Custom Wedding Invitations {Grey and Lavender}

My best friends' little sister is getting married next month. I was excited to help with her wedding invitation design. Very simple, grey and lavender design featuring the couples photo and shabby, but chic spiral ornaments.

Fonts used in the design were from DaFont.com. Mortised Ornaments and Jellyka Delicious Cake

4G Network {Coralee's Birth Announcement}

 Our family and friends waited with anticipation for the arrival of baby Evans #3. We kept the gender a surprise and so, on new years day, when Coralee Ann joined our family many giggled at the thought of our future with three girls in tow. Comments like: "Poor Steven. He's so outnumbered." "No shortage of hormones in that household." "How does it feel to be floating in a sea of estrogen?" During one such conversation, my brother-n-law, Kevin, coined the phrase "The Evans Family 4G Network." (4G aka Four Girl). I thought it would make a humorous and fun birth announcement design concept. And, as often happens, I couldn't decided which design I liked best! Here are the final two designs. I added the tag line "Life in High Speed." We are truly in for a ride!

Sip-N-See for Coralee {The Invitation}

My sister-n-law hosted a beautiful Sip-N-See for baby Coralee in February. Above is the invitation. And if you're wondering, yes I created it. Is that weird? I hope not, because I had a blast creating it. Yes, that's her actual silhouette (love). A baby, born on new year's day, who was given a very classic name inspired a beautiful black and cream event. Shower photos up next!

Super Hero Birthday Party Invitation

Designed this Super Hero Birthday Party Invitation for a friend's little boy. Below are the cupcake toppers, party favor bag toppers and water bottle wrappers that I designed to match the invitation.

Pumpkin Carving Party 2011 {The Invitation}

Eighth Annual?! What? Amazing...
This year's invitation features a colored pencil illustration created by my sweet and creative sister, Elizabeth Kielman. A whimsical, fun, design was just the thing I needed to get in the mood for this year's party. I'm crossing my fingers for a cool front and am looking forward to an evening of fun with friends and family.

Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Game}

This custom Princess Bingo set was designed for my daughters fourth birthday. The concept is simple. Playing with a bingo game based on an object and colors helps younger children enjoy the game. I ordered spinners for the circles from Board Game Design and printed the cards and wheels out on card stock. Pink M&Ms were the Bingo chips. We played at the party and each guest had a small take home set of their own as a party favor.

Snakes, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails {The Party}

Remember the set of baby shower designs I created for the "Snakes Snails and Puppy Dog Tails" shower? Well, my friend Melinda sent me photos from the shower and so I thought I'd share a few here so that you could see the party elements in use. She did such a great job with the color scheme and coming up with a display that says "baby boy." Enjoy!

 
 

Adalyn's First Birthday {The Invitation}

In brainstorming ideas for Adalyn's first birthday I tried to think of things that she loves. Most things that came to mind were, digging in the trash, unrolling the toilet paper and loud squealing sounds. None of which inspired a party theme...until....I saw her reaching for Granny's glasses and the idea hit me, a "Baby Loves Eye Glasses" party. What would be better on "your special day" than being allowed to play with everyone's glasses and not get into trouble! Perfect. I found plastic party favor glasses from Party City in the 25cent party favor bin and the invitation design began to evolve.

The words around her face are lyrics from the song "Glad that You Were Born" from the play "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." The lyrics made the theme come to life by putting emphasis on her eyes and the celebration of her birth.

The top inside panel reads: "Silly or serious, shiny or flat wear glasses to the party and we'll provide a hat!" The invitations made it through the mail and yes I did have to pay a bit extra for the postage, but it was worth the effort to have something so unique, fun and colorful.

Snakes, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails {Baby Shower Design}

Pieces from another baby shower freelance project for a friend. Snakes, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails themed shower. Hoping she will share pics from the party

Vegemite T-Shirt

For Christmas we drew names. I drew my sister-n-law Sarah who: Loves God, Vegemite and Puns. So, I designed this t-shirt as a Christmas gift for her. She got a kick out of it and that made me very happy. Thought I'd share this for all you Vegemite fans out there! Seriously, have any of you even tasted Vegemite? If not, toast a piece of bread and slather it on. Everyone should try it once.

Oh, and here is a Zazzel model showing you how cute the shirt looks on a body. Irena (yes, Zazzel gives their online models names) was the closest I could find to matching Sarah. Plus I thought her expression was funny! "Vegemite....ummmmm"

Giraffes and Tutus {First Birthday Invitation}

  

I was hired by a friend to design a birthday party invitation for her daughter's first birthday. I'd never heard of a Giraffes and Tutus themed party, but LOVED the idea. The invitation design is mine, and I recommended that she order the giraffe print lined magenta envelopes from Mountain Cow. I also designed cupcake toppers and food marker cards. I asked my friend to share photos of the party and hope to post them for your viewing pleasure. Such a fun theme! Thank you, Jackie for allowing me to be a part of such an exciting milestone for your family!

Hunting Themed Baby Shower {The Invitation}

I'm planning a baby shower for a couple at our church. They are both avid hunters and want to celebrate the anticipated arrival of their baby boy with a Hunting Themed Baby Shower. Never having spent even one second in a deer stand. And because I've never aimed a gun at an animal, I was a bit concerned about being inspired. There just isn't much on the internet in the way of Hunting Themed Baby showers (believe me, I've looked). So, I'm crossing my fingers this invitation design is a good mix of hunting lovers meets bundle of joy. What's not cute about baby onesies camo and hunter orange strung on a line in a pine forest?

Reuse or Repurpose Your Wedding Invitations

Photo by Jackie Ray Photography.

