Erin & Andrew are Getting Married!

It always amazes me how time does fly here at Twin Ravens during the early parts of spring. It seems like almost all (not all, but almost all) of our clients this time of year are having us design and print stationery for their upcoming weddings in the early spring and summer. We do have quite a few other projects in the works this time of year, including some very sweet baby announcements, an awesome set of Bar Mitzvah invitations, and several different sets of business cards and other business-related stationery, but by and large, this time of year seems to be dominated by weddings. While I truly enjoy this time of year and getting to work with so many amazing people, I must admit, it does make things very busy, which would explain my extremely inconsistent blogging. However, I do have some absolutely lovely things to show you in the next few weeks, starting with this.

Nearly a month ago we finished a really fun, yet classic set of invitations for a couple in North Carolina who are getting married at the end of April. Erin and Andrew had seen some invitations I had designed and printed previously on this blog and chose to combine/modify a couple of them to create their own unique invitation suite! Their suite included an A7 size invite with matching envelope, a 4bar size reply card envelope and a combined A7 size reply card and accommodations card that were perforated down the middle so that the reply card could be detached and mailed back. You can see all of the pieces in this suite together at the top of this post.

Erin and Andrew's wedding colors are navy blue and a light green and we chose to incorporate these into her suite with both her ink colors and her paper choices. Here is Erin and Andrew's invitation all by itself:

This invitation is an A7 size, measuring 5"x7" and has a fun, organic frame surrounding a mix of a classic serif typeface and a fun, modern script, all printed in navy blue ink. To give the invitation some additional texture, we blind embossed a series of vertical lines in the background behind the framed portion of the invitation. I love how a little bit of blind embossing can add some wonderful texture to a design, without being too overwhelming! Below are some detail images so you can see the texture of the embossing and printing better.

We had originally planned to pair this invitation with a green envelope (Erin and Andrew's other wedding color), but due to a very long backorder of the green from our supplier, we ended up going with a matching white envelope, printed with navy ink instead. Check out the cute heart detail below their address! Isn't that adorable?!?

For their reply card envelopes, we did end up using the green. This green is a light green color called "Balsam Fir" from Green Paper Company. Not only are these envelopes a fabulous green color, because they are made from 30% post-consumer waste, they are also "green" environmentally-speaking too!

For Erin and Andrew's two insert cards, we did something that I absolutely love, but have only done a few times before: we combined them. There are, in fact, two separate cards here, but they were designed and printed to be mailed as a single card (5"x7"), but perforated down the middle so that the reply card could be detached and mailed back.

As you can see in the above photo, an accommodations card that is similar in design to Erin and Andrew's wedding invitation is the top half of the joined card, and a cute, navy-blue-on-white reply card is the bottom half.

The accommodations portion of this card also featured some blind-embossing: this time diagonal lines behind our cute frame. The interior of the frame featured information about where to stay and were to find Erin & Andrew's website. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the perforation in the card right below where the blind embossing ends. Isn't this just cool?!?

The lower portion of this card is their detachable reply card.

Erin and Andrew included a space for guests to write in their names, check-box options for the actual response and an area for guests to initial what their meal preference is for the reception. I just love this combined-card idea. It saves money for the couple on printing (by printing effectively one card instead of two) and it's a great way to keep all of the enclosure information together until the reply is ready to be sent back.

Erin and Andrew were wonderful clients and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them on this suite! Thanks so much Erin and Andrew and congratulations on your upcoming big day!

Katie & Michael are Getting Married!

Right before I left for Minnesota a couple of weeks ago, I printed this lovely set of invitations for a couple in Texas who are getting married in May. The bride, Katie, designed these invitations herself and I just love the pretty flowers and sweet, whimsical grey hummingbird at the bottom. This suite includes a #10 size invitation, letterpress printed in two colors on Crane Lettra Pearl White paper, a #10 invitation envelope from Waste Not Paper Company in gravel grey and a 4bar size postcard that was digitally printed on a matching flat stock also from Waste Not Paper. At the top of this post you can see the whole suite together and below are photos of each of the pieces in detail.

Here is Katie's invitation by itself. She chose a really nice, light green ink for her floral details and names and a medium grey ink to match her envelopes for the rest of the text and for her hummingbird. I just love how whimsical and sweet this design is! Below are some detail photos so you can see the ink colors, fonts and letterpress impression a little better.

The reply postcards that went with these were a little bit simpler - no flowers or birdies, but the same great fonts Katie used were carried throughout. In order to save some money on printing, we chose to have this card printed digitally on a white card stock from Waste Not Paper that was a near-match to the 100% cotton stock we used for the invitation. Here it is below, front and back:

And, last but not least, come the envelopes. For her invitation envelopes, Katie chose a #10 size, long, skinny, grey envelope from Waste Not Paper. We printed her return address on the flap of it in a slightly darker grey than the invitation and envelope color.

Pretty sweet, don't you think?!? Working with Katie was a pleasure and I hope that their wedding this May is just as wonderful as their invitations! Thanks so much and congratulations Katie & Michael!

Francie & Greg are getting Married!

