Wednesday, November 24
by Karen Robert
We are throwing our annual football party a few days after Thanksgiving. So I scored and found this old vintage photo to make our invitation.
Pretty Mad Men, right? Don’t you love the way the man and the woman are looking at each other? I feel like she’s thinking “don’t even THINK of messing with me buddy”. I feel like just after this shot was taken she ripped him to shreds, resentful after years of being treated badly in the workplace. Anyway, I am going to be making it available to use as an e-card or as a print card on my site when the programmers are FINALLY finished building it. We are very close to making it work, but sadly, it will be ready a tad bit too late to be up for this Christmas. In the meantime, I’m going to continue to throw out ideas for Holiday cards on this blog to get everyone’s creative juices flowing. More to come, in fact, tomorrow.
I know this is a big weekend for taking that family picture for the cards. It is for us. (My kids are so NOT excited). One thing to keep in mind, have a plan before you bring out the camera, give little kids a prop or an activity for the photo. You can give them a sign that says “Merry Christmas” or each kid letters which spell out NOEL, Or you can write something on their t-shirts, hands, or knuckles. You can also do things like put them on a sled on a sand dune, or have them build a sand snowman, or wrap them in Christmas lights. Whatever you decide to try, just think about it ahead of time and then taking the picture will be MUCH easier. Remember, little kids only give you 5 minutes to take the shot. Use those 5 minutes wisely. For more card ideas and inspiration, go to the Card Gallery and take a look at all of the cool cards I’ve been collecting over the years. These will not be for sale on the site, they are other people’s wonderful cards from previous years. On this side of the site I am merely a connoisseur of amazing Holiday cards.
Happy Photos & Happy Thanksgiving
Wednesday, October 6
by Karen Robert
Turquoise, Aqua, Robin’s Egg blue, whatever name you want to call it, it is my favorite color. Hands down. It is a color half way between blue and green, both of which are very peaceful and soothing colors in their own right. But when combined they make the wonderful color turquoise which is, in my mind, is the most soothing color of all. The color of the Caribbean, swimming pools and robin’s eggs, how could it be anything else but tranquil? Whenever I design invitations, I seem to always tend towards this pale greenish-blue color. I almost need to force myself to design invitations in other colors. Here are some of my favorite invitations we have designed in this yummy color.
This invitation I designed for a beach party as you can guess.
The above invitation is in a bold and graphic pattern an aqua color.
I had fun with this one, it’s an invitation for a children’s or an adult magic party with a rabbit in a top hat on a turquoise background.
This Baby Shower party invitation has a nostalgic feel with an old photo I found of a 1950′s baby shower. It couldn’t be against any other background color than this aqua turquoise color. It gives it the right vintage feel. 
Here is another baby shower invitation, maybe this color is more blue than aqua now that I look at it. This is for a boy baby shower. (It also comes in pink of course).
Above is another baby shower invitation showing a nest with a robin’s egg…in robin’s egg blue of course. 
An awning striped invitation in, you guessed it, turquoise.
Winter invitation with a snowflake pattern in winter aqua blue.
And I love this one of a plane pulling a banner against a pale blue sky
I’ve posted this invitation in yellow before of a 1950′s style vintage style bathing Beauty. But I like this one in turquoise blue as well.
A sweet turquoise Invitation with pink butterflies. Good for an anniversary or engagement party?
This invitation would also be good for an engagement with two lovebirds in a cage.
And finally, here is an aqua or turquoise blue invitation which would be good for a Christening, engagement or wedding.
I told you I was obsessed by this color. And here I’ve only shown you the invitations….
Thursday, September 9
by Karen Robert
I know I just said that my next posting would be on turquoise invitations, but I got waylaid by a posting I just saw at YoungHouseLove.com showing an idea for a room interior in yellow and grey. From Fashion styles to interior design schemes it seems that yellow and grey is the fresh new color combination. I thought that maybe some of you are planning a party around that pretty new yellow dress you just bought or the sunny living room you just designed. In case you are, I thought I’d share a few invitations I’ve designed in the yellow and grey color scheme.
This one is a twenties style floral, it’s great for a Save the Date card:
This one is a bit more modern in yellow awning stripes. I was inspired by a room I saw a while ago featured in cherishtoronto.blogspot.com showing a room done in yellow awning stripes.
But I couldn’t decide if it should have that white box, so I just designed another one with the same wide yellow stripes but without the white box. It’s amazing how changing the font makes the card have a completely different feel. On my site you will be able to change the font yourself.
This yellow floral invitation is one of my favorites. I love how fresh and modern it looks:
This invitation is quite modern as well, using a bamboo pattern which I love. It is not actually yellow and grey, but you could choose to have the font in grey or black which would look great.
