invitations Archives - Design Crush

January 31, 2019

Fresh Business Cards for a Fresh Start

At the start of the month I mentioned how I’ve been taking on more projects outside of Design Crush. Turns out that when you’ve been one thing for so long – nearly 12 years – a change of perspective helps with the next chapter going forward. In my case, a change of identity as I went back to being Kelly Beall. Getting some fresh business cards seemed like the best place to start.

Basic Invite has a nice collection of specialty business cards with plenty of modern designs to choose from, along with every other style you might be after. They offer over 180 color options, coordinate with your business or just choose your favorite. You can apply a different color and font to every element of your personalized business cards if you’d like! Speaking of fonts, there’s a library to choose from – but if that sounds too overwhelming you can just go with what they’ve suggested on the template. If you want to get extra customized choose the foil option that’s available in silver, gold, and rose gold, or the clear card.

I chose the Modern Hello design, perfect for handing out to potential clients. I love the clean lines, bold type, and straightforwardness of the layout partnered with that bright punch of green. And speaking as a graphic designer, it was a nice change of pace to find several designs that I didn’t need to change a thing on to suit my own taste.

Basic Invite offers a lot beyond business cards online, they’re also one of few sites that give customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation before they ever place their final order. Test the paper, see the quality, make sure everything meets your expectations – then choose from 40 colors of envelopes to make the perfect invite for your event. To make the process even easier, they offer an address capturing service allowing customers to share a link on any social media platform to request their friends and family’s addresses. The addresses will then be stored in your account and can be selected during the design process.

If all of that doesn’t make you want to check out Basic Invite, well, they’re currently offering 15% off with code 15FF51.

This post is sponsored by Basic Invite. Thank you for supporting that brands that help keep Design Crush kicking!

Posted In behind the scenes, business cards, cards, create, invitations, living, office, paper goods, sponsored post

August 14, 2015

Happy Weekend

This week on Design Crush:
Johan Barrios makes graphite and watercolor look better than could ever be expected.
Crushing on ENTLER‘s ceramic lighting collection in a big way.
Yung Cheng Lin explores female body modification through this digitally manipulated series.
Get in my kitchen cupboards, Cosmic Diner Collection!
Lorna Simpson‘s latest work touches on interactions, relationships, and experiences in contemporary America.
It’s time to pack your modern backpack!
Amanda Happé‘s bright mixed media pieces are just what the doctor ordered.
I *finally* got the office in shape and am so excited to use it more!
Check out these 11 apps you need in your life.

Posted In create, entertaining, happy weekend, house and home, installation, invitations, kids, kitchen, living, paper goods, sculpture, series, style, technology, weddings

October 15, 2014

Countdown to Halloween

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Nope, not Christmas – autumn, October, and Halloween. October 31st has long been a big deal in my family, from great aunts and uncles creating haunted houses in their basements to massive trick or treating, it’s given me some of my best memories. This year feels a bit out of whack since I’m still trying to get my house together post move and figuring out where the movers put everything (and yes, where I put everything while unpacking). I have pumpkins and mums decorating my front porch and a few favorite spooky pieces indoors, but the majority is in the basement. I’m hoping to dig a few more decorations out before hundreds of trick or treaters descend on my neighborhood (from the realtor’s lips to my ears) the night of the 31st. But if you’re more together than I am here are twenty-two of Halloween best ideas for you to tackle!

ROW 1: Pop-Up Table Runner // Black and White Anatomical Printables // DIY Ghostly Mirror Images
ROW 2: Printable Trick or Treat Color Block Labels + Box Template // Straw Spider Web Wreath
ROW 3: DIY Halloween Invitations // DIY Halloween Silhouette Pitcher // Black Cocktail Rimming Sugar
ROW 4: Paper Star Lantern with Spider Web Cutouts // Set of 5 Halloween Cards // DIY Printable Trick-or-Treat Bag Labels

ROW 1: Skeleton Hand Card // DIY Monster Candy Box // Gooey Monster Eye Cookies ROW 2: Printable Halloween Party Invitations // Haunted Doll House ROW 3: Vanilla Bean Skull Cake // Poison Toffee Apples // Printable Vintage Halloween Banner ROW 4: Skull-Shaped Japanese Sugar // // DIY Skull Planter

Posted In cards, downloads, entertaining, food, halloween, holidays, invitations, kids, paper goods, recipes, round up

