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Wedding Wire Reviews

To all my current and past clients, Thank you! Thank you so much for trusting Bloom with your event or personal stationery. Thank you for allowing me to do what I love for a living. I truly value all of you and feel so lucky to have such a wonderful client base.

I have a plea for you. It is that time again where I must collect reviews for Wedding Wire. This can help me achieve a Choice Award or a Wedding Wire rating. Please help! If you haven't left a review of the work I've done for you, please visit the link below and leave one. I really appreciate it! (You don't have to be a wedding client to leave a review either, all are welcome!)

Review Bloom Art & Design

Warmest Wishes

From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry holiday season.

Successful Flight

You have probably seen the sneak peak post about my daughter's 2nd birthday party. It was a success and I'm so happy with how all the details turned out. Thanks to my friend Brooke who helped set up and provided the glossy round labels for stickers and snack boxes.

Claire is obsessed with airplanes, but there isn't much out there for a girly airplane party. This was the main inspiration. Why couldn't she have an airplane party? Why can't a girl love airplanes as much as boys? I found a color board on Pinterest (as well as a ton of other inspiring images and ideas) of midnight blue and shades of pink. I think it worked really well. Here are the invitations we sent out:

The backdrop was a ribbon banner centered behind the table and cake. On either side were vintage hard bodied suitcases I borrowed from my wonderful photographer friend's prop closet (BrookeWest Photography). One was filled with suitcase shaped favor boxes and a sign for the "Baggage Claim" where the guests would pick them up after the party. In each favor box were small foam gliders the kids could put to ether and decorate, a passport sticker book, bubbles and fruit snacks. The other suitcase had a sign for the "Galley" where there were personal snack boxes ready for the guests. Each box had a mini peanut butter and jelly, Annie's bunny snacks, grapes and chocolate chip cookies.

The cake was the part that I got the most questions about before the party. After last years rainbow cake, we had set the bar high. This year we created a cake spelling out "cake," decorated with blue sugar and pipped clouds. Using two pink paper straws a small airplane and clouds were strung across as if flying over the cake. Each letter of the cake was a different color: two shades of pink and two shades of blue.

For the activities, since the kids ranged in age from 20 months to 10 years, we had a table set up with bass wood airplanes and crayons to decorate them. Some of the kids took the planes outside to fly them. There were also "Pilot in Training" stickers, because lets face it, what kid doesn't like a sticker? Most of the time, the kids spent outside playing, since it was slightly chilly but still beautiful out.

It was such a fun party, and the most important part, Claire had a great time with all of her friends. Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun!

Whimsical holiday

I became acquainted with Modern Whimsy through a search for Austin event and wedding coordinators, to send out Bloom's marketing materials. Over the past few months, I've shared a few email conversations with Mandy, the owner of Modern Whimsy. I can tell that we share a love for all things beautiful and well put-together. Design is important and beautiful, whether floral design, event design or stationery.

Mandy contacted me to create some holiday cards for her. She used words like "simple, fresh, modern and rustic" to describe what she was looking for. She also mentioned that she likes pinecones, bare branches, and deep reds. Mandy also provided all the text, including the quote. I couldn't have asked for better guidance. I'm so happy with how these turned out. If these cards are any indication of Mandy's sensibility and the beautiful events she puts together, I highly recommend Modern Whimsy!

Home for the Holidays

My Mother-in-Law asked for a holiday card design again this year, and with out a family picture as a jumpstart like last year's card we took some inspiration from the Address Change card we created this year. Already having the image of their new home, I altered it a bit, adding a christmas tree and lights on the house. They also live where it snows, unlike here in Texas, so adding that was necessary as well.

We also printed return addresses on the envelopes and included seals.

Family Holiday Card 2011

This family has been a loyal holiday card customer for three years running. Here are the 2009 and 2010 posts. Its been really neat to not only see the kids grow up, but to see them grow through my illustrations of them. In these cards, the clients wanted a more "hand-drawn feel" this year. The illustration was hand drawn, scanned and then colored digitally. Even the foliage and "Happy Holidays" are hand-drawn. Thank you to this family, for always bringing me a new challenge and for allowing me to capture you're beautiful girls (an pets) on paper.












(when you click on any image, a full gallery is available)
You may have noticed that Red, Brown and Blue paired together are the trend this year. I have seen it everywhere and even used this color combination in my own cards.

End of the Year special.

Bloom is running and end of the year special! Get 20% off until December 31st, 2011.
Here's How:

If you have placed an order with Bloom this year you automatically receive 20% off your next order placed before Dec.31st, 2011

If you are a new customer, you can receive the same discount by placing two orders before the deadline. Your second order will receive the 20% off discount.

So, if you plan on sending holiday cards and hosting a new years party, Bloom can help! Kill two birds with one stone and let us design your stationery for the holidays (or even for an event next year!).

Facebook Giveaway!

Bloom will be giving away a signed copy of "Santa's North Pole After Christmas Elves" if we can reach 135 "likes" on our Facebook Page. Thats just 10 more people! Recruit your friends and family. If we can reach 135 by Monday morning (November 21st) I'll randomly choose from all of the "LIKERs."

