Since I haven’t talked favors in a little while, I scoured my favorite packaging shops for some fabulous supplies to inspire you to add some extra personality to your favors. Then again, why stop there? With such pretty things to work with, you might find yourself adding lace and ribbon to places you hadn’t originally anticipated!
Gold glitter ribbon from Caramelos; twine set from Nice Package; luxe ribbon from Nice Package; pink paper daisies from the Gilded Bee; pink tassels from Package in Style; vintage lace from Package in Style.
After a very exciting day of shooting for the next issue of Nonpareil Magazine, I was absolutely delighted to find this lovely dessert table in my inbox from Shauna Younge. This lovely lady was the brains behind the gorgeous silver, white and purple buffet I mentioned in an earlier Week in Review post, and I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her and her work better over the last few weeks. She so kindly offered up some pictures of this Valentine’s spread (shot by Tricia Little of Sweet Shibui Photography) that features a chic and less “expected” color palette of pink and navy. On to the yummy…
To top it all off, we’ve got a candy bar wrapper printable for you that Shauna provided if you want to try to recreate the look yourself. Want it? Download it here.
Images from Shauna Younge and Sweet Shibui.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
In case you missed it, Kristen posted a fantastic do it yourself alternate to the brooch favor box featured in the first issue of Nonpareil Magazine. Instead of having to find a large number of vintage pieces, she’s created a lovely paper-based version that is incredibly gorgeous and versatile. Go try it out!
Image from Kristen Magee for Nonpareil Magazine.
Yummy baked goods? Check. Convenient post card format? Check. No need for excess paper in the form of an envelope? Check.
I recently stopped contributing to Minted’s Design Challenges for personal reasons (if you really want to know, e-mail me) and I was looking through all the things I had created for them in the past and had either not been picked or had not been selected. I illustrated this cake for a challenge a little while back and thought it was too cute to just have it laying around on my hard drive, so I pulled some inspiration from some of my favorite dessert buffet designers (primarily Sweet and Saucy, but also Amy Atlas) and illustrated this simple but adorable dessert table.
Why a Save the Date of all things? Well, it’s because I have someone very special to dedicate this to who can probably use on soon…
I want to publicly give my warmest congratulations to my best friend (and pseudo-sister) Anne, who on Saturday called me with the most wonderful news that she’s engaged! I was so thrilled that I cried the whole way home in the car from Bethany’s house and for the remainder of the day any time I said (or even thought!) “Anne is engaged” or “Anne is getting married’ I started crying again. I’m so, so ecstatic – her husband-to-be (!!), Sam, is absolutely incredible, and has been a rock for her. They’re perfect for each other, and I wish them all the happiness in the world. Congratulations again, guys, and hope my shout out didn’t embarrass you too much.
Enjoy, everyone!
COLOR OPTIONS
Blue and Brown
Pink and Brown
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Hi everyone! This is Katie from Chelle Paperie again, where we spend our days making custom wedding invitations and all kinds of custom stationery. As I mentioned in my earlier post, it’s the details that I love, and the details that I think make your wedding memorable, especially when it comes to your photos. I certainly planned my own wedding on a budget and I know what it means to get the most bang for your buck, so to all you wonderful IB readers out there, I wanted to offer you a way to get those bonus details without the added cost. Here you will find printable versions of table numbers (1-20) fill in the blank placecards, favor tags, thank you cards, napkin rings, welcome bag labels, and blank labels for your bar or dessert buffet. I hope you enjoy!
Notes About Making These : I printed all of these on a 130 lb white cover stock (I would use 80lb on the napkin rings when making them again) and cut them using a simple craft sized paper cutter and a pair of scissors. I would suggest using an 1/8 inch craft punch, rather than your standard office supply store 1/4 inch size. The only additional materials you will need to purchase will be a ribbon of your choice (1/8th to 1/4 inch thick) and some 4bar sized envelopes for the thank you cards. For the program covers, just print out your interior pages on text weight paper, fold them in half and either staple or tie in with ribbon along the spine.
Download:
Blank Labels
Escort Cards
Favor Tags
Napkin Rings
Program Cover
Table Numbers
Thank You
Welcome Labels
Thank you again to Maddy for inviting all of us to post this week. It has been a pleasure!
Images from Chelle Paperie.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Experiment 002:
Four Fuchsia Peonies and Two Branches of Greenery
See more photos of this arrangement on our Flickr page.
