60th wedding anniversary bottles

Last month was my grandma Leonora and grandpa Maynard's 60th wedding anniversary! My aunt asked me to make a little something for the celebration party, and I had so much fun putting together these soda pop labels. They were delicious too—Leonora Lime, Mango Maynard, and Gushing Guava. One of the best parts was gathering stories and stats to put on the labels. We had everything: their first kiss, their world travels, adventures while raising their children, plus how many years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds they have been married.

Here's to a happy 60!

Happy New Year Package

Some simple New Year's packages I designed and put together: cider and hot chocolate packs wrapped in white tissue paper, put in cellophane packages with a candy cane, and sealed with a matching sticker.

My new year has been filled with fresh snow (as you can see), and it's been absolutely beautiful. Hope your holidays have been wonderful as well!!

Christmas Card Series

Series of Christmas cards I did this year with acetone ink transfers (my new favorite method). And then put between board covered in my favorite book cloth, of course.
Anyway.
Merry Christmas!
See you in January.

Merry Christmas Eve

It's Christmas! Good luck with last minute present buying and wrapping.

Krystyna's Mission Book

My dear friend Krystyna leaves on her mission for our church next week and I made her a book to take on her big adventure. Good luck out there Styna, I can't wait to hear about the life changing experiences you have in the next year and a half.

what I love about this book:

the book cloth.

I've been looking for a nice neutral book cloth and finally found some this week. I'm completely smitten with it.

the grommets.

Usually I think that grommets look a bit tacky. I'm not sure why. But they're beginning to grow on me—especially these natural colored ones. I like that they give the book a finished look.

the size.

I adore how this book fits in my pocket. Why have I not made a book this size before? It will definitely not be the last.

the title page.

Instead of printing the title page on a traditional printer, I did an acetone transfer (the ink is rubbed off from a different sheet) and I like the authentic and rough feel that it created.
the inside cover.
Instead of using decorative paper like I usually do for the inside covers, I used the same book cloth. It kept the book simple, and in my humble opinion, quite beautiful. I've been adoring neutral colors much more than usual lately, and the way this book turned out fits my mood just perfect.

I suppose it's time to make one for me.

paying it forward

Bet you thought I forgot about this.

Well, I didn't.
And I finally paid it forward with some 'love love me do' prints.
(based on a card from the love notes set)

the game

Both bridal showers were a success.
This game was guessing if the quotes on the page were said by the bride or groom—
which provoked plenty of good stories.
Little pencils covered in pretty paper are my new favorite.

The card design was completely inspired by Twig and Thistle's Stache Bash party.
I couldn't get over that pencil!
and just had to incorporate it into the bridal showers.

bridal shower invites

Two bridal showers this week!
One for my dear friend Elizabeth,
and another for little sister Becky.
They both get married as soon as I get home in August,
so we're partying before I leave for NY.

The good thing about throwing two showers in one week
for two completely different groups of people:
reusing designs for invites.
Two birds with one stone? Yes, please.

Mistopher Christopher is going on a mission.

Cousin Chris leaves to England on a mission for our church soon,
and he asked me to make him a journal for his upcoming adventures.
A chance to do some bookbinding? Sign me up.

Good luck out there cousin, proud of you.

Pistachio paper

While in New York, I interviewed at a paper company called Pistachio for an internship. As soon as I got back I made them a box, and sent them some of my love notes and monster cards as a thank you for the interview. I'm still waiting to hear back about whether or not I'm going...so keep your fingers crossed for me.

some thoughts

Samoas are the best kind of girl scout cookies.

Lucky for Cousin James, his birthday falls smack dab in the middle of girl scout cookie season. I hope he also thinks that samoas are the best kind.

The giant-letter card turned out pretty well. I'll be using that idea again for sure.

valentines

I put together these nifty valentines last night, after finding adorable little boxes at xpedx (for under 30 cents!) while I was there picking up supplies for a project. Taking inspiration from here, I wrapped the boxes with some decorative paper.

Then wrote haikus on the boxes like this one:

hope you like this poem
(actually a haiku)
that I wrote for you.

And finished up by filling them with m&m's. Hope your Valentine's day is fabulous!

letterpress monsters

I'm in a letterpress class right now and I love, love, love it. Last week I spent the morning on the press making these cards (a morning with the letterpress and monsters?! Could it get any better?) I like how they turned out. Front and back cards—monsters on front, lines to write on the back. I had such a fun time doing them.