My sister and I came up with a great way to reuse/repurpose her extra wedding invitations. We made fans out of them by attaching a trimmed invitation to either side of a large, wooden popsicle stick. They were perfect for her outdoor summer wedding. My brother and his wife did the same thing with their extra save the date cards for their September, outdoor wedding. By cutting off the extra text and dates, they were left with a beautiful photo and their names.

This was a simple project that family members helped Katherine complete the evening before the wedding. Guests appreciated the fans and the final product fit nicely with the rest of the wedding look and feel.

From Photo to Watercolor Painting

My very talented friend, Cole Carter, painted this watercolor portrait of my brother Joshua and his wife Sarah. You might recognize the portrait as it was based on one of the photos from their engagement shoot. If you are interested in a portrait of your child or family, Cole Carter is your man. He captured them beautifully!

Wedding Invitations {Joshua & Sarah}

Joshua and Sarah's wedding is just days away. Above is the wedding invitation and RSVP card I designed for their BIG day. We carried over the "Western Meets Sophisticated" theme from their Save the Date cards. They both loved the design and have received lots of good feedback from guests about how much they love the wedding invitations. I can't wait for the BIG DAY. Let the countdown begin!

Sweet Scoop Number Two {Mikayla Rae Grimes is Due!}

I'm hosting a baby shower for my friend Darci this weekend. If there was a "top ten list of people who love sweets" Darci would be on it! From sweet tea to sweet and sour candy, you can count on Darci to have a favorite place or brand. That said, I think there is one thing that she loves more than sweets and that's having babies. That's how the theme "Sweet Scoop Number Two" originated. When Jami was born it brought such sweetness to Darci's world. You could see it in her face and hear it in her voice. Sweet, tiny fingers and toes. Sweet tiny smiles. Sweet baby smells. Precious and sweet snuggle time. I think the soon arrival of Mikayla will bring that same sweetness.

So Sunday's shower is about enjoying the sweetness of a cool dish of ice cream on a hot summer evening, AND celebrating the sweetness babies bring to your life. Especially the sweetness of little Miss Mikayla Rae Grimes.

Save the Date {Western Meets Sophisticated}

My Brother is marrying the most wonderful girl. I love her. She is perfect for him…I knew it the first time I read their posts to each other on MySpace. She’s adventurous, funny, brave, loving and beautiful. He needs her and he absolutely adores her. I’m super excited about their wedding and had loads of fun trying to design a “Save the Date” for their wedding that was “western AND sophisticated.” The photo is from their engagement photo session. Their rings have very significant meaning to their relationship. I’m really glad Sarah chose this photo and that she chose Joshua. The count-down to September 18 begins!

Reality...The Party that Never Was

So I went back and forth about posting this, but decided in the end I should. I was happy with the way we celebrated Marin's third birthday, I think it's something she'll remember for a long time. However, encase you were wondering, yes, I did have a party idea in mind and even had the invitation design complete! True confessions time: Poor Marin didn't have a REAL birthday party because her Aunt Kay Kay got married and her new baby sister cried ALOT and her Mommy, just couldn't pull together the energy or desire to host a party.

So, there it is. The truth. Krystina the party lover felt no love for planning a party for her daughter's third birthday. At times I feel bad that I didn't just muster up the energy and make it happen and then other times I tell myself there will be more birthdays. But what does this mean for our future? With each child will I have less energy? Will Marin even HAVE a 16 birthday party? Who knows.

Above is the invitation design for the Party That Never Was. It was just so adorable I had to share it. My good friend Cole created the illustration of Marin and I think it's perfect.

(To Marin: Mommy loves you so much. I'm sorry we didn't have a real birthday party for you. I hope that your time with Daddy at the Fire fire fire house will be a memory you'll enjoy. Here's to many, many parties in our future. Forgive me?)

Birth Announcements for Kayakers

Adalyn will be six weeks old on Tuesday. Sending birth announcements by mail almost seems silly with today's technology. Most everyone knew about her birth and had seen photos of her within hours of her arrival. That's why I wanted to create something silly and unique but something that also depicts our new family unit.

Kayaking is something we all enjoy and are anxious to include Adalyn in our family hobby as soon as she is interested. Marin was 15 months old when she first fell in love with the sport. As you can see from the photos above, Marin wasn't thrilled with our kayaking adventure in the backyard and fell to pieces when we went we went inside to cool off instead of launching the "boat" in water. The photos were taken by my mom when Adalyn was just one week old. It was no small feat to put makeup on, get Marin dressed, the kayak and paddles set up in the yard AND keep Adalyn asleep. I was just giddy when we accomplished all of these seemingly impossible steps. The final product was just what I wanted. Bazaar, fun and I hope it makes recipients smile.

But wait there is another one...the traditionalist in me couldn't resist creating a traditional announcement using this picture of Marin and Adalyn. It was just too sweet a moment not to share. So, Adalyn has two announcements. I wish I could blame my indecisiveness on post partum emotions, but unfortunately that's me all the time, just can't seem to ever make up my mind and just choose one.

The Many Musical Modes of David Coburn

My brother, David, is an extremely talented musician. He plays the violin, piano, organ and hand bells. A recital was recently held to showcase his talents. The invitation design above is something I came up with for the event.

The design was inspired by an Old Navy brand, grey and black, hooded jacket David wears as often as possible. It's been worn so much he has begun sewing the worn spots together with yellow thread. Sure hated that mom didn't let him wear the jacket during the recital (wink, wink). There were about 100 guests at the recital and David's performance was phenomenal. My favorite portion of the event was when David played the song he composed on the piano and was accompanied by his violin teacher. The emotion and feeling that went into writing that piece of music could be felt so strong. Bravo David...Encore!