Christmas Dinner Place Cards

{ Calligraphy + Photography by Plurabelle Calligraphy } 

I just realized that I never posted these photos of the Christmas dinner place cards that I made in December. (I have a bad habit of saving blog posts as drafts and then forgetting about them!) It’s a variation on the watercolor place card technique I came up with last summer, for which I created my D.I.Y. video. For this project I was channeling holly as my inspiration, so I used opaque gouache instead of translucent watercolor.

a painted dogwood wedding

{ calligraphy by me, paper design and photography by monumental designs }

I always get really hungry when I’m designing menus (but who wouldn’t when you’re writing out something like “sweet corn & mascarpone polenta”?), but when this menu project came across my plate (pun intended) I was really drooling. My calligraphy design was printed on luxuriously-thick white paper then each menu was meticulously painted by hand (!) by stationery artist Kristy Rice of Monumental Designs.

This project led me to check out Kristy’s other work, all of which is absolutely stunning. Below is her wonderful jewel-toned “painted peacock” theme.

{ “painted peacock” design and photography by monumental designs }

season’s greetings

You might recall my post a few weeks back about my holidays cards, but they are officially done! Once I vectorized the lettering I also turned the design into a rubber stamp. These items and more are available at my shop so drop by!

calligraphy & watercolor

We experimented with lots of techniques I’d never tried before, like sprinkling salt and rubbing alcohol on the wet paint and laying sheets of plastic wrap over the pieces as they dried. Now I’m just looking forward to experimenting with my pieces as backgrounds for my own calligraphy projects.

letters on halloween

On the schedule this weekend: finish the Halloween cards I’m making for my family (above). I’m cutting lots of crow silhouettes out of black paper which has made me realize how much I need to invest in a #11 xacto handle with cushioned grip.