whimsical thumb

HOW I ASKED THE GIRLS

2012-01-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

One of the things a girl often knows even before she knows who her groom will be is who her bridesmaids will be at her wedding. Not only did they play major roles in the bride's pre-engaged life, but they also become the background cheerleaders for the journey from engagement to the wedding day. My bridesmaids have been super supportive and have never once expressed any frustration with my bridezilla antics. For example, every time I decided to return and choose another bridesmaid dress option (and I did this THREE times), they always showered me with understanding and grace.

So here they are... my lovely bridesmaids: from childhood elementary school friends to old church friend to college roommate. I think I've covered my best girls from all stages of life.

Asking your girlfriends to be your bridesmaids is more of a formality because who really says "no"? Still, it's fun to receive an official gesture asking to be a part of the wedding party. I also know the feeling because when my maid of honor recently asked me to be her maid of honor, I felt like I was just asked to prom by the coolest guy at school.

With her wedding only a month after mine, that means I'll be in wedding mode double time for the rest of the year. That means double the showers, double the bachelorette parties, and of course double the papered goods.

In other news, Nate and I have been busy making decorations and other miscellaneous items for our wedding. We both signed up for membership at TechShop and have been over-killing their lasercutters. Some of the things I've lasercut include the following: fronts and backs of invitations, table numbers, photobooth props, and monograms. We're also using TechShop's other awesome tools like the drill press and a variety of machine saws. It has been tiring, but we've been having lots and lots of fun. Nate and I both smell like burnt wood every day. My mom smelled my hair and asked me what I've been up to and I told her I picked up smoking. I don't think she believes me.

JEN & ANDREW'S TRAVEL-THEMED WEDDING

2011-11-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a very long time. Strange to be in the whimsical thumb world once again! I've been productive in school and I can't believe that my third semester is almost over. I think because we're entering the holiday season, I really don't want to do work and all I can think about is family and turkey. A couple weeks ago, the fiance and I traveled to Washington DC to pay a visit to our dear friends Jennifer and Andrew (my most recent whimsical thumb clients). Seeing them reminded me that I ought to post about their beautiful wedding! Photos taken by Jeret Slack.

Over the summer, I have been diligently planning my own wedding. I took a huge hiatus when I entered back into school and haven't really touched wedding planning until recently. It all started when I spent a ridiculous amount of time planning my engagement shoot with the awesome Grace Baek. She was a trooper in putting up with my anal requests and shooting with Nate and me for two very full days. I never knew I could get so obsessed with planning my own outfits, Nate's outfits, and each and every one of the ten locations we went to, but was a ton of fun and was a collab effort with Grace Baek Photography, Veronica Shin Makeup, and my wonderful and oh-so helpful assistant friends Hannah and Gina. :)

Also, in the recent week I had a major paper inspirational breakthrough with my wedding invitations. Oh man, what am I getting myself into?? As I was explaining my design concept to Nate, he assured me that I don't have to prove anything to the world and that I didn't need to go so crazy. But I'm doing it, guys. It's going to involve so much labor, but I think it'll be worth it. A very small sneak peak of what I'll be up to with my own invitations at the end of this post!

Onto Jen and Andrew!

In addition to designing the paper elements for this wedding, I was also asked to be one of the wedding day-of coordinator (a first!). It began with setting up the entrance of the church and a small table where people could write love notes to the bride and groom on custom postcards.

At the reception at the Rococo, guests were greeted with luggage tag escort cards.

The saxophonist was generous enough to lend me his case to indulge my idea of hanging up the bridal party's escort cards in a special spot apart from the rest of the guests.

Each place setting had a magnet favor and a reception program. Sad that there's no photos of the passport-like programs! All in all, it was an exhausting day, but also a day filled with such love and joy. :)

Last but not least, here's a teeny preview of what is to come... After my paper revelation, I had to experiment immediately. I asked my good friend John to help me set up one of MIT's laser cutter and we successfully cut six invitations. It took half an hour to cut (shows you how detailed the design is). I'm going to tweak it some more so that it won't be as time consuming and then get on crafting hopefully at the end of winter time.

This is the aftermath of the laser cutter. I think John thinks I'm ridiculous to go through so much trouble just for wedding invitations.

SALLY AND ANDY'S MUSICAL WEDDING

2011-07-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

I actually prepared these pictures awhile ago, but since Sally and Andy's one-year mark is approaching, I thought now would be the good time for a long overdue post. Sally and Andy are both musically talented--Sally's favorite book of the Bible is Psalm and Andy used to be in a 'band' with his two other brothers. That's why they wanted their wedding to reflect their love for music. Photos by Tim Sohn.

I wanted to point out a detail in the last photo. I saw an example online of candles illuminating sheet music and thought it would be a great idea to do the same. Instead, we used the lyrics and sheet music of classic Christian hymns. I used my book called Then Sings My Soul, scanned its pages, and printed them out onto manila colored paper. Then, after calculating measurements, cut each 8.5x11" page into strips, painted Elmer's glue onto each strip, and rolled the paper onto small tealight cups and longer votive candle holders. It was laborious, but of course I had lots of help!

And now that I'M engaged... whimsical thumb is still alive. Lots of crafty endeavors in the future...

JENDREW: INVITES

2011-05-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

I really tried to resist posting these until after I was done with my final projects. I tried and here I am failing.

Similar to the Save the Date, Jen and Andrew's invitation decided to take the form of another type of ticket. Jen had the lovely idea of her wedding invitation being an airplane ticket in a ticket sleeve. I've seen many attempts of this on Weddingbee with the airplane ticket designs. Personally, I think airplane tickets are ugly. I mean, ever since Southwest came into my life, I don't even use tickets anymore--half sheets of paper that I print from home the day before suffice. So for the Jendrew invitation, I threw in some of the prettier elements that make up a plane ticket, but was very lax with the literal transposition.

Guests were greeted with shimmery shamrock sleeves with a custom couple Visa stamp.

Here is my favorite element of the entire Jendrew design--a custom monogram stamp. I love that it is humongous.

The ticket was sectioned into three portions--RSVP, the main body, and a map. Please visit the website! I collaborated with the same guy who did BB's website and it is fabulous!

