Monday, January 10
by Karen Robert
I thought I would finally get away from showing Holiday cards since it’s well past Christmas. It’s time to talk about weddings. Not the season you say? Au contraire. I was inspired by a posting at eastsidebride.com to think about winter weddings. A bride wrote in this week asking about what sort of dress she should wear for a winter wedding in Chicago. It got me thinking about how I would do a winter wedding. Where would it be, what I would wear, what HE wear? What would be the theme, the look, the cake and finally about what sort of invitation would I send? Here is where my musings took me.
First of all I would start with the classic winter wedding at a castle, this one is in England, but what having a wedding in Scotland or Sweden? Oooh, what about Moscow, that way we would be sure to have snow.
Photo by Digitally Different
Then maybe I could get married in a Russian Orthodox Church, and I could wear a crown and get married in Russia.
photo by travel webshots
If I had a Russian style wedding I could use an invitation like this, purple could be a fun color to add in with red for a wedding.
Card by Hohumcards.com
Here is a bride who chose to have bridesmaids in purple. Purple looks great against the snow.
But alas, I am not Russian Orthodox and I have no connection to Russia. I think I would just choose somewhere snowy in the countryside or mountains at a place like this. Yes, that’s more me, having a beautiful winter wedding at a chapel in the countryside in the mountains.
Since that’s the case then I would definitely want to keep warm, so I would need gloves and a coat….
Photo By Mary Dougherty
…and I would absolutely incorporate white fur into my wedding outfit. While we’re at it, I would get fur for the bridesmaids as well because I don’t want them to be cold either
Photo from Frosty Weddings, photo by Michelle Wells
But I think I like a shorter stole for my fur coat, like this one below. Maybe I would have red flowers like her as well? But then I would need accents of red everywhere…hmmm. I’m not sure about that yet. I DO know that I don’t want my groom to wear a red knit cap, although, I am liking the fact that he is looking a bit casual and different…
Photo Found at Frosty Weddings
I would definitely want it to be snowing so I could get a cool shot like this one… the umbrella is great in this picture though maybe it is not that practical for the groom. I DO know that I want my groom to be looking at me this way though when he sees me.
Photo found at Frosty Weddings; Photo by Alison Conklin
I like the idea of train tracks for a photo, but I’m not sure how that works into the wedding itself.
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
But I like the relaxed way the groom above is dressed in casual black tie, he looks cool. And I also like how, below, the groom looks like quite a dandy wearing an old-fashioned looking version of black tie in very long tails and a bowler. I wonder if my groom would go for it? I still like the idea of having a SLIGHTLY Russian wedding look by wearing a long jacket like this bride’s below over my wedding dress.
Found at OffbeatBride.com photographed by Anna Kovaleva
Or maybe my groom has a bit of Scottish blood and would go for wearing a kilt ?
Photo by David Lowerson
I love the fact that the bride is wearing boots here, but I would prefer fur boots for my wedding outfit like these below. So I guess that leaves the kilt idea out, my fantasy winter wedding is seeming more snowy and wintery, less Scottish.
Photo by Charlotte Geary
And I’m still wondering if my bridesmaids should wear red…or burgandy maybe? Hmmm, while I like the photo below, I’m starting to think that the strong colors are not really me.
Photo by Jennifer Alder
But I do want some sort of sense of fun, maybe a winter activity would be a good idea to add to the day’s events (and what a great photo-op as well). We could all play hockey after the wedding ceremony….
Photo by one2one photography
or maybe ski….
Photo by Axel Photo
…but I really would not want to be in a ski outfit…too unflattering! Fur it is!
And of course I would have to hire a my friend, Tanya Malott, NY wedding photographer, so I can have amazing pictures like this…
Photo by Tanya Malott
But I would be wearing this fur coat in the countryside instead of underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
I finally decided about the red. I realized as soon as I saw this cake that I would want my accents to be blue, or silvery, and I would have a cake like this:
image by Media-cake central
In fact, here is the mood board I would use for my wedding….more or less. I love the cheese board, and the blue and silver accents. I like lots of silver ornaments in fact mixed in with the pinecones and other natural elements.
…I love the cashmere sweater over the wedding dress, but I don’t want to give up on the white fur idea.
So, finally for this magical, silver and blue winter wonderland wedding in the snow, what would I do for a wedding invitation? If I were going for a very classic kind of winter wedding invitation I may choose this:
Personalize it at http://hohumcards.com
Or, if I were going for a modern winter wedding invitation maybe I would choose something like this:
Personlizable at here at hohumcards.com
or this
Or if I were going for a groovy 1950′s sort of invitation I may select this one:
Personlalize it at http://hohumcards.com
But I think my wedding is more of a country casual winter wedding, so I would choose to send out an invitation like this one printed on extra heavy cotton card stock:
Personalize it at here at hohumcards.com
Or maybe this one would be a better color?
And then my winter wedding save the date card could be something like this. If I were tight for cash, maybe I would opt to send it as an e-card, and then I have even more money left over for hot buttered rums as my guests get as they arrive at the reception hall.
Save the date card at Http:/hohumcards.com
Then, after the reception, off we would ride in our sleigh together and we live happily ever after.
(But the driver would be wearing blue).
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….
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.
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!)
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.
