a little update

Just a few photos from my phone and instagram. 

New paintings, illustrations, cards, prints and my little desk!

New Floral Prints

A few colorways of a new floral print I painted recently.

Tiny Branches Floral, Gouache, 2013

Minted Greeting Cards

Minted.com is now selling greeting cards and a few of my designs were chosen

as Editor's picks.  You can even customize them with names and photos!

Check them out by clicking the link.

minted.com

My Wedding Invitations & More

Okay sorry to bombard you with wedding photos but I'm just so excited I can finally share some of my favorite details!

Our wedding was November 3, 2012 at The Green Building in Brooklyn.

My wedding invitation was a pure labor of love. Hand painted in watercolor and gouache, and fine printed by Skink Ink in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  I had a stamp created using my calligraphy for my parent's address at Casey's Rubber Stamps in the East Village - I highly recommend them for all your stamp needs.  The envelopes were all hand addresses by me.

The place cards were these amazing boxing ticket stubs we found at Kings County Salvage in Williamsburg. They are from the 50's and the most gorgeous shade of blue. I hand lettered each name, and taped them with washi tape to a large piece of plexi glass.

The menu also includes my calligraphy - and being the crazy DIY geek I am - I hand carved different motifs and stamped each menu card. The little pretzel notebook was also a DIY project created with Muji notebooks and a hand carved stamp.  The pretzel represents our old home, Philly and our new home, NYC.  I was so happy with the result, and now have a new hobby of stamp carving.

The bride and groom signs were hand painted to match the beautiful floral design from Sprout Floral (also in Williamsburg).

I also painted some calligraphy for the herbs we used in our delicious flatbreads.  Five Spice Catering (Mukti and Imelda) created the most amazing and epic food spread I have ever experienced. Not to mention, the wedding was during the craziness that was Hurricane Sandy! They had no access to or power in their apartment for the week prior.  Downtown Manhattan (where a caterer might procure all of their ingredients) had no power, yet Five Spice still managed to pull together a fantastic event and our guests are still raving about it.

The Bosco photo booth is always a huge hit, and our wedding was no exception. They have the best, classiest photo booths in all the land! Not only do the photos print out right before your eyes, but they live forever on the internet, at thebos.co This is one of my favorite photos from the night starring my Oma and Aunt Ruth.

Jillian and her husband Tony Bisinger were our brilliant photographers.  They flew in from LA and almost didn't make it due to Sandy.  Not only are they an incredibly talented team, they are some of the nicest people I've ever met.  Jill in particular kept me sane during a VERY challenging week.

Speaking of challenging, Hurricane Sandy threatened to ruin the wedding we had been planning for almost two years.  While many of our guests were unable to make it, and not everything was as I had planned it - the day was perfection.  Just two days before the wedding, I felt defeated and almost called the whole thing off.  My family and friends teamed up and found a solution to every problem we had.  I am so grateful for their support and know it could not have happened without them.  Graham and I actually feel Hurricane Sandy made our wedding BETTER - because it really put everything into perspective.  It wasn't about boutonnieres or champagne, it was about the promise to be there for each other through all of life's challenges big and small. And really, all you need for a great wedding is the people you love surrounding you.

Well, if you made it to the end of this post - thank you! I promise to share more photos soon, specifically the beautiful hanging sculptures Graham custom made. They deserve a post all their own!

kraft paper painted cards

I love to send out hand painted cards to my friends and family on special occasions.

Most of the time I forget to scan them in and just send them on their way, but I have managed

to get a few scanned in and thought to share them here. Obviously I have a thing for kraft paper!

 You might also spot my save the date - I painted each one and then stamped
them with a custom stamp I had created using my calligraphy. 

New AEO designs

A few new AEO designs I worked on for Holiday and Back to School 2012.

All are original artwork except for the tank embroidery, which was inspired by a vintage swatch.

As you can see I’ve been busy at work!

new floral prints

Just wanted to share some new floral prints I worked on!

These were all hand painted by me using gouache and watercolor paints. 

I then scanned them in, put into repeat and made a few colorways. 

baby shower invite

A new minted design for the Baby Shower invite challenge.

wish me luck ;)

digital painting

I installed the CS5 suite on my computer today and was having fun experimenting with digital painting. Painting on the computer is great because there is no clean up! This year,  my goal is to teach myself Adobe Illustrator (yeah it's kind of pathetic I don’t know it yet).  I’m hoping once I learn it, I will be able to submit to more Minted challenges and build up the stationary side of my portfolio. wish me luck!

one more save the date

When it comes to designing for myself, I can be extremeley indecisive.  I am always on the quest to create something “better”.  This is probably the 20th save the date option I made for our upcoming wedding.  We are not actually using it, instead we are going to experiment with laser cutting (yay for having a creative fiance with access to amazing tools!) I thought I would post this anyway, although I don’t love the design… I really am trying to let go of my perfectionism, one step at a time ;)

black and white roses

black and white rose print.  2012

personalized art!

A  personalized artwork for some dear friends who are recently engaged!

gouache & photoshop, 2012