Archives for September 2013

This weekend we attended the most lovely RUSTIC themed wedding! With touches of vintage elegance, burlap, and lace in gray, pink, and fallow brown.

This RUSTIC font love post is inspired by the fabulous rustic wedding. Shown are my top 6 favorite fonts for a rustic themed wedding. Think … hand-written, block stamp, hand-lettered, and vintage / antiqued letterpress styles of types for your rustic country chic wedding.

1. Vermandois – A lovely rustic chic handwritten font. Perfect for the rustic chic wedding couples names!

2. Jacob Riley – Hellooo Jacob! I think I’m in LOVE. Handwritten and NOT perfect. Perfectly rustic though.

3. Slab American – Being the owner of a Heidelberg (Letterpress) Printing Press … how can I NOT love this font? Letterpress inspired. Rustic perfection.

4. Mocha Mattari – Warm and yummy. Hand-stamped inspired java loving font.

5. Rollerscript Rough – Yes. Please. Easy to read handwritten magic.

6. Bootstrap – Bold. Beautifully hand-stamped inspired font. A rustic wedding invitation design must have. Perfect for the country chic couples’ names.

Stay tuned and be sure to keep an eye on my blog for my NEW 2014 invitation collection full of rustic chic wedding invitations and designs!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through the links, you help Mospens Studio out! xo

I am loving this POP of color for Diane’s custom beach wedding stationery! Custom coral hand-painted in red and bright blue starfish match her theme perfectly. This color scheme of red and blue is proving to be popular for 2014 weddings.

Sources: Beautiful beach theme coral wedding cake Destination Weddings / Blue bridesmaids with starfish K&K Photography / Custom beach invitation artwork Mospens Studio

Love this beach wedding inspiration board!! Don’t you?

I have been hand-lettering since the age 9. (It all started in Girl Scouts when we learned calligraphy) I am not a master now by any means. At. All. I have a lot of practicing to do.

A super sweet friend is getting married this weekend and asked me to hand-letter her favorite quote on a chalkboard.

I was so nervous I was going to really mess it up. But I gave it a whirl!

You can make a wedding chalkboard with little supplies. All you need is… a chalk board (I used a 23″ x 35″ board), chalk marker, a little container to add the paint to, and a paint brush.

First you will want to design your chalkboard. Make sure the lettering will fit in your chalkboard dimensions perfectly.

I used the smaller chalk marker to outline my lettering. When that was finished, I went back and filled in the lettering with the paint brush. I took a larger chalk marker and pushed it into a container to capture a puddle of chalk paint. This made it super easy for me since I am use to painting with watercolor paint. I would dip my paint brush into the chalk paint and apply to the chalkboard slowly and carefully.

You will want to be very careful when moving your hand over the painted lettering to avoid smearing. The more layers you add the more white the lettering will appear. You will want to wait to add new layers to avoid pulling up your previous painted brushstrokes.

The finished hand-lettered chalkboard art took over 1 hour for me to paint. This did not include the design time.

Once I finished the hand-drawn chalk lettering with my paint brush, I painted a few long dashes near the edges. I then smudged the chalk paint to give the board a little more of a chalkboard look. You could add more if you like.

After researching pricing, a custom chalkboard wedding sign this size would cost about $250.00.

Have fun with this D.I.Y. and ENJOY!

Just In Today! The brightest bouquet of stamps just blossomed in our Zazzle Shop new arrivals.

It is Friday ALREADY!?? Time flies when you are having fun. This is so true!

James and I have been very busy designing and laying out proof previews for custom invitations! Believe it or not event dates for the stationery (not just invites!) range from a week from today to July of 2014! So many NEW clients are planning WAY ahead. We thank you for that.

Let’s get to todays Font Love!

1. BakerScript – Handwritten and vintage = LOVELY

2. Carolyna Pro – Fabulous calligraphy style font

3. Carolyna Pro Black  – Another fabulous calligraphy style font, a bold version of No. 2

4. Sverige Script – Clean script font

5. Saissant – Handwritten. Modern. Fabulous.

Have a lovely weekend! Cheers!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through the links, you help Mospens Studio out! xo

Woweee! It has been a long time since I created an inspiration board for a wedding couple. I almost forgot how much fun it is!

Kathleen wants to incorporate trees, gorgeous flowers, and the colors cranberry, navy blue, and vintage light blue on her custom wedding invitations in a bottle. So many bottle colors to choose from! I love the NEW blue glass bottles. Just gorgeous!

Wildflower bouquet photo by the amazing Jose Villa!

If you are interested in having me custom-design your wedding invitations or party invitations, and want an invitation inspiration board… I would love to create one for you! Unfortunately, due to my art and design deadlines I can not create an inspiration board for you for free. The small fee for creation is $20.00. { ORDER YOUR INSPIRATION BOARD } Then email me your photos or pinterest boards! I do need the sources for all photos. OR I can create a board from scratch for you! Just email me the color scheme and theme of your wedding or event!

I look forward to designing with you!

 {Photo Source Vogue}

Every wedding blog you see is featuring floral crowns, feathers, lace, fresh picked wedding bouquets full of wildflowers, and more.

