November Challenge - Catching Up

Since it's already the third day of November I decided to sort of cheat with my November Challenge. So I printed some old proofs from a bride who got married way back in September. This is a good opportunity to describe how Sara Paper works.

My normal process for meeting with a couple is this.

First meeting (which is free by the way) - We sit around, look through albums and chat about what you'd like your ideal bridal invitations to look like. Sometimes people find the perfect thing in one of the 9 Carlson Craft Albums I carry. For a standard order I collect a 50% deposit and call you when the order arrives (usually within 2 weeks). If you opt to go the custom route I ask for a $25 deposit.

Step Two - I design several samples based on our conversation. I print them and mail them to you so you have the opportunity to see them for yourself. These proofs are not "perfect" but they give you a good idea of whether you like the direction I am going.

Step Three - You pick the favorite design and I make the needed changes. I tweak, design matching cards and envelopes. If you wish I will mail you a final proof. At this time I ask for 50% deposit before I continue on.

Step Four - You pick up your invites!!!!

It sounds too easy, right? Well, I admit, it's not quite that easy. I mean these are custom invites. Sometimes it takes extra effort to "get inside" someones head. There are often ideas and suggestions along the way which add to the process. But that's okay. In the end you have invitations that reflect YOUR wedding.

So, in my examples below, Stephanie and Darin were looking for a perfect mix of her fun colors of pink and green and her desire to do an outdoorsy theme. They were getting married outside after all. So the following designs are some of her proofs. She ended up choosing a photo invite with a nice overlay but these proofs were unique and fun - just like Stephanie and Darin.

November Challenge - Lazy Daisy

I have a habit of picking up pretty paper, colorful ribbons and all sort of bits and pieces when I shop. I'm almost worse when I shop online. You know how some of those "shops" will entice you. Free shipping on orders of $100 or more. After a nice hefty paper order how can you resist spending an extra $12 to hit that $100 mark and save $20 in shipping.

The Lazy Daisy is a result of several shopping episodes. What we have here is a really nice off white paper that has a great canvas texture. Layered on top of that is a "gumdrop green" paper. It's all held together with a trio of daisy brads.

Lazy Daisy Packet is $2.15 a packet. Includes fully assembled invite and one envelope with return address. Note: 10% off order of 100 qty. or more.

November Challenge - Texas Tea

While I love designing custom invite I sort of get bummed that all the ideas in my head - well, stay in my head. So I've decided to challenge myself to designing, printing and posting a new design of my own - every day in November. Yikes. Well, I'm getting a head start and here is my first design.

Texas Tea - (aka, Black Gold) This invite is for the more daring bride. It's dark, it's deep, it's perfect for a wedding close to Halloween. You might think this is a black invite with gold paper. Not so. This cardstock is a complicated mixture of shimmery black/brown/gold/even red. The overlay is a fabulous metallic gold vellum. The corners are attached with brown eyelets.

The matching Envelope

Texas Tea Packet $3.20 This invite is one of my costlier ones. The standard package is a fully assembled invite with an inner envelope and an outer envelope with return address.

Addressing Service Availabe for additional cost

Please note: I take 10% off when you order over 100 invites.

Pictures and . . . all sorts of stuff

Okay, so my birthday is coming up and I'd like to give a blatant hint to my husband. Or rather my DH (dear husband) if you frequent wedding planning message boards and use the lingo.

I'd love a new digital camera. Not anything extravagant, just something that takes action shots and a good close-up without a lot of fancy lighting. True the camera I have is a good one (so I'm told). For awhile I've been meaning to "learn" how to use my current camera but never took the time. So I've been goofing around a little, hoping my weak efforts will be rewarded with a newer, much easier to use camera.

A new Sara Paper Notecard Design. I like it. It's cute. It only cost $2. A pack of 10 costs $15

This one was designed awhile back, when I was anticipating a wealth of tomato (tomatoe) from our garden. Sadly, we only reaped a handful of the little cherry ones.

A more earthy looking card. Love this new paper/envelopes I found. It's called butcher paper. Hard to tell but there are subtle swirls of red marblized in the paper.

I like this photo. It's actually a "good" photo with great lighting, etc. It's an arieal view of a box of programs.