"Luggage claim tags" served as inserts with reception information.

Bon voyage! See you in LA!

JENDREW: SAVE THE DATE

2011-03-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

When Jen and Andrew first approached me about wanting their wedding design to revolve around "travel," I had conflicting feelings because although the theme of travel is exciting, romantic, nostalgic, and vintage all wrapped up into one, I had already worked on a wedding that also had a travel theme.

So during my orientation week, I had to really blend those creative juices to find another twist on "travel." I finally reached my light bulb moment and decided to focus more on the transportation of travel and the motion from place to place for recreation rather than on the communication that comes with individual travel and the "distance makes the heart grow fonder" sentimentalism. Does that make sense? Sounds like I've been drinking too much theoretical nonsense at grad school.

Jen and Andrew's wedding theme will celebrate their journeys of exploring the world TOGETHER and the adventures that they've had from their previous travels together as well as their future adventures together as a married couple (they're starting off in Washington DC!).

Official invitation post to come at the end of the month.

RING IN 2011

2010-12-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

Two words to describe the year 2010--wedding extravaganza. I never imagined doing so much graphic design work these past twelve months (five weddings plus a few side projects) nor did I expect the creation of "whimsical thumb." This year has been crazy and insanely fun. Thank you for all the love and support from my blog "fans," the brides for a collaborative effort, and my other clients who were crazy enough to hire and pay me. I'd like to think that all of the weddings and projects turned out to be beautiful and creative successes.

For the past few weeks, I've been working on invitations for Jen & Andrew's June wedding, and let me tell you, it was absolutely wonderful to get out my drawing tablet and have a creative release after all my yucky finals and a semester full of intellect. Even though I know the year 2011 will be much slower (only 1 wedding!), I anticipate and hope for more outlets for creativity and design. Cheers!

KATHY & WILL'S JUICY WEDDING

2010-11-09T19:40:00.000-08:00

It's nippy here in the Northeast, and looking back on Kathy and Will's wedding makes me ooze with California sunshine and heat. Having the privilege of being one of Kathy's bridesmaids, I was involved in the wedding design process more than ever! I felt honored that Kathy relied on me for the littlest details and she accepted every suggestion with much enthusiasm and satisfaction. That's my kind of bride!

These stunning photos were taken by Blueberry Photography.

Don't you want to put these in ice cubes and drink them through a straw?

It was lovely spending time with and getting to know all these ladies. We're a fun group!

Guests were greeted with an array of Izze Soda refreshments.

They acted as escort cards to direct guests to their respected tables.

I picked about ten pounds of lemons from my yard's lemon tree. Kathy's friends helped with cutting them up on site and arranging them as decorations for the reception. Among them, was the talented Grace Baek.

Having fun with the favors! Remember those?

Congratulations Kathy!! Love, your granny (obviously an inside joke).

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE START WITH B

2010-09-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

...like Boston! I've really grown smitten with this city. It's one of those super trendy and diverse metropolises in America.

Here are my few updates in life:
1. I moved across the country.
2. I no longer have all the time in the world to design wedding stuff. Actually, I have quite little time.
3. I have designed one Save the Date and am thinking about designing a t-shirt for my department (will probably not though).

Anyhow, super pleased to share photos for the first wedding I completed (in April!). Did time really go by that quickly?

The following photos were all taken by the talented duo of Jerry Yoon Photography.

The programs were folded in thirds and tied and secured with twine. I remember giving Bethany a tutorial via Skype.

As a part of the RSVP process, each guest was asked to submit their favorite B word. On the wedding day, the escort cards not only showed at which table they were sitting, but also the word they had submitted.

Favors were a set of ballpoint pens from Taiwan (where the groom Bryan spent a year doing missions!).

Let's just say their food was bomb.

Every table had a large folded card representing a different B word that had special meaning to the couple. Bryan really likes to scare people (I think he's gotten me a few times...), hence "BOO!"

Guests were asked to sign the card, being told that on each wedding anniversary (year corresponding to the table number), the couple would read that card together. What a wonderful memory!

Of course, the bride and groom's table had their inside joke of "Bethany-bus"--Bryan's souped up rice rocket that gave Bethany rides everywhere during college.

Instead of a cake, they had an elaborate and delicious dessert bar! My good friend's younger sister slaved over these baked goods... seriously, major props to Joy.

A complete view of all the sugared goodies... plus lots and lots of Bs.

Bethany and Bryan in front of the Oh Snap! photo booth. I submitted them the wedding logo and they made it into a decal for the exterior of the booth! Neat-o!

Did I really just say neat-o?

Looking at these photos really brings back some great memories of setting my learning curve and getting my feet wet in the entire wedding paper industry. I think I've grown a lot since then and am looking forward to being a part of future friends' weddings!

TO BE CONTINUED...

2010-08-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

My bags are all packed and I'm ready to start a new chapter of my life in Boston.

I guess this post is an official goodbye to my hectic wedding season. Thank you for following and supporting me in my creative endeavors!

I received Bethany's thank you card recently and it brought me back to those days of sitting in front of the computer for hours with my tablet drawing and mulling over things that start with B. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I won't have that kind of time anymore to take on these kinds of projects.

{momentary pause of suspense}

Sike! Just when I thought it was over, Nate's and my good friends decide to get engaged. The bride, Jen, then decides to 'hire' me. Geez, how can I say no? THANKFULLY, this time I have ten months. Am I taking on any more projects? NO! I don't want to fail graduate school, guys. Keep me in school, please!

I seriously don't know how I was able to work on and complete four weddings in a matter of six months. That's just insanity for you right there.

Be prepared for more wedding goodness...

OLIVIA'S BIRTHDAY INVITE

2010-08-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is my first project in which I had to create a BIRTHDAY invitation, let alone a birthday invitation for a toddler! Tertia, who I had created a few elements for her wedding, requested that I design her daughter Olivia's first birthday party invitations. She wanted me to go with the theme of O-shaped things because of her daughter's name and because the cutie is turning ONE (what a milestone!). I really had to step into an element of overflowing kyootness and gushing smiles.

