Petal and Print

I got them all done! It means I didn’t sleep a whole lot between Sunday and Monday, but the important thing is that I made some of my favorite work so far for some of my favorite people.  It was a serious honor to make these for the staff at Woodberry Kitchen to wear for their Valentine’s Day service, and my husband and I even had dinner there so it was awesome to see everyone wearing my handmade petals!   This is going to be a picture heavy post, so I won’t explain too much, the image above is all 40 done, lined up on my table before being delivered to Woodberry.  The image directly below is the inspiration I sent to them for the project, and the image below that is just my desk in the middle of all this chaos, featuring the stunning calligraphy of Michelle from Meant To Be Calligraphy.  After that, it’s all just individual pictures of a few of the pieces I made.  I’m proud and excited that I could create this much in such a short amount of time!

I spent the last two days crafting little party decor elements with glitter and pink.  I LOVED the little champagne swizzle sticks and cupcake toppers I made for a wedding shoot on thursday, that when it came time to do a valentine’s day DIY today, I set to work with the same basic ingredients, proving that these are a great little decoration that can be customized for any occasion!

As usual, I am a little behind on getting my blog post together for this new little project, so while you wait here is a beautiful illustration by the talented Amy Ross for you to enjoy.  I purchased a nail polish pen from Laqa & Co.  this Christmas and was so excited to learn a bit more about their product and packaging.  This is straight from their website -

“LAQA & Co. are a range of bright, high-gloss nail polish in a pen. Yep, you heard right…a pen! They work just like a real pen, only these pens let you quickly and neatly do your nails anywhere in a few clicks. But these aren’t just polishes, they’re little pieces of art too. We’re the brand covered in unique artwork from young designers who are looking to get their voice out there. We thought, where better than our little box. Designers even get a cut of profit, from every colour you buy.”

I love the pen, and the customer service was really great too!

I pulled the Fox and Rabbit Magnolia image from Amy Ross’s portfolio site.

Hey guys, tomorrow I will share a bit more of the project I have been working on over the weekend.  It’s a plan for a new feature on the blog and more importantly will be hopefully a bit of a new direction here at Petal and Print. The photos are an Instagrid of some of my recent Instagrams. Thanks so much to Christine for the tip!

Here is a quick look at a new collaboration I am working on.  I’ll be introducing more of my fresh floral work here on Petal and Print, and on Tuesday you’ll get the scoop about where you can find more of this lovely hand lettering! Happy Weekend.

Here’s the deal friends, I don’t mean to be a downer, but I don’t like winter – not even a little bit.  I for one am ready for spring.  I’m ready to have my coffee outside in the morning while I listen to the birds sing.  I’m ready for the hostas to force their way through the ground and explode in an unfurling of green.  I’m ready to cut peonies from my yard rather than buy them from a greenhouse.  All those kinds of things…

But more than that, I am ready for all the freshness and changes that spring usually brings.  Things have been crazy here, personally and professionally, and I am ready to move forward with new projects and leave old ones behind.  I’ve been busy working on a project with my dear friend Mia at Garnish Boutique that will launch in the next few weeks. I am working on some cool ideas at Trohv that I am hoping will start to bring us a bit more of a national following as we grow our blog and shop.  I’m working less and less as a floral designer for my friends at the Floral Studio as they shift gears a bit there, and I will miss them, it is my favorite place, doing my favorite work… so while I am sad that I’ll be working less there, it means really exciting things for me here.  It means I will be taking on more fresh floral work at Petal and Print! I can’t wait to update the site with images of my work.  I’ve got quite a backlog of photos to work through.

So here’s to spring, or at least the feeling of it.

*** below are my new floral shears, and below that a quick review of each***

Both were on my wishlist for Christmas and both are pretty spectacular. The corona shears are super smooth to cut with and seem to handle woody stems a little bit better, but you’ve got to watch out not to pinch your fingers between the handles when you cut with force.  The Joyce Chen shears are kind of my dream, they handle like small craft scissors, but they have an extremely easy clean cut when going through the stems of a bouquet.  They’re perfect for my little hands. As with fabric scissors, you know I am going to need more than two pairs, so you can rest assured that this collection will keep growing and someday soon I will have to sew myself a special little roll up case or something, but in the mean time, I am storing them both in my Imogene + Willie denim sleeve.