A recent project. My customer is a friend of a friend and we accomplished this look via email and samples sent the old fashioned way. I love this invite because it has three of my favorite things. Shimmery paper, quality ribbon and rounded corners.

A "still-life" photo of a portion of my desk. My humorous "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette", A cool vintage clip art book from "Crafty Friend Kat", my plant, a nice stack of bills underneath my very frivilous orange stapler (which, by the way, matches my orange chair).

And now an interesting tibit from Ms. Vanderbilt. This section regards manners in children. Ms. Amy lists 22 different things children should not doing in "polite society". All of these seem to be as true now as when the book was written 56 years ago. Don't pick your teeth, chew with your mouth open, burp in public, chatter incessantly, etc.

For once I can't fault Ms. Amy for be hoity toity. What I found interesting was that the previous owner had the gall and bad manners to make marks in the book. In a random sentance the previous owner boldly underlined the words elemental and manners. Then they neatly put a tick mark next to 19 of the 22 rules. The ones that weren't marked off were,

#12 Speak ill of the dead or repeat damaging gossip.

#13 Swear in a way that is generally considered offensive

#22 (was clearly ticked but then later erased.) Pull our finger joints in public, drum our fingers or indulge in any similar irritating little habits that set people's teeth on edge.

As my friend Laura like to proclaim, "interesting indeed." Are we to assume that some unfit mother was allowing her children to gossip and swear at will? And then, maybe, sometimes allowing them to just plain be annoying?

I'm looking forward to sharing some new designs in the next couple month. Then it's almost 2009 and I get to present the prizes for the "Free Invite Giveaway". I've been booking 2009 Brides left and right but I've been too busy to organize what I need for the Giveaway. Don't worry, if you've booked, you're in the drawing. Good Luck!

Beautiful Babies

A special congrats to Tom and Amy Wilker of New Bremen. They were blessed with a beautiful set of baby girls. I was thrilled to print the birth announcements. They now have five little gals and Amy running the house. I would feel a little sorry for Tom being the only man but he's probably okay with it. Double diaper duty, maybe not so much.

Now onto fall related stuff. Crafty friend Kat and I had our booth at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest. Her sister Amy added her pottery to the pleasant mix of stuff. We had Kat's hand dyed wool, my notecards, her little clay pumpkin magnets, all kinds of stuff. It was a perfect day, perfect weather, and perfect pumpkin brats and cookies.

I hate to ruin a perfectly nice post about fall by bringing up the matter of Christmas. I know, I know it's too soon. But it's really not. If you are a business or organization you likely have a large Christmas Card mailing in front of you. Best to look over your options now. Chck out this site for some ideas and give me a call. http://viewccproduct.singleresource.com

If you just need cards for your personal family and friends you can tinker away for another month. But at some point you have to tackle that job. So start thinking about it now people. Find a great family picture and make a mental note to contact me for a personal card.

Look at your gift list and see who would appreciate a gift of :
- Personalized stationery,
- Notecards basket with a self inking return address stamp
- Personalized recipe cards
- A gift certificate to a new bride. She can order invites, programs, a guest book, cake topper, whatever.

And now a gem from Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette (circa 1952) regarding household management.

"If you have a one-employee household and a busy family it will certainly be necessary for you to give your maid some systematic assistance, as well as careful supervision.

Ms. Amy then describes (at length) how to instruct the maid with regards to the groceries. She helpfully tells us we can save money by doing the grocery shopping ourselves though she warns that while phone in orders from a charge-account store is convenient it is also expensive. If you opt to have the maid do the shopping her wise advice is to "check up" on the staff. She encourages us by saying, "Don't be embarressed at checking up. Your employees will respect you more if you are not "easy".

Atleast Ms. Amy has another chapter entitled "Gracious Living without Servants". Ohhhh the horror!

Falling for . . . Long Lost Brides

Yes, it's the first day of Fall. Autumn. The weather has been beautiful lately and I was pleased this past Saturday to know that three of my brides (one of which was having an outdoor wedding) would be enjoying beautiful, beautiful days.

