Soup Party Ideas

If you're anything like me, the end of the holiday season can be a bit depressing, once all those pretty Christmas lights are taken down but the weather isn't any warmer (and in some cases, is even worse than it was in December). The next major excuse to hold a party isn't until Valentine's Day in February, but sometimes you just need a little event to help you make it through the cold winter until then...

Which is why a food party is such a great idea! Do you really need an official holiday to invite friends and family over for some warm food? One of my classmates in my art classes at Eastern Michigan University a few years ago was telling the class about how her boyfriend's family has a tradition every winter of hosting a soup party, and as a graphic design project, she created some invitations for that event. The way she described it sounded like a completely genius idea. The concept is simple - everyone who comes to the party has to bring a dish of soup to pass, just like a pot luck, and then everyone goes around and samples all of the different kinds of warm, delicious, winter-blues-healing soup. Once all of the guests have had their fill, they become judges and rate their favorite soups, and whoever cooked the soup with the most votes wins a prize.

You could also narrow the scope of the party to just a single kind of soup - like chili - and have an indoor chili cook-off. What better way to stay warm in the winter than feasting on hot, spicy chili?? :) For another twist, if you have a large enough kitchen and a small enough party, you could all cook your soup dishes on site, to ensure that they stay nice and warm. Or maybe you have access to your local high school's home ec classroom, so everyone can have their own little station for soup cooking. If you have the venue for it, you could even pretend you're all on a Food Network cooking competition, and supply everyone with the same ingredients, and see which teams can come up with the most delicious soups using only those ingredients.

It doesn't have to be soup to make a warm splash in your cold winter... any hot dish would do! The idea is just to have fun with family and friends and stay warm at the coldest time of the year - just like you did during the holiday season. :)

Brides-to-Be Show Recap

The Brides-to-Be show last weekend was a great success! I hung the sign I painted from the tablecloth and covered the table with three large albums full of sample stationery sets. I also brought one of the watercolor placemats I painted for my own wedding, my card box (which I used to collect contest entry forms), and a few loose samples to complete the table display. :)

Shameless plug time: Couldn't make it to the Brides-to-Be show but still want to see some samples of my work? Head on over to the Invites by Andrea website to check out some photographs of sample stationery sets. Didn't get a chance to sign up for exclusive Invites by Andrea discounts at the show? Send me an email with your email address and info, and I'll add you to the mailing list to receive notifications about special sales, AND enter you in a chance to win free custom designs for your invitations, reply cards, information inserts, thank-you notes and save-the-dates! :)

Sunday Sample Spotlight: "Dilly Dilly"

Winter is in full swing, and you know what that means for Michigan (and much of the rest of the U.S., too) - frigid temperatures, bare tree branches, that cold winter wind, and (if we're lucky) some of that beautiful sparkling snow. When I found this scrapbook paper, based on a photograph of winter trees, I knew I had to use it in a winter-themed stationery set.

"Dilly Dilly" - Invitation duo (invite & reply card)

The scrapbook paper (which I cut out and attached to the left flap and right pockets of the light blue linen Himalaya pocketfold envelope) is a gorgeous periwinkle color that's almost lavender. It paired terrifically with the light blue linen I chose for the envelopes and to print the invitations on. Coupled with a couple lavender brads and a pastel blue vellum overlay, the color scheme becomes a hauntingly beautiful lavender and blue - which is where I got the name from. Remember the nursery rhyme?

Lavender Blue, Dilly Dilly...

Whenever I use scrapbook paper to line an envelope, I like to incorporate the imagery or pattern used into other parts of the stationery design, as well, and this set is no exception. I scanned in the beautiful bare tree photograph from the scrapbook paper, and made it lighter and more transparent so it blended even better with the cool light blue paper the invitation would be printed on. With the blue vellum overlay, the trees receded even further into the background, adding even more depth to the winter scene the design creates.

I also included just a hint of brighter blue at the top of the invitation and reply card, to reconnect the paper to the blue of the vellum overlay. This way, I didn't need to cover the reply card with blue vellum to have it still feel connected to and cohesive to the invitation. Though I have covered reply cards with vellum before, I generally decide not to, for practical reasons. It's certainly beautiful, but how many of your guests will not realize they can raise the vellum, and try to write their reply on the overlay instead of the actual paper? Plus, when you're stamping all of the reply envelopes for your guests to return, you have to be careful to put enough postage on if you start adding multiple layers onto your reply cards.

I love how peaceful and serene winter can be. It's a season that easily lends itself to elegant functions. This stationery set (like most that I've designed) is shown with text and information for a winter wedding, but the design could easily be adapted to any other winter event instead. You don't have to be betrothed to have an excuse to throw a formal winter party! :)

Next week's Sunday Sample Spotlight: "The Last Winterberry"

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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.

Fancy/Funky Friday: Patterns Samantha & Leanna

It's Friday, and on Ideas by Andrea, that means it's time for another Fancy/Funky Friday post! I love creating patterns (often from characters from some of my favorite fonts), and I have a folder on my desktop filled with over 150 patterns. Every Friday, I share two of those designs - one that's more suited for elegant, "fancy" events, items, or stationery, and one that's a little "funkier."

First, the "fancy": Pattern Samantha

The white space is so prominent in this pattern that it almost becomes the pattern, especially from a distance. Yet, if only a strip of the pattern is used, instead of a large area, the linear details become prominent again, drawing the eye and adding visual interest.

I used it in a single stripe on the sample stationery set below because I didn't want the negative space to be so distracting. I added a thin line to the top of the pattern so that the individual units would like like little lanterns hanging off of a string, decorating an outdoor venue, which I really love.

One of the great things about Pattern Samantha is how well it works as both a lighter pattern on a darker background and a darker pattern on a lighter background. The thin lines that make up the pattern help it to stay elegant, yet the "x" and diamond shapes also give it some structure. It's the best of both worlds!

And now, the "funky": Pattern Leanna

This is just such a fun, bubbly pattern. Wouldn't it look great on a flirty skirt? I love how much personality Pattern Leanna has, yet there's also something sophisticated about it that makes it feel more mature than girly and juvenile. Like many of my best patterns, it seesaws between dense (and perhaps intense) parts of the pattern with more airy areas (where the negative space is greater and things feel less crowded). It ends up giving the impression that it's both a very simple pattern (since it's created mostly from the repetition of loops) and a little complicated, which makes for a very interesting and successful pattern! :)

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Shameless plug time: Love my patterns? I incorporate them into a lot of the artwork I create, from stationery for Invites by Andrea to the watercolors I paint. Check out Invites by Andrea's website to see examples of these patterns in use or drop me a line at andrea@invitesbyandrea.com to let me know what you think!

Flower Bat Mitzvah Stationery Set

I had the opportunity recently to design the invitations, reply cards, and thank you notes for an almost-thirteen-year-old's Bat Mitzvah celebration. Her only requests were that her name be written in both English and Hebrew, and that I use the colors pink and green (with emphasis on the pink). I showed her a few different designs from my catalogue with her information and color choices to see what she thought.

She chose my rose stem design (called "Chocolate Valentine" in the catalogue, where I displayed it with a pink and brown color scheme) - which I've also used as the basis for a watercolor painting before. Obviously, it's an image I'm pretty fond of, and I'm glad she liked it so much, too! The different shades of pink look great with the green and black, and feel very feminine, stylish, and spring-like (perfect for a March Bat Mitzvah)!

She wanted the design paired with a metallic dark pink border and matching envelopes, and the end result is absolutely adorable (if I do say so myself). :) I'd never printed addresses directly on envelopes before, so I wasn't sure how they'd turn out on my printer, especially with the metallic envelopes. But my printer worked great, and the black showed up nicely, even with the dark pink color and the shimmer of the metallic. I printed return addresses and the addresses of each guest on the outside of the invitation envelope (size A7), as well as the address on every reply card envelope (size 4-Bar), and the return addresses on the envelopes for the thank you notes (size A2).

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Shameless plug time: Love this design? Want one of your own? Download my convenient pdf catalogue to see all of my design options, or check out my Invites by Andrea website to view some samples and get more information.

Invites by Andrea Watercolor Sign

Remember waaaay back in September when I announced I'd be a participating vendor in the upcoming Brides-to-Be show in January? Well, now it's January! :)

Just to remind you, here are the details: It's the biggest Michigan Brides-to-Be show every year, and it's at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, MI. I'll be there on both days - Saturday, January 7th and Sunday, January 8th, from 12 noon - 5 pm both days. Tickets are $7 in advance or $8 at the door. If you're planning a wedding, you should definitely be there - besides my own awesome booth, there will be hundreds of other vendors present, and hundreds of prizes you have a chance to win.

