Floral Quilted Wall Hangings

This past holiday season I hand-sewed three different "wall hangings" to give out as gifts to my mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. 

Buy these floral fabrics here: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/ideasbyandrea

All of the fabric swatches (except for the solid light green around the edges) were printed at Spoonflower - a website that allows you to upload your own designs to be printed on fabric! The images you see are photographs of flowers that I've taken in the last several years (including pictures of roses and bouquets purchased at supermarkets, the flora around my grandmother's house, and professionally-designed gardens and landscapes in Barcelona, Paris, Southern Italy, Croatia, and Upstate New York). Many of the photographs were slightly altered/desaturated in Photoshop to give them a slightly vintage/aged/faded look. 

All of the photographs have a similar color scheme (shades of light greens, pinks, yellows, whites, purples, and oranges), and are intended to work together as a collection, making them great fabric choices for patchwork projects like these quilt-inspired wall hangings! 

There's no shortage of photographs of the finished project, so keep scrolling down!! :)
 
 

Shameless plug time: Love these wall hangings? Head over to Spoonflower to purchase my fabrics! :)
 

Sunday Sample Spotlight: "Through the Glass"

For the first Sunday Sample Spotlight of 2013, I present you with this elegant stationery set with a color scheme perfect for winter events - "Through the Glass."

"Through the Glass" Invitation Duo (invite & info card)

I used a metallic silver "Himalaya" pocketfold envelope with matching metallic silver cardstock as the main color of this sparkly stationery set. The invitation and information sheet are both printed on classic white cardstock, and then mounted to the silver backing with light blue brads and a beautiful two-toned blue ribbon.

The ribbon is a unique blend of satin and sheer - the shiny blue satin mimics the sparkle of the silver cardstock and envelope, while the sheer blue stripe lets the underlying pale blue pattern show through.

I love that when the envelope is folded closed, the silver speaks for itself. When you start to open it, the elegant pattern and ribbons are the first things you see!

As you can see in the photos below, the shiny silver envelope and paper can have quite a bit of sparkle to them, depending on the light. Just because paper is static and flat doesn't mean it has to be boring! Metallic papers are a great way to add interest and depth to your stationery.

The main invitation is only attached to the silver envelope on the left side (the three brads pierce through the ribbon, white cardstock, silver cardstock, and silver envelope), so you can lift up on the right side of the invitation for a peak of more of the beautiful silver envelope underneath!

This stationery set would be great for any elegant winter event, including December holidays, weddings, and anniversary dinners.

Next week's Sunday Sample Spotlight: "Art Nouveau"


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Shameless Plug Time: Love this invitation (or others featured on this blog)? Want something similar (or something completely custom) designed for your event? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.

Gift Wrapping

I love gift wrapping, and since the holiday gift-giving season is approaching I thought I'd mention a few ideas about how to spruce up the packages you hand out this year.

Maybe you have a really great gift already picked out for a special someone, and you want the outside packaging to look just as amazing as the gift inside. There are many gorgeous wrapping papers available in stores for the holidays, but those aren't your only options. Old newspapers or maps can be great ways to recycle and reuse paper while giving your presents a unique look, especially if the gift inside relates to the wrapping on the outside.

Road maps are perfect wrapping paper for a car GPS unit (they won't need those old road maps anymore anyway!). Trail maps of local parks or hiking spots are great for wrapping a new backpack or water bottle for an outdoorsy friend. A map of a foreign country would be a fabulous way to wrap a travel book for a friend planning a vacation to that country. Or maybe you've decided to splurge and buy plane tickets for you and a special someone to go on the vacation of your dreams. What better way to wrap up that special surprise than with a map of the city the two of you will be shortly exploring?

Maps are also great for presents that have come from a certain location. Package Belgian chocolates in - you guessed it - a map of Belgium, or a bottle of California wine in a map of the Napa Valley. And cheap reproductions of historical maps (or newspapers, or documents) are great if you're buying for a history buff.

For small gifts, consider using old postcards or photographs as wrapping paper - it's not hard now to scan an image into your computer, tile it out on a standard sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper and print it out on your printer. That way you can make personal wrapping paper that includes photographs of you and the person you're giving your gift to! You could even make the package into a complete work of art by covering a cardboard box with a collage of all sorts of photographs and other items like playbills and ticket stubs of the memories you've shared together.

If you're putting the gift inside a cardboard box anyway, why not try a really unique approach and paint the box instead of wrapping it? You could even paint a ribbon around the entire thing and a bow on the top so that at first glance it's a trompe l'oeil (trick of the eye) and looks like a real ribbon- and wrapping-paper decked present.

If that's not enough options for you, consider special craft paper, scrapbook paper, or fabric. They feel and act similarly to standard wrapping paper, so they're easy to work with. I just love Hollander's, a decorative paper store in Ann Arbor, MI. They have a ton of great papers to choose from that would make for absolutely gorgeous wrapping paper for special presents. The best part? You can also order paper online if you're not near Ann Arbor.

