New! } Custom 4-Color Crayon Packs

New custom 4-color crayon packs are available in 135 individual matte and/or metallic colors to choose from. Match your wedding, event or theme colors - sooooo cute!

Packs are available in sets of 16 {e.g. 16, 32, 48, 64, etc.}. Crayon packs arrive to you pre-wrapped in a clear bag with a knotted ribbon in a color of your choice. Tons of ribbon options are available ... just let us know what you are coordinating with and we can offer suggestions.

The 4-color custom crayon packs are 3.25 each. Add a favor tag and a custom coloring book to make a complete set to keep those kiddos busy!

A link to purchase directly from the SJD store is coming soon, for now email us at stephanie@stephaniejdesigns.com to complete orders.

New! } Custom Coloring Books

A super little addition to your wedding or event festivities is our new custom coloring books & 4-color custom crayon packs. Coloring books and crayon colors tailored to your events theme and style are the perfect touch for little guests!

Psst! And they'll keep 'em busy - for a little while at least!

Custom 4-color crayon packs are available to order in multiples of 16 at 3.25 per pack. There are 135 matte and/or metallic colors to choose from! Pricing on custom coloring books vary depending on size, customization and number of coloring pages.

Email us at stephanie@stephaniejdesigns.com for more details.

Kiddos } News-worthy Christening Invitation in PINK!

The News-worthy Christening Invitation in pink, pink and pink! Previously I posted this invitation style in champagne and brown for baby Mason {read original post here}. I think it's interesting to see how color can really alter the tone & overall feeling of the invitation.

This one was for baby Isabella who is the daughter of one of my previous wedding invitation clients. And if memory serves me right ... we did pinks for mama Manuela's wedding invite! :)

Congratulations {again!} Reina Family!!

Recent Creations } Fall Candy Buffet Tags

Dropped these little beauties off to Shelley Larkin with Pizzazz Event Planning earlier today at the Elk Grove Bridal Show.

Hard to miss these adorable Lolli-Stick candy buffet tags if I do say so myself! New twist on these Lolli-Sticks ... little lace leaf appliqués to add a little touch of fall.

Kiddos } Hardware Baby Announcement

Love, love, love how this baby announcement for the Hammar family came together!! Mama Hammar wanted an announcement for their latest addition that took a whimsical play on their last name.

We kept the materials simple with a thin single matte announcement layered on a metallic champagne cardstock, a little hand-glittering in gold on the "H" for just a touch of sparkle and some bold graphics to set it all off.

Love how they feel a touch circus-y with a dash of old town hardware store tossed in there.

Ohhh, happy weekend ... more eye candy tomorrow!

Branding } Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts

Yep! Another fun branding project and logo project from earlier in the year for my friend and wedding peer, Carissa, with Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts.

Carissa's desserts are a must see. Carefully crafted dessert bars and buffets with meticulously crafted mini treats like salted caramel tartlets, trifles and cookies. She creates cakes and all kinds of pastry fabulousness. Carissa makes this chocolate sandwich cookies that I can't stop thinking about since last she dropped off a little treat box ... my mouth is watering thinking about them!!

Carissa and her staff are known for their clean line designed dessert bars and buffets and visually the sweet presentation does not disappoint! Carissa and I wanted to take that same clean lined approach with her logo. She already had a color palette of black, white and fuchsia and just wanted something clean that could translate into future projects. Can't share the surprises just yet!

Looking forward to the next round of design work with Carissa as she takes her special desserts to the next level! Watch her blog for event posts and upcoming news.

News } Style Me Pretty Little Black Book

Thrilled to announce that we have landed a coveted spot in Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book!

Style Me Pretty editors hand-select vendors to be showcased and you must be recommended by other Black Book vendors to even be considered - it is such an honor to be a part of such a wonderful blog and community of amazingly talented artisans.

Yay, Us!!!

Style Me Pretty Resources

Little Black Book

Little Black Book Blog

Real Weddings

Wedding Inspiration

Style Circle

And soooo much more!

Branding } Fancy Pants Weddings

Super-fun logo project to share from earlier this year! My friend and wedding peer, Shannon with Flourish, started a new wedding blog for the oh-so-sassy Northern California bride called Fancy Pants Weddings.

Shannon is a {beyond} talented floral designer with, like, a billion years of experience and trillions of weddings & events behind her {a little exaggeration couldn't hurt} .... so a chick like her has seen and heard it all! Top that off with a splash of Journalism experience and Fancy Pants Weddings is definitely a fun read.