I became curious. I started researching the trend and found many descriptions of BOHO CHIC and BOHEMIAN WEDDINGS. I first featured Kate Moss’ wedding photo on my blog in 2011 as a Vintage Wedding. So I dove into the definition of BOHO and started on a Pinning binge on Pinterest. Check out my growing BOHEMIAN WEDDING INSPIRATION board. I am now officially obsessed with designing wildflower wedding invitations adorning feathers. Aaahhhhh …

Have a FREE FLOWING BOHO weekend!

T.G.I.F. to you!

As promised… I have a few more font favorites today. If you missed the first FAVORITE FONTS SERIES #1 check it out.

1. Saint Agnes – LOVE the handwritten look to this font.

2. Bookeyed Suzanne – Another handwritten font, this one with a bit of swirls.

3. Traveling Typewriter – I can not resist. I LOVE a sweet vintage typewriter font. Plus it is FREE!

4. Bergamot – Bold hand-drawn serif font. So lovely!

5. Mrs. Eaves Small Caps – Elegant and super popular with wedding invitations.

6. Always – This font is CRAZY popular for wedding couple names on custom invitations in our studio this week!

Well, that is a wrap! Back to designing logos and my baby + kids stationery collection! I look forward to resting on Sunday.

Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through the links, you help Mospens Studio out! xo

Every single time I see an AMAZING floral display photo like this … I am deeply inspired. To paint! I am in LOVE with this photo by Linnea Paulina of the fabulous floral centerpiece by Kae + Alēs. I am grateful Linnea allowed me to share her photo with you.

I love how the red flowers POP with the lightest pink and tangerine orange flowers in the background. Just BEAUTIFUL.

I never tire of painting in watercolor, especially flowers. The FOLK ART-inspired floral illustrations I painted above, are now available on custom invitations! I will put together the invite suite to show you very soon!

I have a folder full of flowers and inspiration to hand-paint in watercolor. I look forward to sharing more with you.

Introducing … Favorite Fonts Friday!

I have a bit of a confession to make. I LOVE fonts. What designer or creative does not love fonts? Right? I seriously go weak in the knees for a gorgeously designed font. I dream of designing fonts some day (soon)! ALL of the hand-drawn and calligraphy style fonts available today are ahhhMAZING.

So here it is … my first series of Font Love. These fonts made the list today!

1. Paris – A lovely and simple hand-drawn font. All caps.

2. Voyage  – This font is just perfect for any nautical design.

3. Bellucia  – Not brand new, however this is a keeper. LOVE the hand-calligraphy look. Just perfect!

4. Cantoni Pro  – NEW and super lovely. Hand-calligraphy font by one of my favorite font designers. xo

5. Amethyst  (update: name changed to Asterism) – HELLO! Seriously. I. Am. In. Love. ’nuff said.

6. Paris Serif  – Fabulous! I so love this font, sister of Paris, shown above.

Which one is your favorite? I would love to hear from you! Don’t be shy.

Happy Weekend to you!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through the links, you help Mospens Studio out! xo

Well, Spring has SPRUNG! At PANTONE that is. They have revealed 2014 Spring Color Report. Fun and fresh bright vivid colors paired with soft pastel hues. Love, love, love!

SPRING 2014 COLOR NAMES AND VALUES

PANTONE COLOR – CMYK VALUE
PANTONE 15-3920 Placid Blue – 47.17.2.0
PANTONE 16-3823 Violet Tulip – 44.39.0.0
PANTONE 15-6114 Hemlock – 39.4.35.0
PANTONE 16-0000 Paloma – 35.24.27.0
PANTONE 15-1225 Sand – 20.27.48.0
PANTONE 14-0852 Freesia – 0.14.100.0
PANTONE 18-1651 Cayenne – 6.74.56.0
PANTONE 17-1360 Celosia Orange – 0.63.80.0
PANTONE 18-3224 Radiant Orchid – 32.65.0.0
PANTONE 18-3949 Dazzling Blue – 92.57.0.0
PANTONE 18-3718 Purple Haze – 56.51.15.0
PANTONE 18-6216 Comfrey – 74.28.63.10
PANTONE 19-2428 Magenta Purple – 51.94.24.24

Since pink is not on the list, I choose the minty fresh hemlock green as my most favorite of the bunch. The violet, orange, blues, and magenta purple come in second place.

I am at a point in my life where I am filled with joy and great peace. I have found uplifting quotes to be a positive contribution to my life. I found myself hoarding 102 inspirational quotes in one folder on my computer called “hand-lettered prints.”

Today, I took the time out of my busy schedule to hand-letter and hand-paint one of my favorite quotes. “Hope anchors the soul.” This is just the beginning of an entire line of inspiration coming your way!

I will post the prints here as I paint them. Or follow me on instagram @mospensstudio to see them first!

CHEERS!

OH BABY! This past holiday weekend was full of relaxation, family, food, and painting art for my NEW BABY STATIONERY line.

I can not believe I waited 15 years to design this super sweet paper goods collection. Following are a few pics and sneak peeks for you!

NAUTICAL BABY

PAINTED RACE CAR BABY

PAINTED BABY FISH

PAINTED DINOSAURS

Keep an eye on this blog for more BABY STATIONERY illustrations and my new BABY STATIONERY line.