I used Google Buzz to help me out with some O-shaped ideas, and gleaned some insight from a few friends (actually, just two! hehe). Estera contributed the idea of a sun and moon, and Junia contributed the turtle and and ladybug.

Tertia also wanted me to leave one of the bubbles empty so that she could sew on a button. Darling, right? Since she is all the way in Chicago, I sewed on my own button for the following pictures.

Note: Of course the venue, address, and phone number are fake. Don't want any Internet creepers crashing and hanging around a kid's birthday party...

An email from the mom:

Wanted to just thank you again for Olivia's beautiful invite. I used your design to have a company make a board showing all of her first 10 months of life.

Hope you two and your guests have a wonderful party!

CHEAT SHEET APRONS

2010-08-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, I saw this as a plug on a cooking blog. Thinking it was a totally cool idea, I decided to make one for my good friend's upcoming birthday present.

I'm definitely not a cooking expert so I really had no idea as to what cooking tricks and tips to put on her custom apron; so I just decided to design a handy cute conversion chart.

The blank white apron was purchased at Michael's and the iron-on transfer paper at Staples.

It was my first time using iron-on transfer paper, so naturally, I ended up using/wasting 3 sheets of the expensive paper and then burning a portion of it while transferring. That is why I have no pictures of the actual product, but the following pictures show what it was supposed to look like!

Junia's name is on the chest and the chart is upside down for easy reading while wearing. Practical, right?

Here's a closeup. Junia loves sunflowers.

Maybe I should just start making these as gifts! Replace the name and switch up the flower!

CITRUS INSPIRED TEAPOT

2010-07-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

For Kathy's bachelorette party, a group of her close friends had brunch and then went to a private session at Color Me Mine. I decided to paint a teapot with the design I created for Kathy's invitations so that I could forever remember her wedding whenever I had a pot of tea.

It's nerve wracking to see how your creation will turn out after it's glazed. Colors turn brighter. Rough surfaces become glossy and smooth. And then you start thinking other things too... "Doh, I should have put one more coat of paint over this area," or "Oh so that shade of paint turned into this weird color?" I guess that's the beauty of homemade items... the mistakes and imperfections make it unique.

Overall, Color Me Mine is a fun and therapeutic (only if you're given the whole day to paint) experience, but way beyond my budget to do often. If you're ever in Massachusetts, let's have a Boston Tea Party, yea? Har har...

INFORMING THE PUBLIC

2010-07-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have seen my good share of mistakes commonly made on invitations. My holiday job at tiny*prints really made me anal about these things and they still bother me to this day. So I thought that I could make this post so that hopefully people can be aware and be grammatically correct in the future! :)

1. Ampersands (&) - The use of the ampersand is to note a close relationship between two people. It's appropriate to use to join the names of a couple, but with other relationships, not so much. So far I've worked on two weddings in which the bride's parents are divorced. When this is the case, it is usually better use the actual word "and," opposed to "&."

2. Time - A lot of invitations write out the time rather than going numerical (ex. three o'clock in the afternoon). You should know, though, that five o'clock is the cut off for afternoon--five o'clock in the evening is incorrect. It's only until six where evening begins. For events at 12:00 p.m., you can substitute with a simple "at noon."

3. Year - Now that we're in the 2000s, people get confused as to how to write out the year. "Two thousand ten" is correct, not "two thousand and ten." I'm not sure how we got used to throwing the "and" in there. We didn't say the year 1995 as "nineteen and ninety five," did we?

4. Apostrophes - Okay, this is the one that really bugs me because SO many people use it incorrectly. It also needs the most explaining because I think it boggles people's minds. Apostrophes are meant to show possession. It is not meant to be used to separate the 's' from the rest of the word. Let's take the Chinese last name "Lo" for example. I'm using this last name because I'm good friends with a married couple with the last name Lo, and so I constantly see it being misused by others. Secretly, I'm dying inside.

* More than 1 Lo = The Los (another ex. The Simpsons)... no apostrophe!

* Their residence = The Los' (possessive to both of them)

* In conclusion, using "Lo's" is never correct because it doesn't make sense.

Get it? Hahaha.

5. RSVP - It stands for Répondez s'il vous plaît in French, or in English "Please Reply." Therefore, stating "Please RSVP" is repetitive. You're basically saying "Please Please Reply." Instead, you can say "Kindly RSVP" or just plain 'ol "RSVP."

I hope this mini grammar-etiquette tutorial helped and opened your awareness to the popular pitfalls of invitation writing! It certainly did for me last year!

P.S. The photo above is from two years ago when I visited an art gallery in Denmark (where I studied abroad during college!).

ASSEMBLING PARTIES

2010-06-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

With Kathy's wedding being less than a week away, things have been very hectic, but incredibly exciting!

Last week, we held an "assembling party" with all of the bridesmaids at Kathy's place and labored away like elves on Christmas Eve. For most of us, our day started at 11 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m.. We ended up being extremely productive and completed the escort tags, favors, and half of the programs. There are a lot of beautiful and intricate details in Kathy's paper items so each item took a lot of time and care.

For example, her favors took up most of the time and required the attention of four out of five of the bridesmaids (I was busy getting an arm workout from the paper cutter).

Really cute sour gummy candy from Candy Warehouse.

After dinner, Kathy came over and we worked on the programs (each one is 7 pages long... why did I make it 7 pages? I don't know... never again!) until 3 a.m.. By the way, I have to hate on the Fremont Kinko's. They screwed up cutting the programs (some of the text is cut off and not everything is perfectly centered for a few of the pages ). However, we were way too tired to care. The rest of the evening was a bit therapeutic--hole punching and ribbon tying while watching My Best Friend's Wedding and swooning over actor Dermot Mulroney.

Also, at the assembling party, the maid of honor brought me two of the homemade jam favors from Kathy's bridal shower (that I unfortunately had to miss). I was still able to make my contribution by designing, printing, and punching out these jam labels.

One of the bridesmaid's cousins makes jam and we had strawberry and grapefruit flavors.

Yum! I especially like the grapefruit jam... tangy and bittersweet.

Five more days until the wedding! My first time as a bridesmaid! Yipee!!!

