baby announcements and more

I FINALLY got around to photographing a bunch of custom work, including the much anticipated (according to our family) birth announcements for Jackson. We couldn't decide on a 'theme' so I just whipped up this circus/wanted poster style design. The swirls are in a pool blue to match the envelope and all the text is in a cocoa brown. As for the photo, he is just 3 weeks old. Look at all that hair! (He's lost most of it....sad).

As for the other work, mostly wedding stuff with a Bar Mitzvah or two thrown in. Why the sudden rush to document the invites? Well I am redesigning the website and am updating the gallery. Aside from adding the pics, the site is done and should be up soon. In the meantime, here are a few shots from my photo session. Enjoy.

This was a Bar Mitzvah set that included 2 invites, an rsvp, a map/directions booklet, thank you cards, place cards, and printed envelopes. Everything was in an assortment of blues, and browns.

This is just the rsvp to a super fancy invite. I was given a swatch of fabric and told to mimic it. This set is a whopping 3 colors (that is usually more than many people get) and the invite itself was two sided. Every inch of the front and back were printed to look like a piece of fabric. Very interesting project.

baby on board

Baby is here! I would like to introduce you to Jackson Calder. He was born on October 15th at 10:45 pm and he is superb. While there have been challenges, so far I have found motherhood to be easier than pregnancy. I am getting more sleep and can maneuver much easier. Plus now my husband can actually share in the action.

Being pregnant while trying to run a business has been a challenge. I participated in the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago just a few weeks before Jax (his nickname) was born and that was just plain crazy. We were sitting in the elements from 8 am until 11 pm. For a very pregnant lady, that is seriously uncomfortable. Especially with just a few disgusting port-0-potties to deal with. Yikes. But otherwise the show was GREAT! We sold a ton of stuff and met lots of great new folks. In the future though, if I were ever pregnant again, I would have to pass on such an event. Just too much work.

Where have we been?

I can't believe it has been so long since updating this. This is because we learned back in January, that we will be adding a little baby bundle to the Paper Stories gang. First joy, then lots (and I mean LOTS) of morning sickness. Thus I abandoned my P.S. duties while spending most of the last year getting very acquainted with my bathroom floor. Yikes. While I avoided as much work as possible I did have several projects that had to be printed. So while battling an evil bout of morning (read: all day) sickness, I was printing a job of 300+ wedding suites (invitations, maps, place cards, programs, thank you cards etc) for one couple, printing a set of lovely baby announcements for my sister-in-law, finishing another amazing 3-color wedding invite set for an awesome couple in NYC and otherwise trying to stay afloat.

Well it has now been a month since I have been able to rejoin civilization and I have had a lot of catching up to do. I printed a bunch of new cards for celebrating birthdays, babies, and weddings. I even printed a 5 image set of postcards from NYC. You can check out most of the new goods by visiting the Paper Stories Etsy shop.

Otherwise, you may have seen us in various recent publications such as Chicago Magazine, Readymade Magazine, & Best Life Magazine. If note, here is some of the press.