My little sister called me one day (on a side note, my sister is truly an incredible person)...her best friend was having a baby and she asked me to create the invitations for her baby shower and to design the shower itself. No pressure or anything. Working for a friend is difficult, working for family is even worse! The expectations are high; they're familiar with all your work and know what your levels of creativity and capability are. Thankfully, my sister knew when she said, "do something over the top and sparkly" that I totally had this.
I started with a few ideas (the background and artwork details to follow at some point). We knew we wanted something slightly whimsical, pastel, pink, sparkle and I knew I wanted to ship it in a box. I loved the idea of incorporating hot air balloons; the historic kind with laurels, fanciful rope work and pennants streaming off the baskets. I also knew I wanted to create something more that just the balloons themselves, something to give them depth and perspective. I drew out a city skyline in simple ink pen, keeping the city itself simple and used the combination of the city layered with the balloons.
The names of the mommy-to-be and her new baby girl were done in calligraphy, appropriately with a good deal of flourishing. The entire suite was printed on crystal white shimmer paper. The second card bore their registry information, additional calligraphy, and hot air balloons. The entire suite was wrapped up in a pale pink fabric with a lovely floral applique on it. I then used a 3 inch pale mint satin ribbon to tie them up and topped the entire set with a large brooch. The entire suite was popped in a beautiful box in matching white shimmer, a matching address label with matching calligraphy wrapped around the box, keeping it closed through the post.
