Dancing Pen Calligraphy

Pretty Blue Floral Marriage Certificate

2012-01-11T12:11:00.000-05:00

Lace Edged Letterpress Invite Suite

2012-01-10T20:17:00.000-05:00

I know I know.... I haven't my blog in a while - a long while. I am sorry about that. I have been busy busy printing on my Chandler & Price printing press! I literally sold thousands of Christmas cards this season, and it was so fun! I also printed up lots of personalized note cards and tried my hand at envelope liners - picures of all of that to come.

Today my blog post is about a very sweet wedding invitation suite I just shipped out my door. It is printed on Crane Lettra in Pearl White. The invite has a blind emboss (this means I let the printing press, press into the paper the design but use no ink) of a beautiful lace along the bottom. We combined my hand calligraphy and a serif block print for the text in classic black. The envelope also has the lace blind emboss on it to tie everything together.

Woohoo!! My Letterpressed Christmas Cards were featured on Martha Stewart.com's top cards of the season!!

2011-11-15T15:42:00.000-05:00

http://ourfinds.marthastewart.com/2011/11/07/holiday-cards-galore/#comments

Marriage Certificate with Watercolor Leaves

2011-09-30T14:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a marriage certificate I just finished with watercolor leaves and branches.

Maybe the Obama's Will Come??

2011-08-30T19:35:00.001-04:00

Marriage Certificate wit Faux Paper Quill Design

2011-08-30T19:33:00.000-04:00

Slate Blue & White Wedding Signs and Escort Cards

2011-08-30T19:31:00.000-04:00

Marriage Certificate with vows, bird and twig design, and portrait of the couple's church

2011-08-30T19:28:00.000-04:00

Purple, Lavender and Black Marriage Certificate with Custom Monogram

2011-08-30T19:20:00.000-04:00

Blue & White Marriage Certificate to Match Invites

2011-08-30T19:18:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned...

2011-08-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

Okay folks I am getting very excited. I have my first letterpress job with my new press and I am printing THIS weekend!! My husband hasn't let me bring my press inside yet, so I will be out in my 110 degree garage printing up a storm. Will post pictures when I am done!!

A baby item!

2011-08-24T15:10:00.000-04:00

Recently I had the pleasure of creating this sweet little keepsake. It is a piece to be frames and hung in the nursery and notates the new arrival's name, weight etc. I had complete artistic license so I went crazy! The room of this sweet little girl was pink and green, so I went with those colors.

I have started watercolor!

2011-08-24T15:06:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of a marriage certificate I did recently that features both hand calligraphy and watercolor flowers. I had so much fun with this. Even though the watercolor flowers are very time consuming (have to let each leaf dry before doing another one that touches it. I hope to be doing more of them in the future!

Some recent work

2011-06-24T17:55:00.000-04:00

http://www.davidmedinaphotography.com/wblog/2011/06/23/anna-travis-wedding-day/

Check out the above link to some gorgeous photos of some calligraphy I did for a destination wedding in Mexico. I did hand lettered envelopes, menu place cards, escort cards and a guest book sign for this sweet bride.

Style Me Pretty (again!!!)

2011-06-17T15:27:00.001-04:00

A few months ago, the sweet and talented, Amy of Sincerely Yours Paper reached out to me to have some calligraphy goodies for her shop. We got each others vision and enjoyed working together so much we will be and have been working with each other a lot lately. One of the more recent things Amy had me do was hand letter a couple's name and some other cute sayings that I then scanned and then sent over to her. Then she worked her paper magic!!! The results were SO breathtaking that SMP featured them on their blog!!

Here is the link to Amy's write up:
http://sincerelyyoursonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/featured-style-me-pretty-magnolia-hill.html

Here is Style Me Pretty's (it's a GORGEOUS mock wedding style shoot!)

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2011/06/17/aldas-magnolia-hill-wedding-inspiration-from-finishing-touch/

Just Googling Around

2011-06-17T15:14:00.000-04:00

I was googling around the other day to see if my shop popped up anywhere unexpectedly and I found myself on Style Me Pretty!! I had the pleasure of lettering the escort cards for this sweet bride. http://www.stylemepretty.com/gallery/gallery/maryland-mansion-wedding+3279

Exciting News!

