms I've done for clients. Many go above and beyond the traditional three-initial monogram.

Haley & Brent

2010-03-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Last spring I had the pleasure of working with Haley for portions of her wedding stationary. She already had a wedding invitation, but needed me to design the map, reception and rsvp inserts. She also needed a monogram, reserved signs and a water bottle label. There was where I had fun incorporating the design from her invitations.

I'm not sure where she ordered her invitations, I'll have to go back through my emails so I can give credit to the designer. This is her invitation:

We made very simple inserts:

Creating Haley's map posed a fun challenge, she got married at Balboa Park, which is right near the San Diego Zoo. So, for once we weren't concerned with showing the major freeways. We just needed to let guests know where inside the park the wedding would be.

I really had fun designing her monogram:

reserved signs:

and water bottle labels:

I had a great time working with Haley and I hope her and Brent's wedding was amazing!

Phi & Anthony

2010-02-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

I was honored to work with Phi over the last few weeks on her lovely wedding invitations. She was gracious enough to send me one of the her beautiful invitations so I could take some photos to share.

She went with a really beautiful patterned pocketfold invitation. I love the pattern on that champagne-colored cardstock and the unusual size.

The inserts:

This is the second or third time I've created an insert for "sponsors." It's not really shown to keep the information private. I have learned that it's traditional for a Catholic Filipino wedding to have an insert that lists everyone in the wedding party plus the sponsors of the bride and groom, they are kind of like godparents. You can read a bit about what the sponsors do here.

It was a pleasure working with Phi and I look forward to seeing some photos from her upcoming wedding. Wishing her and Anthony all the best, congrats!

Erika & Marcos

2010-02-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

Erika and Marcos got married this past October and I had the privilege of working with Erika on their wedding invitations along with a bunch of other wedding details. She went with a lovely flourish using their wedding colors: a romantic deep red color and chocolate brown. I love the metallic brown pocketfolds she went with.

Inserts:

Erika's map proved to be a fun challenge. A road right near her reception venue was scheduled to be closed during the weekend of her wedding. So we needed to include that information in her map and driving directions. I hope everyone was able to get there alright.

Getting these photos was a real treat for me as I don't often get to see these finished projects in professional photos.

Photos are by photographer, Garvin Tso.

In addition to the invitations, we did table numbers, favor tags, escort cards and a menu:

We used their simple monogram on the favor tags. I love the little rhinestones that she added to the escort cards.

It was a pleasure working with Erika and I wish her and Marcos all the best in their new life together.

Genae's Birthday

2010-01-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I had the pleasure of designing a birthday party invitation for Genae. She was combining her birthday party with the launch of her new event planning business, Everything Bella. You can see some details from the party on her blog. I love that she requested all of her guests wear black, then as the birthday girl, she wore red.

I had so much fun coming up with this dramatic, all black, invitation using a photo of Genae herself.

Happy Birthday Genae!

"All in Good Time"

2010-01-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to illustrate a couple of children's stories for Hot Topics Hot Serials, a Newspaper in Education syndicate. Two of the stories I illustrated were featured in the Minneapolis StarTribune. It was very exciting to see my name and illustrations in print.

This first story, "All in Good Time", is wonderful story about a boy who is not interested in learning histroy until a teacher give him a subway token that takes to 1932 where he befriends a girl who's struggling to make ends meet for her family during the Great Depression.

They posted one chapter per day for a week.

A few of the illustrations from the nine chapter story were printed in color.

Some days, there would be a teaser on the front page.

My grandfather's cousin, who lives in Minneapolis, was gracious enough to send me a couple of copies of the nine days of newspapers that featured the story.

I really loved the research that was needed for this project. I got to research what was happening in New York City in the 1930s and what the city looked like. Also what kind of clothing teenagers were wearing at the time. I had to research what was playing during a certain week at the Roxy theater. I even flew to New York for a day trip to take some photo reference. I had a wonderful time working on this project.

