Last week we celebrated Caedmon’s fifth birthday. He provides us with plenty of laughs and hugs. He is able to go from crying about something to laughing hysterically. He can play by himself for hours or get along with a group of kids. He is so easy going. He loves to collect things – Squinkies, matchbox cars, Lego minifigures, Mighty Beans… he often sleeps with them or has them in his pockets.

I asked him a few questions this week:

What is your favorite color: Yellow (still is favorite)
Favorite Musician/Song: Jack (that is his big brother)
Favorite Restaurant: Papa Johns (I like the lemon pizza — which is actually to say he likes the ham and PINEAPPLE pizza)
Favorite Book: Lego Star Wars
Favorite Lego Guy: Master Yoda (mommy write the whole name… he is the Master)
Fruit: Cantaloupe
Veggie: Broccoli – cooked
Thing to do outside – Play 3DS on the porch(ok folks, he likes to do other things, but he just got this the day I asked him the questions).
Ride at Knoebels: Ferris Wheel
Best friend: Aiden from school

He wanted a CARS themed birthday cake. I made the road to look like the number five. He had the perfect size Lightning McQueen. I made the signs in Illustrator and printed them.

For school, I made Lightning McQueen and Mater cookies. I enjoy making cookies, but they took a ton of time – I would not want to make it my full time job!  I love you my little man – Happy Birthday!

While I was researching the design of this logo, I discovered that many wedding photographers use the font Scriptina for their logo.  I remember finding this font before I started On Paper Designs.  I loved that it was a playful script font – elegant enough for something formal, yet fun and modern for a notecard.  Plus with an name like Scriptina, it has to be beautiful…But then I started seeing it everywhere. Maybe this font is to wedding photography what Papyrus is to churches.   Here are a few logos I quickly found that use Scriptina:

The one thing that I do not like about this font is that if you have a word with too many looping letters they start to loop into each other making a great big ole’ mess – like this:

Okay, so a photographer wouldn’t use “kill” in their company name, but try reading “photography” in Scriptina – it is hard!

Like his love of dinosaurs, he can tell you which insect is the biggest, the heaviest, the fastest. He knows which ones can poison you or are helpful to humans. 

When it came to making him a cake for his birthday, he decided nothing would be better than a bug cake.  We said no to actual chocolate covered bugs, but I decided to make them out of royal icing instead.  The tree trunk is made from cake covered in fondant, the ant hill is made from cake covered in icing and graham cracker crumbs.

His favorite presents were Star Wars Millenium Falcon (legos are up there with bugs), his ants for his ant farm and lego Ninjago DS game.

For his school friends, Jackson brought in bug cookies.  The butterflies were a favorite among the girls, but Jackson liked the spiders the best (they are actually black widows – as the seven year old who is reading over my shoulder told me).

Happy Birthday my dear 7 year old – you are growing up too fast!

After looking at the sermon titles and reading the bible verses he would be using in the series, I decided that no stock photos would do.  I took my camera to the streets.  I walked downtown Sunbury, PA with our new son Quin and took photos that I thought would match the themes.  For the series title slide, I used the letters from various signs to spell ”HOPE”.  I am not sure how many people made the connection that the photos were from our town, but that just goes to show that we often don’t take in our normal surroundings.  When we go on vacation we notice things… but we often do not notice the everyday things because we are so busy or so used to it.  I guess we often don’t see that our community right here and right now is in need of hope and we think that other places in the world are in need. 

Since our third son was born in July, it has been like a three ring circus around here, which is where I found my inspiration for this year’s card.  My children are so entertaining and they provide me with the love and inspiration for my work. Although I do have to admit that having my office in the playroom since baby #3 came along can be anything but inspiring when they are wrestling or fighting over legos. 

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I designed his birth announcements to have a vintage feel – I think it goes with his name Quinton Edward.  I shot the photos in his sunny bedroom.  My middle son, Cade, loves to kiss him – as you can see on the back of the birth announcement.  My husband wrote the beautiful poem on the back – inspired by the meaning of Quin’s name.  

If you would like to have a custom made birth announcement – please contact me.  It is really such a joy to design pieces like this.

I sent missy paper samples and designed a few options for her.  This was the first time I have ever designed booklet inviations.  They came together pretty quickly – although it was harder to do than usual with my pregnant belly not wanting to bend much when cutting, folding and tying ribbons to 200 invites. 

Here is the outside of the invitation and the envelope.  I made wrap labels to match and Missy addressed them.  The invitations were pretty heavy because we did an inner wrap around the invitation, and they cost extra to mail because they were square invites – something to consider when you are trying to stay within a budget.

Here is the first page of the invitation.  This is the verse that the couple selected.

This is the inside of the invitation with the ceremony information.

It was a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception.  My two boys and their pregnant mommy enjoyed the massive candy bar they had!  Congratulations Missy and Zach!

The advertising worked.  We had over 250 people attend the event.  One of our church members roasts the pork loins and the rest of church bakes and cooks all of the fixings.  This year their was a chalk artist, magician and balloon artist to entertain young and old.  

I printed the posters with PS Print – it is the first time I have ever printed posters and they turned out beautiful.  I am not sure if it was nice of me to place the words “free food” on a the picture of a pig. 

            My dear college friend Kate had her third child – a baby girl named Emma.  Emma is so cute and it is amazing how much she looks like her big brother and sister. 

I always love designing birth announcements especially when I get to design ones for friends and family.  Kate and Paul took most of these beautiful pictures shortly after Emma was born – doesn’t Kate look beautiful?  How does she do it?  I always look like a big ole’ mess!  Kate wanted to use sea glass colors in the announcements and I thought cream would look so nice with it. 

It is almost time for me to start designing birth announcements for our third little boy, but for now he is content where he is – plus I still have more nesting to do!