While on vacation...

It has been awhile! I apologize for neglecting my blog for the last 3 weeks, but it has been a busy time, not to mention that I went on vacation for a week! Vacation for me was a week long get away to the family cottage in Northern Michigan. The plan was to do some work, but spend most of my time lounging around, working on my tan and playing in the water. Well, if you haven't heard or seemed to notice, the weather here this summer has been mediocre at best. I spent 6 days up north and only 2 of them were sunny! The rest of the time was overcast and rainy. So, since I spent some quality time in-doors, I managed to get a good amount of PQ stuff done and put my family to work too! The main objective was to get my sample boxes put together and assembled to send out as marketing tools. See below, what we worked on all week. :)

Sample invitations laid out and ready to be put in the boxes.

My number one production assistant, Grandma Helen, the hardest working 91 year old I know. And she works for free!

Stacks of business cards. Notice the rainbow in the background. Gotta love being up north.

Also, figured out how to do a new photo editing technique. See the before and after. It gives it that cool over-saturated look. I'll have to try it out on some better photographs when I have so free time. Maybe in October...

Before...

After...

Thanks for reading and stay tuned. I have lots of wedding invitation stuff to post.

Preppy Floral Rehearsal Dinner

Karen contacted us earlier for shower invitations for Angie's upcoming wedding. This time she wanted rehearsal dinner invitations. They are hosting the dinner in East Lansing and she wanted to go with a green and white theme, but not something that screamed Michigan State. She chose a spring green to go with the green and white flowers they are having and then we added navy to give it that preppy look. It has a nice vintage feel with the banner and flower graphics.

Finally

Simple and Elegant Invitations

Gary and Jodie wanted a simple and elegant design with modern fonts. They chose off-white shimmer paper, and a pretty purple backing. The invitation is 3 layers of cardstock which gives it weight and dimension. I really like the large border of purple.

They opted for a very simple response card so that there was room for their guests to leave a special note.

Twitter. Yup, I'm on the band wagon.

A month ago, excuse my language, I asked my marketing guru, WTF is Twitter and WHY?? Then she said it's a great networking tool and you should start tweeting right now. I thought who really cares what I am doing on a day to day basis. I'm not that exciting! But I have taken her word for it and have set up a Twitter account. I must admit, I am mildly addicted to it. I enjoy getting emails telling me that I have a new follower from 3 states away and I like reading all of the people's updates that I am following. 

So now that I am part of the club, I promise to tweet only pertinent information. :) I will try to only bore you with the mundane details of my life just 3 times a day. :) I promise not to brag about how fabulous I am and how ground breaking and earth shattering my designs are and I will not complain about how busy I am, because that is ALWAYS a good thing. That being said, I'm off into the world of Twitter. Happy twittering or tweeting or whatever they call it people!

Oh, and if you want to follow, click here. :)

Happy 4th of July!

I wanted to wish everyone a happy fourth of July! The family and I are packing up the ride and heading up north tomorrow for a few days of sun, good food, fireworks and some cold beers! I thought I would honor our day of independence with a red, white and blue themed inspiration board. Photo credits: Top left, my window boxes, notice the all white flowers this year? In honor of the Beatles White album...my husbands idea. I kinda like it. :) Inkwell design, customized with red, white and blue. Vintage Fourth of July postcard, my son Campbell's little feet in his flip flops from Old Navy and vintage labels from Papier Valise.

Newest addition to the PQ family

We are thrilled to announce the birth of Megan's new baby boy, Camden William. He was born yesterday at 11:51 AM weighing in at 7lbs. 10z. Mom and baby are doing great!

Minted.com Save the Date Competition

Hey everyone, I just submitted a design for Minted's Save the Date competition. My design was inspired by Hannah and Brandon's spring wedding in Boston. I Wanted to do something that was fun and playful, and really summed up the look of Boston in the Spring. Click on the image to leave your comments! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Save the Date - Represent Your State

Paul and Elizabeth have lived all over the country, but met and became a couple in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They new that they were going to have a lot of out-of-town guests and because Santa Fe is such a special place to them both, they really wanted to represent that in their save the dates. So we opted for a  rustic, travel themed announcement.

Everything about Elizabeth and Paul is unique and different, therefore, they certainly didn't want the traditional look. They really appreciate the natural beauty of New Mexico, so we definitely wanted to incorporate the sunset, which New Mexico is famous for. We also added lavender, which grows like weeds. They are going to be incorporating some some Native American traditions in their ceremony, so I wanted to make sure we included that element as well. The repeating pattern at the bottom of the announcement is a typical Native American basket weave design and to give it that personal touch, the "yee-haw" is an expression that Paul uses frequently. He did spend some years in Texas after all. :)

To give it that rustic look, we chose craft paper for the announcement and glassine envelopes. I also ordered a bunch of vintage maps of New Mexico on ebay and cut them out and printed the addresses on them. Last but not least, we ordered vintage stamps from Champion Stamps.

Fall Wedding - Miami Retro Inspired

Yey!! Our first fall wedding feature for the year! When Shaunta contacted us, she said she loved our our site because it was so colorful and that is just what she was looking for. Fall in general is such a colorful time of year, which makes it all the more fun for wedding invitation designs. There are so many rich colors options to chose from. Shaunta's wedding colors are oranges, browns and raspberry.
She loved the idea of a chocolate pocket fold with two different shades of orange shimmer insert cards. We incorporated the raspberry as an ink color and Swarovski crystal embellishments.

Through this process we have also had the pleasure of working with Gabrielle Tucker from Faire La Fete, Shaunta's wedding coordinator. She is so sweet to work with and does great work! She even designed their monogram for them.


The design inspiration for this invitation, was based on the location of the reception, The Orion Ballroom in downtown Dallas. A few words from Gabrielle describing the event: "This location was chosen because it is located in the heart of the city, overlooking the Dallas skyline. Upon arrival, guests will be greeted by waiters that will serve different martinis such as: lemon drops, cosmopolitans, cherry martinis, and passed hor d’ourves. For comfort, we will have a very sexy and hip lounge area equipped Miami-style furniture (white, leather lounge seating) and custom-made pillows with their monogram."

After reading the description, I knew I wanted the invitations to have kind of a retro/contemporary feel. We chose 3 different retro-styled patterns for each insert card. The square pattern really reminds me of patterns in architectural/landscaping elements you would see in Miami, and wait until you see all of the fun accessories to come...

Swirly Monogram

Check out Laura and Jonathan's custom monogrammed invitations. I love the eggplant and grey color combo.



I love the dancing feet on the timeline.

Stripes & Polka-dot Invitations

Holy May! Sorry it has been awhile! I feel terrible when I get behind in my blogging. The month of May is always crazy for me. I think every family member has a birthday in May besides my mother and I. Not to mention, my son's Baptism. Needless to say, we have been very busy! So without further ado, here is the first of what we have been working on the last month.

Angie's bridal shower invitations. Angie's soon-to-be mother-in-law contacted us with a rush order for shower invitations. The color and design was based off striped and polka-dotted table cloths that would be used at the shower. Hot pink and black seem to be a very popular color combo for us lateley. I also love the font for the "A" initial. We are looking forward to getting started on the rehearsal dinner invitations!