DIY Wedding Invitations

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**If you are a bride and looking for some completely customized wedding invitations, save the dates, or wedding day essentials (programs, menus, place cards, etc), I would love to work with you to create something you love! Feel free to contact me to get the ball rolling!**

Since I posted so much about my wedding and mentioned that I designed all of my own paperie, I had a few readers email me and ask what my invitations looked like. I shared my Custom Monogram and Save The Date a while back, but apparently never shared my invite!

I searched on a lot of online invitation printing sites to decide if there was a company I wanted to go with, but none of the designs felt just right. I was feeling kind of stressed about the time it would take to design it all myself, but finally my Mother In Law encouraged me to just go ahead and take a crack at it. So I did.

We incorporated a number of chalkboards into our wedding - for things like guestbook signs and signature drink menus - so I knew in advance that I wanted to emulate that with my invitation. 

I used our same monogram that was on the Save The Date and Engagement Party Invite, but instead of printing it in black and blue as I had before, I printed it in whites and grays. Since the invitation is the "big thing," I wanted to make it stand apart from the rest of my wedding paperie.

On the back of our invitation, we printed one of our favorite city shots from the day we got engaged. It was a kissing picture, which was kind of a foreshadowing of the "You may kiss the bride" moment.

I used that monogram on each piece of the invitation, from the Rehearsal Dinner invitation, to the RSVP card, to the extra "info" card we included.

We printed the cards on varying sizes, so that we could stack them and see many cards at once. Then, we each stack together with Oyster-Gray and White twine. The gray matched the color of my bridesmaids' dresses, so I thought it all came together perfectly and gave guests a good idea of what the style of our wedding would be.

While most of the invitation suite was on a chalkboard background, the RSVP card was printed with the same background as the back of our Save The Date and Engagement Party Invite. It is an old map of Chicago, which I made partly transparent so that it was only a light image.

We paired the RSVP cards with brown, recycled kraft paper envelopes (with a peel and stick, instead of a lick and stick closure!). We used the same kind of envelope for all of our wedding related mailings, as well as the envelope for our invitation, so it went together well!

We also had some custom stamps made for our RSVP envelope, with our custom monogram printed on them. It tied the envelope to the invitation suite perfectly!

Once everything was designed, proofed, and printed, I had an impromptu invitation stuffing party with my mom and my aunt!

**If you are a bride and looking for some completely customized wedding invitations, save the dates, or wedding day essentials (programs, menus, place cards, etc), I would love to work with you to create something you love! Feel free to contact me to get the ball rolling!**

DIY Save The Dates

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**FYI, I recently updated my website so that every image has an easy pin button! Just hover over any image on the page and a big red Pinterest "P" will show up on the bottom right hand of the image! Click on that to pin any images on this site, and they will link directly to the individual post that image comes from!**

Now that my "Save The Dates" are long received (and our invitations are out!), I'm finally sharing our Save The Date cards.

Because my fiance had a photographer lined up for a photo shoot right after we got engaged (literally - we went straight there!), we already had a bunch of great pictures of the two of us. I had shared some of the images on Facebook, but kept most of my favorites for use in things like Save The Dates, Wedding and shower invites, etc.

That meant that, when it came to designing our own Save The Date cards, we had a plethora of gorgeous pictures to choose from. But, we didn't even have to discuss it, because there was one picture that we were all drawn to.

I knew from the start that I wanted to design my own Save The Date. There's something about stock cards online that just puts me off, and I am so visually particular that I would probably be a designer's worst nightmare anyway, so hiring someone seemed out of the question. Since starting a consulting business, I'm now seasoned enough in Photoshop that I thought it was something I could do on my own.

I ended up going with a front that was very simple - this awesome picture of us kissing near the Kinzie Street Bridge, with some slightly transparent text on top of it.

The Front of our Save The Date card

If you read my post about designing my own wedding monogram, you might recall that we wanted "Vintage with a touch of modern." It is how I would describe our style, and it's the description my fiance says he used when designing my ring (they actually took some CAD designs for a more vintage looking ring and modernized and customized it to fit that description). I am equally drawn to weddings that are very vintage as well as weddings that are modern, so to choose just one or the other would have been difficult and left me feeling like something was missing. So, Justin and I decided on two typefaces to use on our wedding stationary. 

The first, Raleway, is very modern. It is sans serif (or, as I call it, "without feet"), and is very clean looking. It's also the typeface I was drawn to a long time ago, when I started my blog and used it for my header.

The second, Modern No. 20, is a bit more vintage. It is a serif typeface ("with feet") and has a bit more of a vintage, country vibe to it. The most ironic part is that it has modern in its name, but we're using it as our more vintage font. 

The Back of our Save The Date card

On the back, we used our custom wedding monogram. In some shape or form, it is on every item in our wedding stationary suite - from the save the dates to the bachelorette party information. Here, we used it with light blue lettering to give the back of the Save The Date card a bit of color.

Because our wedding is the same weekend as Lollapalooza (yes, we are insane), we decided to put some hotel information on our Save The Date to encourage our guests to book their rooms early. We also added our own hash tag for twitter and instagram, because I do social media consulting, so it seemed like a crime to not have social media be a part of our big day!

