#13 New Client

So far 2012 has been a great year. Just before the new year, I was contacted by a college roommate. She has contacted me about doing her Save the Dates and Wedding invitations. Below is the story of  her and her fiancé in her own words.

It was the summer of 2010, and I had just finished up my second year teaching. Having the whole summer off, I spent it traveling. When I got back to Houston in July, I decided to give online dating a second try. Earlier in the summer, I had tried one dating site and nothing happened. As a teacher, you don't meet a lot of single guys and the bar scene was not my thing. I decided to give Match.com a try. One day, when I was looking at some profiles, I came across Mike's. His profile was different than anybody else's I had read. So, I winked at him. A couple of days later, he emailed. We emailed back and forth a couple of times, and then exchanged numbers. In our first phone conversation, Mike asked me out. Of course, I said yes! But, I offered to cook him dinner instead of going out. He thought that was a great idea, and I went to his house the next night. Basically, I won him over with my cooking! Just kidding! We've been together ever since. Our first date was August 29, 2010. On December 20, 2012, Mike came home from work and I met him in the garage like I always do. He gave me a hug, but one of his hands was in his pocket. Very unusual for him. I was about to ask him why, when he said "I'm glad I'm home. I have an important question to ask you." Then, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said "yes!" and started crying. We are getting married on July 22, 2012 and can't wait!!

She was inspired by the paper goods I made for the Dill/Ellender wedding. The theme of her wedding is Texas meets Louisiana. The bride is from Texas and the groom is from Louisiana. The colors are eggplant and white.

I am looking forward to working with these two.

#12 Photoshop Fun

In honor of my niece's, Grace Frances, 5th birthday, I decided to have a little photoshop fun.  Yes, my niece is a pug; to family and friends we know her as Gracie. She has be a little rascal since my sister and her husband got her five years ago. In dog years, she is 35.

My lovely sister posted this photo of Gracie on Facebook. I thought it was so cute, but I decided I wanted to have a little photoshop fun with this adorable photo. I had to change things up.

To the naked eye, both photos look exactly the same. After I did the first one I kept messing with the coloring some more and achieved the second one which is a subtle difference.

Happy Birthday Gracie!!!!

#11 New Year New Look

With the end of 2011 just around the corner, I decided to make some changes to our blog. You may ask, why red when your logo is blue, grey, and black? I could try to come up with a good reason like Christmas is around the corner or I am going with the colors of my old alma mater, Ole Miss. But the bottom line is I love the color red. I have a red sofa and red love seat in my house. The car I had in college was red.

I think the deep red of the background and the blue of the logo go well together. Red is the color of passion and it is a warm color, while blue is cooler and more relaxing. If you want to put meaning in all this, I think in means that although I am laid back and chill about life, I am still passionate about design, photography and art in general.

#10 Photoshop

I have been practicing my photoshop skills. I wanted to try somethings with the coloring. I love how it turned out. Here is a before and after:

Before:

After:

#9 Holiday Designs

Evening all,

I have been working on some designs for cards for the Holiday Season!!!!! Enjoy!

 This is a folded card. Folds to 4 x 6.

 Flat card: 5 x7

 This is a folded card. Folds to 4 x 6.

I will be working on some more.

#8 Dill/Ellender Wedding Part 2

Good Morning All......

I have finally have been able to get the rest of the images of the paper goods on my computer. The wedding took place September 30, 2011 at the Pavillion of Two Sisters in City Park in New Orleans, LA. The Bride and Groom hold a dear place in my heart. The Bride, my cousin, is more like another sister to me; she is also one of my best friends.

Below is a picture of the Bride & Groom, (Mr. & Mrs. Barret Ellender)

I wish them all the best in the future.

Marci, Lindsay (my sister), and I have been really close all our lives, so I was more than happy to work on all the paper goods for Marci's wedding. I had fun meeting with Marci to discuss design ideas for everything I did for her.

Because she had me doing most of the paper goods for her wedding, she decided it would be much easier for her to order her wedding inviations. After those were ordered, that is where my fun started.

I find it easier to work closely with my clients so that they feel that they are a part of every aspect of the design.

Wedding Favor Tags
The first thing I did for her was her wedding favor tags. Her wedding favor was Roman Candy. Roman Candy is something unique to New Orleans. You can find it everywhere in our city.

 Font of Card with their initials.

Inside of the card with a message from the bride and groom.

We chose the same fonts the were used on her wedding inviatations. These fonts were then used on every paper good we used.

The colors used were the colors of her wedding. Green and purple. The images don't do the colors justice. The paper she selected was a pearlized paper. The paper and the colors of the ink worked beautifully together.

She kind of told me she wanted some kind of design arround their initials. So I began to mess with different ideas to make that design. I found a font and manipulated some of the letters to create the image we came up with.

The Programs
To make everything uniform, the fonts, colors, and decoritive elements were taken from the wedding favor tags and used on the programs. These programs were a huge undertaking; they were very time consuming.

Word to the wise, don't get a program printed from every person invited to your wedding. Most people don't think to take them and those that do, don't keep them.

Marci saw something at a bridal show that she wanted......A fan. She didn't just want just any fan, but a mulitipage one. It worked too.

 As you can see, it was six pages of text. She chose the paper and rivit. I think the green colored pearl rivit added to the program

 This is a close-up view of one of the pages.

 Close-up view of the names of the bride and groom done in the same font of the wedding favor tags.

 The same initials and design element used on the wedding favor tags.

The Place Cards
The final element I did was the place cards for the rehearsal dinner. I used the same fonts and design elements from the wedding favor tags and programs.

All in all, I think everything turned out great. I wish the happy couple all the best.

#7 Dill/Ellender Wedding

I have been designing a lot of things for my cousin and one of my best friends, Marci. I will be posting more later one.

My sister, mother, and grandmother threw her a Bridal Lucheon to help out some of the elements together. Our main focus was the Programs, which was a huge undertaking. We made a little bit over 300.

The Program

The bride wanted a program to be a fan since she was having an outdoor wedding at a botanical gardern in September (which is in less than 10 days). She saw something at a Bridal Show and had to have it. The program consists of six pages.

More pictures to come...