619 miles

Our DIY Asheville Wedding - Invitations

I hope you guys enjoyed checking out the Save the Dates. I used them as the jumping off point for the actual invitations. As I mentioned before I really loved how the mountains turned out and if you've ever been up to the Blue Ridge Mountains I think you'd agree that it really does evoke that feeling of being up there.

So the invitations were going to require more pieces. It was a destination wedding, so we had a lot of information to convey and I didn't want to leave any questions unanswered. I made up a free website on wordpress which I included in the Save the Date to give guests (and those that couldn't make it) a chance to check out what was going on.

So the pieces of the invitation suite that I made are: Invitation, RSVP postcard, envelope liners, maps, and travel & activity cards. I used peacock envelopes and cards (to back the invitations) from Papersource. They also have a template for envelope liners that made the cutting job much easier. I used Persnickety Prints to print the invitations on pearl paper and Overnight Prints for the RSVP postcards. I printed the maps and travel info at home.

I also had a custom stamp made by Etsy seller papersushi that said "Love makes the world go round." Since custom takes time and we were in a time crunch, I used the image proof she sent of the stamp and made stickers for the envelopes. She also made us custom return address stamps that are soooo cute, but again they didn't arrive in time so I wrote out the return addresses on the envelopes and I'll use the stamp for the Thank You cards.

 

 

I used expired low charts from the recycle bin at work to line the envelopes. Since Tony and I are both pilots I wanted to include that aspect into the wedding (you'll see it pop up in other areas too). Free charts make great decorations and we love all sorts of maps. We also knew that many of our pilot friends would appreciate it as well. On some I even tried to put a part of the world that they were familiar with.

The Asheville image on the front of the RSVP postcard came from the NCgenWeb online archives.

We used a wedding website and App to share up-to-date info with all of our guests.

Even though it did take a lot of time I really enjoyed handwriting the names and addresses on each envelope. There was so much inspiration on Pinterest and while I don't think I could make a living doing envelope calligraphy, I love the personal touch that it added to my invitations. My friends knew it was from me when they saw it in their mailbox even before seeing the return address on the back. I loved that!

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Our Asheville Wedding - Save the Dates

Our DIY Asheville Wedding - Save the Dates

I'm coming up on 7 months of married life this month and it has been crazy.... crazy in a good way of course. As mentined in a recent post 2014 has been full of excitement in life and jobs and this 7 months has flown by. I've been wanting to share our DIY wedding on the blog and with it raining outside and me procrastinating planting some flowers, I've decided to get to it!

When we got engaged in September we knew that we didn't want to do a year or two long engagement. We had purposfully been living apart and doing what we knew in our hearts was the right thing for us before marriage, so after the engagement it just seemed natural that we wouldn't wait forever to have the wedding....we didn't see a point. Not to mention I pretty much knew what I wanted for the wedding already. Being a lover of Pinterest and all things DIY I had already amassed a substiantial wedding Pinterest board. In fact, a few years earlier a wife of a work friend was convinced that I was getting married based on my pins... hahaha.

So we decided on Asheville in about 5 seconds and then we went to the calendar to pick a weekend. We wanted his daughter to be able to participate, so we picked out what weekends worked for her school schedule and that was how we picked January 19th. Which left us with approximately 4 months to plan.

So I know that most people send out their Save the Dates more than 4 months in advance, but I really wanted to design my own invitations, which I knew would take time, but I also wanted to get the word out quickly. This seems counter-intuitive now that I'm explaining it.. why would I spend more time designing Save the Dates instead of invites? Why not just jump to the invites?!?! Well in my brain it made sense at the time! 

I wanted all the paper products for the wedding to be modern and playful and to reflect Asheville and the blue ridge mountains that we loved so much!

I used Illustrator and drew up what seemed like a gazillion ideas. Tony and I decided together on this one:

I loved how they turned out and my favorite part is the mountains in the background! It looked even better in print. I had them printed at Persnickety Prints and on a pearl paper. Oh man, the pearl paper just added the best sheen and shimmer to the card. We put them in teal envelopes and I addressed them using a white pen. I'l show more photos of the envelopes when I post the invites. I highly recommend Persnickety Prints. When I printed out invited I used another company because of price, but eneded up going back to Persnickety to have them re-done! I also get photos printed by them. I'll be back soon to share the invitations.

 

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Happy Easter - free scavenger hunt printable

Today I have a super fun Easter printable designed by the fabulous Kerry. She continues to amaze me with her variety of skills. 

Kerry designed the scavenger hunt with kids and adults in mind. She plans to have a prize easter basket that would appeal to both kids and adults. The hunt takes 30 minutes and each person uses their cell phone to snap creative shots of the items listed. Ready to play? Let's GO!

designed by Kerry

STEP 1: gather up a bunch of family and friends for some Easter fun.

STEP 2: print out Kerry's Easter Scavengar hunt printable.. throw in some "oooooohhhhhs" & "aaaaaahhhs" for how cute it is.

STEP 3: grab a timer and set it for 30 minutes.

STEP 4: run, walk, skip, hop around and snap fun photos of all the items listed

STEP 5: after the 30 minutes is up, the winner is chosen based on who has the most items found and/or the most creative photos

Of course, it's your game so mix it up and play however you like!