LEONA & JAMES' WEDDING

2010-06-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I attended Leona and James' wedding at the beautiful Montclair Church and Claremont Hotel. Yes, I know I STILL haven't posted pictures from Bethany and Bryan's wedding, but I think I'm going to wait until the nice professional pictures come out and post those instead. At the time, I really didn't feel like lugging a huge SLR camera to Southern California.

I can't believe that two weddings are down, and there are still three more to go! Leona and James continued to have their travel theme run throughout their wedding with world maps draping tables and mailboxes and vintage suitcases at every corner.

Leona's program--with the J+L logo at the top of the page, and the same custom border from the invitations framing the text.

Leona and James were gracious and sweet to include me in the program!

These escort cards greeted guests after the ceremony. I wanted each card to mimic the design of an airmail envelope.

The front side of the card displays the guest's name and a number indicating the table number of where he/she is sitting.

For the back side of the card, I created icons for each meal option--beef, chicken, fish, vegetarian (broccoli), and pizza (for the kids!). These were used as an aid for the Claremont servers. Yum, I love my cow.

The reception programs were displayed in the cocktail room in small suitcases.

I need to learn how to act and feel less awkward taking pictures of my design work. Leona's cousins kept staring as me as I was taking a million pictures of each item. Ha.. Ha.. I wish I didn't have to rush through taking pictures, which is why a lot of the photos I took were blurry. I'm slowly learning!

Congratulations to the Hans and their future together in Rochester, Minnesota!

SALLY & ANDY'S INVITATIONS

2010-06-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Long before I started on Bethany's (my first finished "client") invitations, Sally asked me to design her wedding invitations, so it's wonderful to see them finally come into fruition! Andy and Sally love to sing and play music together, with Sally as the vocalist and Andy as the guitarist, and wanted their wedding to reflect singing songs of worship and praise to our Lord. The main design of the tree and birds is from a quick sketch I made on our church's weekly program during a sermon (I know, shame on me).

The branch was also made into their stamp!

Love birds that represent the bride and groom.

Congratulations to the musically talented couple! We bridesmaids are now in search of *musical* elements for further decorations on the day-of (mainly vintage sheet music). Any suggestions?

In other news, Kathy came over yesterday, we cracked the whip, and are finished designing the table number cards, escort cards, and programs...with four weeks to spare!!!

KATHY & WILL'S INVITATIONS

2010-06-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to make my invitation debut photos more interesting (must. move. away. from. my. desk). So I took a big step and moved my photoshoot session down to the dining table. My backyard also has a lemon tree that is in need of some picking and pruning. I told Kathy that the tree is her's for her wedding if she needed any citrusy touches to her wedding decorations.

This week has been a bit crazy for Kathy's bridesmaids with the dress vendor making a huge mistake on our dresses, and us frantically searching for new ones. We ended up buying dresses from Ann Taylor that JUST went on sale from $185 to $130. Yay! They're cheaper than the first dresses, and dare I say, PRETTIER.

With the vineyard wedding less than a month away, here are the invitations!

This weather is proving that summer is definitely near! I was sweating taking these pictures. I think out of all the invitations I've made so far, I'm most pleased with this set. Kathy gave me all the reins for this one, so I had a lot of control. Plus I only spent a few hours designing, and afterwards, barely any revisions! Don't get me wrong, it's great when the bride and groom make suggestions and revision requests. I definitely learn from them as well. But... a break is great now and then, no?

TERTIA'S SAVE THE DATES

2010-05-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

I think I am done with vacationing for a very long while. I was on a travel buzz these past few months, and I am happy to say I will no longer be MIA. My next and somewhat final (for WT, that is) big "vacation" will be in August as I pack my bags to Massachusetts!

What's been going on? Ever since I got off the fabulous Norwegian Pearl cruise ship, although still feeling a bit of motion sickness, I have dived into all the work I need to complete for this summer. I'm refreshed, and hopefully can keep my whimsical juices running. I think I hit a designer's block last month. I felt creatively exhausted and drained. Something I've learned: it is really difficult to constantly keep creatively inspired.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took on a new client who found me through the blog of newlywed Bethany. Her name is Tertia and she is from Chicago, Illinois. She is a lovely woman and ever since she acquired her Blackberry, we have been sending emails back and forth like fire!

I'm currently working on her daughter's birthday invitations and wedding stamp, but before I left for Alaska, we finished and finalized her Save the Dates.

Tertia's new last name will be "Minter" and she thought of a creative phrase: "Mint to Be," which will ring as a theme in her wedding paper items.

Throughout high school and college, there were only a few things that I would doodle in my notes while in class. These include: flowers, crosses, and RIBBONS. I love drawing ribbons, and coincidentally, Tertia wanted flowy curvy text on her Save the Date. So yes, I had lots of fun with this!

One thing I really did wish I get to attend while I was in Alaska was Kathy's bridal shower! She is a big Pride and Prejudice fanatic, and her shower was themed as an English Tea Party. However, I'm still glad I was able to contribute. Before I left, I created tiny labels for her homemade jam favors and place cards for her food items.

Still sad I wasn't there for the actual event. Does anyone have pictures? Do share!

COMING UP: Kathy's invitations, Sally's invitations

MMM... JUICY

2010-05-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

These days, I live and breathe wedding invitations. A few months ago, a lady from Chicago contacted me and asked me to design her wedding invitations and daughter's birthday invitations. Her kind words made it easy to accept the offer, and this past week I've been working on her Save the Dates.

Today, Sally, her fiancee Andy, and I got together and made the final design decisions to their invitations. Andy is the most meticulous groom I've met yet--our spending half an hour trying to get the right shade and tint of purple proves it!

On to what this post is really about... Yesterday, Kathy came over at 12:30 pm to work on her invitations, and she left at 7:30 pm. Talk about labor intensive! On Sunday, we printed and cut all of her invitations.

Side note about Kinko's
IT. IS. WORTH. THE. MONEY.
I highly recommend getting paper goods cut at Kinko's because not only is the cutting precise, it's really affordable. Kathy, her fiancee Will, and I stopped by the Kinko's on Shattuck in Berkeley (oh boo, why do they only have 2 stars?), and while we were expecting a $30 charge for cutting the invitations (it required 10 cuts total), the employee (who was really friendly and goofy) gave us a random discount and it came out to be $17! The Chinese inside of me was a-screamin' with joy!

