tintner family tree

is it just me, or is there a new baby or expectant family everywhere you turn…strolling downtown, seated at dinner next to you, on facebook/instagram…the list goes on. well we’ve had several friends have new additions to the family, and we’ve doubled our niece/nephew count with 3 new little ones this year! and i know it’s not the same, but we even brought home a new 4 legged baby to our home this summer…

okay, but enough about our dog(s)…back to juliana’s announcements.

my sister asked me to create a birth announcement for juliana that was just as special and fun as maddie’s were (remember these, way way way back when?) since juliana is named after her paternal grandfather, julius, it was fitting to incorporate a family tree. i loved the idea of also tying together the forest animals that i’ve been so fond of for my sister…maddie’s announcements had an owl and her birthday party invites sported the party animals.  so i went to my sketchbook and drew a woodland scene focused around a ‘family tree’ where juliana is cradled on one branch and big sister maddie is swinging from another. doesn’t this remind you of the scene from sleeping beauty where aurora is singing to all her forest friends?

photo by natalie franke photography

lauren + lorenzo’s italian getaway!

Congrats to our dear friends, Lauren & Lorenzo on their upcoming wedding! Lauren designed the entire suite herself and we had the pleasure of printing them for the happy couple!

Even though we can’t make it to Assisi for the big party, we’ll be celebrating stateside and lifting a glass on your big day!

Coasters

Remember my little stippled octopus drawing from a few weeks ago? Well I had a plate made without any concrete idea of what it could turn in to.

Last night, I was about to clean the press for the day and decided to print the octopus on something…anything really. I just happened to have some coasters laying about the studio and placed it on the coaster, bleeding off a few edges. Cool.

They came out so beautifully that I decided to print another run of them this morning with a new ink color.

And then one thing led to another and remember the alphabet series a while back? Well, here’s the newest addition to/transformation of that…alphabet flashcards anyone? I love letting the creative juices flow and just seeing where it leads. When there aren’t any restrictions or parameters, I feel so free…and I love it!

Maya and Bryan are getting married!

I had so much fun working with Maya and Bryan on their entire wedding suite. They are such a wonderful couple and they somehow always bring a smile to your face. They are getting married this July in Washington DC and wanted their paper suite to match their personality–fun and modern. During one of our first meetings, Maya mentioned that Bryan loved fly fishing and wanted to SUBTLY include flies into the suite. So after a few drawings, Maya and Bryan fell lin love with the movement of the swooping lines which were reminiscent of fly lines. And I was even able to tuck in small flies between some of the lines to further tie the whole theme together.

The pattern of the lines + flies are printed without ink to create a blind impression into the paper. This allowed the text to really pop off the page. The blind impression really shows off the beauty of letterpress printing since you both see and feel the impression.

I also had the joy of illustrating a coordinating map for Maya and Bryan that highlighted all the things they wanted their guests to enjoy. She really wanted a whimsical map, so we included lots of hand drawn icons. My favorites? A copper penny representing the Lincoln Memorial and the fishing fly in place of Roosevelt Island.

Thanks for letting me work with you on your wedding invitations, Maya! It was truly a blast

 

drawing of the week: octopus

Just drew this guy this week for fun. It may show up in my next project…who knows. This is a pen on paper drawing. And yes, that is indeed hundreds, no thousands of dots of stippling.

 

Fishing Flies!

I recently worked on a wedding suite where the groom loved fly fishing. They even went fly fishing for their engagement photos…in the freezing rain, now that’s dedication.

I drew several different flies to incorporate into their suite and I loved the drawings so much that I decided to print a few notecards with them.

As stated in the previous post, these are for sale at our etsy shop!

Rustic + Romantic

Nicole and Jake are getting married! I’ve known Nicole ever since high school. She lived in my neighborhood and her sister and I were classmates. She’s always had the nickname, Baby Brackett to me because she’s so sweet and adorable. It’s hard to imagine that the girl I grew up with and was bus buddies with is now getting married! I’m so excited for their fall wedding–they are getting married the same weekend that my husband and I exchanged our vows just 2 years ago.

Nicole and Jake are holding a small intimate gathering for family and close friends. There is a willow tree at their venue and she loved the idea or incorporating that into the save the date and wedding suite. So I drew a willow tree for her and ‘carved’ their initials into the card to emphasize their rustic + romantic wedding theme.

And for the return address, I designed a custom rubber stamp for her and Jake to use now, for the wedding invitations, and for whatever other mail they need to send! To stamp on the dark chocolate envelopes, we just used a white ink pad–charming right?

Can’t wait to start on your wedding suite, Baby Brackett…and I think it’s time to stop calling you that…

sketch, sketch, sketch all day long

I spent the summer of 2006 and 2010 abroad for a drawing program through the architecture school at UVa. The first time around, I was a student, and subsequently was the teaching assistant. These trips really helped me understand my LOVE for drawing. While there, we spent literally 8 hours a day with our sketchbooks in tow drawing everything we saw from buildings, landscape, details, and even some awesome hats on Italian Independence Day.

I still love drawing and pull out my sketchbook for every project we have. Some projects require more intense sketchbook time, like Tourterelle, and other times it’s just sketching out concepts and layouts.

We loved the drawing for Anne’s Farm to Table invitations so much that we then had boxcar press create a plate for us to make a few sets of these cards featuring our veggie drawings. We even packaged a few sets up already and sent them to our friends Sarah and Andrea who put us in touch with our most recent clients.

A House!

My college roommate and her fiancee just bought their fist house in Richmond. They actually closed 3 days after Tom and I closed on our house, so we’ve been sharing stories as we both enter the thralls of home ownership.

Siobhan sent me a picture of their house before they moved in and from it, I was able to create a line drawing as the focal piece of their moving announcements! Remember when I wrote about mint being the new black? Well, Siobhan and I are both IN LOVE with the tealy/seafoam/mint color craze right now. We kept the drawing and body of the text in a light gray ink and allowed the headline, OUR FIRST HOME, really pop with the teal. This was perfect because she also just sent me a photo of their freshly painted front door…perfectly coordinating with the teal in the announcements.

Can’t wait to see their new place in person!

Business Logo: Tourterelle

I am so excited to finally show you the logo that we worked on for a new floral design company in town, Tourterelle. Our clients, Karen and Sally, wanted to combine aspects of old world elegance and modern whimsy. They loved the idea of a hand drawn image that included a turtle dove (tourterelle in French), hand lettered T, and flowers of course.

The final logo included a turtle dove perched on a ‘ribbon’ t (think ribbon wrapping bouquet stems) and sitting on a bed of anemones, roses, pansies, and ivy. The circular form and script T alludes to Victorian seals and monograms while still having a modern and fun twist to it.

We partnered with Kristin at Still Point Press to create and entire branding package for Karen and Sally. We delivered the drawing and Kristin artfully composed it with the company name for a complete logo. This logo will be printed on their store bags, gift tags, and even their company van! How cool will it be to see our drawing driving down the street in a few weeks? We also can’t wait to see the completed website that Kristin is currently working on.

Did any of you head to Caspari to see Tourterelle’s pop-up shop? We are sorry that we had to miss out, but hope it was a blast!