Merry Christmas!

i hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas!  here's the Christmas card i designed for us this year... sorry i couldn't send it to each and everyone of you... so i hope this will do!

i'll be off the grid for the next week, enjoying a little break with family and friends!

have a happy New Year!

all i want for Christmas...

i blogged my favorite things over on my events blog... i wanted to invite all my JDV readers over to check it out here: Blair Britt Events

{special order} custom necklace for a cause

a few weeks ago a sorority sister of mine sent me an email asking me to make a very special necklace for her mom... she asked me to make the following necklace because her mom had been in remission from battling melanoma, and then recently found out that the melanoma was back and now her mom is in the middle of cutting edge treatments to knock the cancer out again! she said that her mom's tag line is "hope."  she wanted something that she could wear throughout this new chapter in fighting this cancer... so we did a stamped disc with her inspirational word, this way she could wear it always, during treatments, on the good and bad days... and to remember there is hope!

we did the green stone because that's her mom's favorite color...

i really was honored she asked me to make this for her mom, it was especially meaningful to me because this past summer my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma.  a good part of summer was spent visiting my mom's FABULOUS doctor, playing chauffeur to and from chemo treatments, and of course shopping on the good days!  Cancer is such a scary word to those who haven't dealt with it personally or observed it firsthand with ones you love.  While it's not a walk in the park, it is something that builds family unity, and in our family's case strengthened our faith in God too... He really blessed my mom and our family in that she never lost her hair, never really was sick from chemo, and a few weeks back we found out my mom is in remission already!

i'm praying that my friend's mom can stay strong and have faith & hope that she will be healed... and i hope that my little contribution will be one that will help keep her spirits up through this chapter in her family's lives.

holiday madness! {sort of}

i will say that i love the holidays... i love them A LOT! but at times working in an industry that has such large mood swings with the seasons can be difficult.  i think the holidays are naturally such a busy time of year and on top of the regular hustle and bustle i run around like a crazy woman sometimes trying to reply to client emails, picking up supplies, dropping items off to my printer for holiday cards, going to the post office, fed ex, etc {that last one being my least favorite part}.... i sacrifice sleep, time with my husband {which thankfully he is pretty tolerant of}, and sometimes a little bit of my sanity...


i promise i'm not griping!


.... but when i see custom projects completed, hear the excited responses from clients, and get feedback from my readers and facebook fans - it makes it all worth it! making a client's day makes me so happy, there is something so gratifying about creating to help produce joy in another's life.... and that is why i do what i do.  sometimes my friends and family tell me i'm crazy, and maybe i am a little bit =), but i'm crazy about what it is that i do.  i'm crazy about creating!


here's a little eye candy from a few things that i've shipped out this week...

:: :: a monogram/ mommy necklace :: ::

mixed metal of gold and silver, 

the gold tag is stamped with the mom & dad's married monogram & anniversary date

the little silver disc has a hammered texture and then is stamped for their son's initial!

 :: :: italian christmas banner :: ::

for my parent's to gift to a christmas party hostess

{i left it unstrung because my mom wanted to choose her ribbon}

... don't you love the glittered letters? 

:: :: custom luggage tags {modern style} ::  ::

for a friend/client to gift to her brother's fiance and girlfriend 

{one loves purple and lime green & the other is a TCU cheerleader, hence the purple & white}

{i didn't get the best shots of these because i took them at night, so hence the flash on the casing}

:: :: sorry for the blur, i don't want her getting solicited :: ::

::  :: address side for the TCU tag :: ::

more goodies to come!

and thanks everyone for the christmas orders =)

{blog love} JDV hair accessory on Style me Pretty today

... one way to brighten up a monday is being emailed that a client's wedding was featured on Style me Pretty!  and what a great surprise today thanks SMP =)... too bad i've been crazy busy all day and away from my computer most of the day, so i'm just now posting about it.  even though my role as a vendor was pretty small in relation to the amazing photography, the gorgeous decor details, and of course Whitney {the beautiful bride}, i was very honored she asked me to create a custom hair piece for her and a headband for her cute lil' flower girl {and an oh so stylish one at that}!


a few months back Whitney contacted me to create a custom hair piece for her wedding day, she had emailed me this photo as inspiration, a hairpiece totally comprised of vintage brooches and other jewelry pieces.

after seeing the style lace wedding dress she had chosen, i knew i wanted to soften up the hairpiece by incorporating some vintage looking lace trim... so i scoured some local vintage shops and went online to find the perfect little floral jewelry pieces to create these!  once Kacee Geoffroy worked her hair and make up magic on Whitney those little hairpieces in my opinion complimented her bridal style just perfectly. {i might be biased though} =)

after seeing Whit's wedding photos, i am totally in LOVE with Wildflower Photography's work too, here are a few of my favorite shots they captured!

as this was a one of a kind piece i created for Whitney, and since my custom items are made to order, you won't find them in my etsy shop - if you are interested in a hair piece like this, please feel free to email me directly and i would be so happy to create the perfect accessory for you! JDVdesign@gmail.com.

and of course thanks to Whitney for allowing me to help accessorize her on her wedding day! =)....  those two other pretty ladies on each side of her are her sisters, and the one on the left is her big sis Morgan, i'll be showing you Morgan's wedding invites pretty soon! so thankful i get the opportunity to work with this fabulous family again! =)

{holiday} custom *typographie style* christmas cards

hi everyone!


sorry i've been lacking in the blogging department recently... but i do come bearing photos for you in an attempt to make up for it! this is not a "oh-woe-is-me story" but please excuse my absence as i was rear-ended the week before thanksgiving, i'm fine, but it's been a lot of shuffling my car to the body shop, to the dealer to repair other non-related issues, entertaining the idea of selling this one and buying another one, research, car shopping and test-driving, all of this on top of life and everything else that goes on this time of year with the holidays... so needless to say i haven't had a ton of time to blog.  so i'm sorry i've kept my readers hanging... but i've been trying to catch {or at least deal} with this curveball that's been thrown at me... i really hadn't been thinking about buying a car until my accident.  anyhow, that sums up where i've been the past two and a half weeks!


now on to the Christmas Cards...


here's one of the recent christmas cards designs i finished up for a couple celebrating a new baby on the way in 2011!  however i can't reveal the whole thing as they are friends of our's and i know that they aren't in the mail quite yet! =)

 what i can say is, we centered their photo and i designed a "frame-like" boarder around their photo using different fonts, colors, and words that represent Christmas time...

it was so fun to mix up the lime and evergreen colors with the cardinal red and all the eclectic fonts!

we paired them with kraft recycled brown paper envelopes {think trader joe's shopping bag color}, then i designed and had a custom rubber hand stamp made for them {with their family name and address} to use for their Christmas cards and any of their other social stationery, all they have to do is change up the ink color and it'll become a totally different stamp!


if you are interested in me designing Christmas cards for you, the cut off to order them is quickly approaching on Sunday, December 12th!  email me at JDVpaperie{at}gmail.com if you're interested