So yesterday was 7 hours of punching, cutting, folding, taping, and gluing.

Here's our little work station. I later realized that we were surrounded by orange. Even in the unintentional things like the paper cutter and glue sticks.

This punch is by Fiskars, the king of all cutting items. It's a 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch scalloped square, and it was really easy to use. Every punch was addictive.

I think we had too much fun.

Here's Kathy using our secret weapon--double sided tape. We didn't want to bother with wet messy Elmer's glue. She discovered that using double sided tape made assembling extremely quick and neat.

Another vital component to these invitations was ribbon. Beautiful, or what we kept referring to them as--luxurious, ribbon! Kathy bought about 10 rolls at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts.

Ahh! Can't reveal too much, but these invitations rock my socks, and are so so so pretty.

A summary of our labor
1. Print invitations onto cardstock paper
2. Cut invitations (Thank you Kinko's!)
3. Cut papaya matte squares
4. Cut pocketfold envelopes
5. Score and fold pocketfolds (I tried a new method! Running an unclicked ballpoint pen down a ruler)
6. Punch matte scalloped squares
7. Punch main scalloped squares
8. Tape invite to matte square
9. Tape invite&matte square to pocketfold
10. Tape scalloped square to matte scalloped square
11. Cut ribbon to measured length
12. Wrap ribbon around pocketfold and attach scalloped paper with hot glue
13. Get rid of stringy hot glue

Yes, it's been a glorious week.

LEONA & JAMES INVITES

2010-04-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a BEAUTIFUL wedding in Temecula, California for Bethany & Bryan's wedding. Though I have a ton of goodies (in the form of digital pictures) to showcase, I'm going to wait it out a bit and make a monstrous post in the near future.

On a different note, Leona and James passed out their invitations! James traveled a considerable amount during their dating period, and so he would always send postcards and write letters to his dear Leo. They wanted to express their bonds of communication through their wedding, and thus came about the inspiration for a customized TELEGRAM to serve as an invitation.

Here's the set after opening.

Leona found these beautiful gold envelopes online. They were perfect palettes to the printed ornate labels.

Aren't these belly bands gorgeous? Leona cut them from thin Japanese-styled paper--they held together the invitation and map.

The invitations were requested to be clean, elegant, yet with a touch of grunge. I raised my eyebrow at this odd combination, closed my eyes, and tried to pull it off.

A snippet from 1 Corinthians 13:7.

Another look at the embossed logo. Yowza.

I had a lot of fun making this map. I really had to think about how to efficiently show a connection between the ceremony and reception sites.

It's time to crack the whip and start working on my 1-2-3-4...4! upcoming weddings. ...That, and get ready for a big move to the East Coast, a family reunion cruise to Alaska, as well as study for microeconomics.

TWO MORE DAYS

2010-04-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

I can't take the anticipation! I am beyond excited to attend Bethany and Bryan's wedding ceremony. Bethany is not only the first among my age-group of good friends to become a Misses, but I also get to see the fruits of my labor. It seems like just yesterday when Bethany asked me to do her wedding invitations. Back in January, the ordeal seemed daunting, but I'm glad I decided to take on the challenge, and can't believe how much I've grown since then. My "industry" had a mini explosion and I began to grow in assignments, established this blog, and made my thumb somewhat iconic.

Here's the list of items that we ended up completing:
1. Invitations
2. Map & Directions Cards
3. Envelopes
4. Rubber Stamp
5. Website
6. Thank You Cards
7. Escort Cards
8. Table Cards
9. Dessert Cards
10. Menus
11. Programs
12. Adult Favor Tags
13. Kid Favor Tags
14. Photobooth decal & strip artwork (Courtesy of Oh Snap!)

I'm thankful for being a part of Bethany's wedding (plus, it was a lot of fun)--it really gave me a taste of how much planning and paper go into a wedding.

It'll be a fabulous weekend. I'm even squeezing in a trip to Disneyland. Wahoo!

JAPANESE CARS

2010-04-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

A project I had a few months ago was designing a Moleskine cover (via Engrave Your Book) for my former college floormate Kinndy. The cover is meant to be a gift for her boyfriend for their three year anniversary. THREE YEARS, wow! Nate and I will be hitting that mark in June.

So yes, she's not the car fanatic. And... neither am I! When Kinndy told me that I would be drawing cars I was a bit intimidated. Thankfully, I already practiced on Bethany's invitations by drawing Bryan's Bethany-bus (geez that's a lot of Bs in one sentence--story of my life in February).

Well, here it is! Kinndy's boyfriend recently bought an old Fairlady Z and is currently restoring it into good condition, and so she wanted it to be the inspiration to his gift.

The cover has a front and back view of the Fairlady Z. The print-like background was actually Nate's suggestion! I just made it come to life.

The stamp at the bottom of the page is a customized symbol that I'm sure has significance (I only get instructions, and not necessarily the explanation).

Yes. Men like to name their cars with girl names.

An update from me: I am finally back from an intense few weeks of travel. It started off in Irvine to Philadelphia to NYC to Washington DC to Boston. I think I've had enough of pretzels and ginger ale.

But... I'm traveling AGAIN next week back to Southern California (rooooad trip!) for Bethany and Bryan's wedding!!!

MY JULY BRIDES

2010-04-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Amidst all of the brides getting married in 2010, two are especially dear to my heart! Yes, it will be a hectic next few months because I will be a bridesmaid for DOS with both weddings in the month of July.

JULY 3 : Kathy & Will

Kathy and I have known each other a little short of ten years. The first time we met, we automatically hit it off and became inseparable. We saw each other every Sunday at church and spent much of our time swooning over and imagining our future weddings, or getting excited/complaining about our "love lives." Thankfully, though, the Lord has grown us both exponentially! Kathy has always been like a little sister to me, and it's crazy that she's getting married! I am thrilled to be involved in her wedding planning and ceremony.