While I’m certainly no floral designer, I do enjoy putting things together aesthetically. I had bunch of flowers left over from a shoot for Nonpareil Magazine this weekend, so, rather than let it go to waste, I took the extras and began to decorate my house. I figured I’d share my adventures in floral styling with you so you can hopefully find your own inspiration from it.
Experiment 001:
Four Cream Peonies and Six Cream Ranunculus Flowers
See more photos of this arrangement on our Flickr page.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Everyone loves a good floral or botanical silhouette in their paper goods, from their invitations to their programs, from their favors to their thank you cards, but what happens when you’re not a designer and don’t want to pay to get all of your pieces to match perfectly? Kapitza has a series of lovely botanical silhouette illustrations that are reasonably priced, especially if you’ll be using them over multiple pieces. If you live in the States (which I know most of you do), make sure to convert the price in pounds to dollars before purchasing to make sure it fits in your budget. My favorite, Blooms (above), runs about $64 – or $16 per paper good type if you do end up using them for your invitations, programs, favors, and thank you cards. When you consider what a custom design would cost, I say that’s a pretty worthwhile investment!
Image from Kapitza.
Monday, December 14, 2009
As I’ve eluded to previously on Twitter, Kristen from Paper Crave and I are collaborating on a top secret project together that we’re both incredibly excited about. We’ve been making a lot of progress, and each time I’ve tweeted about our progress I’ve mentioned that if I had a mustache, I’d be twisting it, making Kristen reply that I’ve officially made our activities nefarious. Well, in recognition of a weekend in which we made a lot of progress, I’ve made a quick little project for you that I’m dedicating to Kristen.
What You’ll Need
Mustache Template PDF (available here)
8″ or 11.75″ Lollipop Sticks (like these from Wilton)
Cover Weight Black Paper
Double Stick Tape
Scissors
Print out a few sheets of our template PDF on standard white printer paper. Use the shapes as a template by cutting them out while a sheet of black paper is backing it so that the shape cuts out of both at the same time. To conserve paper, rotate the cut templates to fit uncut area of the black paper to get additional mustaches out of the sheet. Cut as many as needed.
Cut strips of the black paper stock to measure ½” by 1½”. Lay a strip of double stick tape about half the length of the strips centered on the back of the mustache shape. Place the lollipop stick centered on the strip of tape, pressing down slightly to hold in place. Line one side of the strips you cut earlier with double stick tape so it completely covers it. Lay the strip down, centered vertically and horizontally over the lollipop stick and the mustache shape so the strip acts to keep the lollipop stick secured in place. Press firmly in place, and enjoy!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Almost a year ago (New Year’s Day, to be precise) the Inspired Bride was born. It completely blows me away that a year has passed already and this blog has flourished beyond my expectations. To be honest, if you asked me when I started where I’d be at this point, I’d probably say I’d be lucky to have 100 visitors a day, assuming I was still working at it. Few people know how much I do outside of IB, and those who do are usually astounded that I keep up! This blog has really become a huge creative outlet for me, and to say it’s my “baby” is an understatement. It’s something I’m fiercely passionate about and dedicated to regardless of what’s going on outside of the scope of this blog.
I would be wrong to not give a huge amount of credit of the Inspired Bride’s success to some of my blogging community friends and mentors. They have helped shape this blog in more ways than they could possibly imagine, have motivated me to push the envelope as well as myself, and have been a great support system. They’re also absolutely lovely people.
As a thank you to them, I sent out a bunch of Happy Holidays postcards, each individually designed and assigned randomly, to the people I owe the most gratitude to this Holiday season and given the upcoming anniversary. While I gave them the option to share them, there was no pressure to do so as this was a genuine expression of gratitude, not some publicity ploy! Many of them have already shared them with their readers, and some still plan to. Here’s a look at a few of them:
As Kristen from Paper Crave put it so well, these cards are “sort of like baseball card collecting for the designer set”. Indeed! A treasure hunt of pretty postcards. Here are all the bloggers who received a card and publicized them, and as others are posted, I’ll add them as well.
Kristen of Paper Crave: Mittens
Erin of Leo on the Loose: Gifts
Vane of Brooklyn Bride: Scarves
Nole of Oh So Beautiful Paper: Gingerbread Men
Kathleen of Twig & Thistle: Christmas Stockings