2011-06-03T16:16:00.002-04:00

Okay folks, I usually use this blog as a way to keep a running portfolio of some of my work, well today I want to share something I am soooooo..... excited about. I am getting very close to officially opening my letterpress studio! I have my press just about ready (thanks hubby Keith, for cleaning off the 5lbs of old ink and oil off of her!!), have all ink on hand, and just ordered my base for the press so I am almost ready to roll! I will keep you posted. :)

Some recent work

2011-06-03T15:52:00.000-04:00

My oh my.....

2011-05-02T12:59:00.000-04:00

It has been a LONG time since I have posted on here. My memory card adaptor was MIA and what fun is a blog post without pictures???

Here is the most recent wedding certificate I have done. The bride, Allison, wanted little birds that were fluttering and holding up the "ribbons" surrounding there names. The whole certificate was done in black ink which married very well with the fun detailing of the sweet birdies. :)

The bride chose pencil lines for the signature lines, which I think is a smart choice. After the wedding, the lines are erased, and all you have is perfectly straight and layed out signatures. And if you have 10 no shows, there aren't any extra lines hanging out.

I think this is my new favorite.... :)

A new item in my shop!

2011-02-02T14:39:00.000-05:00

I am happy to introduce to you a new item in my shop. I have had great sucess with my hand lettered marriage certificates and vows, no I am offering short poems, sayings, quotes featuring my hand calligraphy. These are your favorite words (40 or less) in your favorite color cardstock and your favorite color of ink. These make the best little gifts. Just pop it into a funky little frame (HomeGoods is awesome for this) and you are good to go!! Perfect for bridesmaids gifts, mother of the bride/groom gifts, house warming present, birthday gift - you get the idea. :)

Some more pics of recent work

2011-02-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

Heart Calligraphy Envelopes

2011-01-26T11:39:00.001-05:00

I am soooo... excited about this new style of addressing envelopes. I just think it is so much fun!!! Each one will be like a mini work of art. I am trying to think of other shapes that would work out too. Maybe a bird?? I guess even a simple cirle could be fun. Let me know if you have any ideas!

Poe Inspired Wedding Certificate

2011-01-11T19:50:00.000-05:00

I had an opportunity to with a really fun bride. Her name is Jenn and she was getting married on Halloween and had a Poe themed wedding. She asked me to create something that looked "Poe-ish" and also looked really old, like it was ripped out of an antique book. This was one of the craziest, most fun projects I have ever done!

Gold, Ivory and Chocolate Color Scheme

2011-01-11T18:28:00.000-05:00

I have started letterpress!!

2010-07-04T15:33:00.000-04:00

More pics to follow... :)

I reached my goal!!!

2010-05-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

I just looked on Etsy and I reached my goal of having 100 positive feedbacks!! Woohoo!!!!!!!

http://www.etsy.com/people/DancingPen/feedback

Another custom piece!

2010-05-16T13:00:00.000-04:00

Here is another custom piece I just did. It was an excerpt from a couple's vows. She had me to a twig illustration like there was on her invite. I had her wedding date crawl up the branch - so fun!

The client also had me write out the more traditional part of their vows. Very crisp black and white with the first letter of their names in irridescent gold!

Vows and Poems

2010-05-16T09:32:00.001-04:00

This weekend I dedicated to getting most of my vow, poem and marriage certificate orders off of my to do list. Envelopes and place cards are so easy for me to do, time consuming but easy. If I mess one up, it's okay it was only a few minutes wasted. But these larger custom orders are a whole other ball game! I LOVE love love to do them, but I think I have a pit in my stomach until I get them safely in their envelope, box! They can take a couple of hours to do and I have been known to mess up on the last word.... But none of these gave me any issues and it was a very productive weekend!!

This first one is a marriage certificate for a bride that wanted me to replicate a flower that was on her invites.

This second one was for a client whose niece is a very talented poet. One of her poems got published and won an award. I worked with her to come up with a side illustration that while beautiful wouldn't take away from the words. I think we accomplished that with the simple bird and wind swirls.

And finally we have another marriage certificate in a rich chocolate brown with gold swirls.

Just Married Sign

2010-05-15T08:36:00.000-04:00

I had the wonderful experience of working with a great bride, Denee. She had me make her a "Just Married" sign to put on the back of her getaway car for her wedding. Check out this blog post and you will see the pic at the end. http://peacockeventscharleston.blogspot.com/2010/04/denee-and-david-french-huguenot-church.html

A new wedding certificate

2010-04-28T21:59:00.001-04:00

I just love this wedding certificate I just did for a bride. She supplid me with some digital swirls from her invites that I printed directly on some antique looking parchment. The lettering is in black with their names in a dusty lilac.