And last but not least, information about our website. Yeah, we bought the domain name. Not sure what we'll use it for after the wedding, but I'm sure we'll find some fun stuff to fill it with!

What about you?

• How would you describe your style?
• Would you ever design your own Save The Date or Invitations? 

Couch-Like Object Thing? Oh, you mean a futon!

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Perhaps you recall a certain tiny Wicker Park apartment. While the Herman Miller Setu Lounge Chairs were undoubtedly fancy, they were also surprisingly unfit for the space. Here's a word to the wise: when you've got hardly any space, (1) don't pick any furniture that swivels, as moving pieces will magically always be in your way, especially when your apartment is crooked (like this one -- the chairs would randomly end up facing the wrong way!) and (2) don't pick furniture with ottomans, as those seemingly tiny pieces of furniture take up precious square footage in a tiny space... and it's easier to trip over things in a small area, too (ow!).

For now, we've opted for a quick fix. The Setu chairs will take up residence in the studio... because, after all, what room in one's house should be fancier than a freaking studio? (Answer: None!) Without the Setu chairs, we have room for a couch-like object. You know, somewhere where you can sit... or lay... or dump a few bags of groceries. The ability to have a multi-functional space was not there with the Setu chairs, so having a futon in their place is actually proving to be quite perfect.

Things that are awesome about this swap:

• Fancy Setu chairs are in a fancier location... where the dog doesn't roam and the clumsy Carly doesn't lounge, drink-in-hand...
• There's technically now a "bed," in the event that a human (friend, sister, brother) dares to lodge in this tiny space for a night...
• While the Setu chairs only provided a solid chair for two people, the futon can fit at least 4 (but it depends on how big everyone is!).
• Futon = under-couch-storage! There's about a foot of room under the futon, so it would be totally feasible to buy a few low and wide crates or bins to shove things in and stash under the couch. 
• Futon = multi-functional! People can sit there. You can even set your drink on it and it doesn't spill -- we've tried it! We have also grown accustomed to coming in and dropping our bags, coats, or groceries there for a moment, while we get our bearings. 
• Great view of the kitchen and TV!
• Furniture no longer swivels right into your body as you walk by.
• No more ottomans to trip over... (unless Justin wants some leg room... see below!).

I will never speak ill of WalMart again. On second thought, I'm bound to break that vow the moment I begin waiting in line there... so I'll amend it to this: I will never speak ill of online futon shopping with WalMart again. That better? I suppose it would help if I told you that we paid just over $200 for this at WalMart. 

That means that I won't feel as bad when I break it. :-/

Wish List 3.16.2012

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1. Ceramic Sweater Cup via Yoyo Ceramics
2. Retro Mod Table Lamp via Shades of Light
3. Red Letter Words Printable Art
4. Lady Cambridge Satchel via Pree Brulee

DIY | Photoshop Chalkboard

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I've seen a few tutorials online for creating pencil-like and chalk-like drawings, images, and words using various brushes and downloadable tools.

But then I was on the train for an hour, wanting to create a Wish List and draw arrows using a "pencil," and unable to get online and download anything.

Sometimes when we're sans-internet, we curse the internet gods. Sometimes, it makes us get creative and figure-sh*t-out.

How-Do-Ya-Do-It?

DIY Decor | Ampersand & Art

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Remember when we gave Justin's living room a makeover? Well, more to come on that (after more than a few changes-and-re-arranges and a thrift store shelving adventure)... but, for now, I'd like to announce: the decor has spread. To the bedroom.

You might remember that the living room was full of bold colors, of which red somehow became the favored child. Well, this room will turn out to be the calmer, softer brother. We've only just begun...



I’ve wanted to make Ampersand art for a while now but was semi stumped on how to do it in a unique way.

I considered painting an ampersand onto a large scrap of wood or canvas, but it felt very “done before” and never came to fruition.

Then, while walking the halls of Ace Hardware (my personal “Eureka” location), Justin and I found a large sheets of Acrylic Transparency. They’re about 1/4 an inch thick and are pretty amazing. Without a fully formulated plan, we grabbed it.

We ended up spray painting around the Ampersand, so that the “background” of the piece is blue, and the ampersand, itself, is see-through. That means we can swap out what we place behind the art, to fill in the ampersand with any fabric, magazine clipping, or page from a book that we choose.

I'm still pretty obsessed with the idea. Why? Because it will always match. We can put anything behind it and instantly change its color and effect on the room.

How'd we do it?

Start with a transparent acrylic sheet...



Use painters tape (masking tape) to cover the sheet. I had almost covered the entire sheet when I realized I only needed to cover areas which would be used by the "&" we printed out (as that was the only tape we would be leaving on the board).

Choose an ampersand (&) in Microsoft Word, enlarge it to your preferred size, and print. We tried a variety of fonts (really, we had a few pages worth of samples) but ended up going with good old Times New Roman. I was, at first, stern on my sans-serif stance and convinced we would be going with something smooth... but, as we checked out various samples, we decided that Times New Roman had something really classic about it. It reminds me of newspapers and journalism. And, in the end, it just felt like the right thing to do. We made it as large as we could and printed it out.