Let Kerry know if you use it and be sure to share it with all your friends!

Illustrator Wedding Maps

I am so you guys! Nicole's Classes featured my graphic design work along some other talented students' work. My wedding maps are on their blog today and it just puts a big 'ol smile on my face. I loved how those things turned out and I just loved making them. I really can't thank the instructors Alma & Melanie enough for their classes. I've learned so much! 

I'm writing up a post for the wedding invitations I made, so you'll see them soon! 

 

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this is happening | jenn's life

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You may have noticed that I am very into DIY projects (see my multiple DIY boards on Pinterest, if you doubt). Knowing that I am DIY fanatic you will not be surprised when I tell you that I am DIY-ing many things for my wedding.

I've designed my invitations, my RSVPs, a website, and even the cutest maps.

I used some maps from Romantic Asheville as my inspiration and then drew in Illustrator my own version, customized with my wedding colors and fonts. I think they turned out so stinking cute! 

 

I made this LOVE graphic in the wedding colors too. I'm not sure how I'm going to use it, but I was practicing some recently learned Illustrator skills and I am super pleased with how it turned out.
Speaking of Illustrator skills, I've learned SO MUCH from Melanie Burke & Alma Loveland. These two awesome ladies are instructors at Nicole's Classes and I have taken 5 (I think) classes from them so far. They are so sweet and kind and they know what they are doing... just check out their personal sites and their joint business Caravan. I can't recommend their classes enough.

Hello September 2013 | desktop wallpapers

I can't believe that we are already a week into September, holy cow time seems to be flying by lately. I wonder if that is because I feel like I have so much to do around the house.

I'm getting ready for A Week in the Life to start tomorrow and as I was perusing the web I came across this collection of September desktop wallpapers rounded up by Creature Comforts. I love switching things up every couple months and these calendar desktop wallpapers are well designed and fun.

Here are two of the four featured:

all you need is love & a dog

I am helping my amiga, Kelly, at her business The Highland Dog. We are giving away this print I designed in a nice frame for anyone who subscribes to her newsletter. If you're in Louisville and you love dogs, sign up and you could win this cute little print.

And while we are on the topic of loving dogs, here are a couple of cute shots of my dog Reese. I left her with Andrea while I'm out here in Little Rock for training and I miss her tons! My friend Kelly and Amy also helped out and I'm so thankful to have such awesome dog-loving friends!

I took these photos a week ago with my friend, Amy's DSLR. I really am going to have to invest in one soon. I love that last shot with Andrea's colorful dress and rug. Ol Reese loves laying in that spot... especially when anyone is preparing food!

Happy Easter 2013

A little typographic art by Jenn

Happy Easter to you!

continuing education | illustrator 101

In my post about the Creating and Identity class, I mentioned that I have taken two other classes from Nicole's Classes. I wanted to take the Identity class because I really want to start my own business and I thought this class would be super helpful (and it was!), however one of the suggested prerequisites was Illustrator 101, so I signed up for that class first.

source

I scoured Craigslist and was able to purchase a copy of CS5 (CS6 doesn't work on my macbook) from a graduating graphic design student. I was excited to start using Illustrator, but I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. Honestly, I didn't even know what the program was capable of, but now I am super excited about the possibilities of using this for all kinds of things personally and for my future business.

The class is taught by the wonderful Alma Loveland. She is a wiz at Illustrator and her class was a lot of work, but I seriously learned SOOOO much. I want to keep trying new things and practicing so I don't forget all the cool things that I learned to do with Illustrator.

For the first two assignments we were to use a quote to make a poster. I tried to remember everything I learned from her Typography class and I made these two quote posters.

For my final homework assignment, I put together everything I learned in the class and made this invite as a sample for my friend that owns a dog hotel. Disclaimer: there are NO dog socials going on at The Highland Dog right now. It was just something we had talked about, so I used it as inspiration for this invite. I love how it turned out, especially the dog. He was a challenge, but it was great practice tracing and using the pen tool. Alma suggested I add something orange into the dog image and I think she's spot on. I'd like to go back and add maybe an orange collar, but that's for later if we ever use the invite.

I can't say enough about how much I've enjoyed the classes from Nicole's Classes. Seriously good stuff.

Sweet Reese logo progression

As I learned in my class, Creating an Identity (Nicole's Classes), a final logo doesn't start off perfectly. Sweet Reese is an all natural, homemade dog biscuit company, so I brainstormed as many words that came to mind that related to this. I was initially hesitant to use such a traditional shape as the dog bone for the logo, but as I sketched it out I came up with something that I thought was pretty interesting. 

Once I uploaded it to Adobe Illustrator I wasn't having as much success getting the logo to match up with the feel of the original sketches. Melanie (our class instructor) gave some feedback and I went back to the computer and came up with a couple more options and finally one that I thought captured the essence of my original sketch. It clearly identified that it was dog related (bone shape), but it also had that handmade and playful quality that I wanted to capture. YAY!

This entire process took WEEKS to go through it all. Brainstorming, gathering inspiration, sketching, drawing in the computer, back to brainstorming, back to the computer and then came trying to pick colors. I have to admit, I went with this color scheme because I love that shade of blue. I chose brown because I was thinking of a natural kraft bag or box for packaging.

I love seeing the progression of all the versions side by side.