Blog Move

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Custom Personalized Stationery Notecards

These custom note cards were inspired by Anthopologie curtains and were created for that gift recipient who "has everything". They feature an abstract flower design with an eyelet embellishment in the center. Of course, the set wouldn't be complete without a coordinating envelope liner using the same deep navy flower motif.

Custom Photo Book: Father's Day Present

Working on this custom photo book was such a joy for two reasons: the adorable little girl it features and the beautiful photography by Amy Squires that captures her joy. Paper and Thread will now be offering custom photo books to our list of services.

Custom Train Birthday Invitations

My sweet son is all about the trains. He loves making every train sound, loves riding on trains, pushing them around, and just talking about trains makes my little guy happy. So, it was a no brainer birthday party theme for his 2nd birthday..."Choo Choo, I'm Two"

For his invitations, we printed the text and tracks on grey linen cardstock, which is mounted on chipboard that's been wrapped with vintage-inspired train fabric. To brighten them up a bit and make the grandmas happy, I created a ticket from his picture to adhere to the back of the invitation.

Rustic Yet Pretty Camping Theme Wedding Photo Shoot: Orange County Invitations

I am a huge fan of Jesi Haack Weddings. I love everything she creates, and I mean really creates as in crafts with her own hands, which I can sincerely appreciate. For this design challenge photo shoot, she created the concept of a couple that loves camping, but still wants a pretty wedding. After processing her idea I got to my own creating with the paper goods. It all started with the hiking trail invitation, a theme that's carried throughout the stationery. The menus were paper sleeping bags complete with flannel lining. Jesi created a 'smore station for each guest, so the place card is a skewer with plaid flannel and the guest's name.

I had so much fun creating these pieces and it was such an honor to work with such a talented group of creatives. Thank you so much to Gabriel and Carly Ryan for the beautiful pictures.

The team:

Design/Concept: Jesi Haack

Photography: Gabriel Ryan Photography

Floral Design: JL Designs

Cake: My Sweet and Saucy

Stationery: Yours Truly...Paper and Thread Studio

Unique Chipboard Business Cards

Here are some business cards we printed for the photographer Lane Dittoe. His image and branding were so pretty that it was fun to rough it up a bit using extra thick chipboard, which as an added bonus is 100% recycled. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Lane's work. It's soft and romantic, while still being crisp and timeless.

Thanks Lane for letting me play around with your business cards.

Bridal Shower Thank You Cards: Orange County Stationery

These sweet folded note cards were created as part of a gift for my best friend's bridal shower. The concept for the wedding is a garden full of cheerful yellow flowers.

Hawaiian Wedding Reception Stationery

While working on these day-of stationery pieces to coordinate with the invitation suite we created, I couldn't help but imagine what a beautiful wedding this will be. I can't wait to see the professional pictures. Kauai is already so beautiful, and I'm sure the Princeville Resort is equally as exquisite, and it just happens to be taking place on my birthday. We were lucky enough to contribute a few little pieces to that beauty: menus, hanging programs, escort cards, favor donation tags, and table numbers. Perhaps the most important are the escort cards, which not only show guests where they're seated, but each guest's meal choice is identified with a different symbol. The palm leaf signified a vegetarian dish, a flower for chicken, and a fish for fish of course. This is a budget friendly idea when doing a seated plate because it eliminates the need for place cards, while still serving a purpose to the wait staff.

Thanks again Jessica, and congratulations to you and your growing family.

Tree Horoscope Accordion Programs

This sweet bride was the guest at one of my previous client's weddings and fell in love with the programs. So much in love, that we started working on them a good nine months before the wedding. I love brides who plan early.

The traditional accordion folded programs are enhanced with a stitched paper pocket that hold a foldout tree horoscope. Your guests look up their birthday and corresponding tree and it gives them their supposed personality traits. The original bride who used these found it on Martha Stewart weddings, but we were able to modify the design to fit with all the other program wording.

In case you were wondering, I'm a hornbeam tree, which has the qualities "good taste, not egotistical, looks for kindness and acknowledgement, makes life as comfortable as possible, and mistrusts most people."

A Growing Family's Baby Shower: San Diego Invitations

What better way to invite guests to a baby shower, than with a growing tree theme.

These sweet baby shower invitations are designed based on the couple's nursery decor, which is one of my favorite ways to gain design inspiration. They're using a light teal and chocolate brown and having a tree mural painted on one of the walls.

