Anyone in need of a good Father’s Day gift? If you have any anglers in the family these would be the perfect gift! My wonderful husband is a fly fishing outfitter and is always writing notes to clients or sending off fabulous pictures from guided trips. I made him some of these notes and now have been taking requests from all over! This specific set was an Etsy order and I love how the client customized it with the caption “Fish On!” If you want a set of these for your man or dad, or maybe even grandfather I can personalize for you just in time for father’s day! (Color and ink options are variable too).

If you are visiting from Bakerella’s site, welcome! I’ve been MIA the last week and a half because I just had a new baby on the 19th!

Because we are having so much fun around the house with the new addition I thought I’d offer  10% off all recipe cards to all you lovely ladies through June 15th from my Etsy Shop. To redeem, purchase as usual and in the message to buyer when checking out, enter code BAKE10! I’ll refund the difference via PayPal (sorry, Etsy doesn’t have discount code capability)! Enjoy the blog, and come back next week, I’ll be offering a special giveaway you won’t want to miss!

So I’m really trying to not have this baby until at least THURSDAY! However my 36 week along baby body is telling me otherwise. I have 3 jobs that ship this monring, yea! And 3 small jobs that will print and ship tonight/tomorrow. Then I’m free to let this baby run it’s course. I thought I had given myself at least a week (like until next week (after memorial weekend) to get everything together with the blog, and the house before baby #3 made it’s presence known to the world considering my actual due date isn’t until June 9th!

Unfortunately you are the ones that will be suffering from adamant baby arriving earlier than anticipated. I’m betting Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Not wishful thinking here. So without further adeu:

Mormon Temple Giveaway: Winner will be announced before Baby is due.

AND since I’m leaving you hanging with no other scheduled blog posts for the next week and a half at least, check back before Thursday for my last giveaway before the baby is born, you’re going to love this one!

This isn’t the final printed piece but a press proof on test paper. Calligraphy done by the lovely Kathryn of Della Carta Calligraphy. This is a sneak peak of a custom process where I generated designs and layouts, they were passed on to Kathryn and then passed back for final layout touches. I really enjoyed working with such a beautiful pen-woman! And the letterpress, it was sweet being on press expirementing with different papers. More to come on the details of this project over the next few days!

Here’s some more proofs for business cards that are going out in the next 5 or 6 days. Monique is a great web and information designer and needed a business card that was a little less feminine and targeted a larger audience. She didn’t have an established brand or logo so we experimented with some pattern to get her going. She wanted something bright and colorful as her current website has some great coloring in it, but still clean and sophisticated. Here’s her Round 1 proofs, check back next week for the final print and what she ended up going with!

In continuation with A = Art Deco Here’s a cheap DIY project that would be great for any Art Deco event. How about replacing your maids bouquets with these, or doing them as a party favor for a little girl’s birthday party! They could even hang from the back of your dinner chairs at this price! Feathers + Chinese folding fans = easy!

Tools needed*: glue gun | glue sticks | scissors
Materials needed: peacock feathers | felt (not too much is needed) | wooden folding fans (or another fan of your choice).

Step 1: Trim 6 peacock feathers with good sharp scissors around the eye. I think the “Peacock Feathers – Eyed Sticks – Miniature” would be perfect for this project which can be found at the link above.

Step 2: Cut a small patch of felt about 2-3″ round/oval. Arrange 3 feathers and glue on felt starting with back row first. Affix 1 feather in the middle of the front row, followed by the last two on each side.

Step 3: Glue final feather assemblage onto the fan at the handle (felt to handle), but make sure there’s enough room to still hold the fan at the bottom. NOTE: You can either affix the feathers to the fan so that it’s permanently open, or work it on the top slat so that the fan still closes. Depending on what type of fan you purchase will determine whether or not one option is better than the other.

*OPTIONS: you could spray paint the fan black or any color for that matter to match the wedding colors. Also, the link I provided for the feathers offers dyed peacock feathers in a variety of color schemes, so don’t feel you are stuck with the blue/green theme on this project (think brown/rose etc.). If you end up doing that, make sure you add spray paint to your materials list!

TOTAL COST you ask? $2.75-$3.00/fan – at this rate you could go buy a new car with your left over wedding money ;)

So you’ve seen the Mod Mimosa in the shop for awhile, here’s the rest of the collection: Mod Pulsar, Mod Foliage, Mod Mimosa, and Mod Starburst. Available in individual sets of 6 and paired with black envelopes.

