Sweet Blue and Green Giraffe and Monkey Baby Shower Invitations

As you may have seen, Woods&Company has a brand new website, thanks to the talented Rebecca Unter! In exchange for her great work, I agreed to create some invitations for a baby shower that she is co-hosting at the end of the month.

The mother to be shared that they would be decorating the nursery in a jungle theme, and thought it would be nice to have the invitations follow suit. We decided on a giraffe graphic as the main graphic and a monkey graphic as an embellishment.

Since the mom-to-be is having a boy, I decided to got with a green and blue scheme, but with bits of yellow to round out the jungle theme. The main invitation features a blue and green border with text in the same colors, and the giraffe is yellow with blue and green spots. The giraffe graphic appears on the address label as well, and his monkey friend was added to a separate card explaining to the guests that it was a pot-luck shower. We sealed the envelopes with a monkey sticker and sent them off!

I was really excited about how these turned out. I love the simple, yet pleasing graphics, and I love the idea of a pot luck shower! Everyone brings a little something! Less stress and headache for the hosts!

I can't wait to see how the rest of the shower turns out.

Welcome Baby Tarbox!

Blue and Orange Under The Sea First Birthday

As spring has arrived, I can't help looking forward to summer and all things "fun in the sun". I was so excited to get a head start when my dear friend Blake asked me to design invitations for her son Kieran's first birthday party. She thought an ocean theme would be a cute idea and I agreed! I began with the invitations and also helped her out with some embellishments for the party.

And how fitting this theme was for a party held at the South Beach Harbor Pier in San Francisco. With a view of the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge and sailboats, the fish and waves in this design felt right at home. 

Woods&Company created a personalized banner using contrasting blues and oranges and featuring hand cut fish  to separate the words. Strung on an orange ribbon, the blue "dots" spelling out "Happy 1st Birthday, Kieran" really stand out. We also created menus to tell party guests what delicious drinks were available. These mimicked the design of the invitations and stood at the bar.

Finally, what great party would be complete without great desserts?? After I designed the invitations, mutual friend Tammie Parnell, owner of Sinful Bliss Cupcakes in Pleasant Hill, CA, designed cupcakes specifically for this event. She played off of the invitations and created fondant cupcake toppers of an underwater scene. Delicious!

I loved working on this project, it was such a fun theme! Kieran's party was so much fun and he's growing into such a little man!

Appel & Frank Holiday Shopping Event!

Holiday Cards? Already?

I know you are probably thinking, "but summer just officially ended last week!"

If you are the kind of person who thinks about these kinds of things in advance, then you'll want to save this date. If you are the kind of person who waits until the last minute, you'll ALSO want to save this date!

So, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area please put Wednesday, December 7, 2011 on your calendar!

Woods&Company will be participating in Appel & Frank's Holiday Shopping Event this year. Items available at the event will include handmade holiday cards, gift tags, gift cards, and more. You'll also be able to order custom made cards, invitations, and of course, gift baskets.

It's never to early to think about how you are going to tackle all the things on your holiday "To Do" list!

For more information about Appel & Frank, take a look at their website:

www.appelandfrank.com

Hope to see you all there!

Caring For Baby and Making Baby Shower Invitations!

The past year, I have had the most amazing addition to my life: my daughter Katherine. Life has certainly changed since Katy arrived, but the change has been most definitely for the better.

I have been busy all year not only taking care of Katy, but continuing to work on creating fun and unique gifts and paper goods for my clients. Every project has a great story and I absolutely LOVE designing for people's special events.

The fact that the project I'm featuring today is a for a friend of mine makes it even more special. My good friend Jessica and her husband Dave were expecting twins this past summer, so I, along with a few other good friends, threw Jessica a baby shower. The theme was "Twice As Nice With Two". We knew they were having a boy and a girl, so we kept the theme gender neutral and went with zoo animals in bright, fresh colors.

I designed the invitations, as well as the party favor bags, tags and the champagne glass tags. The paper is from Paper Source and the fonts used are Island of Misfit Toys and Caviar Dreams.

Inside of Invitation

Invitation Text Detail

Envelope with Coordinating Label

Open Invitation and Envelope

The petal enclosure card was banded with the animal theme paper and secured with a coordinating sticker .

Detail of the coordinating sticker

Detail of Animal Paper Band

I also designed the favors and champagne glass tags for the baby shower.

Fabric Drawstring Candy Bags with Handmade Labels. 

Detail of the Tag

Printed Glassine Bags Filled with Cookies

Animal Crackers filled the bags, fitting the theme of the party as well as the mother-to-be's favorite snack!

Personalized Champagne Glasses

Ready For Toasts!

I am happy to report that Abby and Ryan were born on June 22nd 2011! They came a little early but are both doing great!

Welcome to the world, little ones!