Many thanks to Michael Andrews for the use of these images, and to Melany for letting me know her wedding was just featured on Offbeat Bride!  yesterday. Melany and David were so terrific to work with and it looks like their wedding was a perfect reflection of who they are. Please head on over to Offbeat Bride to read more about it.

I have the pleasure of working with my friends at both of my part time jobs.  Last year my good friends at Trohv brought me on to help with in house design projects like tags and bags and signs, etc.  I’m in the process of photographing lots of products for our soon to launch online store, and my most recent exciting task was to help Kohli and Gary with the type for our winter window displays in both the DC and Baltimore stores.  SO FUN! I designed the type for a total of 8 gigantic windows which we painstakingly traced onto the glass and handpainted.  I felt like a sign painter from the old days and I loved it! Here is a gorgeous photo taken by Gary of the jingle bells window in Baltimore.  Below is a look at the behind the scenes of us working on the windows in DC, and then the last are a few quick pictures from Carmen of the exterior of the DC store.  This was one of my favorite projects ever and I might just be a little heartbroken when January comes and we have to scrape the windows down…

It was a dream to do the flowers and invitations for the wedding of two of my very dear friends in Nantucket over the summer, and I’m super excited to see the photos when they get them back from their photographer.  We travelled to Boston where I shopped the flower exchange then carried my blooms over on the ferry to Nantucket Island.  This wedding was done out of the bathroom in our beautiful little bed and breakfast!

PS – I need to apologize for how these photos are displaying.  no matter what I do they are squished.  I have resized, deleted, reloaded, etc.  Can’t seem to get them to work.  I’ll try again later, but in the mean time, thanks for your understanding.

Well, I have been absent from the blog for far too long! I’m just popping in to share with you my beautiful new finds! I went antiqueing with my mom this past weekend and picked up a ton of new beauties. I can’t wait to make arrangements for the upcoming holidays.  And can you believe those peonies? I’m going to do a whole post on those later this week!

from left to right:

1.tiny spice jar that I’ve actually had for ages, but it’s holding what might be my last rose of the season cut this morning from the backyard

2.antique seafoam green planter

3. set of 4 antique silver salt bowls (these came in an adorable little boxed set and I can’t wait to make tiny arrangement for individual placesettings in them)

4.antique F. H. Cowden Crock (pretty sure this will be my thanksgiving centerpiece!)

5. lovely antique etched white compote (I’ve got some big plans for christmas with this one)

6. simple antique aged stoneware crock – the color on this is like smoke and the crackle is so beautiful

7. fantastic Flaccus Bros. Steer Head Fruit Jar (I’ll try and get some better pictures of this, it is absolutely the most beautiful mason jar I have ever seen)

8. tiny little compote – not antique, from a local flower shop, but a beautiful fit with the rest of these pretties

9. antique silver ice bucket

10. antique white chamber pot with handle

I’m actually shocked that nearly 2 months have flown by since I have posted.  I have been working my little fingers to the bone here, stitching flowers and assembling invitations.  I have a little slow down coming up here in September so I am hoping that will give me a chance to get some new work posted up on the blog. Thanks for sticking with me here.  This wedding season has brought more work than I could have ever prepared for.  Pictured above are the invitations I made for my sweet friends Rob and Mary Laurel who are getting married at the end of this month in Nantucket.  I can’t wait to celebrate with them and I can’t wait to post more pictures of their suite a bit later this summer.  Take Care, Friends – might be a while before I pop in again.

ps – earrings in picture two are available here

Totally unrelated from Petal and Print, but something I am really excited about is the new farm style table that my husband and I just built this weekend.  We got reclaimed wood (and some scraps from past projects) and built this whole 12 foot beast for a total of $32 .00. We’re working on a major backyard landscaping project and I’m really looking forward to using this table for some of my product photos!  I’m also really excited that is something that we built together, that we can enjoy with friends and family for years to come.  Can’t wait to share the backyard before and after pictures once the grass comes in and the fence is done!

