The Ultimate Baby Shower Gift Set

I am VERY excited to announce a great partnership & friendship I have built with The Chica Mama

We have come together to create the ultimate Baby Shower Gift Set including invitations, thank you cards, stationery & a beautiful diaper cake!  Everything is customizable of course, but we do have 5 top selling items that are ready to go. We are the one stop shop for the perfect Baby Shower.

The Chica Mama's talented owner Adriana recently sent me one of her diaper cakes for an upcoming shower I have and I was even more impressed by the product in person. And I of course had to create custom thank you cards for the mother-to-be to match the cake (which actually matches her nursery too!)  They came out perfect and I am so excited to give them to her.

Circle of Friends Diaper Cake with Matching Thank You Cards

Circle of Friends Baby Shower Invitation & Thank you Cards

 Detail: Circle of Friends Diaper Cake with Matching Thank You Cards

We have multiple designs that fit every shower theme, so please contact me with requests/questions. 

Here is another popular design....

MORE BABY ROOMS & STATIONERY

Here are two more baby shower & stationery designs inspired by nursery rooms.  I realized lately, that is all I blog about, but I absolutely love doing these.  Not only do I have fun with the creative freedom the client's usually give me, but my favorite is receiving their reaction to the invitations.  They always seem to come together exactly how they imagined, which every designer loves to hear! 

ENJOY!

Girls room: Wanted to focus on the dots and stripes in the room.

     

Baby Shower invitation design

Boys room: Wanted to focus on the stripes and sailboats.

                                   

Reaching out to expand my brand

Now that my website is finally finished, I have taken a step back to try to think of different marketing tools to expand my brand.  Luckily I have experience in working at an ad agency so I have seen what works and what doesn't, so I decided to take a more creative approach.


I recently signed up for twitter, and have yet to understand this new world of "tweeting" but I am trying to get a hang of it.  Being a fan of "Bethenny Getting Married" One of her shows was about her picking out her baby room items and she just fell in LOVE with this green elephant from Yoya. I was inspired to create a custom card with this adorable animal on it....and I did.

I absolutely LOVE how these turned out and I have already added them to my website so others can purchase!

I reached out to Bethenny via twitter about these. She claims that she reads all of her tweets, so lets see if we get a hit....fingers crossed. :) Wouldn't that be great!? If she twittered about them herself?  Maybe this twitter thing is useful...  we will see.

Pottery Barn's 'Jungle Friends' inspiration

I have designed so many baby shower invitations, cards, and notes to match nurseries, so here I am, providing another sample.  This one comes from a good friend who is having a baby girl soon and I noticed she registered for a lot of the same nursery decorations and items.  I decided to surprise her with creating custom baby shower invitations to match her soon-to-be nursery.  This is also a great way to show other guests what style the nursery will be, which helps them with gift ideas.

Along with this adorable quilt blanket I purchased for her shower I decided to create matching cards for her to use as thank you notes.  But shhhhh.... I haven't given them to her yet, but I know she is just going to LOVE them! How can you not? If you are interested in a matching nursery design or have inspiration for me please send me an email at  info@pixiechicago.com provide pictures if possible!

Letterpress me!

Letterpress is back (did it ever go anywhere) and it's bigger than ever!
People are paying top dollar for single letterpress cards which can run up to $6 a card. Single cards are found around the Chicagoland area in shops and boutiques.  They make great impulse buys for businesses to display at the the counter, but some stores specialize in these cards such as Paper Doll in wicker park, Paper Source in Lincoln Park, and Greer in Lakeview.  I took a stroll to a few of these stores, thinking that business may have died down because of the economy, but all the stores were booming; people can't get enough of this stuff!


Wikipedia definition:
Letterpress printing is a term for the relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image.


So it's basically just indented type and design on a card?  Is it really worth 5 times what you are paying for a standard printer?


I wanted to know what the hype was all about and decided to enroll in a letterpress class at Columbia College Chicago. It was a 4 - 8 hour a day course that taught the basics of letterpress—setting metal type, printing on a Vandercook cylinder press, making choices of paper for letterpress, mixing inks, and proper cleanup. (my plate and print from plate below!) how cool!

This truly was a unique experience and I now understand why they can charge so much for a single card:

Labor + Labor + Labor = one exceptional card 

When laying out your plates, everything is done by hand and must be tested for alignment, density, and color.  It takes time and patience, it's not as easy as click and print, which my generation of designers have become so accustomed to.  It is a form of art that has had such a interesting and important impact on our history in everything from the start of newspapers and books to elegant wedding invitations.

Once PixieChicago.com is complete (selling mainly on Etsy for now) I fully plan to add a line of letterpress stationery and do custom wedding invitations.  New products should always be added to any business to keep customers intrigued and coming back for more, so within a year I would love to feature this as the NEW product for Pixie!

Customized shower invites and gifts

Lately I have noticed many mothers have been requesting baby shower invitations or stationary to match their nursery. I absolutely love this idea! What better way to really customize an invitation then to design it around your own baby's room.

I have so much fun designing these too. The process usually starts with the mother-to-be or their family and friends emailing me pictures of the nursery or even links to their registry so I can see what the nursery plans to look like. Taking key elements from these rooms and putting them into a card design is truly unique. They make great shower gifts for the mother-to-be or surprise them with the design on the invitations to their shower.

This can also be done for bridal showers as well. It is a great idea for bridesmaids in need of invitations to the event. Brides love that extra special touch that is put into the invitations by making them cohesive to the wedding. Plus, it gives everyone a sneak peek at the wedding colors and theme.

If your are not the one planning any of these events but happen to be attending, give thank you cards as a gift to match the nursery or wedding theme. Mothers and brides will be amazed and touched at the customization that was done for their gift.

If you are interested in these, contact me at info@pixiechicago.com and I will wave the customization fee if you mention this blog. It is an easy and fun process that will let you have the most unique gift!