I’m delighted to finally debut the Day Designer. You can read more about it on the blog!

Click here to download a hi-res version for printing out on your printer. Happy New Year!

We are loving the ikat trend. This pattern would be perfect for a beach photo!

Whitney English 2011 Holiday shipped last week! This week, we’re doing a sneak peek of patterns availabile in tons of new gifts items: recipe cards, candles, plates, placemats, gift stickers and enclosure cards!

To start, Smocked Clothing Co. needed business cards. We then designed a large sticker for them to use on packaging for shipping orders, and a graphic to be used for a rubber stamp for invoices. A final small sticker will be great to have on hand to stick on things around their new office.

While you’re clicking around, head over to Smocked Clothing Co. on Facebook and give them a friendly “like”. They offer fabulous custom smocked goods at fabulous prices!

We rather adore these pumpkin decorations. Not only are they modern and whimsical, they’re a perfect craft project for little kiddos! Available at the MonsterMache boutique at etsy.

At this point, we can’t help but wonder what other sorts of ‘Maches the Monster might come up with for other holiday decorations. Santa has a ‘Mache. Surely there is something kids can decorate with Santa’s ‘Mache.

The branding process is always fascinating to me, so I thought I would share a bit of how we came to this design. It all started with an inspiration board:

For those of you who have followed the Whitney English brand, you’ll know that I love the crisp, classic of black and white, paired with pink, a little bit of Tiffany blue. For this round of inspiration, I paired those shades with a warm orange (can you tell I’m ready for fall?), and a green I called “old green”. (Green is one of those colors that has an old soul, you know what I mean?)

It’s beginning to look a lot like…FALL! And not fast enough to satisfy us, darlings! We want colder days for cozier fires and comfier cocoa!

Tips for the future Mother-In-Law:

• Keep the bride happy. Ask her if she’d like to be involved in the planning of invitations. Very often the invitations are kept in a scrapbook or planning journal, and help a bride round out her collection of mementos. It would be nice if all the paper pieces were in keeping with the bride’s tastes, and had the same look and feel.
• If you are having a themed rehearsal dinner (BBQ or Fiesta theme are both popular for rehearsal dinner), and it just seems horrific to try to figure out how to put blush and bashful on a BBQ invitation, think about hiring a custom designer. Many local designers can offer unique options, and any good designer can make red, brown, blush, and bashful work beautifully together for your BBQ invites.
• If your future daughter-in-law is “impossible”, opt to use wedding colors on the invitation.

Tips for the Bride-to-be:

• Remember humility. This is your future mother-in-law’s only option to plan something in the entire wedding. Be willing to let it be about her, and not you, for just that night.
• Don’t nose your way into rehearsal dinner planning. If your future mother-in-law invites you to participate, thank her profusely and be grateful.
• If your future mother-in-law has horrific taste, ask her to stick to your wedding colors as a theme. This can be mentioned casually, in an off-hand way, “I think it would be great to just use blush and bashful as the primary two colors on the rehearsal dinner invitations.”
• If your future mother-in-law is choosing to not plan or host the rehearsal dinner, which sometimes happens, tell her in the early wedding stages that you’d like to get her opinions, if she wants to be involved. This is a great opportunity to give her something to look forward to in planning.

Here is a Rehearsal Dinner Invitation by Whitney English that would be beautiful for an elegant, but comfortable, rehearsal event. (Frankly, all rehearsal dinner events should be comfortable–who wants to don a tux two days in a row?) In this invite, the place setting element adds a charming touch, and the ever-popular monogram needs to reflect the groom’s family’s last name, since they would be hosting the event. Also a fun feature when you order from English Paper Company: our color change options. This invite could be modified to have a green background, brown background, etc, for a look that uniquely reflects the event.