And if you want a sneak peak of what my table is going to feature, you're in luck! Besides two large albums literally bursting with sample invitations, reply cards, announcements, and other stationery items, I'll also be showcasing this sign that I painted for the event.

It was super fun to design and paint, and I think it's bright colors are going to be a great attention-grabber at the show. :) It also shows off what I can do with watercolor - how awesome would a banner like this be at a wedding, or any other event? Just picture the words saying "Happy Birthday" or "Congratulations, Bride & Groom" instead, and voila - instant event decor!

So how did I go about making this masterpiece? ;)

First, I designed the sign in Adobe Illustrator, importing many of my favorites out of the patterns I'd already created. I used clipping masks to cut the patterns down to the same tilted-rectangle shape, and the arranged them into the design you see above, placing my signature "Invites by Andrea" font nice and big on top. I had to make sure that the font was big enough for me to paint - the font can get pretty thin in certain flourishes, and my watercolor brushes only go so small!

Next, I printed the design out on several pieces of paper, taped them together, and transferred the design onto the watercolor paper. Usually I just tape the print out and a piece of watercolor paper to the window and use the sunlight as a vertical light table to trace the image, but this time I decided that the patterns and fonts were too small that tracing all of that vertically would be too difficult. Not to mention the fact that Michigan's sky had already become its traditional winter gray by the time I started on this sign, and the sunlight available was pretty abysmal.

So instead I colored the entire back of the print outs with graphite (pencil lead), and then placed the print out on top of the watercolor paper and traced over all of the patterns with a pen so that the graphite would transfer onto the watercolor paper.

The graphite-covered back (on the left) and pen-traced front (on the right) of the computer print outs of my design

Once the design was transferred onto the watercolor paper, I soaked it in a bathtub of cold water for fifteen minutes. Since the design for the sign was so long, I ended up having to use two long pieces of watercolor paper and attach them to each other later, once the sign was finished. Working on only one half of the sign at a time was the hardest part about creating this sign.

When the paper was fully saturated, I stapled it to my gatorboard. This "stretches" the watercolor paper, which means that the staples keep it taut and flat regardless of how many layers of water you add to it over the course of painting. If you don't stretch the watercolor paper, it gets all wrinkled when you paint it, and then you have to gently iron it out later to get it flat again.

While the paper is completely saturated and stretching on the gatorboard, I always like to put down the first wash right away. I try to keep the colors light and bright (yellows, reds, etc. rather than grays or muddy browns) and I swirl the colors around with my brush so that the painting will have a little bit of depth to it in the background. The photograph above was taken when the painting was still very wet, so the colors look darker than they ended up. Watercolor always dries lighter than it looks when it's wet (which is the opposite of acrylic paint, which dries darker than it looks when it's wet), so I always try to keep that into consideration when I paint.

On the left: working on each half of the sign simultaneously; On the right: two photos of what some rectangles looked like with masking fluid still on the patterns, protecting the lighter backgrounds

Once the first layer was dry (I gave it overnight to make sure it was really dry), it was time to start painting the individual rectangles. Sometimes I made the pattern darker than the background of the rectangle, and other times I made the pattern lighter. To preserve a lighter color for the pattern, I used masking fluid, which is pretty much the best thing ever invented for watercolor painting (besides watercolor paints, of course). ;)

In the photographs above, you can see what a difference it makes. I masked off the pattern with masking fluid (it appears yellow, on the photograph on the left), painted a couple of orangey-coppery layers on top of the masking, and then rubbed the fluid off so the light colored background was visible again (as seen on the right).

I kept doing layers of color in all of the patchwork-like rectangles in the background until I was satisfied with how the background looked. I tried to make some of the rectangles "imperfect" to prove that it was hand-painted rather than printed off a computer. It's easiest to tell in the red background squares and the blueish-red background behind the last letters of "Invites". On those rectangles, I left some watermarks to give it a more painterly feel. A watermark is created when there's not enough water for the whole painted area, and parts of the rectangle dried at a different rate than other parts.

