Baby Shower Invites

Not only has a baby joined our family, babies are being added to many other families we know as well. And with special first-in-the-family babies Baby Showers are a must.

And all Baby Showers need invites.

First, I present to you the invite I designed for a very special friend in town.

Invite. size 7.283 inches x 4.723 inches

The next invite is for my pregnant sister & her husband who live in New York state. The rest of us live in the Midwest so we are throwing them a Mail Order Baby Shower. I present to you that invite plus a postcard each guest will fill out & send out east.

Invite. 8.5 inches x 5.5 inches.

Front of postcard. 6 inches x 4 inches. Sized to fit in a cute photo album for the Baby.

Back of postcard. Same size as front. ha!

A Baby Was Born

The Scheunemanns became a family of four on July 7, 2012. A little boy was born. The first week of his life his Mommy set to work creating his birth announcements.

Front of Card

Inside of Card

Oddly enough that was six weeks ago. Which makes it soon time to open Jessie Marie Studio's doors again.

Back of Card

PMS 3255: Nautical

Color The property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light. 

My eye is trained to see color differently than the normal person. When I was a prepress operator at OEC Graphics I would painstakingly color correct client's projects to print in the perfect mix of either spot or process colors. To accomplish this I had to "see" a small percentage difference from one hue of, say blue, to the next.

I later took my prepress knowledge into a graphic design position. I used my color trained eyes to find perfect combination of colors for product lines at Horizon Hobby. I'd use tools like Color Hunter & books on color in hope of finding a magic combination. But I found that my uber sensitive eye still needed to tweak the hues to perfection.

As you may have seen I used my uber sensitive eyes to create a perfect combination of color for our next baby. I'm not going to lie. The teal in the mix isn't in my normal list of favorites. Part of my issue is I don't like how the word teal sounds when you say it out loud.

Just say it, "TEAL"

And come on. Is it blue? Or is it green?

But I've now moved past all that.

I hesitantly added teal to the baby's brand. And therefore, into my life. Once I did I saw it magically used as an accent color on the house where we pick up our CSA food.

That door convinced me to repaint our changing table Nautical. (Way more fun to say than teal.)

 

And just yesterday, I designed our baby's thank you cards. Using PMS 3255 as the accent color.

Teal, welcome to my life.

Branding My 2nd Baby

Like any good mother I want to be fair to my kids. This is why I have decided to once again go through the exercise of Branding My Baby.

First, a look at what was Cadence's brand. Two typefaces (LD Bohemian Filigree & Machiarge) & four neutral colors - slate blue, light brown, red & dark brown.

The type & the colors were used for Cadence's thank you cards & birth announcements. We also used the color scheme with a western rodeo theme for the nursery.

Well, Cadence turned out a bit - okay a lot - more girly than this look. Below is what Cadence overhauled her own brand into.

And now onto Branding My 2nd Baby.

Since this baby is getting 90% of Cadence's baby things handed down to him/her I decided to keep the Machiarge typeface. Sharing such a great typeface may be hard to do, but my kids will need to learn sharing is what siblings do.

Next, I bought My 2nd Baby it's very own display face: Skitch. I do realize normal moms buy their babies cute clothes. I buy cute typefaces. And this one is the epitome of cuteness. The typeface comes with multiple fun variations AND borders and ornaments. Perfect for designing this child's thank you cards & birth announcements.

As for the color palette, I'm giving My 2nd Baby's brand flexibility. I've kept the same dark brown that was used for Cadence (another lesson in sharing) & added a light gray, sea foam green, and then chose a gender specific color - blue for a boy or pink for a girl.

The inspiration for both the type & color scheme came from the photo below, little birds, by Leslie Ostrander that we purchased for the new nursery. The photo was part of our prize for supporting her new book the pauses between due out in August.

 

Day 30: What Are You Thinking?

IMG 8401 from Morning Meeting 04.18.12

31 Days of Adventure Day 30
What Are You Thinking?


"Find a quiet space (or create one) where you can take 15 minutes alone. Bring a pen a couple of pieces of paper with you (yes, we're doing this analog). Start writing." - daily email prompt

I'm not going to lie it took over a week for me to find a quiet moment & write for 15 minutes. I think that is just the nature of being a Mom. There isn't an over abundance of quiet moments. But when you get one it is pretty stinkin' glorious.

I wrote for 15 minutes. I almost didn't stop. The movement of the pen on paper was therapeutic. I forgot how much journaling helps me digest & comprehend life. I really should do it more often.

An except from this evening:

"What will this new baby teach me? What will it bring into my life? How will it break me down & build me back up? Becoming a mother has probably been the best thing God could have done to me.

It has been hard.

It has fun.

It has been a lot of work.

It has been really rewarding.

It has been extremely challenging.

It has given me lessons on love I didn't even know I needed."

//Dandelion image from Morning Meeting 04.18.12. See the whole collection here.//

Here we go!

Photo from Cadence's Big Adventure out to Wyoming in July 2010 ©Jessie Marie Studio, LLC

I have been on a lot of adventures since getting together with my amazing husband, Jarrod Scheunemann. Our very first road trip adventure was out to Yellowstone & the Grand Tetons in 2001. Since then we have adopted the adventure lifestyle & have never looked back, bringing family, friends & now our kids along for the ride. We even named our first children's book Adventures with Ranger Roy: Acadia National Park.

Since I'm pregnant right now (an adventure in itself!) & due in the middle of adventure season (June 30th) we are sadly not doing one of our normal National Park Adventures this summer. Instead I've decided to embark on a 31 day challenge from my new friend Amy, from Expand Outdoors.  

I bring to you Day 1 of 31 Days of Adventure. 

Each day I will get a prompt in my inbox for some type of daily adventure. Join me if you would like. Today was the set up for the project. Below are my answers:

What does adventure means to you? How do you define it? 
Something new. Challenging. Difficult. Exciting. Shared with others.

When you hear the word "adventure," what images come to mind?
Grand vistas. Beautiful views. Flowers. Lakes. Rivers. Mountains. Our Xterra KYT. Trials.
 
Feelings? 
Excitement. Anxiety. Wonderment. Peace. Joy.

Activities?
Hiking. Biking. Road Trip. Swimming. Running. Live concerts.
 
Are there particular smells or sounds you associate with the word?
Rain. Dry air. Pine trees. Lake or river water. Chirping birds. Crowds of people. Silence.

Let the next Adventure begin!  

Winter Work

Winter's been long for more reasons than gray days & long nights. Jessie Marie Studio has been busy wrapping up two big projects & diligently moving two others forward. See visuals below.

Program cover for Operation Stimulus 2012 - a conference put on by the Denver Transportation Club.

Poster design for St. Andrew's spring semester lecture series.

Ticket design for St. Andrew's spring semester lecture series.

Website homepage for Littlefield Auction Company. See entire site (still in the works) here.

Project Baby Scheuneman 2.0 due June 30, 2012.