Anastasia Marie: Handcrafted Cards & Stationery

I'VE MOVED!

2010-09-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

I have a new blog: www.anastasiamariecards.com/blog! For more posts from me, visit me there!

And this also means that my new website is up: www.anastasiamariecards.com. Check it out!

Sleeping Beauty

2010-08-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

A lovely friend of mine ordered this special custom card to give to someone as an accompaniment to Sleeping Beauty ballet tickets. How fun! This card features Aurora with the three fairies.

Velvet's Finale

2010-08-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

These three little cards are the last cards that will become part of the Velvet Collection. Enjoy these while they are available. Check out the Facebook album for the rest of the cards in this collection. All are still available except for Velveteen.

Please welcome Faux Fur

Black Robe

and Magestic.

Inspiration Board: Something Special

2010-08-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

A very special set of stationery is in the making. More details about this specialness to come later, but I'm really excited about this. This set is going to be one of the most exquisite ones I've ever made. Here's a small glimpse into my brain. With shades of ivory mixed with chocolate brown and accents of teal and gold, this set already has my fingers tingling to get started with assembly already!

Embossed Roses

2010-08-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

I have been working endlessly on the new collection that will come out upon the launching of my new website. In the meantime, I am adding a new card to the Garden Party Collection: Embossed Roses. It features magenta and teal roses {embossed and debossed} paper with a lavender ribbon. So simple and sweet.

Wedding Stationery Sneak Peak: Anna

2010-07-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Anna & Steve are getting married and their stationery is coming together. The invitations were printed beautifully, and all I had to do was sit and wait patiently for the envelopes to arrive. Which they did...five days late...and the wrong size. Oh boy. So the new envelopes are in the mail and I have a feeling I will not order from that company again. But ignoring the unexpected stress, I have to say these invitations are probably one of my most favorite that I have ever created. Here's a sneak peak at the back of the invitation.

The couple will be getting married in October, so that's when the revealing of the full stationery will happen. Stay tuned.

A Child's Storybook

2010-07-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on a new collection of cards targeted at children. Ultra colorful and fun. This collection will be unveiled when my new site makes its debut in less time than more. Title of the collection? A Child's Storybook. Which storybooks? Now that little detail will remain a secret for now. Here are a few of the inspiring illustrations behind these cards. The amazing illustrator is Warwick Goble.

Wedding Stationery Sneak Peak: Elizabeth

2010-07-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

Today I picked up a set of wedding stationery from the print shop. The invitations have yet to be assembled since some parts of it are still on their way. Sometimes snail-mail really gets me. Here's a small look at what is coming. The wedding is in September so there's a going to be a bit of a waiting period before I can post them.

Kae & Dima's Special Extras

2010-07-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

So Kae and Dima's wedding stationery was posted a bit ago, and here's the rest of their wedding paper goods. Kae plump fell in love with a font that she found in a picture and showed it to me. And strangely enough, I knew exactly what font that was. At the top of my lungs I hollered "Nelly Script Flouish!" And away Kae went to buy this fabulous font.

Photography by Daniel Usenko.

This particular wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty. Here's my post for more goodies.

Wedding Stationery: Svetlana & Sergey

2010-07-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Sergey and Svetlana are getting married. Oh yay! Svetlana really wanted a monogram that would match her outdoor park-like themed wedding. Leaves it is. Printed on natural linen paper with brown coordinating envelopes, these invitations will be included in my Stationery Shop on my upcoming website.

The Photo Shoot

2010-07-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Monday, the fifth of July: Earlier that day, Kae and her husband Dima, arrived at our house with Starbucks in hand. We quickly piled up our mound of props into the car and started heading up to Seattle. Bad timing for us. We timed it just right to hit the beginning of rush hour. After a near car accident, some sudden stops, and a seasick couple in the back seat, my driving rights were taken from me. I do not like Seattle/Tacoma traffic. And whew. We finally arrived. Met up with our awesome awesome awesome photographer, Daniel Usenko, at Starbucks. Great thanks to this guy. He pulled this whole shoot together on top of all his other projects and performed marvelously.