Nautical "Wedding" for the Style Lab

It's no secret that I love everything that the Wedding Chicks do. Add in some Chenin Boutwell and Amanda Auer with In the Now Weddings, and it gets even more amazing. Chenin and Amy and Jocey (the wedding chicks themselves) put on a photography workshop a couple of times a year. The photographers in attendance were then able to put their skills to work with a mock wedding that was styled by In the Now Weddings. The concept was Nantucket Nautical and Amanda and all the talented vendors hit it on the head with the design. Rope topiaries, could you ask for more?

We designed the fabric folio invitation, which uses rope to hold the enclosure cards and a modern navy fabric as the cover and invitation backer. The knot was a motif we wanted to keep consistent, so it was used on the invitation, the favor tags, and the menu. We also created branding for the couple, which Amanda cleverly transferred to the coffee sleeves, which serve as additional guest favors. The signs were based on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" British propaganda posters, which I just happen to have taped to my monitor at all times.

For the full post and list of participating vendors, please click here

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, but it was such an honor to be included in this project and to have the one and only Chenin Boutwell photograph my work.

Stitched Love Notes on Style Me Pretty

When the ever-adorable Katie Neal asked me to be a part of a "day-after" photography session for her dear friend, I was of course honored and excited to get to work. The couple have actually been married for several years, but weren't happy with their wedding portraits, so Katie decided to remedy that.

Since there wasn't a tablescape, we had to be a bit creative with our use of paper. I created these simple and sweet stitched love notes and tags that the couple opened and read during the shoot. As I often say, inspiration often comes when I'm at the fabric store. I saw these vintage-inspired hankies and knew I had to use them somehow, so they are the backs of the tags and fit the color palette of navy, purple and light pink perfectly.

And aren't the flowers amazing. So simple, yet I could never do it. Leigh Anne of The Floral Lab rocked it yet again with her floral design talent.

Click here to see the rest of the post over on Style Me Pretty.

An Amazing Talent

My son is almost 2 and one thing I've been wanting to do since his birth is family portraits. Being in the wedding industry, I see so many talented photographers, but when I met Lane Dittoe, I knew he was just something different. First off, he shoots in film. I think that's part of the reason I love the way his photographs look; they're just softer than digital with lots of processing. It also doesn't hurt that he is a super nice guy. Lane, we cannot thank you enough for so beautifully documenting our family. Click here to see the full post from Lane's blog.

My hair and makeup is always a stresser, so Erica from 1011 Makeup, graciously came over to my house to make me up. Talk about sweet. I was so comfortable in her hands and she didn't even seem to mind one bit that a toddler was trying to get into her makeup goodies. She traveled to my house in Fallbrook, and travels all over San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties.

Book Theme Baby Shower Invitations

For 4 years we lived in a 1930s beach bungalow. It was where we started our family, where we made lifelong friends, and where I discovered my love for vintage details. Looking back, the house and yard were way too small, but one of the main reasons we fell in love with the house and eventually bought it were the original details: hex tiles in the bathroom, glass knobs, and who doesn't love a floor furnace (just kidding about that one) Well, I miss those little hex tiles and so decided to bring them back for their design debut on these baby shower invitations.

New Business Card Design

Confession: at the last wedding industry event I attended, I conveniently forgot my business cards in the car. Truth be told, I was embarrassed by them. I liked the design, but the paper quality was not quite my style. I even upgraded the paper to "high quality", but I guess this online print company's high quality and my idea of high quality paper differ greatly. I corner rounded them and tried to stitch on them, but they just were never anything I was proud of. So, I finally had my local printer print a trial run on 100% cotton 110lb thick cardstock, and I'm pretty much in love. Of course I had to add a little decorative stitching to the bottom edge.

Vineyard Day of Stationery

I'm not going to lie, it's a little sad sending these on their way to my sweet bride in Delaware. It's been such a pleasure working with her and I just love the entire suite that we were able to create for her winery wedding.

We used swirling shades of a purple vine throughout the invitations, table numbers, programs, and escort cards to create a romantic vibe without going cliche vineyard theme. The programs have a unique touch; instead of a simple card or booklet, they are housed in a stitched purple pocket.

Cheers to Samira and Jimi!

Custom Save the Dates

This adorable couple came to our consultation each bearing their own drawings of how they envisioned their save the dates. He was clean lines and modern and she wanted a bit of whimsy and a vintage feel. The end result is a playful mix of fonts aligned to create crisp edges and of course their sweet picture.