And here is another yellow and grey invitation with a more graphic pattern:
And finally here is a card which is a greeting card rather than an invitation. I thought would be nice just to send to someone who needs a lift. To make someone happy, yellow is the color to do it:
Friday, September 3
by Karen Robert
My apologies for being away for so long…I started my break when my son went unexpectedly into the hospital. But what started as a good excuse became vacation-itus I’m afraid. Anyway, while I was gone, my friend Jill Sorensen at LiveLikeYou.com did a blog posting showing lots of yummy purple interiors. One of the images I like most on this posting is of an interior by another friend, decorator Amanda Nisbit. The room is quite neutral except for purple curtains in crunchy linen; it looks so sophisticated. It got me thinking about my 7 year old daughter’s new bedroom, we decided that we will design it with dark purple/ aubergine walls, with a pink fur headboard and white furniture. Pretty snazzy for a 7 year old. My daughter loves the book “Purplicious”, about a girl who loves only the color purple. Like many 7 year olds, my daughter has switched from liking pink and moved on to purple just like the character in the book. Suddenly I realized I am becoming as purplicious as my daughter. I realize that purple is wonderful in that it can be girly and feminine, yet modern and bold at the same time. In fact it can be extremely dramatic. I looked through all of the cards that I’d designed and realized that I hadn’t designed many purple cards at all. Impossible. So, I am suddenly on a craze designing a series of bold, fun, dramatic purple cards. Here is what I’ve come up with so far.
This bright purple design is for a save the date card hoping that there are brides out there designing a wedding around yummy purple. In fact, it could also be a wedding invitation as well.
And I also did this save the date card.
I know this isn’t just purple, but I couldn’t resist putting the Purple elephant against a Turquoise Background. And since this color combination was making me so happy, I made this purple and turquoise invitation with a Dragonfly. Of course this could be for any type of party, this particular one I pretended was a rehearsal dinner. (I am in love with this font which looks like it is handwritten).
And since I was toying with color combinations with purple, I made this one with a purple and red pattern for a rehearsal dinner:
Since I hadn’t been to many purple themed weddings, I thought it may be interesting to see if anyone else had thought of it. I googled “purple weddings” to see what I could find. In fact, there are quite a few amazing images of exotic and dramatic purple weddings. Here is a design board I found at bridalbuds.com.
So, now I needed to design a wedding invitation.
And an invitaton for a wedding shower:
But weddings aren’t the only potential purple parties. I found this image of a purple party which I love. How exotic and dramatic is this?
So I designed this invitation for a party. I imagined that it could be used for an opening of a store or chic event. I love the graphic hexagonal pattern, I think it’s quite cool looking.
But I didn’t want to do just serious parties. My great friend asked me to do her 50th birthday party invitation, and she isn’t serious at all. But she is sophisticated; she wanted it purple. This is what we came up with.
But sometimes one needs to have a party celebrating babies as well. And since I was thinking of babies and children it got me thinking about one of my son’s favorite books when he was little, “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. With that in my head I came up with this.
I also did a version of this for a baby announcement.
So now I’ve come full circle in my musings, I started out thinking of one children’s book and I’ve ended up with another one. I guess my purple musings are at a close…turquoise may be next.
Thursday, July 29
by Karen Robert
I love Shagreen…on everything. I was a decorator for years, so I fell in love with this exotic material. For those of you who are not familiar with Shagreen, it is made out of the skin of stingrays. (Supposedly, they are not a threatened species). Here is a close-up of it:
Image from Access.Decorati.com. Notice how it’s all pebbly. Shagreen is tough as nails which is why it is so sought after, and it’s hard to work with which is why it’s so expensive. In fact, shagreen is often referred to as the most luxurious material amongst furniture aficionados.
Europe began importing objects covered in shagreen in the 17th and 18th centuries. The skins were mainly dyed green, polished with shellac and used as a veneer. This is why it came to be known as “shagreen” (Shellac + Green). Shagreen became wildly popular through French furniture makers during the height of the Art Deco era as they sought to fuse the French tradition of quality workmanship with exotic and precious materials. Many designers like Ruhlmann, Jean Michel-Frank, and Clement Rousseau embraced this exotic skin for making their furniture. The shagreen desk below is by Jean Michel Frank.
Modern furniture makers seem to have rediscovered shagreen. This desk is by Augousti which sells at Barney’s New York. Owners Ria and Yiouri use shagreen unsparingly in many of their designs. I discovered this desk because it was featured at HabituallyChic.blogspot.com
Since the sting-ray skin is so expensive, historically you find it covering only small objects like these boxes below.
This Suite of Green Shagreen Boxes from Mecox Gardens was featured on MaterialGirlsBlog.com
But if you like Shagreen and but don’t like the huge price tag, never fear. Faux shagreen is everywhere. Check out the beautiful boxes and frames below which were also featured in GiftandHometoday.blogspot.com. These are made by Vellum, and they also make barware and trays. Colorways include sea glass, vintage green, pearl, chocolate brown, gray and red.