We arrived at Discovery Park {after our lovely in-home shoot} for our outdoor shoot and even though I have yet to preview any pictures from this event, just watching the models and photographer in action is thrilling enough. I know the pictures turned out great. Daniel can't have anything but. We did a lot of walking and running and quick thinking. Our great crew was forced to lug our mound of props from location to location. Thanks crew. I know you all broke a sweat when it came to that. And thanks for being so helpful and supportive. You were eager to be useful and I got to say, that's rare. So thanks again.

So yes, the long-awaited day has come and gone. Not everything went according to plan, but needless to say, it was a blast. My awesome stylist Kae and I lost our planning guide {somewhere in the field perhaps} so we had to remember from the top of heads what set-up scenes we had planned. And when the sun is fading fast, there's a bit of pressure for you to remember faster.

Here's a picture of our crew and props: {the rest will come later}

Special thanks to:

My husband, Jimmy, nothing would ever happen without you. I love you.

Kae Yelchaninov and her hubby Dima, for helping me generate ideas and being my right hand on-scene styling and fluffing models, cutting flowers, setting up tea cups, and offering moral support. Kae, you're the best. I think we burned a million calories yesterday.

Eleanor Petry, for the use of her home for our in-home shots and all her great help styling our models.

Annabelle Lea Petry, for hair and make up.

Our models: Julia Lukomskiy, Yuriy Manchik, Marina Gad, Kerry Rowe, Bogdan Natkha, and Eva Gurmeza. Thank you for all coming down and being a part of this. Special thanks to Bogdan, who waited patiently for hours until the very end of the shoot to finally model for us.

Yana Krikov, Galina Yelchaninov, Max Lopatin, and Sasha Leahovcenco for moral support and entertainment. It was super great having you all there. Yana, thanks for supporting Daniel and guiding the models. Thanks Galina and Max for making a special trip up to Seattle just to be at the shoot. Thanks Sasha for keeping our "bored" people entertained. :)

And once again, very very special thanks to Daniel Usenko for being the great photographer that he is.

Featured!

2010-06-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Oh yay! Seattle photographer, Daniel Usenko, submitted Kae and Dima's wedding to Style Me Pretty. And lo and behold, it was accepted! That means my work is totally up there! From the forget-me-not favors, to the blessing tree tags, to the cake scroll and table numbers...this is bliss indeed! Check out the original post here.

Inspiration Board: Stationery Shoot

2010-06-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

I'm currently prepping for an exciting photo shoot up in Seattle. This shoot will showcase my wedding stationery. So excited! Doing some inspiring research. The main photographer will be Daniel Usenko, and also Sasha Leahovcenco from You+We Photography will be doing the free-styling. Got some legit models in tow too. The above is my inspiration board.

Become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

An Elegant Engagement

2010-06-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

I went through and started filtering through my blog and ended up deleting over half of it. Reason will not be stated, but I'm reposting some things. Here are cards part of the An Elegant Engagement Collection. Some old. Some new.

{June Wedding} and {Always Yours}

{Love's Heart} and {March Wedding}

{Alice} and {Pearl Dove}

{Kimono} and {Reflection}

Tux & Gown

2010-06-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a card that I made for my husband's cousin's wedding. Just to give you a glimpse into how this works, I posted the vector image of how the card looks before it's cut and glued alongside the actual card {taken with my crummy camera; time for a new one}. Fancy. This card is named Tux & Gown and is part of the An Elegant Engagement Collection.

An Anniversary Invitation

2010-05-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

My parents are celebrating their 25 year marriage this June and we're all really excited. Here are their finished invitations. Printed on ivory linen paper with brown ink with a subtle flourishes printed behind the text, embellished with twine and a delicate layered flower. Paired with a textured ivory envelope and a little twine bow to make it nice.

{and this is the back of the invitation}

Wedding Stationery: Kae & Dima

2010-05-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

This happy couple got married this past weekend and now I can finally put up their wedding invitations. Kae did a marvelous job designing them: a square invitation with charcoal ink on gray linen paper, a kraft envelope, and a bit of string all blended well together to create this handmade, organic look.

A previous post: I Love Creative People.

