May the 4th Be with You!

After all these years, I finally broke down and hopped on the Star Wars bandwagon. I guess it's about time, too, especially when you have more than a handful of family members, both young and old, who are fans... I have two "inspired" projects to share with you today. The first is a birthday banner:

For the banner, I used a font similar to the one used throughout the franchise. To add a girly, yet subtle, touch, the letters and pennant backgrounds were made in "galactic gold" (perfect name, huh?!) Of course, everything is multi-layered, because that's what I do! The two banner pieces are book-ended with some favorite characters.

 This is where it got a little tricky, because of the characters. I didn't want to just print and cut the characters out (Eww, yuck. I never liked the look of that. Anyone can print out pictures and glue them on.) After a little work and maneuvering, and patience with the small pieces, everything came together, better than planned! (I may be a small fan now, only because of this)
The second project is a matching birthday card for the Brother (talk about old fan...) I had one card designed and (somewhat) ready to send out, but then this idea came into my head and I decided to go with it. I hope he's OK with it 1.) being late and 2.) not a surprise...

The inside of the card, which I unfortunately don't have a picture of, is printed out in the same font as the banner and reads "Wishing Yoda Happiest Birthday, I am. Celebrate, you must." (obviously read in Yoda's voice)
Who knew Star Wars could be so fun?! Now, maybe I'll continue working on the matching party favors I started like two years ago...
Have a great day!

We're Back! (And Brought Along a Few Friends!)

Oh, my!! We're back! It has obviously been quite a long time. I'd love to be able to use some amazing, awesome excuse as to why we haven't posted anything here in such a long time, but after trying out some new endeavors, this little piece kind of got pushed to the back burner. Not forgotten, just kind of like the week-old leftovers in the fridge. In the meantime, we have been working on putting a cohesive look to our little business, a new "stand-alone" online store, orders, and every day life (who knew naptime for the Little One would turn into naptime for the Big One, too? Or at least the Big One being used as a pillow?)
After debating internally for a while, we have decided to take the next step and open an on-line store. Not that we don't love our Etsy store, but we thought maybe it was a good time to branch out and try something new, and hopefully bring along a few friends and make some new ones! We have more items available in this store, including many new invitations (for now. One section at a time!) The link to this new store is www.twoearlybirds.com/our-store. Like everything in life, it's a work in progress!
I guess now that the mundane is done (tried to keep it quick and simple!) we have a few new projects planned over the next few months. (Hopefully we can keep on top of things and not let it slide like we've done in the past...) With the new movie "Finding Dory" coming out later this summer, we decided to start Dory-themed party line. We probably should have started with invitations, but sometimes an idea comes to you and you have to run with it! This was one of those projects:

This piece features everyone's favorite Blue Tang and Clown fishes.

The fish and letters are pop-dotted, of course!And the middle space features a little under water scene, with a little Peach and a seagull in the corners:

I can't wait to see what the rest of the decorations will look like! A few other banners and the circle garland are next up on the to-do list!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a fintastic day (get it?!)!

Happy 4th!

I know it's a bit late, especially as I am listening to the fireworks going off, watching the All-American movie Forrest Gump as I write this, but I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July today!

This is how I celebrated today, doing what I love, by creating this little banner and garland- pretty much the extent of my decorating for the holiday.
Have a great night!

Wedding Wishes!

Good morning! I'm so sorry it's been a while since I posted. There have been some computer issues here, which was a total bummer. I hope everyone had a fantastic week! Maybe with an extra day off for the holiday observance?! I'm sure there are some big plans for the weekend, between picnics and fireworks, and all that fun stuff! We were supposed to head to Montana this week for a wedding, but unfortunately work got in the way. I did make a card, though, because it's what I do!