A bad habit/tradition of ours was passing notes during retreat conference sermons. I found this sweet snippet from a retreat in 2003.

Might I add, she has a beautiful thumb and one heck of a rock!

This was a few days after the start of our friendship. We look like babies!

JULY 31 : Sally & Andy

I met Sally on my first day in college. I always like to tease her about my first impressions of her, but she has grown to be such a joy and encouragement in my life. When I look upon some of my best times at Berkeley, I often think of Sally. We have shared so many heartfelt talks and laughs, and I am honored to be a part of her wedding. She is also one of my biggest fans--being so confident in my work and abilities since the very beginning (years before I started Whimsical Thumb). Thanks for believing in me, Sal!

Sally and me on my 20th birthday.

A trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium when a group of us went camping in Big Sur. Can you believe it? Three more months!

BUSINESS CARD TRIAL

2010-03-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Today I fancied the idea of creating business cards to carry on me just in case I so happen to run into anyone important or needing my services. ...And maybe because I was pretty bored.

Too simple? This is one of those times I wish I had the luxury of a letterpresser. Letterpress makes paper look 1000x better, even when design is lacking.

I recently bought a Fiskars Paper Trimmer and a bunch of other rotary blades to go along with it.

Fun with my scallop blade.

This is the second time I've cut myself since buying this paper cutter. Both cuts were from the same blade (the top one is from last week) and both by trying to change the blade.

Yes, I am practicing my paper cutting skills. Part of the reason why I'm so bad at it would have to be that I can be a major klutz sometimes. I don't get along with blades... The stab wound on my left thigh can account for that. Not to mention the time I cut off a part of my pinky finger with a pair of scissors. And the time I sliced open my thumb in the woodshop during college. Hah... Hah.

WARNING: TONER LOW

2010-03-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

Two paper cutters and a low ink cartridge later... Leona's wedding invitations are cut and embossed! She is one tough cookie--she refused to succumb to Kinko's $3/cut, and declared that she wanted to be hands-on with her invitation assembling process. And thus, as I fed her stacks of papers, her hand remained firmly on the handle of the cutter. I give her major props. We started at around 6 p.m., I left at around 8 p.m., and she finished at 10 p.m.! Not bad, huh?

After setting up my laptop to be connected to this behemoth of a printer, we were excited to load in her cardstock paper.

Yes, this warning sign made us nervous. Originally, Leona's invitation had a lot of gray, and without color toner, the gray appeared pixelated and faded. We then decided to change most of the gray to black, and everything appeared crisp! Whew. It's all about the loopholes.

Laser printers are amazing--they are so fast! When they came out, the paper was piping hot, and therefore became curled. We originally thought that we would have to put heavy Christian commentaries on top of the stacks to flatten them out, but they uncurled on their own as they cooled down.

The slicer and dicer at work. This, my friends, is what I call dedication.

Our friend Henry even decided to join in on the fun. Don't let those big man hands fool you! I was skeptical about Henry's cutting skills. Personally, I am a REALLY bad paper cutter (I am definitely turning to Kinko's when it's my turn). However, Henry is GREAT. He has excellent precision and speed. And ladies, he's single!

I designed Leona and James' monogram stamp and she got it turned into an embosser at Berkeley Stamp. It is quite a monster of a tool, and definitely toned out my right arm.

How it works: Place the paper in-between the clamp and press down on the arm. This is where it got tricky. If it was too light, the stamp would barely show up on the paper. If it was too heavy, the paper would slightly crease on the edge. You really had to find that sweet medium, which was difficult. Another issue was that it wasn't easy to gauge where the stamp would appear on the paper. Solution: practice, practice, practice! Measure, measure, measure!

Totally worth it, right?

After a couple hours came signs of doubt and frustration.

And then came thoughts of insanity and destruction.

Thankfully, phase one is done. Now we can all take a break while I go off to play in Southern California and the East Coast!

CRICKETS ARE CHIRPING

2010-03-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

Things have been a little dead lately... How am I ever going to keep this blog up when I go back to school? Actually, maybe it was just today. I found myself indulging in episodes of "Desperate Housewives" and constantly checking my Google Reader for subscription updates.

To catch you up... I recently completed my first official (money makes things more official) assignment. My college floormate stumbled upon my blog, contacted me, and together, we collaborated back and forth, and ultimately I came up with a design for her own Engrave Your Book cover! I'm excited to see how it will turn out on leather, and hopefully that will be displayed here shortly.

What are some upcoming projects?
- Leona's envelope and invitation printing will begin as soon as next week!
- My good friend and college roommate of two years, Cassandra, asked me to design Kollaboration SF Tshirts. She's heavily involved in the event, which is coming up on April 10th.
- Kathy went to look at venues this past weekend, so hopefully I can start drawing up a delicious map (yes, her invitation theme is sweet and delicious).
- I'm also counting down the days until Bethany's RSVP date is up so that we can start working on escort cards and table signs. Unfortunately, these can't be revealed until after the actual wedding.

By the way, how are you accessing this site? Because *drum roll* I purchased whimsicalthumb.com today! My mother was the one who called me up from her work today and pushed me to buy it. I questioned her why the heck she was being distracted by this at work and told her to let me think about it, but she insisted I do it immediately in case someone else steals the domain name. Honestly, who else has whimsical thumbs? Well, as you can see, I gave in to her spontaneity.

I now also have a personal email address for this site, which you can see in the menu bar (to the right).

B&B RELEASE PART 2

2010-02-25T15:43:00.000-08:00

A little sad that this is the conclusion of the b&b invitations. But let's not forget that there are so many more paper elements in a wedding (remember my long list a couple posts ago?), so my work definitely does not end here.

When Bethany first told me about the theme of her wedding ("the best things in life start with b"), I could not stop thinking about b words! Even the bad ones :X. I was genuinely excited and went through a few initial ideas, but those were scrapped. Note to self: Bethany does not like bees, bubbles, or balloons. Eventually, what really got the final design into momentum was sitting down together on a Sunday afternoon and drawing and laying things out on a piece of paper towel. It was a little weird constantly grabbing and referencing to that paper towel while designing.

