::Celebrate LOVE::  Here is a little preview of a design we did for Zachary and Kenna’s wedding Invitation. We chose a silver spot print in one color to minimize costs but not beauty. This double sided invitation contains all the details on the back of this initial greeting… “Celebrate Love”, which, is really what weddings are all about. 

::Celebrate LOVE:: 

Here is a little preview of a design we did for Zachary and Kenna’s wedding Invitation. We chose a silver spot print in one color to minimize costs but not beauty. This double sided invitation contains all the details on the back of this initial greeting… “Celebrate Love”, which, is really what weddings are all about. 

OBSESSIONS:: Japanese Office Supplies

It all started with a pen… a simple, silly obsession with a wooden japanese, extremely thin ball point pen. You can get them at Jet Pens. The obsession has grown and now I find myself up late at night scouring the internet for neat little Asian office supplies. Washi tape, staplers, elephant shaped paperclips and tape dispensers. Perhaps it started with Hello Kitty and all those irresistible tiny collectables? Anyways… just thought I would share my most favorite pen in the whole world with you. xo-alli

PLAYING DRESS UP - PAPER STYLE

Last Monday Katie and I went over to our favorite Laguna Beach store Macalistaire 1850, Home to beautiful vintage clothing and home goods, to take  take photos of our stationery. We like to go there and make our paper feel special - play dress up with cards and envelopes and make them all pretty. The store is full of inspiration and beautiful, colorful finds. I love their collection of books, linnens, vintage jewelry, handbags, and sweaters! Thanks to Leslie Christen and Jim Olarte for sharing your great taste, always making us feel comfortable… adding fuel to our creative fire and inspiring us with your style know how!

If you’re reading this and have never been over to the store, go now!

- Alli

PERSONAL NOTE… one of these days I need to make some of these for myself!  BUSINESS NOTE… these are an Allison Kate design, we used bamboo paper for the card, 4x5 size, opens vertical. Envelope is custom printed on kraft paper. Design element and paper via our faves at Envelopments. See our full line of cards and invitations at www.allison-kate.com - Alli

PERSONAL NOTE… one of these days I need to make some of these for myself! 

BUSINESS NOTE… these are an Allison Kate design, we used bamboo paper for the card, 4x5 size, opens vertical. Envelope is custom printed on kraft paper. Design element and paper via our faves at Envelopments. See our full line of cards and invitations at www.allison-kate.com

- Alli

LETTERPRESS LOVE

At Allison Kate Stationery we specialize in custom designed invitations and stationery, but last year at the National Stationery Show we were charmed and impressed by the designers at Dauphine Letterpress and their detailed, quality letterpress invitations. We decided to add their work to our list of offerings. There is so much beauty out there in the paper world… we just love sharing it with you! 

If you or someone you know is getting married or celebrating an occasion in style, we would love to be your stationers, thank you for keeping us in mind! - Alli & Katie

::DESIGN INSPIRATION:: Still not sure how I felt about the movie, but I LOVE the poster design for Somewhere.  xo - Alli

::DESIGN INSPIRATION::

Still not sure how I felt about the movie, but I LOVE the poster design for Somewhere. 

xo - Alli

We’ve been busy little bees putting together all sorts of holiday cards… working with your best friend is a lot of fun. Katie… I will be Ethel! xo- Alli

We’ve been busy little bees putting together all sorts of holiday cards… working with your best friend is a lot of fun. Katie… I will be Ethel! xo- Alli

COLOR : PATTERN : COLLLAGE

Looking for some inspiration for today… I stumbled up on inprint and pulled some pieces that caught my eye. Art featured is from Jan Avendano, Simon C Page, and Oliver Weigner. Inprint sells prints of all these works and much more. It’s so nice to have a tangible product associated with online inspiration. I am all about filling our lives, walls and mailboxes with beauty. 

MODERN HOLIDAY

The holidays are coming up, and we are starting to create some new designs for the season! I have yet to do something for my own family cards this year but thought I would show off what we did last year. We had so many great images from Grin Photography (who is seriously a miracle worker!) that we decided to do a double sided accordion fold 4x6 card and maximized the amount of images we sent with 4 on the back of the kids and 3 on the other side of our whole family. Our family loved it, and I think the holiday season is the perfect time of year to send out updated photos and keepsakes for friends and family. One of the best things about this accordion set is that we printed it on archival textured paper, so that our friends and family could cut photos out and frame them! We simply wrapped the accordion fold card with our greeting so that the photos could be displayed with or without our greeting and could stay in their original state, without too many graphics or type on them. I am looking forward to working with all our favorite families this year as the holidays approach. It’s never too early to start designing, in fact.. please start early and call us today!! xo- Alli

A WORK IN PROCESS Our website has a link to our blog that says “everyday inspiration”, we should re-title it “sporadic inspiration”. We really are just a work in process though…I do mean “process”. Soon enough in this process of business/design/print/love life we will get up to speed with blogging and inspiring too! xo - Alli

A WORK IN PROCESS

Our website has a link to our blog that says “everyday inspiration”, we should re-title it “sporadic inspiration”. We really are just a work in process though…I do mean “process”. Soon enough in this process of business/design/print/love life we will get up to speed with blogging and inspiring too! xo - Alli

