Lora & Tim :: Bermuda 2012

Just about this time last year, as New York, New Jersey & Connecticut were feeling the sting of Hurricane Sandy, Mr. B & I were boarding a plane for Bermuda. We met Lora & Tim through Mr B's work & quickly the 4 of us adopted each other as friends. We were psyched to get the invite to their wedding...Bermuda in November? Yes, please!

Adding to my delight, Lora asked me to help with some of her wedding pieces. Here is what we came up with…

The illustrations: Lora sent her wedding invitations through Paperless Post, using Starfish and Shell by Virginia Johnson. She wanted to continue with the whimsical sea shell illustrations so, using her invitation as inspiration, I created watercolor illustrations of other commonly used shells to use in her pieces, like...

Weekend itineraries: Each guest found this packet waiting for them in their rooms. Local information & maps, as well as details from the bride & groom on the what-when-wheres of the weekend.

Wedding programs: 4.25 x 11 inches - tall & skinny, but packed with style & information. These (and the itineraries above) are digitally printed on 110lb Ecru Felt paper.

Thank You notes: I am so proud of these I could burst! Pink cards with starfish illustrations on the front. Coral envelopes lined with custom liners that I printed digitally & put in myself. Plus!! A great new address label that wraps around the envelope.

Table numbers: Not exciting, but essential. They were printed on the same ecru Dutch felt paper as the programs & itinerary sheets. They helped tie all the pieces together & added to the the beachy-chic decor Lora had going on.

Guest book: Prepare yourselves folks…Tim & Lora went for a message in a bottle theme for their guestbook. We made custom notepads and placed a sheet at each place setting. Guests were then instructed to give Lora & Tim some marital advice to read on a future anniversary. On the way to the buffet, they dropped their messages into an enormous bottle…it was functional & a sweet little piece of decor at the same time, especially as the table was decorated with wedding photos from both of their families.

Tim & Lora, Congrats on your 1 year anniversary!!

Come back tomorrow for more from our trip. Bermuda is beautiful and I couldn't resist the opportunity to post more!

PS for some reason Blogger is making my digital files like that notepad SUPER dark… {fuming…}

Hostess gifts!

Last weekend we had the pleasure of visiting friends on the East End of Long Island. It reminded me that I need to stock up on hostess gifts. Here's what I usually have in my stash:

First, I stock up on thank you notes. I need to make sure that I can at least be ready to say thank you!

I love to give monogrammed notecards - just the kind with a single letter on them. They are good for any occasion.

If I have time, I make granola or muffins, especially if we're visiting someone for an over night. Dessert is also a good idea. Long Island has loads of road-side stands & the summer pies cannot be beat.

This is what I brought (below) to our hosts last weekend - Granola! The recipe is from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. The jar is an old pickle jar that I saved. I cut a square of leftover fabric an 1 inch bigger on each side than the jar top. Sprayed the top with spray adhesive (do that outside with the wind blowing away from you!) and pressed the fabric onto the wet lit. The ribbon was the final touch!

Oh, and wine is always good...something light & summery. Last weekend we took a sparkling rose from Wolffer Estates, a great Long Island vineyard, to our friends house. Delish!

gift bag from my shop!

Most of the time I'm shopping for all of these things for myself, so I just pick up an extra to have on hand. Makes putting together something super easy! When I can't find what I want or need, I end up making it & as you can probably tell from the pictures I've used in this post, a K. Batty Design & Stationery product is usually born from that.

Thoughts? What do you like to bring to your hosts?

Better yet, as a host, what do you like for people to bring??

Memorial Day! Put down the beer & write a letter

Did you know that Memorial Day is not just a day about drinking beer & grilling out? Shocking but true.

The day is to observe the contributions of our men AND women who died while in service to our country. Kind of a heavy occasion but important all the same. It's also a good time to remember the living service men & women of our country.

One way you can do that is by thanking them for their service. A Million Thanks.org is a non-profit that helps you show your appreciation by sending thank you notes to service men & women all over the world.

Check out their website for more info on getting involved!! I definitely am & will let you know how it goes.

A HUGE Thank You to our service men & women. Especially those who couldn't have hamburgers & hot dogs with their loved ones yesterday. We appreciate you!

Paper Porn :: Rifle Paper Co.

Rifle Paper Co seems to be everywhere these days. Looking at this awesome thank you postcard, it's easy to tell why.

**  Paper Porn is a column about paper products & accessories that elevate your everyday life. Love stationery & paper products? Submit something for Paper Porn via email: Kbatty {at} ymail.com or twitter @kmbatty **

Cards of the Week :: Fall is here!

Thursday started out as a beautiful late summer day. The high was 80. And by 6pm it was 60. Holy-shock-to-my-system, Batman.

Ok, Mother Nature, I got it. Apparently it's time to get on with Fall.

(Autumn Leaves with Birds - Set of 8 Notecards by Dots and Dahilas)

While you can get these in any combo of colors, I love Autumn Leaves notecard set by Julia at Dots and Dahlias for Fall stationery. Add to the colors the bird & leaves...which are traditional symbols of Fall...and it's perfect for any message. Know someone with a Fall birthday? I may have just done your shopping for you!

Cards of the Week - A Quick Study

{Hi Sewn Card (3) by A Quick Study}

Happy Friday! This week COTW will focus on ONE person - meet Zoe of A Quick Study.

