Not blue, not brown.

I have some new Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation designs in the works for later on this year and have been really thinking about different color combinations for the boys.  I was thinking back to all the Bar Mitzvah invitations I have done recently and with a few exceptions, they all seem to have navy or brown in them, including my own son's invitation.  So I can't help thinking, what can we do to spice that up a little and get more creative.  Here are a few that I have done that do not have navy or brown.

Red, black and gold

Gray and silver

Black and gold

Here are a few more color combinations I am working on for the new designs.  Do you think they work for a boy?

This one is teal and gray.

This one is dark red and orange.

How else would you think outside the box for colors for a boy?

Blue is for girls too!

We are seeing a lot of blue used in girls Bat Mitzvah invitations.  There are plenty of interesting colors that can can be combined with blue.  One of the most popular is blue and brown, like these from Robin Beth.  

And multiple color combinations is always a fabulous look, like these save the dates from Evy Jacob.

Have fun  and get creative with blue for girls.

Pink is the new Pink

I design a lot of Bat Mitzvah invitations and while there are some that go for some non-traditional color combinations, a large number of the designs I create are PINK!  Face it, girly girls and their girly moms love pink.  But as you can see here, there are many ways of interpreting pink.  So if your girly girl wants pink, you can say, "Pink is the new Pink!"

 

You are your own worst customer?

For me, this was especially true. Last November, my oldest son became a Bar Mitzvah. As a stationery designer, I was continually getting comments from friends, relatives and customers, such as, "Oh, I can't wait to see what you do for your own son's invitations." Boy did that put the pressure on. For about a year, I had a design in mind that was a square invite and included several layers of metallic cardstocks and metallic hand marbled papers. Maybe I was looking at it too much or maybe I just realized that it didn't fit with the style of the event we were planning, but about six months before, I completely changed everything. The size, the shape, the papers, everything. I have worked before with this wonderful handmade papermaker and when I saw the "recycled" paper that he makes, it was instant love. It is made of cotton rag and recycled bits of catalogs. It could serve as a fabulous decorative paper as well as a fabulous letterpress paper. And it really went a long way to emphasize how important it is to us as a family that we think about the evironmental impact of everything we do. I was sold.




So here is what I ended up doing. Square layers on top of rectangular layers with a pocket on the back that held a forever cascading set of extra enclosures. Surrounding the text of the invite, was a quote in both English and Hebrew. One that graces the Bimah in our synagogue and really captured how we felt on this occasion. Because we had two separate parties, a afternoon luncheon for family and adults, and a kids party for my son's friends at night, there were many enclosures in the back pocket. So in all, besides the five layer invite, there were two reception cards, two hand drawn maps, and two different response cards. Plus, I custom die cut the envelopes out of the "recycled" paper with a layered return address card attached.

And there were Thank you notes. And the letterpress journals that we handed out with a cityscape design on them to coordinate with the sweatshirts and sign in board for the Skyscraper exhibit at the Liberty Science Center where we had the kids' party.

All in all, it was a huge amount of work, but I wouldn't have changed a thing. Did I go overboard? Maybe. But it was a true labor of love.

Oh Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah!

When planning a Bar or Bat Mitzvah that is close to the holidays, it is difficult not to get caught up in the festive holiday season. While I am sure that you do not want to use blow up foam core dreidels as centerpieces, you can infuse the feeling of the holiday season into your event in small, but fun and elegant ways. And that first impression always starts with the invitation. Using an elegant blue and silver color scheme is a great way to thread the festival of lights into your celebration. The Capri Suite by Robin Beth, shown below, is a square invite wrapped in ribbon that comes in several color ways including a fabulous blue and silver combination.  

What could be more dashing than the Bar Mitzvah himself clad in a blue and silver handmade tie from this Etsy shop.



Add to that a touch of the festival of lights with fabulous menorah centerpieces at the table. From Velocity online.