Order your copy today on Amazon.com

Bloom Favorite: Grey

Grey is everywhere! And I am not complaining. I love grey as a neutral to really highlight and make a bright color pop. I can't look through a blog without seeing a grey inspired wedding somewhere in the mix. Just think about all the colors that Grey goes with. Its a grey-t (haha, I make myself laugh!) compliment to any event's color scheme. Today I found myself fawning over the grey and orange, and grey and yellow combinations while making these inspiration boards on StyleMePretty.

Sneak Peek: Pink and Blue Airplane Party

My daughter is OBSESSED with airplanes. So much so that we are going to do our best to give her an airplane party for her upcoming second birthday. In order to make it a little more girly, I've added some fluffy clouds and pink into the mix. Stay tuned for more as we plan and create for this upcoming event.

Need kids party invitations? We can work with you to design invitations that encompass all your want your party to be!

How well can you Kern?

My Husband sent me this little game online today. I thought it appropriate to share after the letterpress post below. Kerning on the computer is a modern convenience, when typesetting with lead type its much more involved.

Have a go at it.

Kern Me

Type. Set. Press.

   

On Saturday I was fortunate to drive to Houston for a Letterpress class at the Museum of Printing History. My friend Tania joined me both for the drive and the class. We had a blast. It was so fun! Not only did I get to spend that time with Tania, and meet the fellow Letterpress enthusiasts, but we actually went through the motions of designing, typesetting, proofing and printing.

(photos above borrowed from & property of weekendprojectgirl)

Tania and I left bright and early at 6:30am to make the 3 hour drive into Houston. We arrived about 2 and half hours later after a coffee stop and some pretty interesting sleepy-eyed conversation. Its always hard to form words, let alone complete sentences, when its still dark outside and my IV coffee drip hasn't been started. We arrived to an open but empty museum, it was a little erie. As other students and the instructor arrived Tania and I felt more at ease, knowing our 3 hour trip was not in vain. I have to admit that for a few minutes I wondered if the class was really going to happen.

(photos above borrowed from & property of weekendprojectgirl) 

Amanda, our wonderful instructor (also the curator of the museum), introduced the class with a selection of business cards that previous students of the class had created and that she had collected through the years. We each introduced ourselves and our purpose. There was an interior designer (thanks to Kelly for her pictures from weekendprojectgirl.blogspot.com), a marketing/advertising guy turned graphic designer -- due to accidentally falling more in love with typography in the ads than the ads themselves, and a married couple -- one a photographer the other an intern-architect who had fallen in love with letterpress during wedding planning (as many people do), Tania -- an intern-architect, and myself -- designer and artist.  The size of the class was a big plus, with only 6 students there was plenty of room in the workshop to move around and each have a chance to participate.

Amanda gave us a typesetting demo, using physical lead type and a composing stick. She taught us the lingo, most of which I have a cheat sheet for because I have forgotten. When she was done with her demo she let us loose to create our own "business card" design. The collection of type was incredible and I quickly just picked the first drawer I opened for my design. I didn't want to get caught up in choosing a font when I just wanted to practice the art form of typesetting. I created a card for my 22 month old daughter who loves to dance, hence the "dancer extraordinaire."

Because none of us had ever done this before it took us a little over an hour to actually compose the type for a standard business card size. Its a beautiful but labor intensive process. When we had all completed our composition, we lined them up together and locked them on the platen of the table-top press that we would use to proof. My Showcard press that I have at home is similar to this, but a smaller table-top size. We each had the opportunity to run the press once for a proof set. A few of us made some minor changes after proofing.

Amanda helped us to split them into two groups of three and lock them up together to move the set to the platen of our Kelsey table-top, and the other group's floor model Kelsey. We had the opportunity to "ink-up" the plates and rollers, set the paper guides and run a series of prints. Amanda showed us how to adjust the "packing" and adjust the pressure to achieve the perfect print every time. Of course every press is and will be different. Our group; Tania, Kelly and I, figured out how to do a double run on each sheet for the intensity of color. You should have seen our excitement after the first pull. WOW, it was incredible!

We ran out of time to cut apart the cards, so Amanda will be sending each of us our cards -- I will post pictures of those when I receive them.

Its been a dream of mine to learn this incredibly hands on art form and in turn be able to offer it to my clients. We are half way there! There is still so much to learn, but I really feel like I'm on my way to falling in love with the process. I returned from Houston gushing to my family and friends about the experience.

image: weekendprojectgirl

If you are in the Houston Area, please check out and support the museum and here is the class description if you are interested in the future:

Letterpress Business Cards

Learn the basics of setting type by hand and letterpress printing using the table-top platen press, still widely available on the market. Learn the california job case, set type, use a pica ruler and composing stick, mix ink, ink the press and print. Each student will set and print his or her own business card. We'll pull proofs, make corrections and print multiple copies; then we'll distribute type and spacing, and clean up.

Instructor: Amanda Stevenson
Level: all levels
Tuition: $90 plus $15 materials fee