New website for Professor Rosalind Williams of MIT

I recently created a web site for Professor Rosalind Williams of MIT. She is a historian of technology and does some very interesting research. Check out her latest book The Triumph of Human Empire.

It was a great experience working with her and it was fun to program a Word Press site.

letterpress film

Letterpress from Naomie Ross on Vimeo.

Check out this beautiful short film about letterpress by Naomie Ross. I love the combination of the delicate typography with the industrial printing process.

tea towels + wedding invitation giveaway

Happy Friday! It's not to late to enter the wedding invitation giveaway. I will be picking a winner tonight at 9 p.m. (est). 

Here are some lovely screenprinted tea towels from Etsy. I love collecting tea towels. It's so fun to change the feeling of a kitchen by changing out the towels. Don't you think?

1. sarahkusa

2. MichelleBrusegaard
3. greenolivetextiles
4. wonderthunder
5. sweetnaturedesigns
6. MichelleBrusegaard

wedding invitation giveaway!

The wedding invitation giveaway is back!

Getting married? I LOVE creating wedding invitations. It is an amazing creative challenge to help a couple bring their ideas for their wedding to life. Today, I am giving away a custom wedding invitation design package. I will work with you to create your dream wedding invitation. It will include designs for the invitation, the envelope, an rsvp card and envelope, directions and any other information that you would like included.

I will work with a printer (including letterpress, if you desire) to create the finished product. You will be responsible for the printing and paper costs (we will work with your budget to determine the best method of printing).

To enter, leave a comment telling me one sentence that sums up what your perfect wedding would be. One winner will be drawn at random this Friday.

hipstamatic

Sorry I've been away for a few days. As often happens, September has brought with it a much more hectic pace. I am under a huge deadline right now but I have lots of ideas cooking for the blog, including a complete makeover. 

In the meantime, have you seen this iPhone app?

It turns your iPhone into an instamatic camera for only $1.99. Now if I could only get my hands on an iPhone... I'm waiting for the rumored Verizon iPhone deal. : )

lovely illustrations

I came across the work of children's book illustrator Renata Liwska while looking through Communication Arts Illustration Annual. Adorable!

a room of my own,sort of

Studio Wall display by Moline

I am turning the third bedroom in our house into a studio space. Up until now it has been an office/catch-all room with everything from a computer and printer to the ironing board housed there. The space only has three walls with the third being a railing that looks down the staircase to our living room below.

Studio by Three Red Apples

my crafty area by craftingmomof1

Sewing Studio by Eris Delphi

Mon Atelier by petits détails

more drawers by blessed little nest

The room will need to be functional as a design studio, a sewing room, and my husband's writing desk. I'm liking furniture that is functional but also old or refurbished. But I need plenty of modern storage solutions.

rincón by papersome

studio progress... by Three Red Apples

Home office by Chez Larsson

New desk by Chez Larsson

And now, the fun part, actually making this happen...

design behind the scenes

Design Army's Wonderland

HOW Magazine and Adobe asked three design studios to try the new Flash Catalyst to bring their print work to life. I love what Design Army did with their book for the Washington Ballet. I had seen the book through a Neenah paper promotion and it is breathtaking. They created a fun flash site that takes you behind the scenes on some of the photoshoots. It's amazing to see how they brought the lush fantasy photographs to life.

upcycled treasures

Paper airplane-embroidery
hoop wall art by Montclair Made

September vintage tea towel bird, lavender
scented ornament by Montclair Made

Vintage greeting card gift tags by Montclair Made

Mini flag banner no. 3 by Montclair Made

Thanks to Etsy's daily handpicked items, I discovered Montclair Made. The shop features unique, clever, green items that are repurposed from materials like packaging, cardboard, and plastic shopping bags.

new birthday invitations

A friend asked me to design an invitation for her little boy who is turning 2. These were the options that I gave her. It was so fun to design for a boy since I am used to making things for my two girls. I will be offering these as templates in my Etsy shop soon.

and the winner is...

