Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

In preparations for their coming baby, Lori and Nick asked me to create baby shower invitations for them. With a little magic, glue dots, baker’s twine and a Silhouette SD machine we landed on an air planes in the clouds theme. These were double-layered 5×7 invites with a white coverstock front and Kraftboard backing. I used the Silhouette SD to cut clouds out of the Kraftboard and strung the cutouts on red & white baker’s twine that was wrapped twice around the invites and tied in a pretty little bow for an extra touch of something special. Baby Lemanski is expected to arrive January 31, 2012. More photos available on Flickr.

The programs consisted of 3 long sheets tied together at the top with a black satin ribbon. A Catholic ceremony requires a lengthy program and luckily we had some extra space on the last page that allowed us to include the same quote from their invitations “My whole heart, for my whole life.” So sweet.

The seating chart was a new adventure for me that turned out very nice. The board measured 24″x36″ and was displayed near the front entrance so everyone could easily find their seat. The chart was alphabetically ordered and included tables named by locations that Lisa and Brandon have visited together.

The table cards were made to match the seating chart. The front listed the name of the location and a picture of that particular place, while the back had a written description of the time they shared there. It was a lot of fun for everyone to go from table to table reading about their adventures together.

After the wedding was over I received the nicest letter in the mail from Lisa’s mother thanking me for everything. They are just the sweetest family. Congratulations Lisa and Brandon! I couldn’t be happier for you two.

Oh I am totally going to this. And I am really excited about it! Working in a small department and being the only designer can sometimes really drain my creativity and the motivation I need to push my designs to the next level. I really miss being able to talk to other designers and bounce ideas off of one another. Sometimes I feel like I am on my own little design island sending messages in bottles. The island being our building off campus and the bottles being instant messages and blog posts. That’s a little dramatic, but you get the idea. I have been actively making a solid effort to create fresh designs for all of my new projects, but sometimes its tough no matter how hard I try. Hopefully this conference sparks some new creativity, methods, and inspiration for me. I really can’t wait to hear from other professionals in my field and learn from them. Get ready Chicago. More info on the conference here.

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site where you can save or “pin” images that you find online and create collections called “boards” of things that you love. You can also follow other Pinterest users and find inspiration that way too. I am slightly addicted. There are just so many amazing things out there to be discovered, it’s easy to get lost in it all. Hey iPhone users, they have an app out for this now. You are going to love it.

Already a member? Follow me here.

The whole process took about 6 weeks from starting the designs, to coding, to testing and making it work properly with major browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. (IE7 was a special treat to deal with that I very much enjoyed.) And although six weeks felt like an eternity to me, it really wasn’t since I created the design, learned html and css (thank you to those of you who I’m sure I asked my share of dumb questions to!), coded and debugged everything on my own. The idea of coding my own website was extremely daunting for me and it has been in my queue for a long time, but I am so glad that I finally did it. It’s not perfect, there are still some things that need to be addressed and I’m sure it doesn’t live up to pro developer standards by any means, but having an aesthetically pleasing and functional website that I built from scratch is such a rewarding feeling and I plan to keep making it better as time goes on. I hope you all love it as much as I do.

While driving home the other day I noticed a coming soon sign in the window of a previously empty building in downtown Ferndale. Assuming it was going to be another restaurant or something of the sort, I didn’t think much of it beyond “neat, that building has been empty for way too long,” that was until I read the description of what it was going to be. To my joyful surprise, the most amazing thing e.v.e.r. was going to take over what was once Old Navy. And my heart skipped a beat when I realized it.

The Rust Belt Market, a year-round indoor weekend marketplace, is setting up shop. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for local artists to create, exhibit, sell, and interact with peers and community face to face. Not only is this going to be a powerful tool for selling your goods, it is also going to be an invaluable resource for inspiration, networking, marketing and expanding your clientele. Think a weekly brick-and-mortar Etsy-like arts & crafts fair in a mod indie environment.

“Our atmosphere will be one of camaraderie with fellow creators..” Doesn’t this just energize and inspired you to get involved? I’ve already put in my request to become a regular vendor. This is such an exciting opportunity for local artists/crafters/designers and our community.

I encourage all of you local crafties out there to get involved and help this movement thrive. It is going to be a huge addition to the city of Ferndale, as well as Metro Detroit and Michigan as a whole.

Learn more about The Rust Belt Market and how to become a vendor here.

We all really loved the way it turned out from the style to the colors. Custom illustrations are always so much fun for me to work on and am so glad Michelle and Jared gave me the opportunity. I hope they have a fantastic rehearsal and a wonderful wedding and life together!

Specs
5×7
A7 white envelopes Xpedx
4 color
Printed by a local print house

Michelle and Jared’s wedding invitations were a labor of love and worth every second we spent planning for her June 2011 wedding. Michelle first contacted me in August 2010 with a strong vision of what she wanted her wedding suite to be. A peacock theme guided these elegant invitations with real feathers, metallic bronze belly bands and golden initial wax seals. They are a simple yet elegant design on cream cover stock with brown and teal inks. Their set consisted of a tea length invitation layered with a shorter directions/accommodations card, and a shorter yet r.s.v.p. postcard. Once assembled the suite was wrapped with the belly band, sealed with the wax seal, and then a peacock feather was inserted in the front of the packet to top it off. And if that wasn’t good enough, that went into a matching policy envelope where Michelle and her helpers embossed the return address on the back to give it just another touch of awesomeness. I absolutely love everything about these invitations and so did Michelle and her fiancé Jared. We also made personalized place cards for her reception, save the date magnets with a matching theme and an illustrated rehearsal invitation with an adorable Italian theme. More on those rehearsal invites coming soon. To see more pictures of Michelle and Jared’s wedding suite, check them out on Flickr.

Specs
Qty. 100
Cougar Natural 80# cover – Xpedx
Postcard printed by Overnight Prints
Policy Envelopes – LCI Paper
Feathers – Feathermart
Wax Seals – LetterSeals.com
Belly Bands – LCI Paper

Lisa and Brandon’s wedding invitations have been in the works for a long time. Brandon asked Lisa to marry him in September 2009 and once I heard the news, the first thing out of my mouth was “I’ll do your wedding invites!” I mean, after the initial “Congratulations!” and “Wow, you’re ring is gorgeous! Let me see it again.”, of course. So here we are a year and a half later with the finished product. Their theme was based on their wedding colors, black and teal, so we played that up in a big way with teal stripes, glossy black borders, a black metallic matte on the invitation, and a black metallic belly band to hold the whole packet together inside the vibrant teal envelopes. The envelopes were printed front and back in a rich black, using the same fonts as in their invitation suite. Hopefully the Honorable Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama will be able to attend.

By far, my most favorite part of this suite is the quote on the top of the invitation that Lisa wanted to incorporate into the design somehow. “My whole heart, for my whole life.” Isn’t that just perfect for a wedding invitation? I sure think so.

Specs
Qty. 150
15pt cover stock
Gloss coated
Onyx Metallic 100# cover – LCI Paper and Xpedx
Onyx Metallic 80# text – LCI Paper
A7 Blu Raspberry Envelopes – LCI Paper
Printed by Overnight Prints