Calligraphellie

My family had a pretty rough May, so some dear friends helped us out by bringing us dinners and other kind things.  Now that summer vacation has rolled around, I was able to make some thank you cards to properly show some gratitude.

I think the cards turned out okay, but I realized that I'm not really into "design".  I just like writing things pretty, so designing thank you cards didn't end up as enjoyable as I thought it would.  Writing the envelopes was super fun though and I'm really pleased how they turned out.  I hope my friends enjoyed receiving them in the mail!

Cards -

Phew!  It has been a crazy busy month.  I'm excited to share with you my latest calligraphy project - our family Christmas card!  I've been so swamped at work I wasn't sure I would have time to actually complete it before Christmas, but I did it!

The whole catalyst for this was really just because I wanted an excuse to practice writing with white ink and address envelopes.  Which led to looking for red envelopes.  Which led to making a card to go in the envelopes.  For addressing, I wanted to practice two styles.

Here's a more traditional Copperplate style:

This is a more modern, contemporary style:

Congratulations to my friends Lauren & Josh! They got married this past weekend at a gorgeous wedding in Sonoma, California. I had the pleasure and privilege of writing the escort cards for the reception. It was really fun to have my first "event" and see them all laid out on the table. I need to give Lauren a lot of credit for helping to encourage me in my new hobby.  Having an event where I know people will be looking at my work served as great motivation to practice and get better. 

I also made some cards for Lauren - one for her bridal shower and one for the wedding.  It was fun to add illustrations to add some oomph to the cards.

My friend Jean said she wished there was a good reason for me to make her a card.  Then we realized that her anniversary had just passed the week before.  Good enough for me.  

This card was fun for me to create because I really had to wrack my brain to come up with a creative idea that was personalized to them.  Then when I finally put the whole thing together it just seemed so perfect.  And I must confess, I came up with it in church when my mind was wandering away from the sermon.  Divine inspiration?  Sure, why not.  :)

As a side note, I really would like to apologize for my ugly pictures.  I don't know how to use my camera, nor do I have the time to "stage" the photo.  Let's just pretend that everything looks a gazillion times better in real life - you have no idea.  ;)