Lady Bug Calendar

The large 8x10 inch calendar fridge magnets can be made for business or fun.  Check out this calendar magnet made for someone who loves ladybugs:

It is simple, without a list of important dates or extra wording, which leaves some potential space for extra hand written notations.

This particular calendar starts in July 2012 and ends in June 2013.  These calendar magnets can start wherever specified;  No need to wait until the year's end to buy a calendar magnet.

http://www.savethedateoriginals.com/8x10_Calendar_Magnet_Info.php

In June: A pink butterfly

June's favorite project of the month is a pocketfold invitation.  This spring season is chalk full of pocketfold invitations.  They are a good option for people who want something more than a standard flat card set, and, you can personalize these pocketfold sets in a lot of ways.

This customer ordered save the dates with pink butterflies, in keeping with her wedding theme.  For her invitations, something pink and with butterflies was in order.  We ended up with a landscape 7x5 inch pocketfold with a side pocket.  The pocketfold itself is a shimmery pink, and the 3 inserts are designed to stack up nicely.

What I liked most about this invitation set was that it gave me another opportunity to draw a graphic from scratch, first with a pencil and then with my handy digital sketchpad.

Once more with the ticket theme!

Ticket themed save the date magnets continue to be fairly popular.  Not just sport tickets, but also concert and travel themed tickets.  This post introduces 4 new ticket save the date designs.

First, we have a 2.5x5.75 ticket design.  It is a larger version of another 2.5x4 inch ticket design that is currently posted.  This version offers up more space for a photograph.

Second, we have a 5.5x2.25 ticket design, meant to more closely follow the look of an actual concert ticket design than any of those currently posted on the website.

Third is another ticket that is meant to look more like a concert ticket than a sports ticket.  This one is sized at about  6x2.75 inches.  It is similar to both the TicketMT6 and  TicketMELT3 designs from the website, a new version with a size larger than the TicketMT6 design and smaller than the  TicketMELT3 design.  The red curtain is a part of what makes this version of the ticket more flavored towards a "premier", movie, "red carpet", or concert theme.

And now fourth we have a 7x3 inch magnet design that is modeled a bit after an airline ticket.  This is the only new design that is made for a size currently priced out on the website- all of the other new designs are also new magnet sizes.  This design fills up the given space with a variety of elements, and, includes a spot for a couple's photograph.

If you love ticket save the date designs, stay tuned... for there are undoubtedly more ticket designs to follow.

Favorite Projects of the Month: Invitations

This month my "favorite project" pick is a triple feature, to make up for missing two months in a row!  Check out these three memorable invitation projects.  Their colors and themes are completely different, and all were custom/newly made to suite each wedding.

One of these invitations is a sports themed pocket fold, the second is a movie poster themed petal fold, and the third is an invitation printed on a nice thick tan colored card stock.

Invitation 1: A 5x7 inch pocket fold made of a dark blue metallic card stock.  This pocket fold has a small pocket, meant to carry just the response card.  The printed design is a simple representation of the stitching on a baseball.  Sports themed save the dates and invitations are becoming more and more popular, and now here we have another example of how that theme can be carried with an invitation set.

Invitation 2: A 5x7 inch light teal petal fold with an attached invitation card.  The printed invitation card is set up to look like a movie poster announcing the event!  The response card reverses the color scheme of blues and greens.

Invitation 3: In the midst of planning a lovely outdoor event, this couple wanted to go with tans, creams, and browns.  The invitation card itself is a nice tan card stock, which is printed with an art-deco inspired design, and is paired with lighter cream envelopes.

Thank You x2

Every week there is something new to work on. I rarely blog about thank you cards, but they are another area where people can really set their stationery and event apart. As with other stationery, you have choices. One of those choices is a flimsy pack of TY cards from the store... or... something custom and awesome!

Check out this TY card designed to match a baby shower invitation that I already offered, made just for a customer who wondered if there couldn't be a matching TY card for the invitations. Both cards have a design that is meant to remind one of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom children's books.



Another recent thank you card project is sports themed. The darker red pattern between the top and bottom is meant to remind you of the stitching on a baseball. Sports themed save the dates and invitations are one of the newer ideas I have seen more people having fun with in recent years. If both the bride and groom have little interest in the frilly, the flowery, or the pretty, and happen to have sports teams that root for, this theme is something that they can have fun with.



Both cards are made of white card stock, and are folded 5.5x4.25 inch cards.

Save the Date Magnets: Tree + Heart

This may very well be my favorite project for February. Two new rounded corner sizes were introduced only about a month ago, and have already proven to be the perfect options for a couple of projects.

One of those projects was a request for a save the date magnet design that would have a heart carved into a tree, along with the couple's first names. Finding a stock photograph of a heart carved into a tree isn't terribly difficult, but finding one with enough room to add in first names certainly narrows down the options.

The photo below is of this design idea on the 3x4 inch magnet size. There was enough room for "Save the date" at the top, and then additional wording- such as the location- at the bottom.



The couple asked be to try to add some texture to their names, which seems to have worked well. The names are still obviously added in via a graphics program, but they also aren't just flat black or brown, which would have looked more artificial.

You have to admit, save the dates with a heart are fitting for a send out in February, given Valentines day.

QR Code on a Save the Date Card

QR codes: Little blocky black and white graphics that you may have seen there and there. Your phone (if it has a camera) can scan and interpret a QR code. Commonly, the QR code will take you to a website. This can be used for a lot of things; Imagine a movie advertisement with a QR code that takes you to a website with a trailer for that movie.

In the same way that website addresses have become a common addition to save the dates and even sometimes invitations, QR codes are just starting to get added in more often to personalized stationery. A good example is that I've had a customer ask me to print a QR code on the back of her holiday card. The QR code took receivers to a blog post that talked about the family happenings for the year.

This time, a customer asked me to put the QR code within their save the dates design. And it wasn't a modern style save the date design, where you could expect to get away with quirky blocky elements.

This one, to be exact:


It's a popular 5x3.5 inch save the date card from my save the date card gallery.

It took me a minute to conceive an idea for this. It turns out that you can change the colors of the QR code graphic without messing up the functionality. So I switched the QR code to cream and brown, then added in into a 4x5.25 inch version of the design:


Their QR code takes guests to their wedding website.

I have to admit, this turned out better than I would have expected for a nice wedding save the date design that has a QR code as actually part of the design. Thus, I declare this my favorite project of the month for January 2012.

*To protect the couple's privacy, the names, website, and QR code on the photographed example have been altered*