Blog

Lasting ImPRESSions Design Showcase

amelia — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:09:01 +0000

We are 18 days away from the Lasting ImPRESSions design showcase and I am extremely excited! I have been working hard to pull together great designs to showcase and excited for attendees to see a lot of the invitations and paper accessories I worked on last year that I didn't have a chance to blog about. The showcase will feature 3 letterpress design suites from the "save the date" to the "thank you card" and everything in between. It is very important to me that a bride have a cohesive look to every component of their wedding. The design should flow and reflect their personality and style. My inspiratio for the showcase came from the Pantone Color of the Year - Honeysuckle! I love the color pink so I was very excited to see this color which is a reddish pink. It is flirty and playful, bold yet subtle. This color is a great choice for weddings and celebrations as it compliments so many color palettes.

In designing for this showcase I decided to pair it with yellow, chocolate brown and lastly as a prominent color in a monochromatic blend of pink. In addition to my letterpress designs I am excited to partner with Spilled Milk Catering and Petal’s Edge Floral Design for this great event. Spilled Milk is providing sweet treats for guests to sample on our dessert bar and Petal’s Edge will be showcasing their great floral work for the centerpieces on the table designs.

If you want to learn more about letterpress printing and how to incorporate handcrafted details to your wedding or event please be sure to come out on January 30^th from 3pm – 6pm. Space is limited for this intimate affair so please make sure you RSVP at www.jadesevents.com/rsvp!

FALLing in Love! Fall Wedding Treasury on Etsy

amelia — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:10:01 +0000

I love the fall season! I guess because I was born in the greatest month of the year, October. The fall season is also the most popular wedding season in the Washington, DC metro area. In planning your fall wedding check out these great handmade designs I found while on etsy yesterday. Incorporate something in your wedding that was handcrafted to had a personal flair to your wedding design! I hope you are inspired by these great designers.

amelia

Amelia Irene Design on Etsy

amelia — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:07:08 +0000

After a very long time of procrastinating I have finally launched my little shop on etsy. Look out for my whimisical letterpress printings on the shop which include greeting cards, fill-in invitation sets, samples of my custom invitations sets and more. In addition, I will be selling other handmade and paper goodies that will enable you to entertain in style. Click on the shop page of my website above or simply go here for the amelia irene design etsy shop!

Field Trip to Art Star Craft Bazaar

amelia — Tue, 18 May 2010 03:13:56 +0000

Who doesn't love a field trip?! Well I definitely enjoy hopping in the car and taking a road trip any opportunity I get. I welcome the change of scenery which often sparks my creativity. I convinced my hubby this past weekend to take a day trip with me from DC to Philly to check out the Art Star Craft Bazaar. I had heard great things about it and wanted to see for myself. It was well worth the trip. In addition to seeing some of my crafty favorites I stumbled upon a new find that I immediately fell in love with. Now as a crafter myself I am a firm believer in supporting others who take the time to create especially in the art form that I love and practice - letterpress printing. I stumbled upon paisley dog press and had to purchase the love card and library card bookmark pictured below. The bookmark brought back so many memories of going to the library and sitting for hours looking through numerous books until I found the one I just had to take home. I also went to visit the yummy and company booth. I fell in love with her designs when we were next door neighbors at the Fenton Street Market. I bought the earrings below at Fenton Street but loved them so much I have asked her to design a larger pair for me! Hey I love big earrings what can I say. I can't wait to see the final design. Lastly, as I was walking through the fair I saw a flash of color on display in the form of ceramic vases, cups, and plates and it was love at first sight. While most shopaholics like myself can't resist the allure of a gorgeous shoe or that perfect clothing item, so it is with my love affair with ceramic dishes. It is an obsession that few know about! As a floral designer I was immediately drawn to the vases and mugs and bowls as I don't limit my designs to off the shelf glass vases. These wonderful designs were created by Stephanie Kao and Robert Seigel and while they probably intended the pieces I purchased to be filled with tea or some other beverage those cute little babies will be filled with flowers. My art star experience was great and I intend to apply next year as a vendor and hopefully next year will be writing from a vendors perspective!

amelia

It's Friday and time to crank out the to do list!

amelia — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:41:37 +0000

It's Friday and after a busy week I am glad that I am now able to get in the studio and print more letterpress goodies. After that I need to sit down and handle this growing "to do" list. The two top items are the launch of the etsy shop and the planning of the Amelia Irene Design showcase scheduled for September 19th. If you are a wedding planner, event planner or just planning your own wedding and/or event look out for more details of this great showcase highlighting the event designs of my business. The date has been set and the location booked. Check out the great location I found with the help of Jade's Events! It's the Maison Biltmore in Adams Morgan and it is unique and intimate just like the principles I have built this business upon. I look forward to seeing you there now I need to get the studio to scratch off one item of the to do list today. Check out the designs in a later post.