In continuation with the A = Art Deco, this inspiration board is for those looking to outfit their maids and men in the wedding party. Again drawing from many of the vintage illustrations and photographs of the time, it was wasy to see the prevelance of feathers, pearls, and often Chinese motifs and decor.

From left to right, here are some items sure to be a hit with anything Art Deco.

Maid’s Peacock Chinese Fan: This would be a great, cost effetive way to replace the maids flowers that often get left in vases around the reception instead of being carried. Outfitted with a wrist tassel, they could dangle to the maid’s side for an added look of elegance (and great for whipping those groomsmen around if needed). Check back MONDAY for a DIY on these. SO easy and cheap! Product details available then too.

Pearls: Try to buy local if you can, many jewelers are offering great buying incentivies right now due to the dwindling economy!

Peacock Boutt #1: This is actually a hair clip, but I think it could double nicely as a pin for the lapel on the men’s suits or as a bouttonniere. Made by Etsy artisian SweetGrassMill, be sure to stop by her shop for some other amazing pieces!

Button Boutt #2: I just love the mod addition of the button to this pin. Another great bouttonniere alternative to the flower boutt. Way to pull it off, WhichGoose!

Paper Fans: If you are having little girls in the bridal party, these would be perfect for them to play with and keep occupied, as well as provide something a little more exciting regarding color! They could also be a maids accessory if you’d like, coming in at under $1.00 per fan. Think how you could dress one of these up for the big day!

If you missed the Art Deco Bride, click here!

As you can see here the Art Deco woman was often adorned with feathers, pearls and bling. Dress cuts frequently had a drop waist or layers of fringe with beading and utilized regularly were laces and light flowing fabrics. Even form fitted sheaths weren’t uncommon.

The center-piece of this inspiration board is obviously the dress by Claire Pettibone. Cut in crushed velvet, (which I LOVE) you don’t see velvet often on a wedding dress without it looking too “thick.” My favorite part of the dress though is the detailing on the lace back, so refined – it really exemplifies the time period. For a model shot click here. The draping is AMAZING, reflective and soft. Quite femininely stated.

Shoes: Aldo $80, Available in gold, silver and white.

Earrings: Silver crystal feather earring [#3681ESC], $100, Kenneth Jay Lane, 877-953-5264. First found in the most recent Martha issue.

Pearls: Check your local jeweler, often you can get a nice thick rope in this economy by simply shopping locally.

To kick off the WED series, I couldn’t resist the fabulous theme of Art Deco.

I just LOVE the Art Deco time period! If I were to be born in another decade I would pick the roaring 20s and 30s! Fringe, flappers, and frolicing! Here are some fabulous illustrations from MsBlueSky’s Flickr Photostream, also found in her Art Deco Group. It’s a glimpse of what’s to come! GET EXCITED!

So I got this really cool idea from the recent Modern Bride Magazine that inspired me to implement something similar on my blog. They did an alphabet of wedding details in their recent issue and I thought it would be great to have a series for Wedding + Life Event Details (called WED) with each topic starting with a letter from the Alphabet. You think boring, I think not!

This feature will run throughout the year, with each letter going roughly about a week depending on how much I can cram in. I wanted to incorporated life events too as they are just as important – so while you’ll see a lot of bridal references, there will always be something a little extra for kids, or that can cross over to a party/birthday or holiday that will be related to the “Letter Topic”.

Things that will be covered may include any of the following: Wedding clothes, SHOES, Etsy finds, Maids and Men Features, accessories, decor ideas, DIY on the CHEAP, typography suggestions, GIVEAWAYs, new Dingbat designs, and more!

Appropriately, I wanted to roll it out today seeing that it’s Wednesday, and the acronym I’ll be using in the future to reference the posts will be WED. So without further rambling, the letter A!

This invitation is another shipped recently from the Dingbat’s Link & Hitch signature wedding line. The design is the Lola, customized to a coral/teal color scheme drawn from an inspiration board from StyleMePretty.com. Unfortunately I can’t find the link to the board as the client emailed it to me so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

I have to say that if you are considering this design, it’s pertinent that the background is a very light color in value, I can’t stress it enough! Otherwise there will be legibility issues. I loves how these turned out and was pleasantly surprised that the coral/teal combo worked so well with this design.

I can’t believe it, it’s giving me contractions! I’ve got 4 products in the gift guides right now on Etsy – all picked by staff, whoo hoo!

Now I feel like I might go throw up, being this pregnant isn’t pleasant!