Hummingbird Invitations (Invitatii Colibri)

These hummingbird invitations are one of my dearest designs of 2015 which is why I am going to dedicate it 2 more future posts.

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 {RO}  Aceste invitatii cu tema colibri sunt unul din modelele mele  preferatele mele din 2015, de aceea voi mai vorbi despre ele in 2 articole viitoare.

 I made these beautiful for Isabelle Marie's christening.  (can anyone enlighten me with the correct term? My USA custommers call it 'Baptism' while those in UK call it 'Christening'.

Part of the merit for the design belongs to Alice, Isabelle's mother who is very creative herself (I will tell you more about it in a future post). She managed to explain what she wanted while giving be enough creative liberty so that I could do my best work possible.

The reason I love this invitation so much is that it allowed me to showcase my passion for watercolor. I started with the watercolor illustration of a hummingbird and fuchsia. This is all it's left of it now, but I did manage to clean it in Photoshop.

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 {RO} Am creat aceste frumoase invitatii pentru botezul lui Isabelle Marie. Un mare merit in realizarea lor il are mama ei. Pe langa faptul ca e la randul ei o persoana foarte creativa, Alice a stiut sa-mi indice ceea ce dorea, lasandu-mi totodata libertate creativa.

In plus, am avut ocazia sa-mi manifest pasune apentru acuarela ilustrand pasarea colibri. Doar asta a mai ramas acum din biata mea ilustratie. Din fericire am reusit sa o curat in Photoshop.

The custom hummingbird seal and the hand stamped envelope liner are details that make this invitation even more special.

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 {RO} Interiorul plicului stampilat manual precum si sigiliul  de ceara personalizat dau o nota distinctiva acestei inviatii si o fac sa fie cu atat mai speciala.

You can order these invitations through my Etsy shop or direct e-mail.

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 {RO} Puteti comanda invitatiile pein magazinul meu Etsy sau direct prin e-mail, in curand si prin invitatii-couture.com

Illustrated Family Tree Pregnancy Announcement

About 10 years ago when I realized I will never become bored of making stationery and working with paper and embellishments I also realized if I wanted to call myself an artist I needed to learn how to draw and paint.

And so I did. I still have a long way to go. Between custom invitations and family it's hard to find time to practice. However, my current long term objective is to be able to provide custom stationery based on my own illustrations. Here is an example.

Denisa, one of the brides I worked with for her wedding invitations wrote me to ask for a special pregnancy announcement. She wanted the box in a box idea and showed me an example but I thought I needed something more original than a paper diaper in a little box. So she came up with the family tree idea. Of course I could have used a stock image but I saw this as a challenge to paint it myself.

Here are the stages this project went through:

# 1.  SKETCHING AND PAINTING

# 2.  SCAN AND DIGITAL EDITING

# 3. BOX CONSTRUCTION AND FINISHING TOUCHES

I think this would make a great scroll invitation. First time I actually embrace the idea of a scroll invitation so if anyone (e.g. Elaine) is interested din scroll invitations from Invitatii Couture, I finally have a signature design that I don't feel like it's somebody else's concept.

I hope you enjoyed this insight into my process.
It was a time consuming project that has taught me a lot, although the final result might not look like something very complicated.
When you make the effort to draw your own illustration you really start appreciating all the artwork there is on the web and have much more respect and consideration for the artists by asking permission and/or buying a licence for using them. This way you encourage them to make some more and help them make a living out of their talent.

More on art as a profession with another occasion. Have a great Sunday!