Check out these beauties that I printed last week for a lovely couple who are getting married in Massachusetts this spring. The bride, Francie, already had her invitation design all laid out when she hired Twin Ravens Press to do her letterpress printing, but looked to us for a way to make her invitation really stand out. Our solution: create a custom-made, absolutely beautiful, handmade paper in a unique, French Blue color and letterpress print her design on it in pewter grey ink. The paper we had made is really luscious and thick (about 220 lb. actually) and was created by the wonderful folks at Porridge Papers, and the letterpress printing was done by us. Below are a few more images so you can see the printing and the gorgeous paper a little closer.

Aren't they just lovely?!? If you're interested in learning more about custom paper or custom letterpress printing, please feel free to contact us. Congratulations Francie & Greg!!

Thirty-Three Pounds of Awesome.

Hi all! I must apologize again for my lengthy absence from the blog world. I returned from my trip to Minnesota last Monday (I'll have some awesome things to share about my trip here soon) , and it's been pretty much non-stop ever since I got back. I'm working on some truly awesome stuff though, so keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks if you want to see some of the awesomeness I've been working on. And, speaking of awesome things, I received, literally, 33 lbs. of awesome in the form of handmade, wildflower seeded paper from Porridge Papers last week shortly after my return. The awesome paper maker out there that I've been working with, Samantha, even dubbed it so on the outside of the UPS box. She doesn't lie. The paper we received and the project we are in the midst of printing with it, is indeed, 33 lbs. of pure awesome. More on that soon!

Out of Town

To all of my wonderful clients and readers: I wanted to let you know that I am going to be out of town this week, Thursday (today) through Sunday. I am traveling to Minneapolis to go to one of my younger cousin's weddings. This trip is both kind of exciting and making me a little nervous, because I haven't seen this particular part of my family for 15 years. I spent a little bit of time last weekend going through some old photos and found the photo at the top of this post. This photo was taken during the summer of 1995, which was the last time that I saw any of them in person. I'm the girl in the pink shirt on the far right, and was 11 years old at the time. My cousin Heidi who is getting married on Saturday is the one standing right behind me in the plaid shirt and overalls. She was 9 when this photo was taken, and the other three girls are also cousins who are in Minneapolis, who I will get to see at the wedding.

Aside from seeing my family that I haven't seen in a while and attending Heidi's wedding, I'm hoping to do some awesome Minneapolis work-related things while I am there, including meeting the uber-talented calligrapher/illustrator/designer, Crystal Kluge, in person. Crystal and I have been working together for a little while now on a few different collaborative projects including a few wedding invitations suites and some really cute holiday gift tags this last Christmas, but have never actually met in person, so I'm super-excited to finally meet her! (Click on the tag at the bottom of this post to see some of these projects! They are awesome!) A trip to one of the letterpress studios that I idolize, Studio On Fire, may also be in order, as they are located in Minneapolis as well.

If any of you out there are waiting to hear back from me on a print job or design work, or have recently made an inquiry about my services, I will be back to work on Monday morning (March 1st) and will answer your e-mails as soon as I can! Wish me luck and have a great weekend!

Stalked: Origami Crane Cards Featured on Etsy Stalker!

I received a lovely e-mail this morning that our Origami Crane Cards were featured on Etsy Stalker yesterday. Check out the feature here and the cards in our etsy shop!

Fabulous Eco-Friendly Business Cards for Trees Creation & Happy Grow Lucky

A few months ago I created a couple of lovely sets of business cards for a wonderful client and good friend, Teresa Ennis. Teresa is a business owner two-times-over, and wanted brand new, totally awesome business cards for both of her businesses. Both of her businesses are somewhat nature-oriented in one way or another and we wanted to really express that in her branding and in the design and execution of her cards. Here is what we came up with:

The first of Teresa's businesses is called Happy Grow Lucky, a local landscaping business she runs here in Eugene. I loved her business name as well as her tag line: "Dig Deep, Reach High!". For the design of this card we used a gorgeous tree image that has tons of roots spreading out across the bottom of the card. The trunk and branches of the tree twist around moving up the card vertically and accent the shape of the logo I created for her. The tree was printed in a very pale green and all of the typography on this card was printed in a darker evergreen color. These cards were printed on a custom seeded cream paper from Porridge Papers that will actually grow wildflowers if the paper gets wet. How cool is that?!?

I'm pretty proud of this design: it's perfect for Teresa's business and the whole concept really just kicks ass.

Besides having tons of talent for landscape design and making things grow happily, Teresa is also a talented artist. She creates everything from hand-bound books and journals, to jewelry, to found object art pieces. Her shop, Trees Creation, is up and running over on etsy. Go check it out by clicking here. Teresa's Trees Creation cards were also printed on cream colored Porridge Paper with wildflower seeds, this time in three ink colors: chocolate brown, green and plum purple. We continued the tree theme for this card, but created a different tree image and used some different fonts. Check it out:

Aren't they pretty? I just love how we can take the tree theme and create two business cards that are totally different, with a lot of the same elements. Below are a few detail photos of the Trees Creation cards so you can see the letterpress impression, ink colors, fonts and the details of the lovely Porridge Paper a little bit better.

Make sure to go and check out Teresa's etsy shop, and if you're in need of any landscaping in Eugene, give her a call at Happy Grow Lucky. Thanks so much Teresa! You are awesome!