Free Printable Valentines - Nautical Puns!

Ok friends! I hope you like puns because these Valentines are pretty punny! These are fun and best of all FREE print-your-own valentines for kids and adults alike.

Including:
"Happy Valentine's Day - Hugs and Fishes!"
"I'm glad you're a friend, not anemone! - Happy Valentine's Day"
"You otter be my Valentine!"
"I have an urchin message for you: Happy Valentine's Day!"

You're welcome to print as many as you like and give them out like crazy on Valentines Day, but please do not sell them, claim them as your own or remove my web address from the design. You are more than welcome to share them with your friends online - especially through Pinterest and Facebook!

Directions for downloading your free printable valentines:

1. Click here to download the free printable valentines PDF file
2. You can either print it directly from Google docs, or download it to your computer
3. click "Print"and make sure that "scaling" is turned off, or that "do not scale" is selected - this keeps the design from shrinking on the page
4. Print on white cardstock at a high quality setting for best results

Tips:
- if your printer is cutting off the edges because the margins are too narrow, try clicking "Scale to fit" or "Scale to fit page" in the print menu - you may have to trim the edges
- You can change the print settings to be high quality - for cardstock look for settings like "best print" "high quality" or "premium presentation paper matte"

To see more of my designs including nautical thank you notes and beach wedding invitations visit www.concertinapress.com

Looking for something a little spicier?

Naughty Nautical Love Notes

Tiny gift bags made from envelopes!

Designer Jessica Jones' blog How About Orange has a great tutorial on making tiny gift bags out of envelopes! This is perfect for other stationery designers who don't know what to do with extra envelopes envelopes, and would also be a fun craft for a group. I love the zig zag top, great touch.

More tiny envelopes, this time from my cousin!

My cousin Sarah, a graduate of FIT in New York is getting married this April and I'm helping her with Save The Dates, and they're going to be epic!

Here are some envelopes she made this weekend to figure out what size would be best for the A2 sized cards we'll be making. So cute!

My Sister's Wedding! The Invitations -

My sister's wedding was so fun! I wish I had taken some photos, but I figured the photographer probably took care of that for me, haha - Martha's wedding took place in a cute little barn, decorated with bunting sewn by my mom, paper lanterns and twinkly lights. My bouquet was amazing, handmade by Martha from vintage buttons! (I'll post some pics later)

In the meantime, here are some closeups of Martha's super cute invitation, custom drawn by yours truly then digitally colored in Illustrator:

The full invite, with lovely hand-lettered envelopes by my friend Jainee

Oh what's that? I think there's something inside....

Yes! an adorable hand-cut heart window! Note that I made sure to print the woodgrain inside too!

Aww, two little lovebirds - look familiar?

This little bird has a special delivery! RSVPs!

Closeup of the backs of the little extra enclosure hearts with the web address on it - woodgrain to go with the barn theme.

And the fully suite, again, these turned out so sweetly and the wedding was awesome!

My Sister's Wedding!

Printed on 118lb Bamboo Stock, with French Blue Raspberry Envelopes

So next weekend I'll be traveling to Ventura, California for my sister Martha's wedding, which I'm looking forward to! Because I'm an invite designer, naturally I offered my services to create cute one-of-a-kind invites for her as a wedding present. Her theme is woodsy-vintage and her colors are teal blue, chocolate brown and apple green.

Two little lovebirds kissing!

 The wedding will be in a big barn in a community park, with catered barbecue and lots of sunshiney fun - Martha bought my dress from Etsy seller JenniferLillyDesigns and it's teal fabric with little brown birds.

Every invite had a little wooden heart magnet attached, to help save the date!

I wanted to show off the Save the Dates first  and then throughout the week I'll show you the invites - the first time they've been seen online! If you think me hand-stamping 50 wooden hearts and turning them into magnets is intense...you should see the invites!

They're here! Baby Shower invites for your non-cheesy shower

Ok let me tell you a secret - I hate baby showers - It's not the expecting mom I hate, or the fact that she's having a baby - it's more that I dread the games like "guess how fat mom's giant belly is" and "guess what mystery substance is on this diaper (it's CHOCOLATE!)" and "guess how the baby was conceived"(ok I haven't played that one...yet...)

Anyway, so when I open up an invitation and I see a cutesy baby shower invite, I admit I cringe a bit (now I probably won't be getting any, right??)

 BUT. Imagine this: a gathering of friends & family sitting down to laugh, talk and enjoy cupcakes - gifts are awesome, but they aren't the focus, you're not subjected to any games and it's a relaxing and enjoyable time, maybe outdoors on a warm sunny deck with birds chirping. That's what I was thinking of when I designed these invites:

Green & Purple Spring Lamb Invites set of 10

Pink Spring Lamb Invites set of 10

Pink Spring Lamb Invites set of 10 

What about you? Do you have a love/hate relationship with baby showers?

Two Cute Summer Dresses!

I love browsing ModCloth but I have to admit I've never bought anything from them! Many of their dresses are very short, BUT they have a "longer lengths" section and I think I might just have to splurge!

Left: Long Island Longing Dress ModCloth $134
Right: Flying Horses Dress ModCloth $184