Come to my portfolio show December 9th

On Wednesday, December 9th, my classmates and I will be holding our portfolio show to show off our talents. Everyone is invited. There will be great presentations, great works and great food!

Alicia & Ryan - the wedding!

So finally, we are going to share the final piece of the Alicia & Ryan stationery puzzle. I have shared with you their Save the Dates, their Rehearsal Dinner Invitations and their fun Door Hangers and Water Bottle labels. Last but not least - here are their wedding invitations! They turned out beautifully!

The invitation design featured a light blue field of color on a pearlescent paper. A white shell shimmers at the top and the text was a chocolate brown color. The response card reflected the invitation's design with the shell and shimmery paper. I made them a customized map of the local area where their wedding festivities were to be taking place. All of this was tucked inside of a brown folder enclosure which was decorated with a sheer blue ribbon to match the color of the invitation.

I also made them a set of table numbers, also printed on the shimmery paper and also featuring the white shell to match the invitation.

Whew! Thanks Alicia & Ryan for all of your business! It was so great to help you personalize your wedding. Best wishes for a long happy life together!

More fun stuff from Alicia & Ryan's wedding

It was great fun to work with Alicia on some fun ways to personalize her wedding. I took the design from their Save the Date and applied it to water bottle labels and even a door hanger to be included in the out-of-town packages.

The water bottle labels are dressed up with some "Love" nutrition facts and thanks the guests for attending the wedding!

The door hangers will be necessary for the guests after they partied all night at the wedding! On the back has a welcoming message from Alicia & Ryan as well as a schedule of the weekend's events! Super fun!

...and we aren't done yet with Alicia and Ryan - we still have the wedding invitations to go!

Save the Lobsters!

Alicia & Ryan were having the only menu that one could have at their rehearsal dinner if one is getting married in Maine....Lobster!!

I designed their save the dates and wanted to play off the colors and fonts that we had already established for their wedding. They needed to plan their menu ahead of time so we made a response card postcard that would be ready to put into the mail without an envelope.

These would be a fun for a seaside themed birthday or engagement party.



More of Alicia and Ryan's wedding to come! (teaser: water bottle labels, invitations, door hangers - we did it all!)

I Scream, You Scream

Mmmmm....thinking about this post is making me hungry! Miss Lilly had one great birthday party with ice cream cones galore! The cherry on the top was adorned with a red rhinestone.

Caryn & Ryan are Married!

Where has the time gone?! I can't believe its been a whole month now since the big event and let me say it was a beautiful day! They had AWESOME weather and an even better looking Maid of Honor (let's not go down that matron road)!! Caryn was beautiful and Ryan wasn't lookin' too bad himself. It was a very fun day. The pink and green turned out great! It was such a fun summer wedding theme.

I had my little design hands on their wedding of course. I made them a seating chart - it was 16"x20" but I can do standard sizes of 20"x28" or 24"x36" as well.

I designed and created their 8 page program. It was a very cute small size of 4"x6" with a black cover featuring a label featuring their names and wedding date. It was tied up with a shimmery green bow. Just to give you an idea, I included the first page of the program below.

Last but not least I also designed for them some escort cards - they sure didn't want people to get lost! All three - the seating chart, escort card and the program featured the cherry blossom theme that they had picked for their wedding.

I can help you in different ways with your escort cards...I can match your escort cards to your wedding invitations and either leave them blank for you to fill out at the last moment, or I can get the list of names and table assignments from you. They are all a standard 3.5" by 4" and scored in the middle for folding. Or if you are a DIY who just needs a little help, I can help you set up a design in Microsoft Word for you to print at home!

How Sweet it Is!

Who doesn't love a good yummy favor at a wedding? And when it is a good ol' fashioned Hershey bar, its even better! I helped Susan and Matt dress up their Hershey bars with a customized wrapper. From the cute Love Nutrition facts to the funny Government Warning these wrappers are personalized for each couple.

Would you like something similar for your wedding? Contact me and we will make your own design!

Here is the wrapper in it entirety



And here is the finished product! If you live in the Charlotte area, I can assemble the favor for you, or I can sell you the personalized wrapper and/or the foil wrapper seperately.

CROP Walk T-Shirt

So I had a very fun lunch today where I felt like a VIP! The very very kind people with the Charlotte CROP Hunger Walk had their yearly sponsors luncheon today and they unveiled the 2009 t-shirt - designed by yours truly! The CROP HW people approached my Graphic Design class this past Spring and asked us to submit designs for their annual event. Over two dozen students submitted designs and I was so surprised when they chose mine.

Sometimes the most simple image has the most impact. That’s why I kept this t-shirt design to only two colors so that people don’t get lost in the details and miss the message of the shirt. I also wanted to highlight the very meaningful tag line of "We walk because they walk". I spelled it out for people by showing the contrast between us here in the US with our sneakers versus how many people in developing countries get around – in their bare feet.

Here are some pictures from today's luncheon - that's Dr. Peter Gorman, the Superintendant of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools handing me their certificate of appreciation along with Jennifer Hall, the Administrator of the Charlotte CROP Hunger Walk.

The Charlotte walk is Sunday, October 4th - I hope a lot of my friends can come out that day and support the VERY worth endeavor. The statistics of poverty and hunger just in Charlotte are staggering. Your support on that day helps feed many families in the local area.

What's Black & White and Red all Over?

No, not a zebra with a sunburn! (sorry for the bad joke) Its the invitations I did for Allison & Charlie's May wedding! She was using red as an accent color for her wedding and wanted that portrayed in her invitations. I designed for her this scrolling design to cascade down the side of the invitation and which would be a key feature in all the pieces of the stationery suite.

Below are her invitation, front of RSVP postcard, Thank You card with photo and photo announcment. All were printed on a fine soft-white card stock with matching addressed envelopes.

Are you having a special event coming up or know somebody who does?! I help customize invitations to each customer so that you have a look that's totally your own. Traditional, modern or elegant - bring it to me and we'll get your personal masterpiece created!

Kevin's New Biz

Kevin has just launched a new online decorating service called Black Pine Studio. He will ask you some questions about your room and will create a customized "Design-in-a-box" for you. How cool is that? Check him out!

He had a logo made for him but he needed some help with business cards and letterhead. He had some ideas of colors that he wanted to see used in the design. In true designer fashion he gave me paint swatches to match!

Armed with those paint swatches, here are some of the options I presented him with:

A couple of designs for the back of the business card:

Here are the letterhead options:

Purple Wedding Invitations

So Deb approached me about their wedding invitations. She wanted something that had a traditional feel but that introduced the lilac color that she was having in her flowers and bridesmaid dress. Here are some of the options...

Caryn's Bridal Shower

So I just posted the invitations for my friend's shower and I thought I would share some of the details of the shindig! We had it at a restaurant so I had to focus on some cute table decorations to bring in the pink and green theme that I had established with the invitations. I had to travel with these decorations on the plane so they had to be durable too! I think they turned out real cute if I might say so myself!

So here is what I did - I had pink 'take-out' boxes filled with chocolates and tied up with pink and green ribbons with a charm that said 'Happily Ever After'. I created my own napkin rings with coordinating scrap book paper and then the bride's napkin ring was nothin' but bling! It was a big diamond ring. I also had three centerpieces. Two were cardboard cylinders that I covered with green and white polka dotted paper and then filled with faux pink gerbera daisies! Cute and inexpensive! The third did double duty as a centerpiece and my gift to her as well. I bought the four cup measuring cup off her registry and then filled it with floral foam and easter grass and then wooden spoons (also off the registry) popped out of the cup intersperesed with more pink gerbera daisies! I was the most surprised about this one making the plane ride in one piece! Then for further decorating loveliness I cut out big circles out of scrapbooking paper and mounted their wedding date digits on three of them...as well as pictures of the bride and groom around the room. The wedding is coming up! It will be a beautiful day for sure.

Preppy Bridal Shower Combo

I made these very pretty pink and green invitations for a friend's bridal shower. Her wedding is going to be pink and green (she says - think watermelon!) and so we just had to do it up for the shower! The set includes a 5"x7" invitation and matching "Wishes for the Bride" card and Thank You folding cards.

These would also be good for a baby shower, rehearsal dinner or even a little girl's birthday party!

Kids in Motion

I am a member of the Junior League of Charlotte and I helped with designing some of the marketing materials for their latest Kids in Motion Festival that took place on Saturday, April 18th at South Park Mall. What a great day they had for this festival...they couldn't have asked for better. I thought it was pretty cool to see some of my designs at work during the festival. How cute is little Rebecca (and may I say what a great name?!) in the tshirt I designed?

Save the Date - Big Bday Party

This fun Save the Date was done to prepare invitees for a big shindig in honor of Steve's 40th birthday! I think this would also be fun for a wedding save the date or even for a birthday invitation.

His and Hers

I had fun making this invitation - after all it is about the girls - though we do like to include the guy a little bit! :)

Bee Happy!

I did these adorable Bee invitations for little Brinkley's 1st Birthday! Mama Bee - Amanda - was doing it up in the yellow and black style. Here are a couple of options for the big shindig. I think it would also be cute for a garden bridal or baby shower.