Well hello there from downunder…. I write a wee blog called Magnolia Rouge but behind that my ‘day time job’ is as a stationery designer at Ruby & Willow. I’m delighted to be a guest on Melissa’s wonderful blog! Today I am sharing with you a recent job that I’ve completed, and whilst I know you’re heading into the thick of winter this should have you excitedly anticipating the warmer spring days a bit further down the track. Designed for a vineyard wedding with pretty gardens (actually it was my wedding venue so it’s even more special!!) the client wanted to stay away from the cliche of a vine motif. I combined vintage florals with a repeating pattern to create a multi layered appeal, and together with a custom map it was completed with a belly band and envelope liner to give it that little extra wow factor.

Thanks for having me Melissa xo

Merry Christmas Eve, friends! I am SO ridiculously excited about the gift I have for you today!!!! A gorgeous save-the-date download designed exclusively for The Loveliest Day by the sweet and talented Amber of !!!

It was inspired by one of my favorite ad campaigns of all time, for Miss Dior Chérie perfume. It’s feminine, whimsical, free spirited, and insanely pretty. The epic commercial was directed by another favorite, Sofia Coppola.

The color palette was pulled directly from the ads and has the same sweet, whimsical feel. I just LOVE it!!!

In addition to the save-the-date, Amber also designed a darling address wrap to match. Choose from blush pink, sky blue, mint green or a sunshiney yellow. The templates are editable, so just type in your info and print!

Enjoy + I wish you all a merry and bright Christmas Eve!!!

I love when a wedding invitation truly echoes a couple’s wedding and gives guests a taste of what is in store for them! That feel is exactly what Marcy of Be Frank Studio created with this awesome wedding invitation suite. She is a designer, but in this case, she was also the bride! Her reception was held at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and she wanted to incorporate the museum into her invitations. I think she did a wonderful job!

More from Marcy:

Creating these invitations was a blast! I spent alot of time coming up with ideas on how to incorporate the art museum feel into the invites. Since our reception is in a gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, I love the feel of the white walls against the displayed artwork. I wanted to reflect this in the invites.

The silhouette theme was carried through the rest of the wedding pieces and the cover was letterpressed by Colleen Walsh of Cleanwash Letterpress in Philadelphia. I was really happy with how they turned out! Each of the RSVP cards displayed a unique painting that is part of the Academy’s permanent collection. I was pleased with the pops of color the cards created against the solid colors of the book and the envelopes.

The saddle stitched booklet contained all the wedding details. I loved the idea of having everything contained in a book for easy reference.

Here is a bit more about Marcy’s design studio, Be Frank:

Be Frank is a studio located in Philadelphia, providing fresh and innovative designs. Be Frank is a recent venture launched by graphic designers Jenny Yip and Marcy Zuczek. Backed by years of experience in the print design industry, we are involved with all aspects of the design process. We approach each project as a challenge—searching for the best design solution—never a formula or template. We strive to offer unique, yet functional designs. Our expertise and experience lies in book and publication design, promotional graphics, identity systems and custom invitation packages. In addition to graphic design services, Be Frank has an online store with stationery, paper goods, and other carefully crafted items.

If you like what you see, head on over to the Be Frank Etsy shop!

I was browsing through the delightful blog, Snippet & Ink, and was so excited when I came across this wedding! I immediately recognized the screen printed stationery. How you ask? Oh, because my wonderful, fabulous, handsome husband owns a screen printing shop here in Orange County (Icon Screen Printing), and he printed these! I remember seeing them in their raw form, and it is so fun to see the end result! The bride Dottie put them together beautifully.

These are the the favor bags he printed for the dessert table at our wedding. I loved these, so cute! By the way, I can’t believe our wedding was almost a year ago! Only 4 more days till our anniversary, eek!

It’s always fun to brag on my amazing husband:) He’s constantly creating rad screen printed goods, but they’re usually not wedding related, so I was excited to share these with you!

Hope you’re having a lovely Thursday:)

I LOVE holiday cards!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Probably because the stretch of time from Halloween to Christmas is what I look forward to all year! Literally, my whole year revolves around counting down to the next holiday season! A little crazy? Perhaps, but it’s just so much fun!

Anyways, when holiday cards start popping up, I brim over with excitement. First up is Halloween, and when I saw these ridiculously cute cards by Hello! Lucky, I had to share!