These gorgeous and chic box of pencils below come from Dransfield & Ross. They are very chic and sophisticated and presumably not the kind of pencils you sharpen. I found these featured on BeckDesignBlog.com
It seems that amost all high end decorators make use of shagreen somehow. If designers can’t get their clients to pay the hefty price tags for the shagreen furniture, they turn to other ways to get the effect , for example by using this Victoria Hagan rug. It was featured on the blog JessicaClairesWorld.com
Decorators also decorate the walls with a shagreen faux paint effect or use one of the many wallpapers which have this pattern as well. This wallpaper is by GP and J Baker, but there are many more. It is a little hard to see here, but you get the idea. 
I did my powder room in a gorgeous torquoise blue shagreen wallpaper which is now discontinued or I would have shared it with you. Every time I look at it I think to myself how much I love it. It finally inspired me to think of invitations. I did a search and, surprisingly, couldn’t find any invites which make use of the shagreen pattern. So I decided to make a few myself. First I designed this invitation mimicking a shagreen frame.
and then I did this invite thinking that shagreen goes quite well with a beach theme:
Hope you like them. Happy Shagreen.
Sunday, June 27
by Karen Robert
“I hate Pink, I hate Pink, I hate Pink. Pink is the worst color in the whole wide world!” chanted my youngest daughter the other day. She has also sworn off Barbies, Dolls, Dress-up and all things sparkly. Sigh. It’s over. I loved that stage when they wanted more than anything to actually become a fairy princess. In full support of this fantasy, I threw many versions of princess parties for my girls over the years. How cute it was to see a big group of little girls all running around with wings, tiaras, wands and tulle skirts. Here are some tips I picked up along the way for throwing your own fairy princess party. Use this brief but wonderful period to help your daughter enter her world of make-believe.
Invitations:
First , of course, you need to start with the invitation. Here are 4 of my designs which you can add the heads of your daughters on. I designed these cards so that you can take a normal picture of your daughter and easily turn her into a princess for the invitation. It’s like you’re Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother waving your magic wand and…voila! They’re a princess.
On this card, you can easily add your daughter’s head onto a princess body. 
On this card you can add your daughter’s head as well, but this princess has wings, more like a fairy.
This Princess Party Invitation is for a girl who wants to become more like a REAL princess, as in Marie Antoinette. Again, this can be customized with your girl’s own photo. 
For her big day, your daughter could also choose this click-and-drag princess invitation. On my site, you can upload your photo and she can then choose which crown or princess hat to add to her photo by clicking and dragging it. It will feel to her like she is playing dress-up.
Once it’s designed you can print it or email it to your guests.
Now that you’ve got your invitation, it’s time to plan for the party. Here are some fun ideas to get you started.
Plan for the Party:
Before the party, you can cover one of your biggest walls in a big wide roll of paper (4′ wide is ideal, go to a professional photographer’s store, they sell paper for backdrops). Tape it securely at the edges. Maybe you can start things off by drawing a light sketch of a forest, a castle or a few trees. The girls can then draw fairies, butterflies or flowers. This is a good distraction also for kids who are waiting to do their other activities or if they don’t want to participate. What’s great about this idea is that the kids help to decorate your house for the party.
Dressing them up as fairies as you play games:
Girls love to wear their own princess costumes, but you can also consider dressing them at the party yourself. It can be fun to “earn” an element of their costume at the end of each game. Kids go from activity to activity and get dressed up along the way.
The first activity earns them a tulle skirt. You can play a version of Simon Says. The head fairy, mom, will wave her magic wand and say “Abra Cadabra, all fairies twirl in a circle!” If you don’t say Abra Cadabra, then no one should move. When the game is over, tie skirts on each girl. My saintly sister made these for my daughter’s party one year. She got colored tulle from the store and sewed beautiful wide sating ribbon to the top gathering the tulle as she went. She left long ends of ribbon on the ends with which to tie the skrt around each girl’s waist. Or, here are some instructions on how to make one with elastic which I found at sugarplumalley.blogspot.com.
For wings play Pin-the-Lips-on-the-Frog. (Instead of Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey). You can make your own, or I found one at Century Novelty which you can buy. The girls line up and take turns blindfolded trying to pin their lips onto the frog. The girl who gets her kiss closest to the frog’s mouth wins. They each get their wings for doing this activity, bought from a store like…
For the wand, play List the Lost Things: Inspired by Tinker Bell’s talent of using “lost things” in clever ways. This party activity is a fun memory challenge. Place a dozen or more household objects in a shoebox or another covered container. For example, you might include a thread spool, a key, a bottle cap, a coin, and a pencil. Open the box and let the group take a look for 15 seconds or so. Then put the cover back on the box and see how many of the items the little fairies can name. The prize for this can be can be a glittery wand which you can get at the store.
Next the fairy princesses need their crowns. For these you move to a craft table where they can make their own. You can buy inexpensive plastic or cardboard crowns as well as fake jewels for them to glue onto it. You can also get sparkly glue pens for them to draw with. Or , if you don’t feel up to crafting with the girls, you can play Musical Tiaras to earn their tiaras. Place a selection of tiaras on a table for guests to walk around as the music plays. When the music stops, the scramble begins to wear a tiara, and guests without one can become judges or help control the music until the game is finished.
If you opted for the craft table to make the crowns, the princesses can also make a banner to wear across their chests, Miss America style. , just cut wide satin ribbon so it reaches from your daughters shoulder to waist…twice. Then glue the bottom of the ribbon together. Take a glitter glue pen and help them write their names.
Finally, for the dress-up shoes, you can play a game called Find Cinderella’s Lost Slipper. The girls have to find a Cinderella’s lost shoe with a treasure hunt. You can give them clues to find it. Or if the girls are too young for that, you can play hotter-colder to find it. (You know…you’re getting hotter…). All the girls get dress-up shoes when the game is over. What girl doesn’t want new shoes?
When the girls are all finished with their fairy princess make-over they can then be initiated as real fairies by playing a game called The Magic of Pixie Dust. Each child sits in a circle. The first girl is turned into a fairy by Mom who sprinkles magic dust on her with a shaker of glitter and asks her to twirl in a circle 5 times. She is now a fairy. This “Fairy” can then take the shaker and turn to the girl next to her and make her in to a fairy as well by sprinkling her with dust and asking her to twirl 5 times…and so on until all of the girls are now all officially fairies (and incidentally they have glitter all over their hair).
If you have the energy and you need more activities you can invite each princess to build a castle of marshmallows, gumdrops, soft candies and toothpicks. You can also make butterfly cupcakes. Bring out baked and frosted cupcakes. Cut candy fruit slices in halves width-wise with a sharp knife. Place two halves on one cupcake with the curved sides touching. Make a black body of the butterfly with licorice and split it at the ends for the antennae. Decorate with sprinkles of course.
Cake Ideas:
For a fun princess cake make a bundt cake and take a small doll (about half the size of Barbie) and place her in the hole in the middle. Have your daughter help decorate the cake as if it is the skirt of the doll with sparkles and swirls. Voila, your very own fairy princess cake. Here is one. 
and here is another which used less of a Bundt cake shape and more of a bowl shape, but I like how 1950′s the princess looks. 
If you want to see more examples of these cakes, there are literally hundreds of princess cakes at Coolestbirthdaycakes.com. They are full of inspiration. You can also decorate a cake with a frog on the top. This one from Betty’s Sugar Dreams is divine, but maybe a little tricky for the average cake maker. 
For normal cakemakers, you can just put a crown on the top from a store to make an instant princess cake.
Party Favors:
You don’t need party favors now since each girl can bring home her wand, shoes, tiaras, crown, banner and skirt. Enjoy your daughters days of enchantment and make-belive. It doesn’t last long…but the memories last forever. (Take pictures!)
If you want more fun party ideas, I just found a fun blog posting at bylittlehands.com about how to throw a ballerina party. She has some great ideas and she also makes beautiful cakes if you live near New York City.
Enjoy your daughter’s days of enchantment and make-beleive. It doesn’t last long…but her memories last forever. (Take pictures!)
Friday, April 30
by Karen Robert
I am still on my Vintage Invitation kick using photos of pin-up girls in bathing suits. I am thinking that this one is good for a girl’s night out invitation, a beach party or a spa party. Maybe it would be good for a bachelor party as well, but are guys into vintage 195o’s? Or is that a girly thing?
For this card, I hand tinting the photo and added a few graphics. I am also making it in mint green, turquoise blue and pink. I am doing a lot of color variations because, quite frankly, I am in love with it.
OK, more vintage cards coming right up. I am quickly becoming obsessed with this new look.
Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 28
by Karen Robert
Vintage invitations are everywhere! I love the look of 1950′s ladies who look like they stepped out of their kitchens. I have a thing for vintage aprons anyway. Is that strange? I have about 15 of them, my sister and I give them to each other for Christmas. There is something so retro and comforting about them. When I’m wearing one, I feel like the world has stopped and my biggest worry suddenly becomes how to make a perfect pot of macaroni and cheese. It’s like I put on a supermom suit. So, I thought I would try to tackle making a series of invitations which evoke those same feelings. I wanted the invitations to say, ”come to my house, relax, and step back to a simpler time.”
Here are a few I have come up with. This one has a bossy mom look:
And this one has the subservient mom look.
I hope you like them, you can order them from me directly. Click on Contact tab at the top for more details.
More are coming. This is a short post so I can go back to designing them.