Cut loosely around the edges (so that there is still white space, and enough room for tape) and then tape onto the sheet where you would like the ampersand to show up.

Use an exacto knife to cut out the ampersand.

Remove the tape surrounding the ampersand. Do this slowly and have an exacto knife handy to do extra cutting in places you may have not fully cut.

Spraypaint the art (leaving the tape on). You'll need to do a number of layers in order to get a solid coat, because the background is see through. We did a whopping 6 layers of blue spraypaint before stopping.

Once the spraypaint has dried, slowly remove the ampersand tape. Use an exacto knife to help lift up the tape.

Choose any fabric, magazine, etc to tape behind the acrylic sheet and show through.

To hang, we hot glued a piece of metal "teeth" we yoinked off of the back of a picture frame.

Here are two final product shots:

And a few shots up-close-and-personal:

So yes, we'll admit, there is much to be done in this room... I'm working on four wall art pieces using silhouettes and some additional shelving... Get excited!

Wicker Park Apartment Re-Vamp

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What do you do with 220 square feet?

Location: Wicker Park

Size: 220 Sq ft living/dining room (750 Sq ft total)

Post-makeover, the apartment now balances geometric attributes, combining the crisp, straight lines of Aaron Blackall's artwork with the bold curvature of Herman Miller's Setu Lounge Chairs.  When I said balanced, however, I meant it; this combination would not be effective without tidiness and organization. When it came to knick-knacks and accents, we tried to take a second to really evaluate each piece and ask, Do I really love this, or is it just crowding the space?

 


Another strength in this apartment is the boldness of color.  If Roy G. Biv were a real man, he would be mighty proud of us.  Around the table, the presence of color owes its dues to the bright red color of the Eames Shell chairs and the variety of vivid colors used in Aaron Blackall’s artwork. To pull color into the front of the room, we used the bookshelves.  When randomly spread throughout such a tall bookshelf, the color of the books could have easily been missed. To avoid this, we grouped books by color, allowing the purpose and organization to be obvious and eye catching.

Challenges: This space is crooked. Check out the image taken of the front door with tall shelving on either side and you’ll see what I mean.  It’s hard to create a clean-looking space without having clean, straight lines to work with. In the end, a few wedges to slightly prop up furniture were just about all we could to do solve the problem.

Room for Improvement: We focused on the main body of the apartment, leaving the kitchen area and bedroom in need of a bit of TLC.  While thrifting for the colored glass bottles, we came across a beautiful spice rack that will be going up shortly and will likely inspire a whole host of kitchen re-vamp brainstorming sessions. We’ll also be installing an Ace Hardware-inspired colorful coat rack shortly. As far as the rest of the space goes… well, I guess the wave of inspiration is on its way. :)

Before And [Happily Ever] Afters:

Before: 

See how the widest piece of furniture in the room, the kitchen table, is taking up space in the narrowest part of the room? Not very conducive to the traffic of life, is it? The initial inspiration for this entire project came from the need to move this table. It was, at first, placed here in order to accommodate the ceiling light fixture and fan, but, at the end of the day, when you've got a ceiling fan in the middle of a tiny room, it's just not worth ruining the floor space in order to keep things semi-centered. 

After:

We ended up moving the table into the back corner, where it's out of the way and frees up a lot of walking space. Its old "home" is now filled by a sitting area that allows for easily movable lounge chairs and makes the space feel more fluid.

Before:

Ah! So messy.

Also, please note the lack of legitimate, lounge-able furniture. How's a girl to sit back and... do whatever people do when they... relax?

After:

Ladies and Gentleman, meet Herman Miller's Setu Lounge Chairs.

Before:

Thumbs up for the Eames Table with Round Top and Segmented Base.

The chairs, while obviously functional, were ten years and a civic center banquet old. 

After:

Along with moving the table into a more functional space, we added red Eames Shell chairs with wire bases in a color that pops out of one of the focal art pieces in the room (Artwork by Aaron Blackall via Unwithered).  

Before:

C-l-u-t-t-e-r. Disorganization. Last but certainly not least, a visible, open air, college dorm style "pantry" like means of shelving food.

After:

The bookshelves? I'm in love with them. Why, you ask? Because Justin organized the books by blocks of color. To the right of the door, oatmeal and bread and bags of brown sugar are no longer out to play. Instead, we swapped the furniture around to place these enclosed cabinets next to the kitchen. The swapping of furniture also lead to a more efficient stacking plan (the furniture was in stackable segments), which helps add more height on both sides of the door, making the space feel "higher" and larger while also freeing up floor space.

Want the rest of the tour?

Instead of a Christmas tree (we toyed around with it but ditched it in favor of this gem), we ended up with these metallic branches in thrifted colored glass vases. Adding a handful of baby red ornaments helped legitimize the desire to go alternative when it came to Christmas decor.  Check out this post for a tutorial to make your own.