A lot of the time spent on these invitations was just doodling on my Wacom tablet and creating 31 icons of things that start with the letter "b." Sometimes I would mess up, or a straight line wouldn't look straight at all, but I decided to leave it, not because I was tired or lazy (okay, maybe sometimes!), but because I think it added to the quirky feel that Bethany was going for. Among some of my favorite icons are... blackberry, backpack, bicycle, and bethany-bus (Bryan's Subaru WRX).

Here's the complete set.
Left to right, top to bottom: Invitation interior, invitation back, invitation front, envelope, map&directions card.

Okay, I admit... I am smitten with the map... It's my favorite part of the invitation.
I should go into cartography.

The long list of words that start with b (notice the one line of Korean words).

Here's to the beautiful batch of b&b invites. Bye!

B&B RELEASE PART 1

2010-02-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

I can finally post! The first batch of Bethany and Bryan's invitations were handed out last Sunday after church service, and the couple mailed the rest of the invitations yesterday. In the next few days I'll complete part one with part two with a more formal debut of the invitations.

For now, here is a photo documentation of our short and sweet invitation compiling.

Freshly cut and unfolded invitation interiors before they were butchered by ATM cards.

Map inserts ready to be coupled.

Bryan, the groom. Now do you understand the rivalry I was referring to?

The front displays six of the thirty-one icons that I created for wedding paper usage.

This King and Queen postage coincidentally matched well with the sage green envelopes.

Bethany busily sorting envelopes and me on my laptop doing who knows what.

Stamping in action! I love the sound that the rubber stamp makes when it hits paper.

Each envelope was sealed with a custom stamp in purple ink that I designed for the couple (great for future use!). Bethany got the rubber stamp done at Berkeley Stamp--just email the company with the stamp size you want to purchase and an image of the custom graphic in actual size at 500 dpi black. It was ready for pick-up in less than two days!

Make sure that your hands are squeaky clean before handling the invitations and envelopes. I used my travel size Purell bottle. You don't want oil and dirt spots on your invitations! We also used wet strips of paper towels to seal each envelope.

Ready to be handed out and mailed!
Folding, sealing, stamping, and sorting took less than two hours with three people!

Their wedding website is also up and running! I created mock-ups of the introductory splash page and actual website, but our mutual friend Richard did all the coding and made everything come to life!

B&B TEASER

2010-02-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Because these invitations haven't been handed out yet, this is just a teaser of what is to come.

I paid a visit to my first bride and groom, Bethany and Bryan, yesterday afternoon. They had just come back from the city to take care of some of their pre-marriage errands, and were ready to check off invitations from their to-do list. They had some printing issues the night before and ended up getting a lot of assistance from Kinko's, but thankfully, it was relatively cheap--for 250 pages of cardstock at a time, each cut came to $1.50. Bethany's invitations are 2 per 8.5x11" sheet and her map&directions cards are 4 per 8.5x11" sheet, thus she only needed three cuts totaling about $5.00 plus tax!

Folding creases was a different issue. Kinko's said that to crease cardstock, you need a "bomb folder machine," which apparently they didn't have (otherwise it would have been 3 cents per fold).

So to make this post more interesting... here is DIY Folding 101. I was nervous to start, seeing Bethany's fiance Bryan struggle and throw one invitation after another into the "crap pile." However, I caught on relatively quickly! My first crease was perfection, and this led to a bit of a rivalry between Bryan and me.

How to Nicely Fold Cardstock:

First, bring the corners together so that they are perfectly aligned.
And look--whimsical thumbs in the flesh!

Use a hard edge to fold the paper. In my case, I used my ATM card.
From the aligned corner, lightly bring the hard edge to the opposite corner and slowly apply pressure to the fold (right to left, the entire movement should be a "L" shape) so that it is creased about 70%.

Finally, apply a heavy amount of pressure along the crease with the hard edge.

A beautiful fold without tears and wrinkles!

Invitations will be passed out soon!!

LOVE AND LEATHER

2010-02-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Nate and I had an impromptu movie date in which we watched the new release Valentine's Day, that had every celebrity and their moms in it. It was definitely a very cute movie--pretty secular relationships, but what can you expect? I was especially heartwarmed by the storyline behind Julia Roberts and Kathy Bates. Sadly, Taylor Swift partially ruined the movie for me...the girl can sing, but definitely cannot act. I rate it better than Love Actually (I never liked Love Actually, actually). Afterwards, we had a fancy seafood dinner and called it a night.

Nate's Valentine's Day gift to me was two tickets to see "Fiddler on the Roof" in San Francisco this coming Tuesday night!

My gift to him was an engraved cover with a moleskine blank-paged notebook. I noticed that during Sunday service sermons, he's always taking notes on our church's weekly printed programs, so I thought that this would be a very practical gift for him. I purchased the item at Engrave Your Book, and let me tell you, this company is absolutely wonderful at what they do. The covers come out gorgeous--which led me to buy one for myself! They also smell SO GOOD (mm... cow). You can order a pre-designed cover, or submit your own design for the engraving. Of course, in my case, I went with the latter.

As for the design, there's a special place in Nate's heart that is infatuated with guns, hunting, and wildlife. He completely admires the design. :)

What did you get your Valentine?

PEANUT BUTTER + JELLY

2010-02-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

I subscribed to Etsy a few weeks ago and have been admiring all its users' handmade items.

Recently, this item caught my eye... and I was in love. I wanted to buy it for myself, but saw that not only was it sold out, but $20.00, and that's not including shipping! I thought to myself... hey, maybe I'll just make my own.

I told my boyfriend about my fabulous idea and explained to him that I would be "jelly" and he would be "peanut butter," and we'd have ourselves a new set of keychains! Of course, he thought my enthusiasm was adorable and agreed to sacrifice a bit more bulkiness to his growing collection of keys.

Last night, I decided to take out my polymer clay, cutting board, trace paper, and xacto knife. There was a lot of kneading, rolling (I had to actually use the kitchen's rolling pin), and cutting. It was constant mess-ups, which resulted in me starting over three times. Midway I thought to myself, "I should have just bought the actual product." Truthfully, I thought the keychain looked like crap. HAHA.