I wish I could live in the little Halloween town depicted in the first two cards! If there was a way to transport there, I would do it RIGHT NOW! Anyone want to join me? Not to mention, I always love a good dose of Dia de los Muertos (I did dedicate my whole right arm to it after all) and these cards are perf! I can’t say I really like cats or spiders, in fact I kind of hate them both, but that’s just how cute these cards are! Hate cats and spiders and still love the cards.

*I apologize to all the cat and spider lovers out there, but I must speak the truth. I’m sure there are many delightful cats and spiders out there, I just haven’t met them yet:)

To buy these cards and spread some Halloween love, head on over to the Hello! Lucky shop!

Etsy is absolutely full of shops brimming over with creativity and genius! I’m sure you would all agree with me on that, right? One of those shops is Dapper Paper, the brain child of husband and wife team Chris & Elizabeth Boyette. They design fun and unique stationery ranging from greeting cards, to posters, to wedding stationery suites.

This dynamic duo was kind enough to answer a few questions about themselves, and Dapper Paper.

Tell me a little about yourselves, what’s your story?

We’re Chris and Elizabeth Boyette, a husband and wife team of designers that make up Dapper Paper. We specialize in wedding and event stationery and paper goods from invitations to posters to everything in between. We’ve been married for a year and a half and live in a cozy 1940′s bungalow in Raleigh, NC. We both have longtime backgrounds in design. Chris went to school for graphic design and I went to school for English and Interior design. So it’s safe to say we’re obsessed with all things design related! We are also both musicians and we actually met at a show that Chris was playing. We also really enjoy cooking (and eating) good food. And we have a blog, Spiffy Stuff We Heart, that is dedicated to all the things we love: from design to music to food and everything in between.

How did Dapper Paper come to be?

We officially started Dapper Paper in December 2009 when we opened our Etsy shop. Chris was working as a graphic designer in the corporate world and we both wanted to have a creative outlet that we could do together and work from our home studio. We designed invitations for our own wedding and really enjoyed the creative process. Our purpose then was to create an invitation package that was different from the traditional or clichéd invite that was out there. That spawned our goal with the work that we do at Dapper Paper: original, modern designs with a vintage spin.

What do you think makes Dapper Paper stand out?

Dapper Paper is unique because we each bring different talents to the table that allow us to create original designs. Chris is seasoned in typography and layout, and my craft is illustration, pattern and color. So you get the best of both worlds! Because of our love for music, posters/prints and all things vintage, we take a bold, artistic approach to our designs which gives our invitations and other paper goods an edgy, modern spin coupled with a vintage feel. We don’t use stock images or pre-made graphics, we hand-draw and professionally typeset all of our pieces. This always ensures we have custom pieces that are handmade and stand out from the masses. We also use 100% recycled, acid-free paper and archival inks.

What are a few of your favorite pieces you’ve worked on?

One of the our most recent pieces was a custom wedding invitation/rsvp for Chris & Sarah. Custom jobs are always so much fun because you get to concept and create something totally original and unique for the client from scratch. We had a blast working on this and it was our biggest order to date, with 300 guests. Because we do everything in-house, we had a lot of printing and cutting to do after the design was completed! We plan to post the photos of the invitations soon!

  We love this piece because it was actually the first design we created for our Etsy shop. We were inspired by vintage posters and woodtype printing. This has been one our of best sellers!

We love this card because it’s witty and because we love to cook! It’s a great everyday/anytime card for foodies, gardeners or anyone who likes a good play on words. Chris designed this card for me for Valentine’s day and me being the foodie that I am, I had to redraw the thyme illustration because it looked like basil! We loved the card and decided to add it to our shop. It’s been featured on Etsy’s front page several times as well as several blogs.


Since two pictures of their amazing work simply isn’t enough, here are some other lovely pieces they’ve created.

If you love what you see (and you’re bound to!) make sure to visit Dapper Paper! All of these designs and many more are available in their shop. If a design is perfect for you, but doesn’t quite fit your wedding colors, fear not! Chris & Elizabeth are happy to customize designs to match your colors.

Also, make sure you check out their blog for some more eye candy and inspiration:)

This darling vintage inspired black & white invitation suite by e.m. papers is printable and totally FREE! It includes every piece of stationery you might need, from the save the date and invitation to the menu and table numbers. The best part is that all the pieces coordinate, but aren’t matchy- just how I like it:)

You can see all the pieces in the collection & download it here.