Annie & Brian

2010-01-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

When Annie contacted me through ProjectWedding, she already had a plan in place for her wedding invitations. All she needed from me were save-the-dates, water bottle labels and a simple monogram. It was so much fun working with her on the elegant designs. I love the textured look we gave them.

Simple monogram:

Two-sided postcard Save-the-dates:

She printed them through VistaPrint.

Water bottle labels:

a close-up of the "nutritional info."

It was a pleasure working with Annie and I hope her and Brian's wedding was fabulous.

Kellie & Victor

2010-01-09T23:17:00.000-08:00

Kellie and I met through ProjectWedding where she asked me to help her with her save-the-dates and wedding invitation suite.

First, we made her save-the-dates where we incorporated a couple of their engagement photos. She sent them out as postcards.

Then we went to work on her wedding invitation, inserts and various other stationary items:

RSVP postcard:

Maps for both the ceremony and reception:

Labels for her guests' water bottles:

Kellie and Victor had a candy bar for their guests and this sign adorned the table:

Table numbers:

I had a great time working with Kellie and I wish her and Victor all the best!

Lillaana & Ericke

2010-01-08T15:37:00.001-08:00

I had a wonderful time working with Lana with her wedding invitations and stationary. She wanted to use bright colors with an elegant design and script. We also included the logo from her church.

Lana made a simple pocketfold invitation:

The invitation was tied with a ribbon and this card was attached to the front:

Postcard RSVP and Accommodations card:

Maps for both the ceremony and reception locations:

Menu:

Monogram:

She wanted to incorporate all of their wonderful engagement photos as part of the table numbers. I love how these turned out!

Lana's program included the traditional pages listing the ceremony, members of the wedding party an a thank-you page. She also included a page explaining some traditions in their wedding ceremony and a page dedicated to family members who had passed.

It was a pleasure working with Lana and I hope she and Ericke had a wonderful time on their honeymoon. Congrats!!

JoAnna & JR

2010-01-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

I worked with JoAnna this summer on all of the items for her wedding. I instantly fell in love with the elegant flourish and vibrant pink color she chose for her invitations. JoAnna was nice enough to send me photos of the finished products to share.

JoAnna went with a layered pocketfold invitation from Cards and Pockets and had her inserts tapered inside the pocket.

Invitation:

Inserts:

The whole thing was finished with a black ribbon and their monogram. I love the rounded corners!

Favor boxes:

The menu and a little game for the guests:

It was a pleasure working wiht JoAnna and I hope she and her new husband have a wonderful time in Jamaica for their honeymoon. Congrats!

Amy & Scott

2010-01-04T14:23:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of working with Amy on her wedding invitations last Spring. We used a flourish like the one I used for Melissa and Ricardo, but with Amy's colors. It was a lots of fun working with her.

The invitation:

The inserts:

Instead of a traditional RSVP card, we went with a two-sided postcard. It saves a little money on postage and gives the guests an opportunity to send along well wishes with their RSVP. One bride I worked with last year saved all of her postcard RSVPs and put them into a scrapbook.

The monogram:

Amy printed out her monogram onto small pieces of cardstock and used them to close her poocketfold invitation.

Tommy's Birth Announcement

2009-12-18T18:40:00.001-08:00

Even though I'm on maternity leave from my design business, I wanted to share the designs that my husband and I came up with for our son's birth announcements. I took these photos when he was three weeks old.

I did a few traditional-looking announcements:

These are his real footprints, scanned and colored in Illustrator.

Then I did a couple of non-traditional ones. (inspired by 5starbaby.com)

Can you tell what my husband's favorite movie is? It has all of his birth information along with "quotes" at the top from Grandma and Grandpa and a few aunties and uncles. We ended up going with the black one and ordered them from Vista Print.

I also created a wraparound address label for the plain white envelopes:

We were really happy with the final result and we got a lot of great compliments on them. I'll have to try my hand at a few more movie poster announcements.

Tammy & Thomas!

2009-10-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Tammy and Thomas got hitched a few weeks ago and I had the pleasure of working with Tammy on their invitations, inserts, table numbers and a nice cover for her programs.

I really enjoyed working with her with this lovely damask graphic. Congrats!

Lindsey & Chris

2009-09-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

I met Lindsey through ProjectWedding and we worked on many of her wedding stationary items this past Spring. She had found a simple wedding invitation online and wanted to use the same graphic and fonts on her wedding map, menu, rehearsal dinner invitations and pretty much every little thing that was going to be printed.

This was the wedding invitation she went with, purchased from Carlton Craft Designs:

It came with an RSVP card, but she wanted the map and directions card to be more custom.

Things sort of took off from there:

Bathroom sign, menu and a sign for dancing shoes.

Rehearsal dinner invitation

Wedding program

Congrats Lindsey and Chris!

My Baby Shower

2009-09-21T10:38:00.001-07:00

Even though I didn't really want to be involved in the planning of my baby shower, (I just wanted to show up, eat some cake and talk with my friends and family) the designer in me was thrilled at the idea of at least designing the invitations.

They were printed on plain white cardstock and backed with a larger piece of navy blue cardstock. The theme is similar to how we're decorating his nursery.

For a fun little extra, I designed a wraparound address label.

The labels were all printed on full-sheet sticker paper and cut with a paper cutter. It's a really easy way to make custom labels and not have to worry about your design lining up with whatever size labels you're using. I use that sticker paper all the time!

Misti & Olivier

2009-08-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Misti contacted me well after her wedding invitations had been mailed with questions about DIY-ing her own signs, favor tags and wedding program. After we went back and forth on different options, she just hired me to create them for her. We had a great time incorporating the lavender motif throughout the signage and program.

Her favor tag for small lavender sachets:

Favor tag #2 for small jars of honey:

I can't take credit for the design of this adorable favor tag. A friend of hers created the original design. I just changed the fonts to match her invitation and adjusted the colors. Very cute idea though!

Table numbers:

Cards sign:

Program:

Misti's program was a fun challenge trying to fit a lot of information onto a small space, including a translation in French! For fun she included a page of wedding Mad Libs.

I was really happy with the final results. Congrats Misti & Olivier!

Cassidy & Corey

2009-08-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Cassidy and Corey got hitched this past June and I had the pleasure of designing with their invitation suite. Cassidy showed me a color palette full of bright, cheery colors and she specifically asked for a "western" looking font. After a few prototypes were designed, this was the final result:

Inserts:

It was a pleasure working with her and I wish her and her new hubby all the best! Congrats!

Lynette & Tyson

2009-07-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful time working with Lynette, who got hitched a few weeks ago, for her wedding invitation suite. She had found a design element online and wanted to use the same flourish, but in her colors; aqua and chocolate brown. We took off from there!

I really love the wording she went with for the invitation. Simple and really beautiful.

The inserts:

Lynette stacked the inserts behind the invitation and tied the whole thing with a satin ribbon. They were mailed in chocolate brown envelopes.

For table numbers, she and her husband chose their favorite San Francisco Forty-Niner and Giants players and their numbers.

Professional photo by Rachelle Photography.

They provided mini water bottles for their guests at the wedding... complete with a custom label.

For their favors, they gave away hot fudge scented candles in little round tins. This was the tag we made for them:

The menu:

The menus were tucked inside the napkins at east place setting. Professional photo by Rachelle Photography.

It was truly a pleasure working with Lynette on these and I was really happy to see how beautiful her wedding was from the teaser photos she's since received from her photographer. Congrats!

Company Branding

2009-07-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

An overview of my pricing options for company branding:

When designing a logo for a new or existing company, I provide my client with the final design in a few different file formats so it can be applied to a variety of computer programs and the web. I'm also happy to provide files that work within the printing requirements of professional printing companies.

Company logo: $35

If you need more than just a logo:

Starter Package $85

Includes:
- company logo
- business card design and layout (includes a design for the back if desired)
- letterhead
- watermark (for photography businesses)
- website banner
- small web graphic, usually square in shape used for blogs and forums

A la carte items:

- business card design & layout $35
- thank you card design (with a blank interior) $30
- postcard mailer (2-sided) $35
- watermark $15
- letterhead $20
- website banner $20
- website graphics $15
- gift certificate $20
- folders (starting at $40)
- brochures (starting at $50)
- fliers (starting at $20)
- packaging design (varies per project)

Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions or are in need of something that isn't listed: alex.tebow.designs@gmail.com

Thanks!

