I have a little Disorder called “I get an idea in my head and try desperately to find someone who has what I am looking for, only no one does so I have to make it myself“.  The truth is, if I DID find it, I probably wouldn’t want it anyway, since I have another Disorder called “Every idea must be unique“.  These are long names for a serious afflictions common to many an Event Planner.  You too?  I feel ya, girl.

So when the challenge was to create a birthday party on the beach with a girly theme, one of my trusty assistants pitched me the idea of something Mermaid-y.  I LOVED it immediately, mostly because I had, at one time, tucked some clever ideas in my brain with a Mermaid vibe to them and also because I hadn’t seen much done with this party “theme” (see Disorder #2, above).   With a Mermaid’s Tea Party on the books, the first order of business is always the invitations.  Enter Disorder #1.  While I have the privilege of knowing MANY a talented graphic artist, invitation designer and arteeest extraordinaire *,  I really wasn’t finding what I was looking for, nor did I really know for sure myself what I wanted.  (You ever have those “I’ll know it when I see it” moments?).  The party was for a little girl’s 5th birthday, but I didn’t want a kitschy, cartoonish Mermaid look to the party.  Something that ALLUDED to the theme without screaming it outright.  Finally, with time running out, I decided we would design the invitations in-house.  Oh, the lengths Mix Mingle Glow is willing to go to to make the event PERFECT-O!

I found a photo online of a mermaid tail made for dolls and enlarged it to the size we needed, creating a template from it.  We found a very pretty swirly-sparkly green scrapbooking paper at Michael’s to use as our tail.  On the reverse side the party details were printed in coral (also using the scanned template) and a few blue rhinestone “water bubbles” made it complete!  The color combination of blue and green with splashes of coral was set and the invitations were pretty darned cute!  Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the size and shape of the tales were not going to make it easy to find envelopes that fit nicely, so we opted for a fun cello bag filled with blue excelsior and tied with a pretty bow.  Super fun and who doesn’t get excited about this party immediately upon seeing their invitation, I ask you?? 

I am really liking details that give HINTS about a party’s theme.  A plain piece of paper tied to a seed pack and wrapped in burlap would be a darling Garden Party invitation.  Scan a cereal box and use it as the backdrop for a Sleep Over invitation…..{{gasp!  I REEEEALLY love that one and just came up with it this very second!  Somebody use it and send me pictures QUICK!}}.

* If you are not the DIY type, check out my invitation posse’: TomKat Studio, Polkadots & Pirates, The Purple Pug, Paper & Cake, and Alpine Creative…you tell ‘em I sent you!  They are all rockin’, talented, hard workin’ women who will take VERY good care of you!

Up next:  More Mermaid Party

My favorite kind of people are those who don’t take themselves too seriously and aren’t above laughing at themselves.

Case in point:  The obviously cool and fun Bride & Groom who used these as their wedding invitations:

According to the Australian designer (who also happens to be the Groom!), Dom Roberts of the MASH Branding Agency

“shots were then taken of the bride and groom which (were then) used as a basis to create a chronological representation of their aging faces into the future. 10, 20, 30 and 40 years into the future, growing old together“

How much fun do you bet this wedding was? 

via a $10000 wedding

Let’s face it, we all want to be famous (even for just 15 minutes) and Etsy artist Phunklab is the genius taking full advantage of that secret desire.  Send him a photo and he will, for $40 create an amazing, unique work of art on stretched canvas.  You can ask for a specific background or inspiration (newspaper, comic, western) or even a movie poster likeness (I desperately need one inspired by Sex and the City!), OR you can trust the creative genius that is Phunklab and let him create the perfect piece for you.

(click on images for larger view)

And just in case you are not fully blown away by the possibilities yet, you can also have your amazing creation printed on postcards (think birth announcements, invitations, stationery….).  My brain is literally hurting from this newly acquired information and the possibilities before me.  You talk amongst yourselves and let me know what other ideas you come up with while I go lie down….maybe a little college football (Go Gators!) will calm my creative neurons! 

via designcrush

I have seen it featured on several sites recently, so I can’t give credit to any one source as to where I saw it first.  In fact, when I first read about Wordle, I was kind of ambivalent about the whole thing.  It looked OK, but I really didn’t think much about it.

Then yesterday I actually checked it out.  Beside the fact that it is quite addictive, a world of possibilities started opening up for me (OK, OK, I’m a little slow, I admit!).

I think Wordle is absolutely PERFECT for integrating into your party invites.  Or imagine how cute for your Save the Dates for your wedding!  Seriously, the site lets you do SO MUCH with a bunch of words.  Change colors, sizes, backgrounds, orientations….addicting I tell ya.

Its free to play around, get all creative and then save or print out your work, so give it a shot. 

Did you know  that Mix Mingle Glow offers in-house design services to our clients?  Yep. 

That means that we can work with you to create a monogram, insignia, logo or anything else you can dream up to be used throughout your entire event!!  Programs, invitations, napkins, favors, lighting accents for your dance floor, even for your wedding website, we have an amazingly talented Graphic Designer on staff who will help you create your own “brand” for your event!  If you like OUR look (logo, branding, website, etc), then you’ll LOVE what we can do for YOU!

FAAAABULOUS!!!

A warm afternoon spent with horses in honor of a little girl’s 5th birthday.  Lunches served in pie tins, tons of big sunflowers and ice cold rootbeer.

The invitations were created to look like a magazine with all the party information hidden in “story” leads.