This coming weekend I have three more brides getting married. Whew! No wonder the summer flew by. Saturday is not only a wedding day but it's also the day New Bremen holds its annual Pumpkinfest. Kat and I will have a booth. I know she's been working hard to have some cute items for sale and I intend to do the same.

I decided to get on the ball and post a couple more Bride Photos. This is Kimberly Hausfeld and Zachary Wiford, formerly of Minster, currently of Dublin. It's sort of rare that I met the groom, so I've never met Zach. But I got to know Kim (and her nice mother Elaine) very well and I can tell this picture is reflective of a fun, and fun loving couple.

Their bridesmaids were decked in a colorful green for the June wedding. I know they had a fabulous time.

Awhile back I purchased an etiquette book at the Canalside Bookstore in St. Marys. I wanted a book that would be a reference for the sort of things that don’t go out of style. The book I purchased was admitably outdated but I thought it would make interesting reading material. “Amy Vanderbilts Complete Book of Etiquette” was published in 1952 and still holds correct information for addressing wedding invitations. However, later in the book proper Ms. Amy devoted 68 pages to the proper ways a woman should present herself (in 1952) to the world. I didn’t read them all but here are some highlights. I thought it would be fun to post them from time to time.

On the subject of dining: “Every woman should change for dinner, if only into a clean housedress. Dinner is the high point of the day. Fresh clothes and make-up are psychologically sound.”

For women business execs. According to Amy Vanderbuilt a woman executive paying for a business lunch is beyond akward. Her advice is to plan ahead and arrange prior credit with the restaurant, or (and this is unbelievable) “quietly lay a bill on the table toward the end of the meal and say (to the man), “settle the check for me please. Of course it’s on my expense account.”

I won’t even tackle the two pages devoted to the proper way a woman should sit. But I can assure you, I'm definately doing it wrong.

Well, forget Amy Vanderbilt. Finally, from my collection of favorite quotes,

"October gave a party;The leaves by hundreds came

-The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band.

~George Cooper, "October's Party"

Lots of things cookin!

Okay, so we're two weeks into Buckeye Season. I've already hit my mom up for a batch of her famous Buckeyes which Adam loves. When we got married (back in 2002) I had a Grooms Cake made for Adam and my mom covered it with Buckeyes. In total we had over 900 Buckeyes at our wedding and Mom made every single one of them.

Weddings and parties are in full swing. Recently Denise Busic, one of my clients, threw a "Knights and Dragons" party for her son Colin who turned 4 in August. Ofcourse she needed a perfect invite to match.

According to Denise, "They pelted the 4ft dragon with 300 water balloons. They were vicious! The pinata took forever. The girls gave him a good beating. I've been told to sabotage it in the future. They made shields for their family crests as a craft. And my neighbor drug over her bouncy castle. " Sounds like an awesome day for everyone.

Other exciting news is that I recently purchased a corner rounder. I have three dies to make different levels of corner roundness. It's a really fun tool and it gives an extra something to some invites. I've also been searching for new paper and ribbon. Almost everyday the nice UPS guy brings me something new.

I've been promising pictures of brides - I have a few saved up for another post.

What else? Well my friend Kat and I enjoyed a nice shopping spree on Sunday at the Flower Factory in Dayton. I have lots and lots of ribbon now. Beautiful burgundy, burnt orange, browns and greens. All beautiful. Kat is gearing up for the Fall Harvest Festival being held this weekend at Lake Loramie. She's having a booth to peddle her yarn and jewelry and she's been kind enough to make room for my notecards as well. In addition to notecards I will have my "Bag of Scrap" which is essentially a ziplock bag full of odd and ends, pretty papers, bits of ribbon, buttons and whatever else I sort of forget about but am relunctant to throw away.
Anyway, this is a big weekend for the Lake and it's a worthwhile trip. Check out the Fort Loramie Chamber website to learn more. http://www.fortloramie.com/index.php

I'm really excited for Sunday. The Country Living Magazine is having a Fair/Festival of it's own in Columbus. I've talked (okay forced) my husband into going with me. There will be antiques, crafts, demonstrations and good food. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have a booth at one of these big shows. http://www.countryliving.com/antiques/shops-and-shows/cl-fair-2008