Grey Moggie Greetings

Summer Wedding #2

A friend from school is getting married in Chicago later this year. She's having lots of fun planning most parts of the wedding, but she was having trouble when she had to make decisions about her invitations. A mutual friend told her I might be able to help, and she gave me the opportunity to put together a wedding paper suite for her.

I was beyond thrilled just to have box upon box of Arturo delivered to my door for this project. Add to that the joy of spending a day in the studio printing these lovelies and it might make up for the fact that I can't get back to the studio until August because of the bar exam study schedule.

The bride wanted something clean and simple and the wedding colors are burgundy and cream. After I got a feel for what she was after, I designed and letterpress printed invitations, RSVP cards, reception cards, and printed some envelopes. I have to thank Mr. Moggie who helped me to tie ribbons around the invitations.

A Memphis Wedding

Front of the case. (C) 2009 Stu Griffith

Clients of mine are having a Memphis wedding in September. A friend of the family created a Memphis-themed mix CD for the occasion and offered to make a copy for all of the wedding invitees. The groom, a graphic designer, whipped up a design for a few faces of a ready-to-print chipboard CD case, and they asked me to letterpress print them. 

Inside with invitation details. (C) 2009 Stu Griffith.

Every step of this project had an unexpected twist. The design was saved as grayscale and the people at Owosso had trouble making the printing plates (LOVE the people at Owosso, by the way). And the CD cases were backordered at Stumptown (LOVE the people at Stumptown, too). I used a beautiful silver ink from NA Graphics (you guessed, LOVE them, too), but it was much more difficult to work with than the basic blue, black, and red I'd used in the past. 

The playlist (back outside cover). (C) 2009 Stu Griffith

I was encouraged along the way by the talented Moira, who told me that these challenging projects will make one a better printer. I thought it was a wonderful attitude with which to approach the remainder of this unwieldy project, and I'm so glad I took her advice and stuck with it. At the studio last week, I ran into issue after issue with the press. But I found a solution to overcome each obstacle. When I left the studio that day with exactly the right number of printed CD cases and a whole mess of errors, I had one of those moments when I felt like an artist - or at least a skilled craftswoman. It was beautiful. So thanks to Dorris and Stu for being great clients and giving me the opportunity to jump into this challenge! All the best for a beautiful wedding and long happy life together. 

happy almost luv day!

Lots of my friends, single and attached, love to boycott Valentines Day.  My old roommies had a "stray cat" dinner one year.  And I know several people who celebrate by driving through a fast food joint with their significant others.  Mr. Moggie and I will use any excuse to go off budget for a meal at a splurge-level restaurant so we're not the boycotting type, though we try to avoid actually being in a restaurant on the 14th. This year is no different and we'll be dining at one of the city's best sushi restaurants tonight.

Moving along with the love theme, here's a photo of some wedding cards I printed a couple weeks ago.

Today I'll be in the studio printing Save-the-Dates for a lovely couple, which also seems like a great way to celebrate love.

And if you need something else to celebrate check out this letterpressed love letters book by Moira, a letterpress associate at Pyramid Atlantic.

Friday Favorites: Butterflies (and lemonade)

Back in September, two crazy kids had the most fabulous New York wedding. Before their nuptials, the happy couple asked Mr. Moggie to make lemonade to serve during the garden wedding.  We knew a few things about the wedding: the ceremony would be held in an East Village community garden, there would be butterflies and bowties, and the colors would be warm. But we also knew some things about the couple to guide us in the lemonade project: they care deeply about the earth and treating it well, they are thoughtful about the food they eat and where it comes from, they appreciate tasty food and drinks, and plain just doesn't describe them.
 
A few weeks later, Mr. Moggie scoured the local farmers' markets and our herb garden to come up with possible lemonade flavors. We gathered up some tiny jars, lots of sugar, a juicer, and many, many lemons. Hours later we had 12 different kinds of simple syrup: plain, raspberry, spearmint, chocolate mint, basil, rosemary, peach, blueberry, cantaloupe, yellow watermelon, plum, and jalapeno. We had a delicious taste testing session and discovered that jalapeno lemonade is remarkably refreshing. Then, we packaged samples of each of the syrups for the bride and groom, along with a scoresheet, so that they could make their own lemonade and choose their favorite flavors.

For my part, I found some eco-friendly disposable cups. They were made of a (otherwise destroyed) byproduct of sugar refining and were biodegradable. I used a butterfly cutout, some biodegradable lotka paper, and wheatstarch to decorate the cups to match the wedding's theme. On the big day, we filled the earth friendly cups with plain lemonade for guests who prefer the traditional, rosemary lemonade for those with discerning taste, and jalapeno lemonade for those who were truly adventurous. The wedding was beautiful, the lemonade stand was a hit, and butterflies were everywhere!

And they continue to infiltrate my days. Somehow, I've collected all of this butterfly paper and butterfly project material. That paper in the background is the serenity paper I mentioned a few posts back. The 12'x12' sheets, the chipboard butterflies, and the pink felt butterflies were from recent scrapbook kits (maybe moshposh, maybe the sadly extinct cupcake scrapshop). I picked up the orange monarchs at Paper Source this summer; they're made of feathers and I wore one in my hair at the wedding.

I used some of my butterfly supplies to scrap a page for my song lyric mini-book. From the Ben Kweller song In Other Words, I pulled the line: "The butterflies are passive agressive and put their problems on the shelf but they're beautiful." Also, I noticed that even Pottery Barn has butterfly tree ornaments this year, but I'm really into cut paper right now so let me suggest this etsy shop instead.

No, this is not an ad for 27 dresses

Obviously, since there are only 15 dresses in this post! It's just a preview of a shower invitation I'm working on for a dear friend.

Wedding Brunch Invitations

My mom and dad hosted a brunch at their home the day after the wedding. Here are the simple invites I made for the event.

Wedding Odds and Ends

Pictured below are the numbers used to adorn the tables along with some bookmarks I made to serve as favors.  (We also had daisy shaped cookie cutters and a sugar cookie recipe, but I didn't make those.)

There were six different writings on the bookmarks. Two featured short passages from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms; one featured the first half of the lyrics to The Beatles' Here, There and Everywhere (our wedding song), another featured the second half; the remaining two featured a short passage from de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince in French and English.

Wedding Programs

Some photos of the programs handed out at the wedding. I used three layers of paper - sage green, light pink, and white - held together with two brads at the top.  I affixed a cherry blossom sticker in an accenting pink to the bottom of each program. The top page listed the wedding party and important details like date and time.  The second page listed the order of the Mass and named those who participated in the ceremony. Finally, we reserved the last page for thank yous and remembrances. This was one of my favorite pieces to make.

Rehearsal Dinner Invitation: Lakeside Lobster Bake

My first time using the Xyron sticker maker! I found a neat lobster graphic online, printed it onto red cardstock many, many times and made lobster stickers to accentuate these lakeside lobster bake invitations.

And here are some photos from the event:

 

More wedding stuff: Invititations

Here are the invites sent out for our wedding. I used a green backing with black text on white paper. I wrapped a strip of pink vellum and a pink ribbon around the outside of each. Under the ribbon, I used a green dot sticker to hold the vellum together and hand write each guest's name. Thank goodness I had bridesmaids with nimble fingers to help me tie all those knots!

My first project: Ouellette-Karlins Save-the-Date Cards

Back in early 2006, these were the Save-the-Dates my husband and I sent out. It was the first real greeting I made.