Holiday Cards: Part 1.

After seeing holiday decorations lined upon store shelves as early as mid-October, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t so much as mention Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Well, that day is finally here. Over the next few weeks I’ll share my favorite cards, a few recipes, some homemade/handmade ideas, and a lot of great things that could be given as gifts should you so choose.

(In most cases, the card shown is only a sampling of what the shop has to offer.)



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A. Favorite Design


ash & anchor


Jack & Ella Paper Press


Kate’s Paperie


Pop Ink


REDSTAR ink


Rifle Paper Co.


Starshaped Press


Two Brunettes

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Advent Calendar Roundup.

Advent calendars have always been a big deal for me. Whether it’s one from Hallmark or a more elaborate set-up involving pieces of chocolate or tiny presents, there was always one put up in our little house come December 1st. These are some of my favorites out there this year.


{Brooklyn Advent Calendar}


{Canvas Advent Calendar}


{DIY Advent Calendar}


{Advent Garland}


{Mini Desktop Advent Calendar}


{Wall Advent Calendar}


{Pinboard Advent Calendar}


{Uusi Advent Calendar}

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Happy Weekend.


{kristin~mainemomma}

+ If your playing Thanksgiving host you mights like these simple printables: a Thanksgiving paper chain + printable napkin rings + gift bags + all of these

+ Love this paper bag turkey for the kids’ table!

+ Hey designers, know what it takes to make a logo super suck?

+ Yet another idea for my paint chip collection.

+ I want to write myself a futureme.org letter, but am almost too nervous.

+ Quite possibly the best cat calendar I’ve ever seen.

+ Say hello to the Mrs. Shoppe!

+ Genius tutorial on making a modern coffee table out of a wooden pallet.

+ Anxious to try out a modern french tip manicure.

+ Jack Spade’s gift guides are the only ones that made me want to look.

Happy Weekend!

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The Life Aquatic Inspired Invitations.

I’ve had the chance to befriend a lot of talented people thanks to this blog, one of which has been fellow OKC-dweller Kathleen Shannon. And, well, she’s amazing. Both as a designer and as a friend. (See that Design Crush logo up there? Yeah, she did it.) We happen to share a love of Wes Anderson movies, so when I heard she was designing a wedding invitation inspired by The Life Aquatic I started salivating at the idea. She’s lovely enough to allow me to share it with you first, right here right now. And because no one describes their work better than the artist, I give you the story behind the invitation suite in Kathleen’s own words.

Vanessa contacted me for custom wedding invitations after she stumbled across my portfolio on my blog. She and her fiance George met in Iraq working for the Department of State and love traveling. They are huge Wes Anderson fans, love maps, and giant squids. Sounds odd and quirky – so of course it was right up my alley. They had lots of fun requests – along with a giant squid on the invite they also wanted to include pi (you know, mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space), Par Avion written in Persian somewhere, and a map with important places to the couple highlighted. It’s not everyday you get requests like this from a bride and I was more than happy to oblige. Overall, Vanessa and George wanted the invite to spark a bit of curiosity in its recipients and I was up for the design challenge.

The Life Aquatic is one of my favorite movies of all time so I used that as my primary source of inspiration. I wanted the invitation typography to feel like opening credits and the RSVP tag to feel like a baggage claim tag. We utilized a limited color-palette of emerald and aqua with a few pops of orange. I managed to include all the requested elements without making the suite feel too cluttered – I think what we came away with was a layered and positively curious collection.

PS: To see more of Kathleen’s invitation work check out her site!

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