A Creative Genius

2010-05-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

Kae & Dima are getting married on May 15th. Excitement indeed. Kae has been labeled as a creative genius and I most definitely agree. She thought every detail through and I have much to learn from her. Here's a preview of what she has in store for her wedding guests when it comes to paper goods -- a fabulous font:

Official pictures to come later. Stay tuned.

Fuzzy Goodness

2010-04-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

Introducing the Velvet Collection. {It has real fuzz on the paper, shhh.}

{Damask} and {Ooh La La}

{My Pearl} and {Lavish}

{Velveteen} and {Haute Couture}

{Modest Glamour} and {Pink Blush}

{Black Lux}

Font Choices

2010-04-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

I'm looking to buy some new fonts for wedding invitations. {and anything else, really}

I noticed I'm really lacking in script/calligraphy fonts that I can use legally in commercial work. So let's take a vote. Which one is your favorite?

{champion script}

{natalya}

{affair}

{aphrodite}

{monterey}

{ventura}

{always}

{good vibrations}

{miss le gatees}

There's so many good ones, but I have to restrain myself from posting them all. And as a side note, all these fonts can be found and purchased on myfonts.com.

Let the voting begin! Font names are shown below the font.

I Dream of Paper

2010-04-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

Remember my shopping trip that I spoke of earlier? Well, here's a bit of goodness I picked up that I've been thinking about and decided to share with you all. Isn't this roll of paper just precious? I bought it for two reasons: I fell in love at first sight and I thought it'd make a nice set of wedding invitations. Anybody interested?

{oh, as a side note, this paper is a charming ivory. my office lighting makes it look yellow.}

My Old-Fashioned Home

2010-04-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome the My Old-Fashioned Home Collection. I found a bunch of paper at a local craft store with these pretty prints on them and bought one of each. These cards are not reproducible, so there's only one in being of each sort. But they're lovely nonetheless.

{Fashionable} and {Milk Jug}

{Face Powder} and {Fashion}

{Pretty Ladies} and {Silverware}

{Bold Fashion}

{Admirable}

{Garden Seeds}

We Need More Cake!

2010-03-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

Here are three more Marie Antoinette cards: Fan Me, Shoe Me, and Versailles Wallpaper. Marie Antoinette's time period was very rich in patterns, colors, and textures. Thus, cards mimicked after her have to be just so. Metallics. Shimmers. Florals. Pastels. Pearls. Sparkles.

Let Them Eat Cake

2010-03-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Introducing a new collection: Marie Antoinette. There's just something so fabulous about Marie Antoinette's time period. The colors. The dresses. The wigs. The history. The war. I shall skip the war when designing these cards though. Here's a preview:

I love creative people.

2010-03-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

Kae designed her wedding invitations with texture, contrast, and elegance. It was a joy to see her vision come to life. The envelope will open after her wedding to her man, my cousin Dima. Stay tuned.

Wedding Stationery: Irina & Alex

2010-02-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

A March twenty-seventh wedding. Congrats to my good friends Alex and Irina!

Irina and Alex designed their invitations together and here's what they came up with. A flat invitation with a faded damask print and swirls. Printed on ivory paper with chocolate brown ink. Complemented with a chocolate brown envelope.

My Work Room

2010-02-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

Every artist has a corner where they work. Here's mine.

Wedding Stationery: Irina & Daniel

2010-02-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

A September twenty-sixth wedding.

This is the wedding invitation I made for some good friends of mine. The bride really wanted a layered flower and a pocket style invitation, and so it was brought to life. Extreme customizing for this. Even the envelopes were created by hand, cut from specialty metallic paper and printed with brown metallic ink.

Wedding Stationery: Stacey & Jimmy

2010-02-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

A June sixth wedding.

Yep, you guessed it. This was the wedding invitation I made for my own wedding. It boasts a three-layer flower made from metallic specialty paper and mulberry with an accent ribbon. Printed with bronze metallic ink on super smooth creamy paper.

Blessings Tree

2010-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

A neat way to make your own "guest book." Use tags and a tree branch! This was more than just a "guest book tree" for my husband and I, it was a blessing tree.

Photography by Daniel Usenko.