Nice Drawers!

Found this gorgeous handmade chest of apothecary drawers on Etsy at a little shop called redroosterbab. Imagine the crafting potential! And the potential to indulge our weakness for hoarding crafting materials.

What a nice piece for a rustic wedding, to hold secret guest favors, or escort cards.  Maybe a stretch, maybe not?

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They can be custom ordered in all sorts of beautiful colors, too.

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As kids, our best friend's enigmatic father kept an old library card catalog full of manner of mysterious goodies. Nostalgia!

Fun with Parallels!

Wow! We realized what Julia Rothman's new wedding invitation design, Daydream, reminded us of. A potter friend of Hello!Lucky makes whimsical work that coordinates beautifully with this design!

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See what we mean? Pretty swell, huh? Jana Evans is the creator of this fun and funky porcelain— all hand made! She wheel-throws and hand-builds and then etches all those fine lines. Beautiful and fascinating stuff! But the curves and lines just made us draw parallels (so to speak!) to Daydream.

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Jana is doing an artist residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. It's a mecca for clay and ceramic enthusiasts and pros. Check out the Bray website by clicking on the link above if you're interested in seeing more amazing work!

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Had to share this fun pitcher, jar, and bowl set too. Can't get enough of that drippy green glaze! Gorgeous!

Sweet Treats!

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We can't think of any better cure for a case of the Mondays than plates of gorgeous cookies - can you?  Our lovely Kelly has been baking up a storm lately and treating us to heaps of delectable goodies.  So sweet on mismatched vintage china, we can just imagine these pretty cookies as part of a wedding dessert bar!

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Chocolate Chip with Toasted Almonds and buttery Shortbreads with Macadamia Nuts... and oh yes... dipped in more chocolate!  Yum, pass the milk please!

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Lucky Friday Week Two!

If you missed last week's exciting edition, we'd like to announce a new weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we’ll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

KT Rachel  Katie Kaiser

Heather will contact you shortly to arrange sending your Esther Aarts Oompah Band Card!

This week's feature:

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Design: Stinky Skunk

Artist: Eunice Moyle

Inspiration: Pepé Le Pew, but of course, mon amour, with a whiff of swinging sixties baroque

Send it to: Who knows? The Shadow knows!

Our favorite detail: The concentric smoke rings of skunk funk, and the innocent expression on the striped perpetrator.

Ideas we scrapped for this one: We rejected a couple of Skunk drafts that were a little too ripe.

Why letterpress? A tactile letterpress card can make even the coldest heart a little scent-imental.

Remember to post your comment and check next Friday to see if you've won!

Jude's Big Top Birthday : Circus Cookies & Cupcakes

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Easy to make and lots of visual impact and classic birthday fun - that's what we were going for when we whipped up our cookies & cupcakes for Jude's birthday...

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Nothing says circus like animal cookies!  These were super easy to make and so fun to decorate...We used the sugar cookie recipe from the classic Joy of Cooking - delicious, crispy and buttery!  We made royal icing which is the simplest thing to make and frosted them with small paint brushes (more tips for decorating here).  Animal cookie cutters found here and here and here.

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The cupcakes were baked in the cutest red & white striped cups with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles topped with ribbon flags for a festive circus-y look.  We found the striped cupcake liners at Sweet Baking Supply and made the little flags out of grosgrain ribbon and wooden dowels (we found ours at Flax but you can find them at most art/craft supply stores) cut down to varied lengths (find the how-to in our new book, Handmade Weddings!)

Design By Leftovers on Design Milk

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Good Morning! Wow! We needed a pick-me-up with our coffee and these VIVID pieces did the trick. Aren't they gorgeous!?  Found on Design Milk— their creators are a Swedish group called Design By Leftovers. The above piece is called San Francisco Leftovers. Yes, Ma'am!

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We'll take two, please. They're small.

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Sometimes one just needs a triple shot of color to get going in the morning, no?

Jude's Big Top Birthday!

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Saturday was Jude's first birthday party, and what a fun little fête it was!

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We served fresh popcorn in vintage style popcorn boxes, sugar cookies frosted with royal icing (so fun to paint!)  and delicious cupcakes with chocolate frosting with little flags made from ribbon and satay sticks - classic birthday treats!

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The cake was a yellow cake with buttercream frosting, with a cute little banner (it's been a hot trend this year, and I couldn't help myself - so perfect for the circus theme!) And how perfect were these napkins?  I found them (as well as stripey straws, paper fringe and more) at a super adorable little shop called Shop Sweet Lulu!

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We provided clown noses, for those who didn't happen to have any appropriate circus attire on hand...

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...or who just happen to look ridiculously cute in one...

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We made these charming birthday hats out of pom poms, ruffly paper trim, stickers and poster board - so fun!

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One of Jude's birthday presents was this amazing Schylling baby piano that Sabrina picked up at the super marvelous shop  Paxton Gate's Curiosities for Kids which was a big hit at the party - she brought over hers too so we could have dueling pianos...

