When life hands you WHITE LINEN........

It's hard to believe that it has been a whole year since I starting working with Liz White of Mason & Madison. She wanted to throw a first birthday celebration for her store and the original plan was "cupcakes and cocktails" with a black linen pocket fold that would hold the invite, VIP card and then be inserted into a bubble gum pink shimmery envelope. However, like many clients Liz had a change of heart with regards to her idea and really wanted to change it to a Candy Land themed party. I LOVED the new idea but there was not enough time to order new card stock. So two white linen flat cards and one shimmery pink envelope is all I had to work with. As a designer it's situations like these that really challenge you to tap your creative skills.


I decided the color scheme for the inks would be bubble gum pink and apple green. For the invitation I created two pieces of candy that were hand embellished with clear glitter allowing the bubble gum pink to shine through. The most challenging piece for me was the VIP card because it was the same white linen card stock as the invitation but just a bit smaller. VIP as we all know means "very important person" this piece needed to be unique but still coordinate with the main invitation.

My first thought was to make it a circle cut out with a stick giving the look and feel of a lollipop but as I sat on the floor of my office I noticed one of my check ribbons. This green and pink ribbon is the first ribbon I ever bought when I started designing. I LOVED it so much that I bought 3 rolls which was a good thing because as I looked at the white linen card stock, the ribbon and my circle punch the perfect solution came to me. As you can see the VIP card actually resembles the glittered candy from the invite. I needed the "VIP CUSTOMERS" line to stand out so I chose a similar candy style font that resembles the one used in the Candy Land Game. The cards were printed first, then the four corners were punched out and finally finished with a bit of trimming.........TADAH!


Last stop was the envelope......thankfully it was not white linen but I felt it needed something special to tie everything together. Printed envelopes always give a more completed look therefore all 50 VIP guests received a custom printed envelope that had their name in the Candy Land font. I was so pleased with the end result and most importantly so was Liz. So my advice is "when life gives you white linen.......embrace the challenge because it will help you become a better designer.