Emily loves art and in particular the artwork of Jackson Pollock.  She wanted her Bat Mitzvah invitation designed around this theme.  Fun!!!  There is nothing much more fun than tacking up tons of watercolor sheets and letting the paint fly!  We designed her layered 7x7 invitation with a subtle back panel of the splattered watercolor sheets and contrasting lime green tissue panel all enclosed in a turquoise handmade paper "wrap".  All printing was done on the same rough watercolor sheets. Then we splattered "belly bands" and digitally cut her name from the center of the band and wrapped them around the invites so that the turquoise paper showed through the cuts. We also cut and printed envelopes from the watercolor sheets. It was a fabulous hit and Emily could not be more pleased. Emily became the artist herself when she took 100 pair of gym socks to her backyard to start flinging paint round herself for a fun gift for her guests. We used her invitation to make her a matching guest book/photo album to save all her memories from her big day.

Looking for a customized sign-in / guest book to match your even theme?  We will build it from scratch for you.  Whether you need a beach themed album, tie dye or want the exact same image from your invitation on your album to match. You can choose album size, number of pages, cover paper and even how you want your album bound. You can even choose fabric!

Maps are all the rage for decorating right now, especially vintage maps, and it is also a fun choice for Mitzvahs, Sweet 16, weddings, retirement, anniversaries and all other celebrations.  Along with map-themed invitations, you can have a great time selecting a map special to your for your album.  This is a wedding album made with a map on the cover. If you look closely you can see tiny hearts marking each city the couple have visited together.  Their names are printed on a twill tape that wraps around the book and has a vintage metal closure in front.   We also printed various snapshots of the couple during these vacations on the pages inside.They used this album as their wedding sign-in guestbook and had their guests sign their well wishes and names around their photos. 

Another fun album was this album created with a vintage world map and a wood button/jute closure. Choose any map you want, the island, state or country of your honeymoon destination, Disneyland, etc. The possibilities are endless!! 

Here is the white Philippine or finger starfish with a removable pearl pendant that your guests can add to a charm bracelet or chain as a keepsake.

Here is the latest version of the Starfish pocket invite that is mailed in a shallow kraft-colored box.  This turquoise blue paper has become very popular and it contrasts so nice with the white finger starfish.  Or, you can choose an ocean blue paper and a sugar starfish.  Your inclusion cards are staggered in the pocket on the left. Printing is done on a high end cotton rag paper and after printing everything is misted with a pearl/glimmer spray so it sparkles just like the sand on the beach.  Notice the pearl embellishment on the starfish...or we can add charms or other accents.  The box is wrapped with sisal rope with a chunky knot and frayed ends.  All ready for the mail!

Thanks for stopping by thepetalpress.blogspot.com!  The web site (thepetalpress.com) is currently undergoing major renovations!  Pardon our dust!!  So you won't be able to contact me by the usual e-mail for a bit (kris@thepetalpress.com).  Meanwhile, until the new site launches, please contact me at 801-567-1770 and I will be happy to answer any questions or help you at that number. Wedding season is under way and the handmade petal papers are flying off the shelf!  I am so glad to see so many others appreciating the amazing work of these village artisans in Nepal, Thailand and other countries as much as I do.  It is great to be green, eco friendly and people friendly all at the same time!! 

Lots of people have been pinning the starfish invitation along with this great sign idea off our pinterest board that was featured on mitzvahmarket.com (a great resource for all Mitzvah planning).  For this and lots more ideas, you can visit our Pinterest boards here: https://www.pinterest.com/kristynmaerowe/beach-themed-weddingmitzvah-ideas.  We have lots of great ideas for your beach-themed event as well as many other themes including baseball, football and other sports, cupcake/vintage candy shoppe, ballet, etc.  Feel free to check it out and see if there are any ideas you would like to incorporate in your event.  We try to collect all applicable pins that our clients may be interested in for their event.  

How time flies by and summer is almost here.  Lots of beach-themed events recently have kept the starfish invitations, albums and the corked bottle place cards/favors flying out of the studio.  This is one of my most favorite themes (perhaps because I get very little beach time here in the rocky mountains???) I absolutely love all the original ideas clients come up with for their unique invitations, etc.  Just when I had thought of every possible design for a "beachy" invitation, a Mitzvah boy/girl or bride comes up with a new take on the idea that I absolutely fall in love with when it is brought to life.  I just need to find more time to keep up with blogging so I can share the great results. I think what I love in particular about the starfish album is the mix of classy and casual.  I love the messy jute rope knots and the rough "beach" handmade paper in conjunction with the elegance of the pearl.  Some have used this album as a photo guest book and others for a photo album to save the photos from their event.  We can easily add names and dates or quotes printed under the starfish.

Fabulous ballerina Bat Mitzvah!

We just finished up a really fun invite for Gracie.  Gracie was so much fun to work with.  She had definite ideas of her own as to what she wanted her ballerina invite to look like for her Bat Mitzvah.  I sent her several ideas and then she took off from there.  We still wanted to maintain use of the handmade papers but she also wanted some glitz.  She loved the tea-length size.  We came up with a sparkly, glitter ballerina silhouette digitally cut which we layered with black handmade lokta paper and hot pink lokta paper.  The hotter the pink, the better!  We printed on a see-through vellum and tied all the layers together with a 100% sparkly ribbon.  We used the same hot pink handmade paper for her envelope.  She wanted to stay with her theme of black and hot pink as much as possible so we made her a layered RSVP card and used black envelopes with a matching hot pink return label with her name and "signature" ballerina on it.  We carried the same ballerina theme through with her guest place cards and gift tags.  We also made her a matching sign-in album from the same papers and embedded her invitation into the front cover.  Thanks so much, Gracie, for making The Petal Press part of your celebration!!!