ABOUT We recently updated our website and the main improvement was our ABOUT page, while updating that page I thought it would be good to put a little bit on our blog “about us”. ALLISON KATE is Allison… better known by friends as Alli. I am the main designer for Allison-Kate Stationery and set the tone for our overall look and feel. I’ve read and done my strengths finder book (which you all should do) and was shocked to find that my number one strength was “individualization”… I thought to myself, “what the heck does that mean?!” I was proud to find out that this strength is what actually sets me apart from other designers and has projected me into the field of individualized/custom stationery creation. In a few words, individualization means I can capture your style, look, design sense and taste in as little as an initial meeting. I pride myself on creating one of a kind creations for people who trust me enough to allow me to do so. Kate… better known by friends as Katie. Is the bones of the company. She handles all of our customer and vendor relations, sales, marketing and just about everything else under the sun. She has a resourcefulness that is unmatched by anyone I know. She is a stickler for deadlines, accuracy and quality of the products we create and cary. Katie is also an amazing… amazing, actually beyond amazing friend! Here is a little bit more about us and the lovely company we have created together: We are a company interested in the value of relationships. We use paper and design to magnify and commemorate the events and moments that honor these once in a lifetime relationships. We look at a wedding invitation and see the Beginning of the husband-wife journey; a first impression to the people who will support your commitment. A baby announcement to us is a declaration of new life. Holiday cards simply keep us connected. Creating, enjoying, designing, celebrating, planning, and inviting… what matters most is that we have someone to share it with! We hope to share something very special with you, and together create something spectacular! XO - Alli

ABOUT

We recently updated our website and the main improvement was our ABOUT page, while updating that page I thought it would be good to put a little bit on our blog “about us”.

ALLISON KATE is

Allison… better known by friends as Alli. I am the main designer for Allison-Kate Stationery and set the tone for our overall look and feel. I’ve read and done my strengths finder book (which you all should do) and was shocked to find that my number one strength was “individualization”… I thought to myself, “what the heck does that mean?!” I was proud to find out that this strength is what actually sets me apart from other designers and has projected me into the field of individualized/custom stationery creation. In a few words, individualization means I can capture your style, look, design sense and taste in as little as an initial meeting. I pride myself on creating one of a kind creations for people who trust me enough to allow me to do so.

Kate… better known by friends as Katie. Is the bones of the company. She handles all of our customer and vendor relations, sales, marketing and just about everything else under the sun. She has a resourcefulness that is unmatched by anyone I know. She is a stickler for deadlines, accuracy and quality of the products we create and cary. Katie is also an amazing… amazing, actually beyond amazing friend!

Here is a little bit more about us and the lovely company we have created together:

We are a company interested in the value of relationships. We use paper and design to magnify and commemorate the events and moments that honor these once in a lifetime relationships. We look at a wedding invitation and see the Beginning of the husband-wife journey; a first impression to the people who will support your commitment. A baby announcement to us is a declaration of new life. Holiday cards simply keep us connected. Creating, enjoying, designing, celebrating, planning, and inviting… what matters most is that we have someone to share it with!

We hope to share something very special with you, and together create something spectacular!

XO - Alli

SUMMER PARTIES Tropical themed summer party invitations, custom made for a client that was having back to back parties and wanted the same theme, but different color ways for each event. Aqua and Lime papers in mixed textures and patterns were sophisticated and fun. Thank you to the wonderful designers and paper aficionados at Envelopments our vendor for the beautiful & substantial papers, patterns and arwork. We loved the opportunity to work with Fleur de Lis events… Adina and her team (that I LOVE) design such lovely parties and these were no exception!

SUMMER PARTIES

Tropical themed summer party invitations, custom made for a client that was having back to back parties and wanted the same theme, but different color ways for each event. Aqua and Lime papers in mixed textures and patterns were sophisticated and fun. Thank you to the wonderful designers and paper aficionados at Envelopments our vendor for the beautiful & substantial papers, patterns and arwork. We loved the opportunity to work with Fleur de Lis events… Adina and her team (that I LOVE) design such lovely parties and these were no exception!

LIFE (& design) INSPIRATION Good simple words to live by in regards to the food we eat, presented in a good simple way with likable colors and easy type. I am sad to say I don’t know who made this… if you know please share! I do know that it’s not new. It reminds me of my Grandmother and the stories she told me about growing up durring the depression in a house where she grew her own produce and had a monkey. And I know that somehow the message means more because of the feeling I get knowing that this was not recreated to look old… it just is. It’s a message from the past, a good one. I feel parented by this design; nurtured, respected, and admonished. What do you feel? Enjoy your food, I’m off to farmers market - Alli p.s. Found out shortly after this post that the design was made by F.G. Cooper for the  U.S. Food Administration, [between 1914 and1918]

LIFE (& design) INSPIRATION

Good simple words to live by in regards to the food we eat, presented in a good simple way with likable colors and easy type. I am sad to say I don’t know who made this… if you know please share! I do know that it’s not new. It reminds me of my Grandmother and the stories she told me about growing up durring the depression in a house where she grew her own produce and had a monkey. And I know that somehow the message means more because of the feeling I get knowing that this was not recreated to look old… it just is. It’s a message from the past, a good one. I feel parented by this design; nurtured, respected, and admonished. What do you feel?

Enjoy your food, I’m off to farmers market - Alli

p.s. Found out shortly after this post that the design was made by F.G. Cooper for the  U.S. Food Administration, [between 1914 and1918]

DESIGN INSPIRATION Do you have letterhead? The Rolling Stones did. So did Andy - Andy’s is actually my all time favorite, but I love the contents of this letter and the age of the design. Simple, to the point -  Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol.  love,

DESIGN INSPIRATION

Do you have letterhead? The Rolling Stones did. So did Andy - Andy’s is actually my all time favorite, but I love the contents of this letter and the age of the design. Simple, to the point -  Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol. 

love,

HAPPY SUMMER! I hope your summer days are filled with naps on the beach.  xo - Alli

HAPPY SUMMER!

I hope your summer days are filled with naps on the beach. 

xo - Alli