I recently completed a suite of custom designed, hand screen printed wedding invitations for a good friend of mine. Check out the full post at Lotus & Pearl!

Yesterday was Father’s Day, and I was fortunate enough to spend time with my dad, my step-dad-in-law, and my brother-in-law, who’s a brand new papa (his beautiful girl is just over a week old. I made greeting cards for each of them. They were printed digitally, but next year I hope to have them available for purchase as screen printed cards. The top one was for my dad, and is inspired by the fact that he likes to refer to himself as “the King”, even though in my house the Queen was really the one in charge. The second one was for Kenny, who is a fun-loving guy. And the final card is for Glen, who is over the moon about his brand new baby girl, Ella. Unfortunately I couldn’t make a card for Richie, my father-in-law, who isn’t with us but is in our thoughts.

…and I’m not! I am very happy to be awaiting the birth of a new niece or nephew very soon! My lovely sister-in-law Vanessa and her husband Glen are expecting a baby in June. Myself, Vanessa’s sister Caitlin, and some of Vanessa’s close friends had been planning a surprise baby shower for a few months. We decided on a baby animal theme. Since I didn’t want it to be too “pastel” or saccharine, I thought baby jungle animals would be a fun way to go, and then we all realized that was perfect, since Glen and Vanessa played Guns ‘n’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” at their wedding. The jungle colors also worked well since the baby’s nursery will be green. I had so much fun looking up the photo reference for this project– I mean, just look at a Francois Langur baby monkey– they’re ridiculously cute! I also created Thank You tags for the favors (little foot cookie cutters) with three different variations, and a game for guests to play, which was actually kind of difficult. Vanessa’s very talented friend Jenny made a gorgeous and delicious red velvet cake based on the theme as well– if you’re in the NYC/Long Island area and you want an amazing cake check out Little Mrs. Cupcake! All in all I think it was a really wonderful baby shower and an indication that this baby is going to have a ton of love, including from the crazy aunt!