Hands down my number one most frequently asked question at Petal and Print is whether or not I ship to Australia. Aussie brides love Petal and Print! Don’t know why, but I’ll take it.  Daina is the first of a few orders shipping to Australia this year,  and she’s been an absolute pleasure to work with.  I did a bouquet, boutonniere, wrist corsage, magnet corsage, and ring pillow for her. All were custom dyed (you can hardly tell in the photos, but the centers and the ring pillow are all a very soft aqua) with custom rhinestone centers rather than the usual pearl button centers I do.  For an additional custom detail, I embroidered her wedding date and married monogram on a leaf on the underside of the bouquet. I’m really looking forward to seeing these pictures because not only is she using the bouquet for her ceremony, she has had her cake custom made with a hole in the center to accommodate the flower for use as a giant cake topper!

Nole  from Oh So Beautiful Paper has long been a friend to me and even longer been an inspiration to paper lovers the world over.  She and Kathryn from Snippet and Ink have unintentionally changed my life forever by featuring my work and making Petal and Print possible. I have met many amazing blogger friends over the years and feel grateful for every feature I’ve ever been included in, but from the beginning, I have the two of them to thank for the awesome job I get to do today. Kathryn featured my actual wedding and Nole featured my invitations, and I could never have been prepared for the flood of interest that followed.  You ladies are amazing!

So, after Nole featured my invites, I sent her an email to say thank you.  She wrote the nicest note back, and we’ve had an opportunity over the last few years to become industry acquaintances and more importantly friends.   When she moved, I wanted to do something special to say thank you for all she’s done for me over the years, and so as I am a stationer, I thought it would be fun to give her custom moving announcements! Something I wanted to do when we bought our house, but that of course got pushed to the side when we had so much else to do and pay for.  Nole did a post this morning on the announcements, and you can read the whole thing here.  I’ve posted a few images below, including one of my favorite details from the whole set;  Nole used state bird stamps that she found and tried to match recipients with the appropriate state.

This is a first for me – a bride contacted me to see if I could incorporate a memento of her groom’s late grandfather’s into his grandmother’s corsage.  Immediately I knew this was something I wanted to work on.  I love the fact that my flowers play even a small part in my customers weddings, but that they might be something even more special like this just really makes me smile.  I hope she has fond memories of her husband as she wears this corsage with his pin.  I’m so excited that Jen found me and that I had the opportunity to work on all of her pieces.  See the rest here.

This is a small order I finished up the other week.  This bride just ordered a bouquet for herself and a boutonniere for her groom.  They’re custom dyed to match the bridesmaids dresses, and I LOVE the black and white ribbon detailing! Looking forward to seeing the professional pictures from all my recent wedding orders.  PS – sorry for the lazy pictures on the couch, I was in a rush to get these in the mail!

custom fabric boutonnnier for dad's

custom fabric and button boutonniere for groom

groom's boutonniere detail

custom fabric flower fascinator

fabric flower fascinator detail

custom fabric corsages

So this is a picture heavy post, but I wanted to get some good detail shots in here so you could see how a set comes together.  This is an order for a July wedding in tones of aqua and white.  You may remember it from this post and this one from a week or so ago.  I will do the bouquets in another post early next week, but I wanted to share some of these with you now while I had a moment.  All the fabric for flowers and velvet ribbon are hand dyed in shades to match the bride’s color palette and then they are crafted by hand into little blooms.  All Boutonnieres come with 2 pins, corsages are made on magnets rather than pins so they don’t damage clothes, and the hair combs come on your choice of clear or brown comb.  Congratulations to Melany and David! Hopefully I can get some pretty pictures in July and then share them with you here.

This is a really fun new branding project I am working on for one of my favorite clients of all time! We’ve had a long history together and she’s always a blast to work with.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her as she embarks on this new adventure / business!  Here are some rough proofs of her business cards on their way in the mail for a color check before they go to press. I’ll be posting more work for the city squirrel as I work more on her stationery suite in the future.

PS – From the desk of is an old category I’m going to try to bring back.  This is where I show snippets of where I am in projects and what’s currently on my “desk”.

Just popping in for a moment to share a quick snapshot of a corsage I’ve just completed. Pictures of the full set will come on Monday or Tuesday, and I can’t wait to share! Oh, and that pretty little coordinating necklace? you can find it here!