Congratulations to Ashley Noelle! I used a random number generator and came up with the number 9. Please get in touch with me at littlebirdiestudio@comcast.net and we can discuss the details. Thanks to all of you for entering, and for your kind comments. Stay tuned because I will be doing another invitation giveaway in August!

wedding invitation giveaway!

Getting married? I LOVE creating wedding invitations. It is an amazing creative challenge to help a couple bring their ideas for their wedding to life. Today, I am giving away a custom wedding invitation design package. I will work with you to create your dream wedding invitation. It will include designs for the invitation, the envelope, an rsvp card and envelope, directions and any other information that you would like included.

I will work with a printer (including letterpress, if you desire) to create the finished product. You will be responsible for the printing and paper costs (we will work with your budget to determine the best method of printing).

To enter, leave a comment on this post and become a follower of the blog. One winner will be drawn at random this Friday at 12 p.m.

yellow wedding inspiration

1. Poms from Party Poms

2. Earrings from Stone Link Designs

3. Favor box from Martha Stewart Weddings

4. Bouquet photo from Allen King Photography

5. Lemon display idea from Project Wedding 

6. Sweet daisy cake from Martha Stewart Weddings

7. Wedding dress from Ann Taylor

8. Yellow martinis from Project Wedding

Happy Monday. Here is some pretty yellow inspiration to brighten your day. Tomorrow I will be announcing a big wedding giveaway. Stay tuned!

etsy headquarters...what!?!?

My super-talented friend, Robyn of Revel Design alerted me to the post on Apartment Therapy showing Etsy's headquarters. As Robyn said, "Talk about a San Francisco treat. This sounds like a made up place". I couldn't have said it better.

logo design

As a designer, I love seeing the process behind finished artwork so I thought I would share the background on a recent project. I just finished a logo design for Gambale Consulting Partners. They specialize in development, marketing, and commercialization of new clinical solutions for the biotech, medical device, and pharmaceutical fields.

Here is the first round of logos that I presented. I created symbols that would suggest the medical/biotech field and used different typographic treatments for the name of the company. I start in black and white because the client can more easily focus on the design and not be distracted by choosing colors.

Once a logo was chosen, I moved on to a color exploration. My client wanted greens and blues and I also played with some gray and orange. At this stage, I also solved for how the tagline could work with the logo.

This was the final result.

small living

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, Whidbey

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, B-53

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, Harbinger

My husband and I love small houses. Our first house was a 756 sq. foot, one-bedroom cottage. Our bedroom was loft style and had a ships ladder for stairs. We had a beautiful view of a bay from our bedroom window. When we had our first baby, the house and the steep stairs were no longer practical. But, we still miss that small way of life.

These adorable houses were designed by Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. They have a wide selection of tiny homes that can be moved with a trailer and small homes that are meant to stay in one spot. My favorite is the B-53 which can be built with 3 bedrooms. Someday...

party planning

Tomorrow is my dad's 70th birthday. He is such an important part of my life and I can't wait to throw him a birthday party to celebrate this milestone. I've been searching for fun summer party ideas.

There is a great tutorial for these adorable pinwheels at Better Homes and Gardens.

And, this refreshing white sangria recipe is from Real Simple magazine.

This sweet no-sew banner comes from Paper n Stitch.

Finally, unique "thank you for coming tags" , for sale at Perideau Designs' Etsy shop, would finish any party with style.

Any other summer ideas?

busy bee

I've been busy here at Little Birdie working on a banner for the lovely Katie Malesh at mommymalesh.blogspot.com (shown above). I had a blast doing a photo shoot using my grandmother's vintage spools of thread. All of the colors and the worn labels are so gorgeous.

I've also been working on a fun new car seat cover which I will share shortly.

I'm filled with so many new ideas for projects and sad that I don't have more hours in a day.

eye candy

Thanks to Megan of Megan Creates I am loving Lonny, the online magazine. As she says, it helps to fill the huge void left by Blueprint.

recycled seatbelt bag

{Harvey's recycled seatbelt purse}

How cool is this?