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Jude, striking a pose...
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One of Jude's friends, the ever charming Miss Eva, arrived dressed as a tiger!  How apropos, given the presence of this Ring 'o' Fire - hilarious!
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We painted an upside down flower pot to look like a circus pedestal - a perfect place to pose this vintage Dumbo doll and his strong man friend...and I made simple striped slip covers for our ottomans to transform our living room into an instant big top!
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Now, a great party is all about enthusiastic guests:  Sabrina's son James, seemingly unperturbed by his amusing head wear and sporting a natty suit!  Quite the sartorial splendor!
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Darling Hugo, who's half French, looking very adorable as a tiny French clown!
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spacer spacerOur friends Jillian and Toast of Because We Can, came in hilarious cowboy attire...(props to Jillian for staying up 'til the wee hours the night before decorating cookies!)
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The whole family, getting our circus on...
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Alas, the birthday boy was a little less than enthusiastic about sporting a birthday hat!
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Sabrina and her son Alex, having a jolly time! (How could you not, while double fisting kazoos??)
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The party reached it's peak with an all kazoo birthday salute!
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Happy Birthday, Jude!
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We'll be posting tutorials for the Ring of Fire, Pennants, Circus Sugar Cookies, the cake topper and more, all week, so stay tuned!

Heartland Evolution

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We thought y'all might be interested in seeing all the great ways we've riffed our Heartland/Apple Farm design.  So many people have adapted it to their own farm setting— so we thought it would be nice to share!   Above is our original Apple Farm design on the left and a super cute version that Melanie Case commissioned on the right. Love the apple and orange on the same branch, brilliant!

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How sweet— a Michigan Cherry orchard and a ceremony in Sun Valley Idaho! Love the horseshoes and the cowboy chic.

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Then Eunice did a great riff on the Sun Valley Idaho version for Shannon and Jason and their Texas ranch wedding.  It's fun to see the two versions of the trees— we got it right on the bottom RSVP with the more deciduous looking variety. Check out the adorable Super 8 film of their wedding here.

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Another great aspect about Heartland is that we can often substitute motifs from our other designs with great results!  The motif from our Vintage Rose design was perfect for the garden wedding on the left, and our Mi Amor birds went wonderfully with the Mexican flags on the right!

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Such a perfect design for a Napa wedding!

Let us know if you'd love any of these designs for your wedding by contacting info@hellolucky.com. Take a screen shot and send it along via e-mail, or give us a call to ask about the process of using one of these fabulous rustic wedding invitation designs.

Introducing Lucky Fridays!

We're delighted to announce a new weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we'll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we'll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we'll announce the winners on the following Friday!

Oompah Band Letterpress Card

Design: Oompah Band

Artist: Esther Aarts

Inspiration: Tahoe Swiss Chalet restaurant; Swiss Oompah bands,  Lowly Worm, Esther's fabulous retro illustrations

Send it to: Your best drinking buddy, nephew who is learning to play the recorder (gateway to any number of crazy, erm, AWESOME, instruments), anyone who plays the flugelhorn or tuba.

Our favorite detail: The musicians' curly chins

Ideas we scrapped for this one: Dutch milkmaid milking a flower-garland & bell-bedecked cow: "Happy Birthday! Milk it for all it's worth!"  Erm, might conjure up image of cow's udder...

Why letterpress? Makes it feel like an heirloom you found in your Swiss uncle's attic, next to his size 56XXL lederhosen.

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Photo credit:  Alan Morrison via Just Brass

Remember, post a comment and check back next Friday to see if you won!

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Love this blog, designworklife.  We found they had posted about our Jude Turns 1 party invitation, and in the process turned up all sorts of beautiful things!  Foremost in our minds today were these amazing wee artist books by Elsa Mora (click on her name and be awed at her cut paper creations!)

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Be sure not to get completely derailed by Elsa's amazing stuff, though, as there are all other sorts of goodies to see on designworklife.

Enjoy!

Dino Epoch!

Spotted these cookie favors and thought they would be perfect for a Dino Epoch themed birthday party!

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Our birth announcements designs aren't just for new babies, they can easily be adapted into birthday party invitations with just some minor tweaking.

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Contact us with questions!

The rawr-some cookies came from Whippedbakeshop on Etsy.

Invitation evolution & inspiration

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Many of our designs start as custom commissions created in collaboration with our clients  -- and take on a new life from there!  Our Big Day invitation is a great example -- originally created for bride Jean Weisman, a writer who wrote the invitation copy, the design was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings along with the rest of Jean & Devin's gorgeous wedding (planned by AE Planning & Design). We made a version that could be ordered on our website...

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...and adapted a DIY version for our new book, Handmade Weddings...

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A bride in Brooklyn loved the design but wanted us to replace the Golden Gate with the Brooklyn Bridge, and put her own unique spin on the text...

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... and we created an invitation in a similar style for Bear Flag Farm...

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Here's a save the date variation with photos and cute flags!

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Today we spotted this design on Brooklyn Bride and this design by Kenzie Kate -- more designs inspired by Big Day?

Regardless, this is a shout-out to all of our awesome, creative clients, who give us the opportunity to create new designs every day!

Photo credit (top): Sabine Scherer