Birth Announcements + Update

Hello friends! Just checking in to do a quick post about the birth announcements I (finally!) printed for my youngest daughter. It has taken me 7.5 months to get them done and mailed out. Ridiculous. Everyone laughed at me for bothering, since it has been so long since her birth, but I had to do it. Not only for the stationery designer in me, but also to be fair. If I hadn't created any for her, how would I explain to her later why her older sister had announcements and she didn't – especially when the press is sitting right here?

My older daughter's announcements can be seen on our website and were printed in pink – so I decided to use two light purples for Eve's cards. The filigree is actually from some logo illustration work I did last year for a client that was not used. Sometimes I can find a way to re-purpose my unused artwork for personal projects and in this case I think it suited the announcements well.

I have not really been working at all since my recent health problems, and I admit that the hiatus has been fun. I've had a chance to do things I haven't done in a while, such as getting caught up (almost!) on some items on my "to do" list that have been there for months, go on a two week holiday with my girls and my husband, taken up yoga with a friend (after about 15 years of no yoga at all!), gone south of the border with friends and our daughters for the sole purpose of scoring Peanut Butter Fudge shakes from Sonic (yum!), and so on. Nevertheless, I am missing work and my clients – so I will probably start taking on a client here and there soon. If you need help with letterpress wedding invitations, announcements, or other stationery, please contact the studio.

In the meantime, we are soon heading off to a wedding in Montana at Glacier National Park. The bride and groom are using all locally sourced food and drinks for the reception, including craft beer and locally made spirits (my husband is looking forward to sampling these!). My oldest is going to be the flower girl, and she is thrilled to bits. We've been practicing walking down the aisle and she is so excited to wear her dress. The challenge will be to keep her from running down the aisle instead of walking, because as you may know, three-year-old children seem to think everything is a race.

I designed and printed the invitations for the Montana wedding, but haven't had a chance to photograph them yet. I'll be sure to post them as soon as I can, along with photos from a couple of other wedding and corporate projects that are sitting in a pile waiting for their photo shoots!

Birth Announcements

It's taken us a really long time (10 months to be exact!) to post photos of our daughter's birth announcements - but here they are at long last.

Being the both the designer and client for a personal project is very difficult - I find when I'm designing for other people I come up with ideas easily and am always confident with the concepts I present. But when designing for myself I always second guess everything - Could this look better another way? Have I totally exhausted the possibilities and options for the layout? Would other colors look better? What if I print this and I hate it, or come up with a better idea later? What if...I drive myself nuts.

The announcements were printed on Crane Lettra 110 lb. cotton stock in Pearl White in three (yep, three!) colors. This means three separate passes through the press for each piece - the light pink, the dark pink, and the blind impression (circle pattern with no ink). The envelope had the butterfly printed on the front beside where each recipient's address was written.

In the end I am very happy with how things turned out and plan to find a frame that will fit the announcement and the photo of her from the hospital that I sent out with it.

I still can't believe it's been almost a year since she was born. This has truly been the fastest year of my life - when they say life speeds up when you have children they weren't kidding around!