Pink Carnival Birthday Invitations!

Last month, I blogged about the fun carnival theme birthday invitations that I created for Hudson here. Since then, I've gotten requests for similar invitations, and for one particular client, she loved everything about it, but just requested that I add a bit more pink for her daughter, who LOVES pink!

Even though I know you have seen this invitation before, I thought it would be a nice way to show how color can transform the look of an invitation. I changed the original blue and orange color combination to a hot pink and light pink color combination. The lights on the ferris wheel along with the cotton candy were hand-glittered, and the invitation was made of a pearlescent white metallic cardstock. Paired with a pink envelope, this invitation is ready for any little girl's birthday party!

Any invitation from Pink Orchid Designs can be completely customized to the colors that you like, or changed around to suit the needs for your particular event. Email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com for more information!

~Emilie

Carnival Theme Birthday Invitations

Hudson's Birthday Invitations: Part II

In my previous blog entry here, I went through the design process for some pretty cool Star Wars birthday invitations. When else would I have the opportunity to create glittering light sabers? Then, I found out that Hudson changed his mind about Star Wars, and what did he pick instead? A Carnival Theme! Melissa said that there would be things like cotton candy, a jump house, and face painters. I instantly got thinking about carnivals that I've been to and after discussing some other elements with her, it was time to sketch out some ideas.

Everything was so different than the types of things I draw for wedding invitations, so this was a fun challenge for me. I started sketching out tents, admission tickets, ferris wheels, cotton candy, balloons, and little signs to point to other fun activities. Then I began trying to come up with ideas on how to put all of those ideas on one invitation without it looking really randomly placed. The main issue that I ran across was that there were too many ideas to fit on one 5" x 7" invitation, especially because I had to include information like when and where the party was. So, I opted out of the tent, and came up with the following invitation.

I created blue and orange carnival admission tickets with "Hudson" in place of the ticket numbers. The ferris wheel seats had "H" on them to personalize them for Hudson's birthday. The lights on the ferris wheel were hand-glittered in orange and blue to match the lettering. There were signs pointing to different activities that they will actually have at the birthday party, with some colorful balloons tied to the signs. There was also a cotton candy machine where I hand-glittered the cotton candy in blue and pink. To link all of the elements together, they are all on a path surrounded by grass, so it looks like the ferris wheel is in the distance, and you are only seeing one small part of the carnival.

Aren't these invitations super cute? They are made of a pearlescent white metallic cardstock, with an onyx black metallic cardstock backing. The onyx black metallic envelopes matched the invitation perfectly, and the 35 guest names were hand-lettered in block letters and white ink. Melissa was really happy with how these turned out, and in my opinion, Hudson was able to be the coolest five-year-old to pass out invitations in black metallic envelopes to his classmates at school. If you're interested in these invitations or another custom design, contact me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie

Star Wars Birthday Party Invitations

Hudson's Birthday Invitations: Part I

Or should I say Episode I? I recently received a request from Melissa to design her son's 5th birthday party invitations. She told me that Hudson wanted a Star Wars themed party, and other than rule of "wanting them cute", I was free to come up whatever I wanted. Star Wars is pretty different from the normal wedding invitations that I design, so I tried to think of different elements that I could draw out well. Yoda was pretty much out of the question, but I thought some glowing light sabers might do the trick.

Here is the actual sketch that I used to come up with the concept. I drew out different light sabers for Hudson vs. Darth Vader, and also came up with an idea to have a curve of black in the corner of the invitation with stars on both sides. This was to introduce a planet shape effect, and give the illusion that the text and light sabers were actually floating in space.

After working in Adobe Illustrator, I realized that two corners of this planet shape would make the planet look like a football, so I decided to just go with one corner. I found some great Star Wars fonts and made the 5th Birthday Party a Star Wars Episode, starring Hudson of course. The two light sabers were personalized with "H" and "DV" for Hudson and Darth Vader. I also included hand-glittered elements for all of the stars and the light sabers. I also added a few stormtroopers in for fun. This invitation is on pearlescent white metallic cardstock with a onyx black metallic cardstock backing.

So now, why did I name this part I? Well, after Melissa loved this design, and we finalized everything about it, Hudson changed his mind about the Star Wars party, and wanted something else. I told Melissa not to worry, and I would design her a new invitation for the new theme. I decided to make one of these Star Wars invitations for fun anyways so I could share it with you all on the blog, and in my opinion, the actual invitations for part II are even better! Stay tuned to find out what Hudson picked out for his birthday party theme!

~Emilie

A Glitter Sprinkled Cupcake Birthday Card

This past week, it was my friend Katherine's 29th Birthday. I recently have been in a little cupcake phase, especially from Sugar Sweet Sunshine in NYC, so I thought that for Kat's birthday card, I would design a cute cupcake. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be starting to show some of the initial sketches for some of the cards and invitations that I make.

I started out by drawing out a simple cupake with two layers of frosting on top. I thought of putting numbered candles on the top of the cupcake, but in the end, I decided to go with a simple lit candle. As you can see, my writing is pretty illegible when I think I'm the only one who's going to be needing to read it. I might make things a bit neater now that I know I'll be taking more photos of these sketches in the future.

Once I began creating the cupcake in Illustrator, I decided to add in a bit of purple into the cupcake along with the original pink and brown. I hand glittered the first layer of frosting so it looked like it was sprinkled with sanding sugar. I also hand-glittered a purple flower on the side of the cupcake and on the back of the card, along with the candle and flame. The card was personalized with "Kat" on the cupcake liner and was printed on pearlescent white metallic cardstock. The metallic brown envelope matched the chocolate cupcake, and I hand-lettered "Katherine" in white ink.

Doesn't this card make you want to unwrap the cupcake and eat it? I loved using multiple colors for the hand-glittered elements, and will probably try to do that more often in my upcoming designs. If you would like me to design a card for your friend's upcoming birthday, email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com.

~Emilie

Inspiration from Japan - A Cherry Blossom Card

Cherry blossom season in Japan only lasts for 10 days, so to plan a trip to Japan and get the timing right is nearly impossible. Luckily for me, my trip to Japan last month was at the start of an early cherry blossom season, and I was able to see a few beautiful trees here and there that were starting to flower.

So one of the few things that I brought back with me from Japan was some custom card inspiration. My friend, Elizabeth, celebrated her birthday last week, and I spent some time trying to recreate the beauty of those cherry blossoms in a birthday card for her. She loved the end result, and even though the card only has one single line of words and a cherry blossom tree, I think it makes quite a statement. The chocolate metallic envelope was addressed in white ink, and the pearlescent white card was covered with hundreds of dots of pink glitter to give each flower blossom a bit of sparkle and texture.

I love how the second photo captures how the glitter changes to different color tones in the sunlight. If you have an idea for a custom card, email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie