Invitations - Anna & Jordan

Last year I was lucky enough to work with lovely couple Anna and Jordan not once but twice -  designing their engagement and wedding invitations. 


For the wedding stationery, I took inspiration from the Alpine setting and the contemporary styling and details planned for the day. The colours of ghost gum trees form the colour palette of this set in the form of the combination of a simple cool grey, blue and textured white linen card stock. 


As we were going for a more typograpghic based set, we kept decoration to a minimum using only a simple snowflake pattern. The simple snowflake motif featured on each part of the set to subtly tie all of the elements together. 


I absolutely love the elegant result that we came to for this set and working with Anna throughout the whole process was so lovely. 


So, without further explanation - here are a few images of the completed wedding stationery - enjoy!

Wedding stationery suite - Invitation, RSVP cards & order of service booklets

 

Wedding Invitations

 

RSVP cards

 

Order of ceremony booklets 

Place cards 

Snowflake and duck egg blue details 

Film Clip Friday - Matt Corby 'Brother'

My selection for FCF this week was a no brainer. Especially with yesterday being Australia Day and all, it seemed pretty appropriate to choose a clip from an Aussie artist. 


So enjoy this weeks selection - it's Matt Corby's Brother.  What's not to like - amazing voice, great lyrics, he has a beard. Enough said. 


Happy Australia Day weekend to those still celebrating. 

Custom Design - With compliments

Late last year my friend Helena contacted me about designing a personalised with compliments cards as a wedding gift for her  friends Craig and Jon. Of course as you can guess I said yes!  

Despite our distance - Helena is currently living the life in London (jealous much? Yeah me too) - we worked together trying many different designs and ideas until it was just right. 

The final result was a modernised wax seal in a gorgeous ruby red. Craig and Jon love fashion and all the good things in life, so the personalised stationery reflects the timeless design they treasure from labels we all covet like Viktor & Rolf and Chanel. The gorgeous red colour is Chinese Red - the colour of the soles of the forever gorgeous Christian Louboutin's shoes. Why you ask? Well it is an amazing colour reminiscent of a traditional wax seal. AND because the guys gave their bridesmaids a pair of Louboutin's for the wedding. 

Yes, I am jealous too. 

Helena had the design letter pressed on a gorgeous textured stock over in London town and I am so unbelievably happy with the way they turned out. In fact I may have squealed when I Helena sent through the photos. 

Below are a few pictures of the final with compliments slips that Helena kindly took for me.

And by the way, Helena is a rather cool and talented lady herself  - check out her blog over here. Be warned - she leads a pretty cool life over there (travel, baking & generally fun times) so you may find yourself feeling a little jealous while reading her posts. You have been warned. 

Photographs by Helena, Design by me :)

Invitations - Nat & Drew

Last year I was lucky enough to be asked by Nat and Drew to design their wedding invitations. When I met Nat and Drew to discuss their invitations we discovered that we had a shared love of all things vintage and art deco design. We chatted about their wedding and basically it was going to be an amazing fun and relaxed weekend with family and friends - sounds fun hey?

The inspiration for this particular invitation was a vintage destination postcard as the wedding was to take place in Bright, Victoria. I had been dying to design a postcard style invite for a while and when I found out that travel had played a big part in the lives of this sweet couple, and that the wedding was like a country mini break, I decided that the concept of a postcard fit perfectly.

Using art deco flourishes and vintage style post marks, the invitation reflected the fun weekend ahead and the style of the event. The front of the invitation featured a picture I took of one of the gorgeous views from the venue as a way to introduce 'the destination' to guests (yes, I did drive to Bright to take photos!).  

On the reverse the vintage touches continued in the form of flourishes and a post mark I created with the couples name and the date of the wedding. I also used a selection of vintage stamps from my Grandads stamp collection to make the invitation a little more special.

I loved working on this design - amazing client, awesome brief and creative freedom. Great trifecta hey? If you would like to see a few sneak peeks of the production process check out this earlier post.

 

INVITATIONS - wedding shoot sneak peek

Anna + Jordan Wedding Stationery - RSVP cards

Anna + Jordan - Engagement invitation

Drew + Nat - Wedding invitations - post card style

Luke + Kate - wedding stationery - thank you cards

Drew + Nat - Wedding invitations - post card style  - detail 

Adam + Kasia - Wedding invitations - thank you cards

Last year I was lucky enough to work with some really great couples creating custom wedding and engagement invitations for their events. Here is a little sneak peek of the photo shoot I did this weekend - let's just say there was a whole lot of flowers, confetti and beautiful paper around my studio. 

I'll be sharing profiles of each project over the next couple of weeks so be sure to check back soon. 

Film Clip Friday - Passenger 'Holes'

This weeks Film Clip Friday selection has a little bit more of a Melbourne bent, which is kind of appropriate because I love this city. The video is a live session recently recorded for the Tram Sessions with Passenger. If you haven't heard of the the Tram Sessions then definitely check out their site. 


In a nutshell, they take awesome musicians on a tram and have a gig on the tram. Simple concept, amazing fun. 


So why did I choose this video in particular? Well, for one I love this song. I have seen Passenger (Mike) live a few times and he is a really engaging performer. So again, be sure to check him out.


So happy Friday and enjoy the song



Passenger - Holes from Tram Sessions on Vimeo.


Video via Tram Sessions vimeo stream
Filmed and edited by: Luisa Mirabilio
Produced by: Nick Wallberg

Baking: Salted Caramel Tarts

Without wanting to sound like Oprah, baking is my bliss. I would bake every single day if I had a never ending supply of butter and sugar; and I didn't have to work. Awkward. 

One of my resolutions for 2012 was to try out new recipes more. And I've decided to blog about my experiments. So here is the first one - salted caramel tarts. 

I know salted caramel is all the rage these days but there is a reason - it's the BOMB.

If like me you love this salty sweet mix, you will love this recipe. Plus it is easy as pie.... or in this case little tartlets. So here is the recipe so you can get your fix :

Salted Caramel Tarts   adapted from Donna Hay's recipe in Simple Dinners

Ingredients

1 pack Butternut Snap biscuits

Sea salt flakes to serve

1/4 - 1/2 cup Caramel sauce - you can use store bought or make your own, I used this recipe

filling

100g milk chocolate, chopped

100g dark chocolate, chopped

125ml of light pouring cream

Sea salt flakes to serve

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Place the biscuits into a shallow cupcake tin. Bake in oven for 2-3 minutes or until the biscuits start to soften. Press the biscuits into the tin using a tea towel to form a little biscuit shell. Leave to cool, then place on wire rack. Repeat with remaining biscuits. 

2. The chocolate filling is super easy to make - it almost makes itself. In my case it didn't so, I did the following. Place the chopped chocolate and cream in a small saucepan over a low heat. Stir gently until smooth and glossy. Take the mix off the heat and transfer to a bowl to cool for 20 minutes. Once cool spoon the mix into the shells. I found that each shell took about a teaspoon. 

When all of the shells are filled place them in the fridge to set for about an hour or two. 

3. Once set it is time to add the caramel. Spoon a small amount over each tart. Now this is a little messy and nearly impossible to do neatly but I think the rustic look adds a little charm. 

Sprinkle a little salt over each tart. Don't be concerned if the salt dissolves a little - it will still taste yummy. Place the tarts back in the fridge to allow the caramel to set. 

4. And ta-da! You are ready to feast on your salty and sweet treats. 

Hopefully you guys enjoy the recipe - let me know what you think!

I heart instragram

It is no secret that I love taking photographs of everyday moments and adventures. I have been known in the past to take hundreds of photos at parties or just when I am out for a walk. 


As you can imagine it was kind of a natural thing for me to continue this habit when I upgraded to an iPhone early in 2011. And now I have over 2,000 photos on my phone. Yes it is un-believable. 


As if my love of happy snapping needed any more encouragement - well I was wrong. 


So you might have heard of a little app called instagram. Thanks to instagram my happy snaps have found a home to be shared while I get to check out cool pics from other pals. 


It kind of goes without saying - I heart instagram


So if you heart instagram too then check out my feed at truthbejess . 
Expect lots of pictures of dresses, tea cups, stuff I love and all the things I get up to. 

Film Clip Friday - The Lumineers

It has been a while since I shared a Film Clip Friday with you all but trust me the wait was worth it.

This week's selection is from The Lumineers, an American trio I came across in an unlikely place.  

I was watching an ep of Hart of Dixie; a trash-tastic teen drama (don't judge me) and heard this song and immeadiately fell in love. It is catchy and super sweet - everything I love basically all wrapped up in one neat little parcel of folky goodness. 

So make sure you check out The Lumineers. Also check out Daytrotter for other sessions.

Work // The Best Map EVER

So late last year one of my friends was heading to New York and I offered to make her a map. And not just any map, but the best map ever. 

Well at the very least the best map ever made by me, which isn't much of a contest really considering the map that previously held the title is one I made in Grade 4 for our family road trip to Queensland. It had glitter on it and cut out pictures of the Big Pineapple. 

So you can understand why the Great Pineapple Map has held this title for almost 20 years. 

Anyway, while this one doesn't feature any glitter it does kind of one up the Great Pineapple Map if only because it points out about 10 different places to eat sweets, which I believe is the most important thing to research when traveling (or just going to another suburb). 

I loved making it because it reminded me of the amazing time that I had in New York. So for a peek at the best map ever made  (by me), just click on the images below.     

new year, same loves

So I know we are almost a week into 2012, but I'm still getting into the swing of things - so happy belated new year!


I had big plans for blogging up a storm over my holidays but instead I've been reading, relaxing and planning a few new ventures for 2012 including a kind of new direction for this blog and even a new little sister blog to boot. Now this new blog isn't supposed to replace this one, but kind of be its cuter quirky little sister, leaving this one to be the cool older sister blog focused on all my work with truthbetold. Weird analogy I know, but I'm really excited about the new direction and hopefully you guys will be too. 


Anyway, while I am busy putting the finishing touches on all of that I thought I would share my fave video from over the holidays - this video karaoke session by two of my fave actors Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt. You have probably already seen it 1,000 times but go ahead and swoon again why don't ya? Could they be a-n-y cuter if they tried?





video via hellogiggles - my fave site