2010-04-18T11:08:00.000-04:00

Wow, it has been way too long... I am so sorry to keep you all waiting. :) I am in the midst of calligraphy wedding season, so I have been busy busy busy! I will give you a little taste of what I am doing recently with some photos for you to peruse at your leisure!

The first one is a sample I did for a bride. She wanted to see the funky font in some different formats/colorways. I love the way the cream reads on the moss green! Wouldn't escort cards look great in this color combo?

The next few are some photos I did for reception papers I did for a local bride, who has a lovely color scheme of cream, champagne and chocolate. Yum..... We did menus, table name cards, a huge just married sign, a do not disturb sign, the works!

The next two are some vows and marriage certificates I have done recently. These are so fun to do. While I love working on envelopes and escort cards they can get a little monotonous, as I am sure you can imagine. So, when I bride asks if I can ink up some cute little love birds on a silver twig, I get excited! :)

2010-03-05T08:30:00.000-05:00

I have been doing the "funky font" on envelopes for a few months now and clients have been loving it. I never thought to do it on place cards until a sweet bride recently asked me to. Her wedding tables are named after famous race horses. I am excited to work on this project with her!

New England Wedding Giveaway Winners Announced

2010-03-05T08:25:00.000-05:00

The two deserving couples for the New England Wedding Giveaway have been announced. Head over to Style Me Pretty to see:

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/03/04/new-england-wedding-wedding-giveaway-winner/#comment-91251

I am excited to be donating place cards and will post pictures once they are completed. :)

Wedding Vows

2010-02-17T09:07:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite blogs just featured my nautical wedding vows - yipee!!!! Here is the link so you can see it for yourself: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e554ee8a2288330120a89f5cc3970b

Check out this post on on CutCardstock's Blog!

2010-02-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

http://cutcardstock.blogspot.com/2010/02/dancing-pen-calligraphy-and-future.html

Woohoo... I was featured on Etsy!

2010-01-23T23:57:00.000-05:00

Featured on Project Wedding

2009-12-12T08:29:00.001-05:00

I always love getting publicity - especially FREE publicity. One of my new fave clients just informed me that one of the hosts from Project Wedding did a posting about me - woohoo!!! :)

Here is the link:

http://www.projectwedding.com/post/list/awesome-and-affordable-etsy-calligraphy

Awesome and affordable Etsy Calligraphy - Project Wedding Forums

2009-12-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

Awesome and affordable Etsy Calligraphy - Project Wedding Forums

My newest style of calligraphy

2009-12-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to try a different type of calligraphy for a while. I wanted to try something that didn't read too feminine. Something fresh, different, a little edgy. Well, this is it! I think it is so fun.

Vows in Calligraphy

2009-09-10T09:31:00.000-04:00

I just finished up a fun job. I created vows in calligraphy for a client who wanted to give them to her husband for their first anniversary. I did each of their vows in black ink. Her colors were flame and azalea. I accented the piece with her colors in the form of swirls, loops, teeny flowers and leaves. Happy Anniversary!

Blog Feature

2009-08-31T22:26:00.000-04:00

My work was featured in another great blog: Inventing Weddings!! You can check out the whole post here:http://inventingweddings.blogspot.com/search?q=calligraphy

Custom Font: Schoon

2009-07-24T10:19:00.001-04:00

A recent bride asked me to duplicate the font she had on her invitations. Her font was called "Schoon". It reminds me of an Old World Tuscan font. Her envelopes were lined with a shimmery navy blue and I mixed the ink to match exactly. This was such a fun project!

Blog Spotlight

2009-07-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

Thank you to "until it shines" blog for showcasing my calligraphy. This is a great new blog that features everything wedding for Boston/New England brides. Check it out at www.untilitshines.blogspot.com

2009-07-23T15:32:00.000-04:00

What a cute way to end your first night as a married couple! This hand calligraphied sign will hang from the door of your honeymoon suite. Have your photographer take a pic of you and your new hubby hanging in on your door for an adorable photo op!

Woo hoo!

2009-07-07T14:18:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I just figured out how to link my Etsy page to my blog. I am making headway!

Starting the Blog

2009-07-07T13:51:00.000-04:00

Ok, now I feel so old that this is the first time I am blogging! It really is just a distraction from making my webpage - something I NEED to do.... I have no idea how this is going to come out, but I am sure I will get it. This really is just a test to see how to lay things out. Please be patient with me. :)