simply rosy blog

I have donated the “Zinnias” stationery set (pictured below) to this auction in support of a Mother who has lost both of her children tragically in just two years.  Please consider visiting the auction page to contribute towards the support fund, or you can still donate an item for the auction.  The bidding starts at 9am tomorrow and goes through midnight on Sunday, and there are lots of beautiful and interesting auction items.

Facebook Page – ‘Benefit Auction for Debbie’

Click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this post and add a comment telling your friends about the auction page (http://tinyurl.com/3wwtefq), and you will receive a 5% off coupon good for a single order in the online store from 10/7-10/14.  If you do not receive a coupon code within 2hrs, please email me, and I will take care of it right away!

I shipped my latest order of wedding invitations today, and I can’t wait to share pictures.  But of course I will have to wait until after the wedding, so that I don’t spoil the surprise for any guests.  Just a little teaser: Lapis (deep purple), metallic champagne, swirls, and butterflies.  It is very different from anything I have done before, but I think the result is really beautiful.  I’ll post photos as soon as I can!

One of my very closest friends is hosting a charity art show on 9/23.  I’ll be there, and I hope you will too!  Facebook Event Page – Premiere 23

“An evening for Artists to give back to the community!

Several artists will be displayed throughout the evening with work for sale. They have graciously donated pieces to be auctioned off, and the proceeds from the auction will go exclusively to the North Texas Food Bank.

The evening is by invitation only, so if you wish to come email Alexis Boots at: artgala13@yahoo.com There will be a $20 door fee and raffled items in addition to the auction which starts at 8:30. The attire is cocktail, the event will be catered – including beer and wine, and children will stay home, so arrange your sitter ASAP and we all hope to see you there!

Sponsored by: Red Kru Productions”

It is a special holiday weekend as well as my birthday week, so I am happy to announce our first store sale at Simply Rosy!  Most prices on the store site are reduced from 10-20% (excluding some custom products and gift wrap).

Click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this post (include “@simply rosy” in your comment to receive automatic credit) or “Like” our FB page at the top of the sidebar to the right to receive a 5% off coupon good for a single order during this sale – one coupon per customer.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns!

I posted a few months ago when I made a pink card ring for a baby shower at church, and as I guessed, I will probably be making several more.  It is appropriate that I received an order for a red, white, and blue card ring with stars on it in the month of July!  The couple is expecting their first baby next month, and has decorated the nursery in a Texas Rangers theme, so this card ring should match perfectly.

I made the Baby Blue, Lime, and Brown wreath for one of my best, lifelong friends who had her first precious baby boy in May.  It was a very sentimental project to be making a gift for someone who is so special to me.  I was also so glad to be able to participate in her baby shower, since I only see her about once a year.

This spring, I did a few craft shows, and I made the White & Yellow miniature wreath as a door prize for a small home business show.  By the end of the show, the hostess had more prizes than she needed, so she returned it to me.  I wasn’t sure how it would work to make such a tiny diaper wreath, but I think the end result is pretty adorable.  What do you think?

As I explained in the Custom Details & Options page on my store site, the reason that I say my invitations are custom is that I can really use almost any paper with any design, and the result will look significantly different and can work for any occasion.  That is a difficult concept to explain sometimes, so I thought in this case, a picture really is worth more than just words.  I designed the following invitation last fall for a wedding luncheon.  This black and cream magnolia patterned paper came from Paper Source (of course), and I had been wanting to use it on an invitation for a long time.  I thought it was a great option for a semi-formal wedding luncheon, and my client agreed.

Then when another client saw that invitation this spring, she loved the layout and even the font selections, but she made different paper choices (in shades of bronze and brown) that completely changed the feel of the same basic style of invitation for her art gala.

When I began planning a baby shower with a group of other ladies, we tried to think of some alternatives to the typical shower games.  I always like providing a blank book or cards for the guests to write thoughts, memories, and advice for the expecting mother/family (kind of like an informal guest book), and one of the other hostesses told us that she remembered another shower where the hostesses had given the Mom-to-be a ring with cards on it for guests to write prayers and verses.  Then they tied pieces of ribbon onto it, so that the new Mother could read the cards while holding the baby who could play with the ribbons.  We all liked that idea, so we decided to make a ring of cards and ribbons, and guests could write thoughts, advice, memories, prayers, verses, or pretty much whatever they wanted.  Being the “paper person” of the group, that project was assigned to me.

I found some cute scraps of patterned paper in pinks and greens, and bought solid cardstock to match.  I cut the cardstock down to 3.5″x4.25″ (6 cards per letter-sized sheet of cardstock), and cut strips of patterned paper to .75″x3.5″.  After I had adhered the patterned paper strips to the left edge of the cards, I punched a hole in the top left corner of each card and strung them all on the ring (the patterned paper acts as reinforcement for the hole punch in addition to adding a nice decorative touch to each card).  I used a plain bracelet like this from the jewelry section of the craft store, but something like a twist-end bangle or even a regular binder ring from an office supply store would work well.  I also bought a wooden letter from the baby’s name to decorate and glue on the front, and I layered that with other pieces of the coordinating paper to make a cover card.  I was very pleased with the results, and so was our friend.  I am guessing I will be making quite a few more of these for future showers!

This has probably been the most intricate order I have ever received…for 200 invitations!  I was busy with assembly for quite a while on this one.

The client wanted something festive and elegant for the Christmas party celebrating her son’s recent marriage, so I chose classic Christmas colors in subtle metallic red and antique gold, accented with a vellum wrap, and tied with a shimmery red ribbon that the guest opens like a present.  Perfect for a holiday party!

One of my close friends is from Arkansas, and she is going home to participate in the Jones Center Arts & Crafts Festival in Springdale, Arkansas, in just a couple weeks.  In case you are unfamiliar with the event as I was before this year, the Northwest Arkansas Craft Fairs are a huge series of fairs held twice a year in various cities in Arkansas.  I was hoping to be able to attend with her and share a booth, but since I cannot go, she has offered to take my wreaths with her.  She makes lovely nursing blankets, embellished burp cloths, and toddler pillows, so if you are interested in any of those, please email me for her contact info!

When I started planning for the fair, I thought I would make just a few wreaths to display, but as you can see from the table of cuteness above, I got a little bit carried away once I began shopping, and the final count is eighteen.  Our house was overrun by wreaths for several weeks while I worked on them, photographed them (thank you to my husband for helping with that, his photo/video site is Pixel Grill), and packaged them for the trip.  You can see a gallery of all the completed wreaths here.