Our Wedding

2009-07-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

My wedding invitations were a labor of love and a lesson in patience. From the beginning I fell in love with the beautiful pocketfold invitations I was seeing on wedding websites and immediately knew I wanted to make some sort of pocketfold invitation. Back in the summer of 2007 when I was researching my options, I made a bunch of prototype invitations using materials purchased at my local craft stores. Once I had a design all set, I learned that I needed to make a Chinese version as well. Not wanting to have two separate invitations, I modified my pocketfold to have two panels instead of one and added the Chinese text with help from my mother-in-law.

I had a hard time finding card stock in the shade of burgundy I had in mind. My local craft store had it, but at $1 per sheet, it was no longer going to be budget friendly. Thankfully I discovered The Paper Mill Store and their enormous selection of card stock colors. Suddenly, the overall cost of my invitations jumped from pricey to darned cheap!

The invitation was sealed with a faux wax seal. (LetterSeals.com)

Finding a paper that had the kind of pattern I wanted proved to be a headache, so I created my own by scanning a piece of brocade silk from the fabric store and drawing parts of it in Adobe Illustrator. I was able to color it the way I wanted and print out full sheets to be used with the invitations. It was time consuming, but I was really happy with the results. Everything was printed on a color laser printer.

We had just two inserts:

Photo by Shu-Jon Mao Photography:

Our Program:

Continuing to use the same card stock and patterned paper from our invitations, we made the programs. The information inside included:

-Info about the wedding party
-Thank yous to our family and guests
-Brief description of the ceremony and music selections
-Cultural information about the Chinese Tea Ceremony
-Cultural symbolism about the banquet food
-A crossword puzzle about the bride & groom
-Info about uploading wedding photos to share

The program was bound using inexpensive, ivory 1/8" satin ribbon.

Our Centerpieces:

Creating centerpieces for a wedding reception where the food would be served family style proved to be a challenge. The centerpiece had to be small and have the ability to be moved with ease. I had a wonderful idea to hang paper lanterns from a table-top hanger and insert a flameless candle inside and adhere the menu and guest names on the lantern. Alas, finding a lantern at right size was futile. In the end I was inspired by the centerpieces made by this bride and made these:

The information printed on the four panels:

-Table number
-List of guests seated at that table
-Menu
-Instructions on how to get the bride & groom to kiss (we refused to respond to glass clinking)

Our Favors:

Our favor was a pint-sized takeout box filled with two custom fortune cookies and tied with a red grosgrain ribbon. We got to write our own fortunes too, which was a lot of fun. We included a set of hardwood chopsticks on top. This is the label I created for them: (we wanted something fun and a bit silly)

In the end we were really happy with how everything turned out. Hearing wonderful comments about everything just made us feel good. :-)

Maxine & Lamar

2009-07-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful time working with Maxine earlier this year on her wedding invitations. She was DIY-ing them with metallic silver pocketfolds. Her colors were pale yellow, cornflower blue and platinum gray.

A mock-up of what her invitation looked like:

Inserts:

Monogram:

Twin Castle Cellars

2009-07-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to design a wine label for an up-and-coming winery in the Livermore Valley. The customer, Ursula, grew up in a region of western Germany near the Belgian border, and she wanted to incorporate an image of the two castles located in Manderscheid, Germany. We tried a few different illustrative styles and came up with a pen & ink and watercolor combination that meshed with the style she was looking for.

The label on the bottles:

I was really pleased with the end result and the simple style. The wine was tasty too. Thanks Uschi!

Christao Ltd.

2009-06-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

This is a logo and business card design I did last year for a company currently based in Thailand. The customer wanted to use a lotus flower and still have a modern-looking logo.

I was really happy with the final result. Thanks, Chris, for the opportunity to work with you!