And if you have a bit of extra fabric lying around from an old sewing project, why not put it to good use? You can also go the extra mile and pick out some new fabric with your gift recipient in mind. You can even design your own fabric on Spoonflower.com and incorporate photographs onto fabric to print out and use as wrapping. Or for smaller packages, your standard home printer can print your design out on fabric - just make sure that an 8.5" x 11" swatch of fabric will be enough to cover the gift.

Of course, once you have your gift wrapped, you don't have to stop there. Why not use some creativity and create your own ribbons and bows? Use fake flowers or strands of beads to decorate your gift, or get some cheap fabric ribbon in the bargain bins at JoAnn Fabrics stores. Even the cheapest fabric ribbon looks nicer than the paper ribbon you can buy next to the wrapping paper.

And don't forget the gift tags! If you have good handwriting, why not hand-draw your own gift tags? You can also print digital tags from your computer. If it's a travel-themed gift, why not make the tag look like a luggage tag? If you're buying gardening supplies for someone, why not write the gift tag on a small packet of seeds and attach it to the package? There are tons of ways to be creative, depending on who you're buying for - and what you bought them. :)

Happy wrapping!

Holiday and Winter Parties

It's that time of year again - the season of holidays and all the holiday parties that go with it. Of course there are certain traditions and activities already planned for such events depending on the holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, New Year's Eve), but what about ideas for other parties that aren't so holiday-specific? My friends and I have a "Birchristmakwanzukkahsolstice" party every year - so named because it's not really about the many holidays at all (or my/my husband's birthday around the same time), but about seeing each other again now that we're all back home for a winter break from work or school.

One of the most fun traditions we've done the past few years is a game called "tele-draw" (which has now been adapted into board game form and marketed as "Telestrations," though we've been playing it since 2007). You start by creating small packets of paper - enough for each person at the party to have one sheet of paper - and then staple them in one corner so it's fastened but still easy to flip through. The first person writes a word or phrase - anything they want - and then passes it to the next person, who then has to try to draw (on the second page) whatever the first person wrote (on the first page). After drawing, the second person folds down the original written phrase so that the next person will only be able to see their drawing and passes it on. The third person has to try to guess what the word or phrase was based on the drawing, and it goes back and forth between writing and drawing until the packet has made it all the way around the circle. It's like a mixture between Pictionary and Telephone and the end results are hilarious!

Another idea for a non-holiday-specific winter party is to enjoy the snowy weather! It doesn't matter if you're ten or thirty - sledding down a snow-covered hill is just plain fun! Dress warmly, go to an appropriately sized hill (it helps if you go after dark so it's not overrun with children), and have fun! All the adult stress in your life will melt away and you'll feel like a kid again!


Or, have a hot beverage party! (This could be a good idea for the aftermath of your sledding adventure, as well). Turn your kitchen into a hot beverage factory and try all different kinds of hot chocolate (try adding caramel, delicious flavors of extract, cinnamon sticks, or mints and other hard candies, and see what flavor combinations you can create). Get different flavors of marshmallows and whipped cream and stock up on festive sprinkles for toppings. Donuts and cookies are great companions to dip in your steaming mugs of hot chocolate. And if that doesn't sound fun and exciting enough for you, make sure to get some Irish cream, eggnog, or alcohol-infused whipped cream* to liven up the party. ;)

(*I am not kidding. This exists.)

Whatever you choose to celebrate, and however you decide to do it, make sure to enjoy the season. I love how beautiful winter can be, but it can also be frigid and bleak - and the best solution to beating the winter blues is to meet up with family and friends and create warm new memories.

Holiday Cards - Sale!

Now that it's November, the holidays are just around the corner! Do you have your holiday cards yet? I'd be happy to design a custom holiday card just for you!

I already have a few designs for Hanukkah, and would be happy to create designs for Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's, the Winter Solstice, or any other winter holiday you celebrate!

Now, for the really good part:

Normally I charge $100 for a custom design, plus about $1 printing per card (not including the cost of envelopes), but for this coming holiday season, a custom holiday card design would cost you only $25! Your design could include photographs of your family, as well as the artwork and text of your choosing!

That means that if, after searching through your address book, you decided you needed 50 holiday cards, it would only cost $75, plus the cost of envelopes and shipping. This offer expires on December 31, 2011. Please allow approximately two-three weeks after placing your order for designing, printing, and shipping.

Send me an email if you're interested! :)

Greeting Cards

Another project I worked on recently was designing greeting cards.

I'll admit it - I took some of the wording for these from cards I saw in Hallmark, but the designs are all mine! I designed and printed these greeting cards for a client who was looking for a year's supply of birthday cards, anniversary cards and Hanukkah cards to send out to her family members. It sure beats thirty separate trips to the store to purchase them!

The card designs were created for a variety of people - sons, grandsons, daughters, granddaughters, etc. - of all different ages. I made three Hanukkah designs (a menorah design, and two star of David designs), four birthday designs (a design for a woman, a man, a girl, and a boy), and two different anniversary designs - a bouquet of flowers, and a glass of wine. Within each design, I printed several out in different colors, with different text depending on who the card was intended for. It was a lot of work, but the end results were amazing!