Shannon wanted a fun, flirty and bright palette for her branding style and logo. We created her alter-ego Judy to be the voice of Fancy Pants. A funny tidbit ... Judy got her name because the first drawing I did of her ... according to Shannon the hair looked a little "Judy Jetson" ... LOL! ... she was right and the name {not the hair} stuck!

Looking forward to watching Shannon's new baby grow and well ... Flourish!!

Monograms } How to Build Initials

Quickie post! Lot's of questions pour in here about monograms. What is traditional? What is modern? What initials go where?

Here's a few tips that I hope will help!

Wedding Traditional Approach:

Use only your single first initials on pre-ceremony stationery

Use your new married single initial or 3 letter initials in post-ceremony stationery

Wedding Modern Approach:

Anything goes!

Use your new 3 initial married monogram

Use your new single married last name initial

Use your first initials

What goes where?

Unmarried Stationery

Jill Anne Smith = J, JAS, JS -or- JSA

Eve Marie DuPont = E, EMDP -or- EDPM

Rob Michael Davis = R, RMD -or- RDM

Married Stationery

Jill Anne Smith Davis = J, JSD -or- JDA

Rob Michael Davis = R, RMD, RDM

Jill and Rob Davis = D, JR -or- JDR

Hyphenated names get tricky ... if you have questions on those feel free to email us at stephanie@stephaniejdesigns.com!

Happy Monogramming ...

Branding } District 605 - A Hair Boutique

Realized this morning that I have never shared any of our branding projects on the SJD blog! Oh, so sad too ... since there were quite a few fun branding projects this year.

So an inaugural post on branding it is ... hot off the digital design presses!

What makes this project so much fun is that it is for one of my high school friends from back in the day, Jamee. Jamee just completed renovations and opened her fab new salon in Historic Folsom {returning back to the city of our Bulldog days at FHS!!}.

Think Anthropologie, monochromatics, vintage bottle labels and a twist of whimsy and you've got the District 605 branding concept. Can't wait to work with Jamee on biz cards and collateral pieces!!

Need yourself glam-a-fied ... visit the chics at District 605 on Facebook!

District 605

605 Sutter Street

Folsom, California

916.985.3606

Donate } Cupcakes for a Cause

I love a good cupcake! And a cupcake for a cause??! Even sweeter! Join Sweet Cakes by Rebecca this week {9/20/2010 thru 9/26/2010} raise funds and awareness by purchasing cupcakes to benefit CancerCare for Kids.

Sweet Cakes will donate the following:

For each cupcake sold at $2.50 Sweet Cakes will donate $1.50

For each half dozen sold at $13 Sweet Cakes will donate $10.00

For every dozen sold at $25 Sweet Cakes will donate $20.00

Visit the Sweet Cakes blog for this weeks cupcake Menu and further details!

Sweet Cakes by Rebecca

7601 Sunrise Boulevard, Suite 5

Citrus Heights, California

916.370.7760

Features: Dynamite Weddings } Tasty Name Tags

Yet another little tid-bit from the Our Wedding Magazine photoshoot! Little name tags pinned tastefully onto a personal fruit cup at each guest's place setting.

View the post here at Dynamite Weddings.

Photo Courtesy of: Memory Journalists via Dynamite Weddings
Floral Design by: Blooms by Martha Andrews

Features: Dynamite Weddings } Kitchy Chair Banners

One of the fab creations from that Our Wedding Magazine photoshoot I have been hinting at featuring - locating photos! Feature forthcoming!! See the chair banner feature at Dynamite Weddings.

Loved the idea of doing individual little banners for each of the chair backs ... hello, bombshell!; hello, hunk!; hello, handsome! and hello, gorgeous!. They came out super cute. The "hello" was flat printed and the bombshell, hunk, handsome and gorgeous were glitta-fied with hand glittering.

Martha did a fab job with the little floral chair swags ... really brought everything together!

Photo Courtesy of: Memory Journalists via Dynamite Weddings

Floral Design by: Blooms by Martha Andrews

Recent Creations } Malibu Inspired Invites

Aimee's Mailbu Beach Club West wedding invites were inspired by the black and white stripped cabana that was crafted for their wedding ceremony. See more pictures from Aimee's wedding here on the Sarah Maren Photography blog.