Beth & Keith

2009-06-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

Beth and Keith are getting hitched in beautiful Yosemite Valley later this summer and I was honored to help her with a simple and elegant wedding invitation suite. Her colors are light celedon green with chocolate brown and ivory.

She was awesome and sent me photos of her invitations all assembled... which I always prefer posting instead of the jpgs I have of the design. ;-)

The inserts:

The whole thing all put together... I love how the inserts taper in the pocket.

In addition to the invitation suite, we designed a swirly pattern that she inserted into the envelopes as liners.

Using the same pattern, we also designed a custom wrap-around address label.

Everything really turned out beautiful. Beth did an amazing job printing and assembling!

Custom Maps

2009-06-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

It wasn't my intention to delve into the world of freelance wedding design. I got started in all this design work a few years ago by helping out a few brides I'd met through the ProjectWedding.com who just needed a nifty map drawn for their invitations. Many of them had DIYed their invitations and weren't sure how to draw out a map using the standard software like Word or Publisher... and didn't want to simply copy and paste a map from GoogleMaps. I was happy to volunteer some time to these women. After I got requests for over half a dozen at once, I had to start charging. :-)

I really enjoyed being able to match colors, fonts and designs so the maps coordinate seamlessly with already-designed wedding invitations. I have also enjoyed the challenge of fitting as much information as possible on a card that is a set measurement.

* Some information has been changed to protect privacy.

Only the ceremony map needed a zoomed in view.
This was printed two-sided.

Erica's map was printed on ivory linen paper and needed to let her guests know they
were going to have to sign in at the gate of the golf club.

Crystal wanted her map to be clean and simple.


Will and Cynthia's map needed to show the hotel where they had blocked rooms too. We subtly incorporated their monogram in the background.

We included driving directions on the back of Erika's map. We also needed to
let guests know that a road right near the reception venue would be closed
on her wedding day.

Lindsey wanted to include driving directions on the back.

Alison wanted to include the local hotels on her map, along with the
gate code for the community where her wedding was taking place.

Melissa's map was pretty straightforward with her
wedding website URL at the bottom.

Kelly's map was quite a challenge with downtown Dallas and its many one-way streets,
and all those freeways! She also wanted me to include the nearest trolley stop
and parking garage entrance.

Sarah's map was also a challenge with the ceremony and reception
locations taking place pretty far apart from each other. Our solution
was to make the map fold in half so it would still fit inside her
pocketfold invitations. It's all one color because she had them
printed in gorgeous letterpress.

Kristina's ceremony and reception locations were quite far apart. The best solution
was to create two maps and print them back to back. We were able
to use a similar cherry blossom graphic that was used in her invitations.

Kellie's map is another example where the ceremony and reception venues
were far enough away from each other that two separate maps needed to be drawn.

Lana's map was also printed two-sided.

Jamie's map included driving directions. I believe the finished product
was printed in greyscale.

Karina's map was also printed on ivory paper. We slyly included her simple
monogram as a background image.

This is the map from my wedding invitation. It lists parking info and shows
the nearest BART station. The bubbles at the top indicate major hotels
and more hotel information was printed on the back along with the URL
to our wedding website.

For Jackie's map I was able to use the same flourish from her wedding
invitation. This was the first time I designed a map with a black background.

Shannon's map was pretty straightforward with two locations.

I often add new maps to this post, so check back occasionally to see any new ones!

Melissa & Ricardo

2009-06-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Melissa was one of the first brides who contacted me with the prospect of doing all of her wedding stationary. We worked hard on coming up with a design that fit the vision she had. I was very pleased with how the final designs came out. She said they even got their cake baker to use the same flourish on their wedding cake!

Her invitations were printed on metallic ivory cardstock and backed with a bright magenta cardstock. Then everything was assembled with ivory metallic pocketfolds. Everything had a really beautiful sheen to it.

The inserts:

Reserved chair signs:

Her program was 2-sided and tri-fold:

It was a pleasure working with her and I hope to see some photos of the finished products one day.