Custom 40th Anniversary Invitations

My parents recently celebrated their 40th anniversary. Wow! Their love and their relationship have always inspired me and have set some great guidelines for how to work hard and love unconditionally in a marriage.

My sister-in-law approached me a few months ago to see if we should throw a party for them since forty years is certainly something to celebrate. We both agreed that while a surprise party would have been fun, we had no idea who to invite since we knew my parents had no desire to have a large party. In the end we talked with them and decided to have a small, intimate gathering with just family and a few of the people who were part of their wedding party.

Right away in the planning process, my sister-in-law asked me about creating the invitations. I jumped at the chance to do so. I had a fun time looking at and incorporating my parents wedding colors and wedding photos, and I was more than pleased when both my Mom and Dad said they liked them very much.

The party was spectacular. It was fun to see my parents actually take a step into the spotlight and as a result everyone had the chance to hear some great stories about their engagement, wedding, honeymoon and being newlyweds in the Midwest countryside. By the end of the night, each guest had spoken about a memory they had of my mom and dad. It was pretty special. Congrats Mom and Dad! Thanks for showing us how to love!

Kids Valentine Cards

Sometime early last week, I decided that I should try to be crafty and make Aliyah's valentine cards. Most likely she won't always want homemade cards to give out to her friends, so I might as well take the chance when she's young (and when there's only 10 kids in her class.)

It ended up being a really fun activity to do with her. I garnered inspiration from her horse obsession, sketched out a few ideas and then went to work creating two different versions of cards. I grabbed the horse and horse shoe graphics off of the web, and created everything else in Adobe Illustrator.

At first I thought I would have her color in the images for her classmates as sort of a personal touch, but when I thought about it, I imagined her getting tired of coloring the same image repeatedly. Instead, I added in her name in caps with a hand-written font so she could trace her name on each card. (At the time she didn't know how to write her name. On Friday--Valentine's Day--she came home with some papers she had completed at daycare and her name was written on them. I didn't notice them until Saturday since I had missed out on Valentine's Day with the family since I was up in California for work. I saw the papers on Sebastian's desk and asked her who wrote them and she said she did. I think I yelped with excitement. I had no idea I would be so excited and proud of her for learning to write her name, but I really was. Such a neat experience as a parent.)

We stuck two sheets of stickers in each envelope for each of her classmates, and a Starbucks giftcard for a couple of her teachers. Aliyah was very particular about the entire thing. She wanted to make sure that Daddy remembered everything on Friday, and as hard as I tried to not bring candy, she was set on bringing mini-cupcakes for her class as a treat. Sebastian, as I've said many times before, is an amazing dad, but since he doesn't drop the kids off on a regular basis (he usually does pick-up), he sometimes forgets what to bring. I wrote out a list for him just before I left, and I think it helped because everything that needed to go to daycare made it!

Afterwards, when I got back from California, I asked her about how it all went. It was pretty fun listening to her talk about the party they had, how they passed out cards and just the overall excitement of it. It's fun to get a new perspective on holidays--even the little ones. Makes those days all the more sweeter.

Doodles: Christmas Spirit

I was perusing through the store yesterday looking for a fun craft for the kids I teach religion class to on Tuesday evenings. I ended up finding some beautiful stickers for the kids so they could make Christmas cards, but I also found a sketchpad that seemed like the perfect size for my own use. I had originally wanted to stop by Barnes & Noble or Micheal's to find something sturdy and "artsy", but when I saw a kids Crayola sketchpad, I thought, why not? It has spiral bounding, which I like and at three bucks I don't feel the pressure of having to make every sketch perfect. I can be pretty self-conscious when it comes to art and design at times. Because I'm an avid blog reader, I often read graphic design blogs of people who are so creative and can produce such beautiful artwork. It's inspirational and impeding at the same time. You should see the scores of crumpled paper I have laying around me sometimes because my sketches never turn out the way I see other people's do.



For the first time in a long while I was able to sketch and not stop at every wrong stroke I thought I made. I just kept going, and in the end, I didn't mind what I had. It's no secret for designers that the importance of sketching cannot be understated. I still remember being in college and having to draw 50 sketches of an apple and a banana. At the time I couldn't understand why I would waste my time doing such a thing, and I thought the assignment was boring. But it's true, sketching really does allow you to slow down, pinpoint what you want to create and most importantly take note of the fine details that can go unnoticed but are essential in making up what we see and feel. It can be a tough concept to grasp, and there are times in my professional work when I still immediately go to the computer to start a project, but the payoff of sketching is often worth it.





It can be liberating to sketch for fun. A chance to get away from all of the digital tools that surround us everyday and put pen to paper and see what may come. I should also note that to this day, my aptitude for drawing apples and bananas is pretty darn good.

Digital Sketchbook

I've been reading a lot of design blogs lately and it has inspired me to get back into designing for fun, not just for work. It's nice to be able to create something with no restrictions, no limitations and no expectations and seeing what comes of it in the end.

I've also created a printable, card version.

All you need to do is download the link here*, fold your piece of paper just like you did in grade school and viola. You're one step closer to brightening someone's day. Because really, who doesn't love to get snail mail? I know I do!

*Just a hint about the download--you'll be directed to a site called Ge.tt, which is just a free, snazzy google app for sharing files. No need to install anything, the PDF should load in a few seconds and give you the option to download to your computer. Enjoy!