Calligraphellie

I was honored to help my friend Michelle create this card to support her brother-in-law Nick, who is battling cancer.  Michelle is the owner of Poplar Photography and asked if I could write the words "Have Courage" to be placed over one of her beautiful photographs.  The end result is even more gorgeous than I imagined!

If you'd like to find out more about Nick's ongoing fight against cancer, click here.  Anyone who makes a donation receives one of these beautiful cards!

On Sunday, September 21st New Creation Home held it's annual banquet and silent auction at the University Club in Palo Alto.  This was my second time attending and has become one of my favorite events to look forward to each year.  I love hearing about the inspiring and important work they are doing to help and bring hope to young moms in East Palo Alto.  

This year's theme was "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" so I collaborated with my friend Ayaka to create this look for the invitation and programs.  Ayaka did the gorgeous watercolor painting and I did the lettering.

In addition to table numbers, I also did some spot calligraphy for these cute informational table tents about New Creation Home -I love the little pictures Ayaka painted to go on each one!  The event committee did such a superb job throwing a classy, fun, and lively event.  Can't wait until next year!

It's been kind of quiet around this blog.  That's because for the past few months I've been spending most of my dwindling calligraphy time to helping my friends Dzung and Nate with their wedding!  Dzung and Nate are friends from church, but also the masterminds behind their respective businesses, Honeysuckle Catering and Fotomokio.  Together, they also produce cooking demonstration videos on Honeysuckle Catering's YouTube channel.  (How adorable is Dzung in those videos!)  Since this was the only wedding I committed to in 2014, I really wanted to be open to whatever they wanted to do.  

First, I created a "logo" and did some spot calligraphy for them to use on their Save the Date cards, invitations, and website.  Oh la la!  

For day-of wedding things, I started by painting these wooden arrow signs:

Here is a sign I did as the ceremony program:

This is the seating chart I did.  This is definitely the biggest chalkboard I've done up to this point.

Also, they needed a lot of menus and food signage.  With Dzung's passion for food, you can imagine that the menu for this wedding was going to be extensive and delicious!  To begin, I wrote on these little tags for the crostini bar:

Here are the two bar menus I made, including one for signature cocktails.  I'll take one of each!  (Just kidding, I'm a total lightweight.)

For dinner, I created this buffet menu.  Out of all the signs, this one is my personal favorite.

And then I wrote these cute little chalkboard signs for the dessert bar.  Instead of just one wedding cake, they had a whole dessert bar of eight different cakes and pies!  I'll take one slice of each!  (Not kidding.)  Out of everything I did to help with this wedding, I think my favorite was that our other artist friend, Aislin, took the wedding logo I designed and laser cut it into a spectacular wooden cake topper! (Sorry about the blurry pics.)

Also, here is the sign for a fun photo booth.

And of course, what young, modern wedding isn't complete without its own Instagram hashtag?  I wrote it in sidewalk chalk near the entry way.

It was also fun to see how Dzung and Nate incorporated the logo I made into different aspects of the wedding day, from a bag for throwing flower petals to the little recipe books that they made as wedding favors to adorn the table settings.

So as you can see, I've been busy for the past couple of months.  I had such a wonderful experience working with Dzung and Nate.  Their wedding day was so joyous and fun.  I loved seeing them use their creativity and style to create a truly beautiful and memorable wedding.  Cheers!

I did calligraphy for these candles that are now for sale on epamade.com!

My friend Ayaka is one of the creators of a social enterprise called TLMade (as in Tenderloin Made, as in the district of San Francisco were many impoverished people live) where they work with local artists to create jobs and artistic goods.  She is also on the board of New Creation Home and has been trying to bring a similar venture down to East Palo Alto.  For their fundraiser, Ayaka worked with some of the girls and New Creation Home to make candles and asked if I would donate my calligraphy skills for the labels.  I was happy to oblige.

It was pretty cool to see my writing on the label for a real product!

The husband and I had the pleasure of attending the annual fundraiser for New Creation Home Ministries.  It was really fun and a little surreal to walk around the event and see my calligraphy all over the place.  The "Let there be Light" that I wrote for the invitation was on a big screen, on the front of the programs, and made into little buttons that people wore.

Also, my art piece of 2 Corinthians 5:17 was up for auction (which someone bought!).

My friend Ayaka was designing the invitation for a fundraiser for New Creation Home Ministries, a non-profit that serves young mothers in East Palo Alto, and asked if I could lend a hand with some writing.  This was a spot job (I write the words to be scanned) so I had no idea what the finished product was going to look like.  I think Ayaka did an awesome job designing the invite!

It's also really fun when you walk in to church and see your hand printed in the bulletin!