Mazzie's Turning Two!

So, your kid’s birthday is coming up, and you’re fresh out of party ideas.  Sure, you could just invite over a bunch of children to run-a-muck in your backyard like everyone else does, OR you could do what this mom did and come up with a cool, totally unique idea to make your little one feel special on her big day.

    

Megan came to me a few months ago with one of the most out-of-the-box party themes I have yet to encounter.  Megan is a teacher, so she knows all about popular children’s books, and one book in particular had the attention of her {soon to be} two year old, so she decided to center her daughter’s 2nd birthday party around the book!  VERY COOL! 

The book was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Don’t worry, I will spare you the book review, but I will tell you that it’s immensely fun to read and its simple, colorful illustrations are very eye-catching.  

I used a picture of the two-year-old cutie along with some of the same colorful eye-catching elements to design the invite…look how great it turned out, and a big thanks to Megan for letting me use a few pics from the party!  As always Megan, it was a pleasure to work with you! :)

Favorite Valentine's Day Fonts

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so today I wanted to share my top five favorite free Valentine's Day fonts with you.  I love fonts.  Love, love them and I love any excuse to add new fun {especially free} fonts to my library.  These are perfect for printables, homemade Valentines cards, gift tags, decorations, and more.  Enjoy!

1. BJKellybean
2. Abbleberry
3. Juleslove
4. Sweetiepie
5. Jandacurylygirlserif

All of the above can be found here

A Rustic Coral Wedding

If the winter weather has been getting you down lately, cheer up with this bright, sunshine filled rustic barn wedding photographed by Alisha & Scott.  With a happy color scheme of coral pink and light gray, this fall wedding was full of fun, DIY details. 

The Scene:

Jess and Scott chose the Simpson Barn in Johnston, Iowa as their ceremony location.  The venue had just the right amount of modern mixed with rustic charm to make everyone feel relaxed and right at home.  The reception was held at the Stoney Creek Inn just a few miles away.  I absolutely love the rustic lodge décor in this hotel, it was the perfect place to end the night.  From the maids [yours truly was one of them] to the men and the flowers to the cupcakes, everything was wonderful, and everyone enjoyed the day immensely!

Photo Credit: Alisha & Scott, RPSDesigns

The Paper Goods:

When Jess contacted me, she know exactly what she wanted when it came to the design of her wedding stationery; it was just up to me to make it happen.  Jess picked a dark gray textured pocket invitation and decided to accent it with a rich watermelon layer.  As for her neutral color, she wanted to bring in cream instead of a standard white to match her dress.  Two fonts were used in this design, a simple classic font mixed with a more modern, curly font.  The invitation inserts, save the date card, and ceremony program were all made to coordinate with the style of the invitation.  Simple. Clean. Modern.  I love how it all came together!

Photo Credit: RPSDesigns

Photo Credit: Alisha & Scott Photography

Holiday 2013

Is it just me or does it seem like the Fall season is blindly busy and tends to accelerate at a pace that seems faster than any other?  I guess it's especially busy for me because Fall represents the upcoming holiday card season, a season for me that is dominated by creativity!  Each Fall (for the past three years), I've set out to design custom holiday cards, and recently I have come to realize that the word “custom” has become very over used these days.  It often times gets replaced with the word “personalized”, but in reality, the two are actually very different.  Personalized means you take a design that is already done and add your personal text or photo.  “Custom” means the design was created solely for you.  Clients come to me with very specific ideas for their design and others come to me with no idea at all and let me just run with it.  My card designs vary with those that focus on one photo to others that use more than one.  My goal is simple, to create a process that is as easy and efficient as possible, and my prices (each one of these cards was designed and printed with envelops for $65 or less) competitive so to address the needs of my clients.  Doing this makes me happy, and ultimately, I hope my clients are happy in return!  With that being said, I wanted to share a few of my favorites (including mine) from this year!  Happy Holidays!