Pictured above {from top}: 1. Save the Dates {Aimee was a lifeguard for most of her youth and wanted to bring that in somehow, so we created a little life preserver ring for the front and inside there is an illustration of a lifeguard tower}, 2. Invitation Outside with Guest Addressed Digital Calligraphy Outside Envelope, 3. Inside View, 4. Inside view Showing Enclosure Details, 5. Inside View Showing Map Details and 6. Dessert Buffet Lolli-Sticks.

Soooo much fun!! Love the color palette with the bold use of black and white with little pops of turquoise here and there.

Congratulations Aimee & Jarrod!

Pssst! Aimee's invites were featured in the Style Files of the Summer 2010 issue of Real Weddings Magazine.

Etcetera } Soda Pop Labels

A stylish way to keep your event branding going is to custom label your refreshments! These labels were done for a photo shoot I participated in for Our Wedding Magazine {more pics from this shoot to come!} with Blooms by Martha Andrews.

I used brightly colored Jones Soda bottles and coordinated each label color with the color of the soda. Labels suggested to "Enjoy a Fizzy soda pop!" and included a little description of the flavor around the bottle. Topped off with vintage paper straws. Paper straws are available in gray, green, blue, red, fuchsia or orange and white stripes. Aaaa-stinkin' adorable!

Paper straws will soon be available in the SJD Store!

Paper Drinking Straws

$15.00 per 50 pack

Soda Bottle Labels

$1.75 per Label {Straight Cut | Square or Rectangle}

$2.45 per Label {Die Cut | In-stock Shapes}

Bulk Savings Apply*

{just pick-up, adhere & enjoy!}

$55.00 Print Ready Digital File

{includes: Digital File}

*Bulk Savings {50-100=5%, 101-150=10%, 151-200=15%, 200+=20%}

Recent Creations } 50's Inspired Invite | Part 2

And now Part 2 of the 50's Inspired 60th Birthday Bash ...

Party was held at La Provence in Roseville, Ca. I cannot say enough good things about the staff there or their onsite event planner Raquel! Food, beverages, service, atmosphere - perfect.

I wish I could have grabbed a few pics of the food - mini everything! Corn dogs, sliders, fries, onion rings, milkshakes, pot pies all reminiscent of a 50's diner. We had made little tags for all of them similar to the ones pictured above for the candy tags. Delish cupcakes from Cupcake Craving where a hit.

Balloons everywhere with 50's tunes playing in the background. Costumed guests in their best 50's get-ups. From poodle skirts, to greasers ... so much fun! The decor: a fab candy buffet, life-size cut-outs of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, giant strawberry milkshake out of balloons, a balloon canopy and pictures from the first 60 years of the guest of honor papered the room.

Ooooh and there was a photobooth too! Guests took pictures and put them in a guest book with well wishes for the birthday girl. Adorable idea.

Pictured from top: 1. James and I share a moment, 2. The candy buffet with selections like Mike & Ikes, Pixie Stix, Bit O' Honey, Candy Cigarettes, Lemonheads, Abba Zabba and more, 3. Take home paper bags for treats, 4. Sample Candy Buffet Tags, 5. Pixie Sticks, 6. Balloon Decor, 7. The Uber-Surprised Guest of Honor, and 8. Favor CD's with hit tunes of the 50's.

A great time was had by all!

Recent Creations } 50's Inspired Invite | Part 1

I have been waiting to share this invite forever!! Since it was a surprise party and all ... I had to wait until after the party to share it's fabulousness. I had the pleasure of being a guest at the party, soooo in Part 2 of this post I'll share some pics from the event. :)

This 50's inspired invite, with an actual vinyl 45 included, has to be one of my all time favorite invitations to date. Inspired by the 50's themed event put on to celebrate a 60th birthday party by two of my long time friends & loyal clients.

The 45's can actually be ordered silent with no music or with music on them!! How sweet is that?? Like, any music!!!

In keeping with the theme and era, our color palette was red, pink, turquoise ... with touches of black and white.

We created a custom addressing band for the outside of the envelope. The addressing band wrapped around to the back where the return address was located. Sometimes addressing on dark color envelopes is tricky and a band like this is a fun alternative. I use addressing bands like this a lot on mailer box invitations, too!

One of my fav parts of this invite has to be the little peep-hole center where you can see through to the little label on the 45 - love how it worked as part of the whole design and apart. Divine!

Now that things are slowing down just a little here at SJD, we're getting back to sharing the amazing projects that have been keeping us up burning the midnight oil.