Welcome to Cincinnati Jenna Blazevich!

I was so excited to receive this little package from calligrapher Jenna Blazevich this week. I have an reverent respect for calligraphers. I took a calligraphy course with the much loved Karen McMannon here in Cincinnati many years ago. It only took a few days to realize that I did not have one ounce of the patience to be any good. My "letters must be perfect" neuroses reared it's ugly head and I couldn't overcome it. So you can believe me when I say that I am AMAZED at the skill and dedication calligraphers have. I bow to you!

I can't wait until Jenna gets to Cincinnati this May so we can meet each other in person. In the meantime, calligraphy projects anyone? Send your inquiries to Jenna and see more of her skills on her website.

A very nice award for Margot Madison Creative!

Actual email exchange between my friend Laura Chenault and me last Friday morning:

Laura: congrats on the BOC/citybeat award! woot! you go gal!
Me: What? What are you talking about?? *googling now*
Laura: you won a big kudos award, lady!
Me: WTF! I can't find it. For what???
Laura: citybeat. best of the city. unless i was trippin

Luckily, Laura was not "trippin". Finally, another friend who is in the know (April Combs) took a photo of it and sent it to me so I could see that CityBeat has voted Margot Madison Creative Best Creative Event Design! I am very humbled and excited to be in such great company. That IS a big deal, plus they wrote some very nice words about my business! Thank you so much Cincinnati!

You can read my little section here, but of course you are going to want to see all the great things that are Cincinnati in the issue. You can pick one up CityBeat for free at various Cincinnati retailers or read on line here.

Painted Easter Egg

I've attempted a few easter egg projects around here this week, several of which have not turned out so well. After about 9 decorative eggs, I finally was pleased with this one. I wanted to push my conceptual colors of spring and easter which are more pastel, and try for something a little bit different. The gray and yellow was a good start, and each time the paint dried, I felt compelled to add more. You know that this is often the point where things go terribly awry and you wish you just stopped before screwing it up completely. Luckily, this time I stopped before that terrible end. I'm a bit surprised about the neon pink. I thought I was over that, but alas, I am not. :o)

I'm going to take several days off next week for spring break. We do not have any really adventurous plans. We will go to our farm and hang out there with the dogs and some friends possibly. But I realized that I'm just in a need of a break! I've been feeling a little bit antsy and like I'm just treading water a little with my designs. I think the non computer time will be good for me.

Book Lovers Wedding Invitations

It's been a while since I've posted some invitations. I just finished this one for a client and I must say, I'm smitten with it! I feel like I always say that after I see the invitation printed but it's nonetheless the truth. This wedding is taking place in the Boston Library courtyard and the bride and her fiancee are avid readers. We worked together to create this special wedding logo and added the tiny touch of gold foil in the two hearts above the book. I am a total detail nerd, so it was so wonderful that the client agreed to pay a little extra for that special sparkle. It's so worth it!

The black and emerald green color scheme is right on trend too with Pantone's color of the year as Emerald. In this design, the colors convey both a fresh and classic impression. Again, more details with the black and white stripe envelope liners and the backs of each card was printed in green to give the whole suite a lush and coordinated finish. Love. It. Thank you Cindy and Emily for being such wonderful clients!

A helping hand for DIY Brides

Did you know that one of the services I offer is to create a Style Guide for DIY brides? This is a really useful packet of information for women who want to take part in the creation of their wedding but don't have a clue where to start, what it should look like, and where to find all the parts and pieces. It  includes a color palette that shows not only what your color scheme is, but how to use the colors throughout the event design plus customized drawings, photos and links to the various products you'll be using, how to set them up and where you can find them. Think of it as a road map to designing your wedding. My most recent bride said that she loved just having some "marching orders" and a check list that she could check off as she made the preparations. If you are feeling overwhelmed with the decision-making process of your wedding, this will bring you some peace of mind and get you motivated to start working on it!

Some beautiful tea packaging from Marks & Spencer

Last week, I was given the opportunity to fly to Birmingham, England to be with my family for my Grandmother's funeral. My father is from Birmingham and we've had the good fortune to visit many times (although never enough!) with my family who lives there and now in Wrexham, Wales. My grandmother lived to an amazing 99 years old! She out-paced 2 pacemakers and kept her sharp-as-a-tack wit to the very end. While this occasion was tinged with some sadness, the heavy emotion recognizing the end of an era was more present. We visited her house for the last time, and I said goodbye to her wonderful terraced garden, which was her pride and joy. We had such a lovely time there having tea outside on metal chairs, and I recall my mother needlepointing to pass the time while we ate sausage rolls, sponge cake and drank lemonade (the English kind, which is really more like lemon-lime soda of the US) because we didn't like tea yet. She made that small house a home for 70 years. Amazing.

While the comings and goings of funeral and eating arrangements kept us quite busy, we did manage to make it to the local mall on Sunday for a bit of shopping. I made a point to visit one of my favorite stores, Marks & Spencer and made more than a few purchases of shortbread, candy and other goodies for my kids at home. Another reason I like to shop, and it's actually more compelling to me than the actual purchasing of items, is to look at the package designs. I was enamored with this tea packaging and had to geek out with my iPhone.

Oh, how I love the simplicity of the fruit and flower shapes, the beautiful and bright colors and the texture created by the rough printed style. And the fonts. And the composition and proportion of the illustration to the product name. Love. It. All.

Another favorite store is PaperChase. Do we have these in the states? I feel like I've seen the name before, but it could be at surface design conventions like Surtex. I had to use great powers of restraint not to get myself into a stationery frenzy. There just wasn't enough room in my extra suitcase for all the stuff I wanted to get from there! I ended up purchasing some stickers and things for the kids. I would have liked to purchase their wrapping paper, and some seriously adorable lunch boxes. And the only reason I decided against buying the lunch boxes was because I would have been a crazy mom every time my kids took one to school.

DIY Friday: Print your own invitations

I thought I'd share the newest design of printable invitations I created for my etsy shop. My son wanted to have a sleepover birthday party this year, so we headed down to my studio for a little brainstorming session. His idea was to have kids lined up in their cocoon-like sleeping bags and also to include the snow boarding that he was hoping to also do with his friends. His sketch looked like this:

My apologies for the lack of color correcting on this sketch, but you get the idea.

Since he's too young to really understand that living in Cincinnati, Ohio means that we could have spring-like 65 degree temperatures and arctic -10 degree temperatures all in the same month of January (which we literally have had this year), I convinced him to go for the most reliable theme and keep it to the sleeping bags.

Thus the new design was born. Oliver liked the plaid patterns on the bags, it's boyish and kind of camp-y. He also had me change all the face and hair color to match the friends he'd be inviting to the party. I think it covers most 8 year old boys pretty well!

The party printables (etsy link here) include a completely coordinated and fully customizable invitation, thank you card, circle stickers/tag template and drink box covers. All are set up in a Word document so you can type you own info in and get printing. then take a nice nap before your party, 'cause you're going to need it...