Zoe is a fellow exhibitor on PaperNStitch & as I was going through the shops last month, looking for material for the COTW post, I found her. I wanted to post every card she makes. Hello?! Did you see that first picture? It's a hand embroidered hi! It's adorable. Check a few others out and then we'll hear from Zoe!

{Zig Zag Running Stitch Sewn Card (single)}

{Thanks Sewn Card (3)}

I could post her card collection here. No lie. Like this card...and this card...and how about her notebooks??

But, let's get to our guest. Zoe!

I’m Zoe, mom of two very little boys and multi-faceted designer. By day, I design curricula and professional training for new teachers, and by (late at) night, I design branding, graphics, web sites, and of course embroidered and block printed/ stamped paper goods.

How & when did you start making hand made crafts?

I’ve been crafting forever, and actually first learned hand embroidery from my elementary school librarian, but I started doing hand-embroidered paper only within the last 6 months or so. I sort of stumbled upon it by accident. I spend a lot of time on the phone for my day job, and I have a hard time focusing unless I can keep my hands busy. I started poking a pattern into an index card using a pin, which led to the idea of embroidering the pattern. I loved the resulting textures and patterns, plus the sort of mathematical process of figuring out the holes required for each design, and it just exploded from there!

That sounds like fun! I get why you love it. What will we find in your Etsy shop?

My Etsy store, I think like most, is a continual work in progress. I currently sell my card line and my embroidered notebooks, and am continually thinking about new designs to add to those products. I’m also in the prototyping phase for a bunch of related but different products tending more towards the home goods realm. I like to think my products make life a little more genteel and refined while staying modern and fun, so you’ll see products that are geared towards classic activities like letter writing using traditional stitches but executed in bright, modern colors and blown up to emphasis the geometry of the designs.

I love what I'm hearing! Can't wait to see what's next! What is something we won't learn from reading your Etsy profile?

My dad is a master carpenter and furniture maker - he makes really beautiful custom furniture and is also great at home carpentry like cabinet making. I grew up listening to the whine of powerful saws in his garage workshop and playing with scrap wood. I think I get a lot of my crafty tendencies from him, along with a love of power tools (especially my compound miter saw).

Last but no least, who do you {heart} on Etsy?

There are so many! One of my longest-standing favorites is YellowMonday - I have three of her prints in my house and I just love them. I also love AmandaGentry but haven’t been able to justify buying any of her ceramics yet, although I drool over them regularly.

I hope you guys will go check out Zoe on PNS & especially on Etsy. She also has a blog! All kinds of subjects covered - crafts, time management...something I bet she is great at with little ones running around, a full time job AND her hand made business, blog, twitter, etc, etc, etc... Zoe, my hat off to you girl.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

K. Batty on Paper N Stitch

Happy Monday!!

Today launched the new exhibition over at Paper N Stitch & guess who is in it?? Did the title give you a clue? 'Cause it's me!

{the K. Batty exhibition space}

Paper N Stitch {PNS} is curated by Brittni Mehlhoff & has been featured in many national publications, on & offline, for its finds. Above is the K. Batty shop site on PNS. Some of the shops thank you notes were also featured on the front page of the site today!

{high 5!! Look at the press!}

****As a way to kick of my month's residence at Paper N Stitch, I am offering all PNS readers 10% off for the next 7 days. That is today through next Monday evening (3/14) at 5pm.***

Head over to the K. Batty page on Paper N Stitch to see the featured products & get your coupon code. Also, check out the rest of the current exhibition here.

Hope today was a great kick off to a fabulous week!

Adventures in Baby Showers

Saturday, I had the great pleasure of spending the day at the Washington Duke Inn, in Durham, NC, with my good friend Tracey. Along with many more of her friends & family, we had an afternoon tea {slash} baby shower to celebrate her first born, coming the end of April.

I hosted along with 4 other lovely ladies. And! I got to design the invitations! Here were the contenders:

Can you see the jumping off points for my current Minted.com submissions? Voting is still open, btw.

The 5 of us unanimously decided the paisleys were the way to go {obvious from my first picture, right?}. They are very "Tracey." She's using them in the decor for the baby's room, along with a bright green that we brought into the invitation suite with Pop-Tone envelopes in Limeade. Ta-da!!

What invitation suite would be complete without Thank You cards? Not this one! I planned to suprise Tracey with a set of these in her shower gift, but like the fabulous friend that she is, she follows all my blogging & saw my Posterous post about making cards on Feb 21st. So, I blew my own surprise. But no matter! She was thrilled anyway!

{These are from my Posterous & available on Etsy}

Congrats to Tracey & her husband John. We are all very excited to meet Baby Bailey!

{all photos taken by me}

Cards of the Week - 2/14-2/19

Tired of the winter blahs, my cards of the week post is full of bright tones to get us all in the mood for our next season. Spring! It may be weeks away, but we can start to dream.

Totally smiling just looking at this card with its over-sized monogrammed & punchy colors. Buy as is or choose your own colors. From Em And Bee on Etsy.

This bright yellow stamped bird with matching yellow envelope is singing to me! {Holy Corniness. I need to go back to Barbados, people.} Find this lovely design on Etsy from Pink Bath Tub.

This fun Thank You note is a FREE printable download from Hey Susy. I smiled the second I saw it.

Did those put a smile on your face for Spring? I feel better already. My grandfather always said not to wish my life away, but man, I wish Spring would spring itself!

See ya!