Once I was satisfied with the background, I finally painted the letters on top. Veeeeerrrrry carefully, because if I messed up it would be very hard to fix. I saved the letters for last because I knew I wanted the letters to be dark, and if I'd painted them dark first and then painted rectangles that touched the letters, the new water I put down would fade some of that darkness away.

Finally, it was time to remove the two separate signs and merge them into the single sign they were intended to be. :) The great thing about gatorboard is that it's super easy to pull the staples out of it when you're all done with your painting. I pulled all the staples out, and then lined up the "seam" where the two parts of the sign met.

I wasn't entirely sure how to attach the signs together. The watercolor paper I used had a very rough texture (rougher than even the cold press paper I usually use), so it was hard to just glue the pieces together. I tried to sew them with clear fishing wire, but the paper was so thick that the needle made very unattractive holes. Ultimately, I used a few "Zots" - fabulous little sticky dots that are another wonderful crafting invention - to secure the paintings to each other. I was concerned that this wouldn't hold forever, though, and so I painted the seam on the back of the long banner with some white acrylic paint to help seal it a bit better. Finally, I put a couple of decorative brads in just the right spots to add a final security measure to keep the two halves of the painting together.

And since the brads looked so good and I had a few more extras from all of the samples I made for the upcoming Brides-to-Be show, I placed more scattered throughout the sign. I put each brad along a fake seam connecting the patchwork-like rectangles in the background. From a distance, they're not visible at all, but up close they add the perfect amount of three-dimensionality. They make the sign seem even more hand-made, which sets it apart from all of the other flat-printed signs that will be at the show.

So that's the sign I designed and painted! These photographs don't do it justice - so you should definitely come check out the Brides-to-Be show this weekend so you can see it in person! ;)

Shameless plug time: Love this sign? Want a sign painted for your event? Want to commission a watercolor painting? Shoot me an email with your thoughts and let me know! :)

Sunday Sample Spotlight: "All the Right Moves"

Happy New Year! I hope your 2011 was fantastic, and that 2012 proves to be wonderful for you as well.

"All the Right Moves" - Invitation duo (invite & reply card)

I totally loved this scrapbook paper when I found it and knew I had to somehow incorporate it into a stationery design. The end result? "All the Right Moves," a tribute to multi-colored events that refuse to be pigeon-holed by the idea that the perfect party decorations only utilize a pair or trio of colors. There's nothing wrong with using a palette with a wide and fun variety - if you know how to do it right.

This color scheme works because there's still some structure to it. The polka dots are all tints or shades of colors, and there's nothing too saturated. The purples, greens, and pinks are either dark or light and none of the colors demands more attention than the others. Furthermore, there are a lot of neutrals sprinkled throughout the polka-dots, such as khaki tans and calm light browns.

Indeed, even though multi-colored large polka-dots often command all your attention, it is actually the dark gray background of the scrapbook paper or the metallic aqua lagoon colored Himalaya pocketfold envelope that are the most obvious colors in this design. The polka-dots really pop against the dark gray background, but are more subtle when placed on the white background used for the stationery designs, creating a nice balance.

The scrapbook paper has a fun worn look to it that adds to the vintage feel of the design, and I tried to keep that "scuffed" appearance in the polka dots on the white stationery, as well, to help tie the two parts of the design together. I chose the fun, vibrant aqua envelope because it was a similar color (though more saturated) to one of the polka-dots. By printing the text in aqua blues and dark grays, the font also reconnects to the colors of the envelope.

Isn't dark gray and cool aqua a great color combination for winter? I just love it!

Next weekend I'll be at the Brides-to-Be show at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, MI! I'll schedule a blog post ahead of time so you won't have to miss out on your Sunday Sample Spotlight, but if you come to the show you'll get a chance to see more than a hundred other samples in person! I have two large albums full of designs, plus a smaller third album. If you're in the market for some custom or catalogue stationery, you should definitely come by and check out my booth!

Here's the details:

Hyatt Regency
600 Town Center Drive
Dearborn, MI 48126

Saturday and Sunday, January 7 - 8
12 noon - 5 pm both days

Tickets are $7 in advance or $8 at the door. There will be hundreds of booths and hundreds of prizes brides have a chance to win, and I'll be giving away discounted wedding stationery! Hope to see you there!


Next week's Sunday Sample Spotlight: Winter themed!

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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 (coming soon!), or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.