This is the outside of the card. I wanted to make it elegant, and it came out better than I first thought. After some trial and error, I got the bottom later to work for me. I don't have an embossing plate with the diamond design, so I had to create my own with my paper scorer. The second embossed layer was definitely not done by hand. I chose these colors based off of some shower decorations I made for her. The Bride had a "Breakfast at Tiffany's"- themed shower in May and I was tasked to work on the invitations, banners, and a scrapbook for her. Unfortunately, I don't think I took too many "good" pictures of these before I sent them off. I added the pearls to go along with the pearls worn in the movie (and they add a girly touch!) I kept the inside of the card relatively simple:

I wasn't sure what to write in the card, seeing as I don't know the couple very well (she's the Boy's cousin, and that I never know what to write in cards. I get them all made and then think "Now what??"), I looked online for some ideas. Luckily this one took up enough room so it didn't leave a whole lot of room for additional writing without looking silly. I also made a matching envelope and did some fun, fancy typography on the front. I thought I had gotten a picture of it, but I guess not. Hopefully the couple likes it!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a fantastic and safe weekend!

Happy 1/2 Way to Christmas!

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a great week- I know I am! Nothing planned or anything, but a good week, nonetheless! I did receive the best compliment from a customer about yesterday's invitations, which has left a huge smile on my face, though, so I guess that's always good!
Anyway, today's project is celebrating the fact that today is indeed 6 months till Christmas! (but who's counting?! Oh, wait, I am!!) To start my holiday planning, I designed a few treat bags for the upcoming holiday season:

How cute are these two?! I've been trying to come up with some more gingerbread-themed projects for this year. Maybe some cookies in these? We'll see! I'm just hoping that I get everything done in time this year! The next two pictures are of each of the bags up close:

I added a little glitter to each of the bags as their "frosting". I was contemplating adding some to the white outline, but I didn't want to ruin them, since it was already placed on the bags. Next time! And a little more sparkle, on their bows!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and here's to hoping everything gets done in the next six months! Come back tomorrow for  (hopefully) a new project I was asked to work on!

Who Doesn't Love Custom Requests?!

Good Wednesday morning! I hope everyone's week is going well. Mine definitely is, so far! Not looking forward to the extreme heat, but can't help but chuckle when the news station has a report on air conditioning. This is not what we're used to around here. At least the hearty New Englander in me is still kind of still used to it. Anyway, aside form yesterday's summer cards, I have been working on a handful of custom projects for a few customers. Today's project is definitely one that came out much better than I planned! Here are some invitations I created this week:

This set has quite a bit to it. The lady had seen our website and asked me to come up with a ninja turtle-themed invitation for her and I showed her a few of the other projects we made. She absolutely loved the pizza box card we made a few years back so we went with it. This is a close-up of the box and actual invitation:

My favorite part of the set was the envelope! After quite a bit of trial and error, I got my cards to fit into the envelope. To add a special touch, I added some patterned paper to the flap and thought that the front needed something instead of it being just green. I realized that the white "name tag" with patterned paper would be perfect.

And just in case we didn't know what the theme of the party was, the flap of the envelope is embellished with a little ninja turtle. Good thing I checked with her to make sure these get hand-delivered! Hopefully she likes them as much as I do!!
Thanks for stopping by! I have another custom project I absolutely love to share with you tomorrow!

Happy {Second Day of} Summer!

Good morning! I hope everyone has been having a good week so far and staying safe. A lot of ugly weather happening this week- between severe weather back east and super hot temperatures (definitely not looking forward to the weekend of 97 degrees...) I guess summer really is here, or will be soon enough!! With that, it seems only fitting to post a summer-themed card today:

Doesn't it just make you want to sit at the beach, drink a cocktail, and play in the water?! I know I would want to! Although, I guess drinking a glass of wine on the patio at night would have to do... A lot of the pieces are pop-dotted, to add a little pizzazz:

The last picture is of the other side of the card:

I went with a single-sided, notecard-esque design to make sure it would all fit in the matching envelope that you can sort of see (or at least it matched before my plan changed) My new envelope-making toy sure is getting a lot of use this summer!! I have a few more finishing touches to add to them, but that'll happen in time. These took a whole lot longer than I had planned. I was really hoping to get them out before summer began, but I guess the first week of the season wouldn't be too bad, either!
Thanks for stopping by! Please come back tomorrow to see a surprisingly "cute" custom project I finished for an awesome customer!