Semi DIY invitations, Sandra Lee ain't got nothing on me!!!

I'm soo excited, I have been thinking about my invite designs of course as soon as I had completed my save the dates. I wanted something elegant and posh and modern and wow. I remembered back when Sciz and I decided we were going to learn calligraphy and began searching calligraphers on the internet to see how much they charged to design invites etc. I was blown away at the prices (faint). Then I found www.calligraphybyjennifer.net and it was a SCORE! She and I have been conversing back and forth and she can do our names in a digital format (I am using a level four font) and I will design the invites and print them out but our names will have the custom calligraphy. And the it's not too cost prohibitive especially since I'll be doing my own printing and the rest of the design Here are my fave fonts by her.




Platinum Flourish I think this is our number one font, can you imagine our names in the scrolly squirly swirly fonts?!

and Hollywood Swirl... love ths one too but it's not as dramatic and the first one and we know I'm all about the drama!!

She will also be addressing our inner and outer envelopes and I'll use a lower tier font for price purposes... This is a Level 2 about 1.50 to 1.75 depending on if I choose Monoline or traditional calligraphy
Flourished Italic

This is also an invite by Jennifer and it sort of sparked my aha moment (yes I had an Oprah moment)... Our invites will have our names in an incredibly scrolled and large design and the rest will be a stock print that I will design and the chandelier will be stamped in the background or on the right hand side!!! i'm soooo excited!!!!!!  This design is from Jennifer as well.

I think I may attempt to make the above  invitation look more like this with my new stamps  I think the juxtaposition of the imperfect stamps with the perfect names will be amazing, don't you?

There is something so deductive and sexy about a black invitation, don't you agree? (source) but we could still stamp it with three different chandeliers in a metallic silver?  So sexy and vintage.

I will probably be adding little crystals at the bottom of the chandelier (gotta have a little bit of bling, right?!)

The most wonderful time of the year!!

It's almost Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!


My mommy is Mrs. Christmas herself! And I love love love love Christmas! For me it brings to mind my sister and I acting like 4 year olds under the tree looking for our gifts and watching my son, nephew and niece open their gifts and the look of sheer pleasure and amazement on their faces, not to mention my mom's yummy Lemon Meringue Pie (I keep asking for the recipe and every year my mom forgets. It's hilarious and a family tradition for me to ask, her to forgot and then the yummy pie show up on our table and me to hoard it from everyone else). I totally give the evil eye when someone tries to take a piece....

Since I am the self-proclaimed Mocha Frugalista, I can't fathom purchasing store brought Christmas cards, I mean where's the frugality in that? I am totally DIY'g my own Christmas cards this year with an embossing tool and other items bought from (you guessed it) Michael's! But of course, I'll use my coupons to get the best deal of all because as David's Bridal says "It's chic to save" and well I must be the chic-est of 'em all! I will be using the below video tutorial to make my cards. I am pretty sure I'll be passing on the water color portion though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJXKkLmiSFk

I am also uber excited because M and I will also be traveling all the way from Louisiana back home! My mom called today to say that she has reserved our hotel room (isn't that a great gift?!) And she gushed about the room, so I can't wait to see! We will be spending two wonderful nights and three days at home! And it's M's very first visit home with me, Lord I hope he isn't intimated by our Biggie Sized Family!

Do you all have any holiday rituals? Are you DIY'g any crafts or gifts in lieu of buying a more expensive counterpart? Have you started thinking about it yet?