It turned out somewhat okay. The one on sale at Etsy is definitely 3x better. But oh well, it's made with love!

And I decided to stamp our names on the back!

Wait until you see Nate's actual Valentine's Day present. Update later!

ENVELOPES 101

2010-02-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

Saw this on harmonie intérieure, a home interior design company, and totally agree with its "philosophy."

Especially #3 and #5!

Bethany printed the first huge batch of her envelopes last night! Exciting, isn't it? I volunteered to help her enter in 100+ addresses from a Google doc to Adobe InDesign and noticed only one typo! A missing "n" in "Vincent." Fortunately, Vincent was near the end of the list so she hadn't gotten to printing it yet. Whew!

Most people don't self-print their envelopes, but if you're on a tight budget, it's definitely the way to go. Bethany expressed that she did NOT want to print out address labels and stick them on her envelopes (they can look quite tacky), and we unfortunately do not have the privilege of knowing any naturally talented calligraphers among our friends.

So how do you do it? It was definitely a trial and error process and quite an emotional roller coaster ride. Bethany was the coaster, I was the rider.

We diligently researched anything and everything about envelopes and their printing services. From working at tiny*prints, I knew that they printed envelopes that were included in their new Mailing Service Order option (so it is possible!). However, after suggesting Bethany to use tiny*print's live chat, we were informed that the MSO option was only available as an addition to people who ordered cards, and the employees did not know of any places that only printed envelopes. Lame! Educate yourselves if you're in the business. I admit, I have a love-hate relationship with that company.

By the way, I'm not talking about printing standard envelopes aka yucky business envelopes, but heavy-paper squareish colored envelopes (for special occasions).

After some more googling and yelping, there in fact are companies that print only envelopes, such as Autumn Press and Mercurio Brothers, both located in our very own Berzerk-eley. Sadly, these companies charge a crapload of money! Autumn Press goes at $1/envelope (excluding the price of the envelope)!!

And thus began our DIY envelope printing process. It came out to be a success!

Here are a few tips:

1. Figure out the exact size and name of the envelopes you are using. We used A2 envelopes, which were 4 3/8 x 5 3/4".

2. Create a template for these envelopes, and after creating all the envelopes, turn it into a PDF file. Creating and editing this file can be done various ways (ex. Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign). Because I dished out a ton of bank for an Adobe Creative Suite, I went ahead with Adobe InDesign. :) And besides, Adobe rocks my socks.

3. Use a top-feed printer. Bethany used her fiance's Canon PIXMA 460 printer. You can't tell from the picture, but it is a top feed.

4. Test on regular paper before you hit the envelopes! This is crucial because it'll help you tweak the printing settings to make sure the envelopes print at the correct size.

5. Be mentally and emotionally ready to sacrifice a few of the actual envelopes for more test printing. This is when I had a taste of the roller coaster... The first few envelopes Bethany printed came out all smudged in one corner. What were the emotions? Defeat, disappointment, anguish... Fortunately, she tweaked some of the printer settings, and they later came out perfect! A glimmer of hope goes a long way! :)

6. Which brings me to my disclaimer point... every top-feed printer and computer is different. Be patient to play around with settings (google.com is an excellent tool) so that your envelopes turn out to be just as good as the professionals'!

Expect your invitations soon!

DIVING RIGHT IN

2010-02-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Going into depth of what kind of projects I'll be working on in these next few months... Three of my good friends from college all got engaged within half a year (two on the same day!!), and asked me to help with their wedding "stationary." Three lovely girls... three wedding days... a LOT of paper.

Honestly, I didn't realize how much design and paper items went into a themed wedding, especially if the wedding wants to reflect personal touches of both the bride and groom. And what young modern couple doesn't want that!?

The first wedding that is coming up is expected to be in late April, giving planning roughly three and a half months. Yikes! Thankfully, she is a sweet and thoughtful type A. She responds to my emails within minutes and is full of ideas, opinions, and resources. I am completely immersed in the planning and preparation of her wedding. Sometimes it's all I can think about and I spend my time brainstorming, AdobeIllustrating, and tweaking. My boyfriend officially refers it to "bethanizing" (her name is Bethany).

"Hi, dear. Are you bethanizing?"
"Yes."
[doesn't respond for hours]

Poor boyfriend. :(

These are the items that require paper&design:
1. Invitations - check
2. Venue map and directions cards - check
3. Personalized envelopes - check
4. Thank you cards - check
5. Website - in progress
6. Rehearsal dinner invitations
7. Programs
8. Seating chart
9. Seating place cards
10. Favor tags

I'm sure more details will come up... The list always has potential for growth!

When items are actually publicly released, I will post with photos.

P.S. One of my closest friends got engaged this morning! Will post a bit on that later...

THE STORY BEHIND THE NAME

2010-02-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

With an overflow of new projects, I thought it would be appropriate that I start documenting via blog-style. Ever since my seasonal job at tiny*prints ended, my relationship with paper hasn't . In fact, it has actually become quite an ambush, as if the paper industry is purposely trying to haunt me. Of course, I enjoy it. I'm currently in an awkward stage of limbo, and thus freaking bored with my life. I graduated from college last May and am now waiting upon graduate school admissions this coming March (no, I am not pursuing graphic design).

Anyway, many more posts to come about my current shindigs!

Why thumbs? Because they're the most important appendage of the hand, duh. Without thumbs, we wouldn't be able to hold a pencil, grab an apple, turn a doorknob...you get the idea. Thumbs allow us to properly function, and just make life so much easier. We really take thumbs for granted!

Oddly enough, God endowed me with clubbed thumbs (scientific term: brachydactyly). Meaning... they're short. and wide. and a bit chubby. Throughout my life, I've always gotten crap about my thumbs. I've heard it all...from toe thumbs to stubby thumbs. The most creative name of all came from my 7th grade keyboarding class: gnome thumbs. I never really considered my thumbs to be beautiful (I still don't), but they're unique and I've decided that I should embrace them.

Palmists believe that clubbed thumbs show an inclination to the arts and a wild and hot-tempered spirit. Interesting, yes? Meh, palmists are full of crap anyway.

So here it is: Whimsical Thumb. Let the designing begin!