amelia

Fenton Street Market

amelia — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:06:24 +0000

This past Saturday I participated as a vendor at the Fenton Street Market. It was a warm day so I am thankful that my mom hung in there with me most of the day until she snuck off with my nephew to enjoy a bit of the cool AC at the Border’s Book Store just up the street! The walking traffic ebbed and flowed but during the slow times we had an opportunity to meet some of the great vendors that were there. It is inspiring to be amongst such creativity. I was also fortunate that Jennifer of Yummy and Company was my next door neighbor at the market. Her jewelry is amazing and of course I spent a portion of what I made on a pair of great earrings. She also shared some great advice which was priceless. A cute little boy won my cards as part of the scavenger hunt. He deserved to find them as he worked really hard. Check out the Fenton Street Blog for more details on the hunt.

I spent a couple of days leading up to the market at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring where I print the majority of my cards and invitations. I own a small table top press but for large jobs I utilize the vandercook presses at Pyramid. Below are a couple of photos of me printing my “sunshine” card. Which is one of my absolute favorites. I designed the card in Adobe Illustrator and then had a photopolymer plate made for printing. My original plan was to print the card on charcoal gray cardstock but I didn’t like the results. So I switched to plan b and incorporated gray with the envelope. I love the results.

Also check out the photos of my booth. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do until the last minute but I enjoyed the final outcome and shoppers loved the wheatgrass. It was definitely an attention grabber. I am looking forward to participating in the Fenton Street Market again in the future and other craft shows. Stay tuned and look out for the official launch of my etsy shop which will feature letterpress cards, fill-in invitations, letterpress scrapbook kits and more!

amelia

Fenton Street Market Giveaway

amelia — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:10:01 +0000

I am participating in the Fenton Street Market for the next two weekends as a vendor. I am really excited. I have been in the letterpress studio printing away and it was awesome to depart a bit from printing wedding related work. amelia irene design was selected as one of the vendors for the scavenger hunt at the market. Shoppers will have the opporutunity to visit various vendors looking for items that they will keep for free. In following w/ the giving spirit and to celebrate my first craft show experience I am also going to giveaway the set of 6 green letterpress thank you cards to my blog readers. Simply leave a comment on what you are thankful for as your entry! I will randomly select the winner and notify everyone on the blog. If you are in the DC metro area stop by the fenton street market on Saturday to see other cards and fresh floral designs I am featuring!

Amelia

and the winner is...

amelia — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:05:45 +0000

March and April were much busier months than I had originally planned. A local real estate broker contacted me in the beginning of March inquiring about my services. She wanted to send invites to an event she was planning in April and wanted the invite to catch the eye of agents when received in their offices. So the task was unique but cost effective after all she was sending close to 200 invites! I prepared three samples based on our initial consultation and I am sharing them in this post. Ultimately the simple khaki invite with the moss green ribbon accent was selected. In a follow-up I will share the final outcome now that I have dug my way out of 180 invites. It is a good thing I love khaki and moss green! This simple design also makes a great DIY project for the hands on bride or party planner. I will post the step by step of this simple design.

And the winner is....Sample #1:

Beyond Vanilla and Buttercream Think Sweet Potato!

amelia — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:21:33 +0000

Most brides, myself included, select a safe choice when selecting their wedding cakes - vanilla cake with buttercream icing. With bakers offering many more flavors for wedding cakes coupled with the cupcake craze you are no longer limited to such a simple cake. Last year I discovered Delectable Cakery, home of the Washingtonian Sweet Potato Cake. They had just opened in Mt. Ranier, MD a quaint town with a booming arts district on the border of DC. I read about the cake in the Washington Post while reading an article about The Brookland Cafe (another favorite in my neighborhood!) and had to try for myself. To say I was in heaven was an understatement! They make a chocolate sweet potato marble cake with chocolate icing that is divine although the combination at first glance doesn't seem appealing it is truly one of the best cakes I have tasted. The great thing about Delectable is they offer their goodies in cupcakes and wedding cakes! So in planning your wedding or special event think beyond vanilla and buttercream and consider Sweet Potato!

Stumbled upon Recycled Bride

amelia — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:06:37 +0000

My latest internet addiction is Stumble Upon, a web search engine and social media site combined. You utilize the stumble tool bar to navigate through the web to sites that you are interested in. When registering on the site you have an opportunity to select various topics of interest and you will only stumble on sites that fall within those categories. You can also identify your favorites and connect with friends who share similar interests and share websites with them hence the social media aspect of the site.

Well I have found some really great sites as a result of stumble upon one in particular is The Recycled Bride. I really wish I knew about this when I got married. I had so many items that I could have sold to recoup some of the cost spent. With numerous categories you are bound to find something that you can use for your wedding or sell to someone else. The other great part is it is free to buy and sell.