Celebrate Good Times, Come On

I had the pleasure of designing and putting together the paper charms for my dear mom Lulu’s milestone birthday celebration. Yellow has always been her favorite color and I made sure the invitations, programs, and table numbers were in my mom’s most loved hue – paired with green, of course. I decided to go with a damask background to give it a classic yet modern feel.

By creating a multi-page invitation strung together with a ribbon, I was able to include information about the event, RSVP instructions, and map and directions to the event. This multi-page style of invitation – which can function wonderfully as an event (ie wedding) program – allowed me to include all the necessary information for my mom’s birthday in an organized manner.

Although the preparations were quite hurried, my sisters and I were still able to pull off a successful party. Everyone had a good time and most importantly, mom couldn’t stop talking about the party!

Cake beautifully crafted by Deco Facil.

Can You Do Me A Favor?

Party favors are souvenirs you can give your guests to show your appreciation for their attendance. It is a small yet thoughtful gift that serves as a memento of the occasion. They come in many different forms, depending on the budget and event. From the delectably sweet edibles like chocolates or candy, to the truly practical candle or music CD, to the purely decorative magnet or figurines, favors can pretty much be anything, really. More importantly, though, favors must be personalized.

The ceramic basket above is from my sister’s wedding. The couple’s names and wedding date are printed on the ribbon. Inside are grains of rice covered with tulle.

One of my favorites – favor from my own wedding. These yellow-and-brown-themed bells were bought in the Philippines, and were glued together by me with the help of many loving family members. Boy, was it a lot of work.
Above is from my baby shower. Inside the round tin cans are pink and green M&Ms sealed with green polka-dotted ribbon and pink baby charms on top. Of course the “thank you” note is on the back.

Christmas Spirit

Christmas carols on the radio, red and gold trim on doors and windows, early morning sales – all these point to one clear thing: The holidays are fast approaching. And with the bountiful Christmas spirit comes the perfect time to blog about Christmas cards. After all, this blog is all about paper-related things.

I’ve found many creative sites devoted to stationery on the Internet. Print & Pattern, a blog by a designer from the United Kingdom, has surely become one of my favorite sites. Here are some of the Christmas cards on her blog:

The cards above are by Caroline Gardner of London. I really like her collection’s modern style, and find her design’s color scheme appealing. Even without the traditional red and green hues of Christmas, her use of purples, blues, and brown give her designs a sprinkling of the eclectic while still effectively evoking the Christmas spirit. I would order from her collection if I were not half a world away in California. Shipping fee in Euros would probably be pretty hefty. Here are other cards that are probably more obtainable for me:

These are from Redbean, a small studio based in San Francisco, California. I’m really into baroque/damask prints, and I guess that’s the reason why I find these cards attractive.

I don’t know about you, but Christmas cards always bring a smile to my face. They are inexpensive and thoughtful gifts for the soul.

Got lots of old cards and don’t know what to do with them? Why not recycle them as gift tags? Real Simple has some really neat ideas.

Inspirations

Inspirations can come from anywhere. Creating great design, however, still requires a good amount of imagination and creativity. These set of invitations were inspired by a dress I saw on David's Bridal when planning for my wedding. I love the color green and always envisioned a wedding with a green motif for me. Yet somewhere in the planning process of my wedding, green took a back seat and yellow and dark brown won me over (see “My First Blog”).

I have noticed that in today’s vibrant color-rich weddings, green has become a popular color. Green paired with orange, though, is relatively uncommon. A seemingly odd pair, but actually a nice complement of each other. And the floral design was just something that caught my eye while searching around my room for inspiration. My object of inspiration? A box of cards. Just another reminder that inspiration can come from anything, anywhere...

The design: apple-green bordered invitations with orange poppy flowers on the bottom left corner. Round-green, poppy monogram used as an envelope seal.

My First Blog

Welcome to my very first blog! I am excited to share with all of you my ideas and designs for invitations, cards, and other fun and cute paper-related things - hence, the title of my blog "paper charms". I'm sure that my little creations - be it invitations, favors, or flowers - crafted with the greatest care and attention to detail, will add charm and grace to any event and make any wedding, shower, birthday, or baptism/christening extra special.

Married only a few months ago, I still can't stop reminiscing about that big and wonderful day that was my wedding day. I can still remember the look on my fiance's face when I told him of my decision to make the invitations for our wedding. With the long list of things that still needed to get done for the wedding, there I was taking on such an enormous task! Well, I pulled it off! With a relatively unique golden yellow and chocolate brown color scheme, the invitations, programs, thank you cards, name cards, and favors turned out beautifully.

The text of our invitations were printed on cream cardstock and had metallic dark brown backing over metallic golden yellow pocket-style invitations. The Reception, Directions, Entourage, and RSVP insert cards were also of cream cardstock. The back of the ceremony program was a "thank you" page for our parents and entourage, while the reception program had a more general "thank you" page for the guests - personal touches that gave us the opportunity to express our gratitude to our friends and loved ones. A graphic floral design and an "Andrea & Mico" monogram I designed was used throughout and served as the binding constant for the invitations, favors, programs, and table names.

The wedding favors were glass bells adorned with yellow and brown ribbons and two kissing doves and with the "Andrea & Mico" monogram on the glass, of course.

Instead of the usual table numbers, we decided to use the names of the places we've visited as a dating couple. We used actual sepia-toned pictures captured during our visits. Pictured above is one of our favorites, table "Chicago."

Our tri-fold reception programs had a picture from our engagement session (photo courtesy of ADG Productions). Mini bubble bottles, with a small picture of their corresponding table names, were handed out to guests at the reception table. We wanted to show a little of our Filipino culture at our wedding - the men wore "barongs" and the seat names on the tables were printed and glued on cute little native fans.

A picture of the happy couple. We'd like to thank Simon's in San Pedro, CA for the spectacular location and excellent food!