CHRISTMAS is almost here!

I'm going over my calender and looking at the date, and i realize...
there is only NINE days till Christmas!!






AHHHHHHHHHH!





I feel like this year has been a whirlwind of things, and nothing ever giving me that "accomplished" feeling.
Even though there was some awesome things that happened this year!

so i leave with you...
even if there are 5 or so parties that you must attend in the next week or so,
and even if you still have shopping to do,
and you never did get to make any Christmas cookies
or decorate the way you wanted to...

DON'T PANIC!!

it will all work out :)



photo from here

my sister-in-law is getting married!

Many don't know it but I'm not the original Heather Brennan... my sis-in-law had the name first, fair and square! ... and tomorrow she's getting married! I'm super pumped! not only to watch a gorgeous couple tie the knot and that I'm obsessed with anything "wedding", but that I'm psyched to be a part of such a loving family at such and important event.

This has stirred up all these fancy emotions inside me :)

I have one sibling, Patrick, my favorite brother in the whole world. Don't get me wrong, I love him to death, but I have still always wanted a sister. I have Girlfriends who come SO CLOSE to filling that role that it scares me, but there is till that piece missing that all true blood sisters have; a physical bond that goes beyond flesh and bone.

I ADORE that bond.

Now I'm not trying to have a pitty party from wittle me: "Ooooh poor HB with no sister!"

No, quite the contrary: I want to celebrate the fact that I LOVE ELI'S FAMILY :)

Granted, I love my own family but I cant help but love the dynamic between himself and his siblings and parents :)

So with that I want to say HAPPY WEDDING DAY

to HEATHER and STEVE!!

I'm so happy to share in your day and your future. :) I'm looking forward to family gatherings with munchkins running around and growing closer, perhaps getting to that line where sisterhood lies and blurring the edges... just a little :)

Designer's High

I'm on a design high, buzzing with the thick, intoxicating beauty of the letter form...

I attended a AIGA free event at RIT last night, I went on a whim and I'm so glad I did!

more info on the event here

The Speaker was Richard Kegler, senior partner and founder of P22 Type Foundry.

He spoke about the history of P22, his inspirations and what drove him to start P22, and of course all things typefaces. there was a list of things I found intriguing. First was the early floppy disc packaging of fonts, and their marketing of them. Second was the inspiration of the fonts them selves derived from found letter forms, such as Leonardo Da Vinci's hand writing, or the hand lettering of John Cage. with the hand lettering of John cage came a composition on CD he had written called 4 1/2 minuets ... at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was called, my notes weren't to clear.

I loved that with many of the fonts they sold came a special little "gift" varying form mugs to a musical CD. The variety of fonts that P22 offers makes it one of my favorite places to go and look at typefaces. (that and Veer.. hehe)

I never realized how intriguing history is and the art of something that already exist. its romantic in a way to find something with so much history and make it available for others to use as inspiration for great design. For example a student taking a type face that was originally designed in Buffalo NY ( one of the only ones before P22) and making it into a wooden type set. all of his work is documented here.

The last thing that he talked about was a project they are working on, concerning the actual construction of a metal typeface, it will be documented in a film to be released this spring, watch the teaser here.

more info at the P22 blog...

The best part of all of this is the refection I had on myself as a designer and how I use typefaces.

Wedding Invitations are very heavy in typography as an informational printed piece. I extremely enjoy the letter form and have a new appreciation for the tools I use. I have a new wish list of typefaces to purchase and as Mr Kegler said... "good tools are worth paying for"

:)

BORN TO BE WILD

Uncle Mike is 50!

Shhhh its a surprise!!!

I designed this surprise birthday party invitation for my aunt.

My uncles favorite colors are black and orange and he loves his harley :)

so it was an obvious choice what his

50th birthday party theme was going to be!

Enjoy!

Snazzy labels created for ivory envelopes,

I'm loving the white ivory contrast these days!

on the back of the envelope i hand drew flames

and colored them with orange and yellow markers,

adding a "biker" look, the back of the invite also

bears my logo, i know, i know... lame self promotion :)

this photo is of my cousins on their dad's harley HOW CUTE!!!

my aunt has some pics of them on their wedding day on the harley

but it seemed neat to show the kids... :)

I loved adding the small flourish detail mixing ornate and rugged,

mostly because i wanted an element other than flames!

Hope you enjoyed these!

I really enjoy doing party themes and invitations

they are fun because they are simple

yet have allot of small details that make them special.

'Tis The Season

Happy Holidays everyone!

well...

the Christmas bug has bitten me ... hard :)

here is my latest creation

enjoy!!

Invite Front

Inside

then...

I REALLY wanted RED envelopes

so i used my handy template skills

and whipped up 7 beautifuly lined red christmas envelopes!

then it was time for labels and stamps :)

in the same type of course!

sigh i should do this for a living or something ;)

Crayon/FALL Inspired Look

FINALLY!! my crayon look is here it took allot longer than I wanted but :P hey it works right?
Colors - Deep Navy, Rust, Brown, Plumb

Crayon Challenge

I challenge myself to make a invitation inspired by crayons

ready set GO!

girly summer pool party

This summer I had the pleasure of making summer pool party invitations for my two cousins ages 12 and 9. the both had different themes and different parties. I helped them pick out their themes and proceeded to develop a look for each girly party. 

Makenzie Had a summer luau, complete with leis and hibiscus place cards for each of the 7 girls that came to her party, Mak's favorite color is blue so we went with a dark blue and a light blue combination. i printed on textured ivory card-stock. and lined the envelops with blue paper

Mikalyn just wanted a beach summer theme and her favorite color was pink, She also loves hot pink and orange together as a color combination. I printed on iridescent ivory paper and designed labels to match. We lined the envelops with orange paper. Mikey loved them and was really exited to share with all her friends.

Summer

This Design is very close to my heart... because it is MY OWN WEDDING :)

inspired by summer, and and the personalities of my husband and myself, i created a fun energetic composition with a unifying graphic and color scheme. I hand made the green paper wrap that enclosed the layered information cards.

thank you notes...

wedding programs...

Ashley Lynn

Here is a Design I did for elegant evening June wedding. 

The idea behind it was to capture elegance and formality while at the same time be bold and unique. I used a typical script typeface and embellished it, using shapes from the border design

and utilizing the strengths of the typeface.

wedding programs...

other details...

Crane 

Polka Dot

LINKS!! enjoy

a little out of order PAPER MAKING

Here is my experience making paper for my wedding invitations i really

don't think i will ever make this amount of hand made paper again in my life but it was fun and i do want to make some more some day! so these steps are not really for following just so you can see what we did :)

PAPER 101

Step:1 we shred newsprint and blend it one part newsprint two parts

water and add green acrylic paint to color it it ends up looking like

something from ghostbusters hehehe

Step:2 then we put about one blender-full per Tub of water and

sifted the paper pulp around on a canvas frame with screen

duck taped on (hot pink ducktape to be exact!)

Step:3 gently swaying the screen back and forth we would

get a some what even coat of pulp on the screen

Step:4 you then sponge off as much moisture as possible

using a blotting cloth of some kind

Step:5 enslave a friend to help you put the paper onto a

screen or glass surface to dry :)

i found this a year later gee it would have helped :P

http://www.kissthegroom.com/?p=3884

My wedding invitations

All i can say is it was a Fun

process :) 

my Hubby helped along with my brother and  my mom