June 20, 2014

Happy Weekend

01/ Nineteen breathtaking patterns found on Earth’s surface.
02/ What I wouldn’t give for a closetful of these minimal triangle hangers!
03/ Loving these gold foiled invitations that avoid feeling overly precious.
04/ Twelve lessons on climate change architects can learn from New Orleans.
05/ Here’s that BBQ-inspired typeface you didn’t know you needed.
06/ The stunning, unexpected colors of Antarctica and its penguins.
07/ I love a good multitasking credenza!
08/ Legendary fairytale princesses have gone wild in these mug shots.
09/ Tips on bouncing back from design and DIY failures, because we’ve all been there.
10/ Are flavored ice cubes the new popsicle – same idea, different form? (And good in cocktails!)

This week on Design Crush:
This month’s music is here! Listen to Mixtape #37: In the Blackness of Magic.
Butts have never looked as good as they do in the paintings of Helena Wurzel.
An uncensored moving update on my slooow relocation to Pittsburgh.
Beautiful ceramics from Caroline Gomez for your home.
Notepads are my favorite.
Rikka Sormunen‘s super flat illustrations are so, so good.
Check out these 12 June DIYs to get your creative on.
Join me (and my pup Bebe!) for #Destination Summer’s Oklahoma City stop!
Then check out the simple summer picnic bites I put together for a little backyard get together.

Posted In create, furniture, grand design, graphics, happy weekend, house and home, illustration, invitations, paper goods, photography, recipes, storage

April 14, 2014

A Hoppin’ Easter Sunday

Is Easter a big deal in your house? Growing up ours always involved a hidden basket (one year behind the Christmas tree that had yet to be taken down), plastic eggs hidden outside, and a big family dinner at my grandparents’ house. Now it mainly involves dinner at my moms and yes, baskets are still hidden! Check out these 17 projects and ideas to make your Easter Sunday extra special.

ROW 1:Easter Brunch Invitations + Stickers // DIY Floral Party Hats // Printable Easter Treat Bags ROW 2:Easter Bread // Easter Sticker Buckets // A Simple Easter Arrangement ROW 3:Paper Rabbit Bust // Easter Candy Bark ROW 4:Easter Ice-Cream Sandwich Treats // Bunny Ears Twist Wrap // Origami Easter Bunnies ROW 5:Paint Swatch Flowers // Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt // Happy Easter Egg Hunt Signs Kit ROW 6:Easter Egg Terrarium // Washi Tape Eggs // Printable Iron-On Bunny Bags

Posted In easter, entertaining, food, holidays, invitations, kids, make it, paper goods, recipes, round up

June 1, 2011

Party Pairings

Invitation: Quail Creative – Cake: Real Simple

Possibilities: graduation party, engagement shindig, summer birthday

Invitation: Mr. Laurence by Moglea for minted – Cake: Hummingbird Cake by Desserts for Breakfast

Possibilities: casual wedding, anniversary or engagement party

Invitation: Jenny Pennywood – Cake: Jenny Huang Photography

Possibilities: summer cookout, family reunion, shower

Invitation: Painted Chalkboard by ellothere – Cake: Real Simple

Possibilites: wedding, milestone birthday

Posted In entertaining, food, invitations, paper goods, weddings

April 15, 2011

Happy Weekend

PHOTO: Jennilee Marigomen

01. love these tie-on birthday crowns
02. I need some neon in my spring wardrobe
03. a little morbid, but some of us want to be modern even in death
04. I’m awful at making lunch, looking forward to trying some of these recipes
05. make a hanging gutter garden (then say that three times fast)
06. yeah, I could shack up in this treehouse
07. make your own Peeps + Cadbury Eggs (there’s even a deviled version!)
08. I like the idea of a skewer station next to the grill
09. cloud doughnuts
10. a brilliant paper record player invitation from Kelli Anderson

PS: Sign up for the mixtape swap!

Posted In birthday, easter, happy weekend, holidays, house and home, invitations, kitchen, make it, outdoors, paper goods, recipes, wear it, weddings

March 4, 2011

tokketok

At the end of the day minimalism is still my favorite style, as it will probably be up until the end of my life. Joke of tokketok captures it perfectly in every single piece she creates. (I’m crossing my fingers for the day I get to do a blind embossing project for a client!)

Posted In cards, invitations, paper goods

November 18, 2010

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.