Tonality Designs

Alyssa's Enchanted Birthday

The latest in the Dream Birthday Collection. This was actually done in November, but since I've been overwhelmed with things and not blogging I've yet to share it with you guys.

I'll open it to you to guess what you think the inspiration was for this one. Just leave a comment with your guess and I'll let you know if you guessed right ;) And let's make it fun, the first right guess will receive a special prize in the mail! (Sorry family and guests of the party, but since you all know the answer you do not qualify to receive the special prize, but feel free to comment as always.)

Jungle Safari Dream Birthday!

 

It's official. We have our first boy inspired Dream Birthday invitation. What jungle party would be complete without giraffes, lions, monkeys and elephants all hanging out together? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most of these animals live on savannahs in Africa, not really jungles? Well, I guess it's a none issue to kids as when researching jungle parties, all these animals seemed to qualify as fair game.

So moving on from my ramble.

Can't you just imagine being a little boy and dreaming about swinging through the trees of your very own jungle. Making friends with all the animals just like Tarzan and Mowgli. (Yes, I had to google "The Jungle Book" for the correct spelling.) Well, we hope we accomplished that feeling with our latest Jungle Safari Dream Invite. And we can't wait to develop the rest of this fun party suite.

(Note: besides Campbell's name, the rest of the content on the invite reflects made up information. Well not too made up. You could call me to RSVP, wink.) 

See more from the Dream Birthday Collection here.

Soccer Party Scores Big!

Cressa's Championship Birthday won over our hearts this weekend. The theme couldn't have been more fitting since the party took place at an indoor soccer field. Having it at the field was perfect. The kids stayed busy for the whole 2 hours and decorations and food were limited - cupcake stand with cupcakes and toppers, favor bags and balloons. Plus, if you plan to host something similar, be sure to have plenty of water and Gatorade as the hard playing kids will be needing it!

See the party's slide show here.

See the invite here.

Dream Birthday Collection

 

We have a collection in the making. Meet Cressa's Soccer Dream Girl. Inspired by Kreeley's Midsummer Dream Girl, we decided to use the same style when creating her sister's soccer themed invitation. I wonder what character will be next in the series? I'm thinking we need a boy. Maybe race car driver, pirate, firefighter or football player? What do you guys think? I'm open to suggestions for creating our first boy inspired Dream Birthday Invite! Post a comment to let me know what you want next!

Kreeley's Midsummer Birthday - The Dream Party!

So I've given you our thought process, the cupcakes and the invite—now here's the party! (Click here to get right to the picture slide show.)

Mind you, this was Kreeley's dream party. She was turning 7 and she'd been counting down the days since February. She wanted friends to come over, go swimming, have cupcakes, open presents (desperately hoping a dog would be included), eat popcorn while watching Grease, sleep next to her best friends and wake up in the morning to birthday pancakes. I'm happy to report, her dream came true. All of the above was accomplished and more. 

 

And indeed we created a fun atmosphere. I wish you could have been there to witness the joy the kids had at seeing the cupcake tower, all of them pointing out that the cartoon character was Kreeley, their excitement that they could color the table setting and just their pure happiness throughout the entire day. See more by viewing our picture slide show here.

 

Kreeley's Midsummer Birthday Invite

   

You've seen the sketches leading up to the invite, but now I'm happy to share with you the end result. Here's our latest invitation design. This could be my favorite card to date and I think it's because we incorporated everything that the birthday girl asked for and in turn it reflects her perfectly. It invoked tears from Kreeley's mom, Kim, and had Kreeley rushing to show her sister when she saw it. And even though the invite asked only those who couldn't attend to RSVP, Kim received 100% RSVPs because everyone wanted to call and comment on the invitation! And she got most of the calls the day they received it. I guess that's as good as it gets.

The pictures were taken with my point-and-shoot camera so hopefully I'll have better images soon. But in the meantime, enjoy!  The party post is now up! Click here to view all the custom decorations.

Creating Kreeley's Dream: My Creative Process

It being Creativity Boost Thursday, I thought I'd share with you the creative process for my latest invitation design. (BTW, have I mentioned how much I love the highlight feature? I'll be using a lot of it until the novelty wears off. But back to business.)

My client is my favorite soon-to-be 7 year old, Kreeley! She's having her first slumber party and, even though her birthday is this summer, she has been talking about the party since February. It's really too cute and why we really have to make this one special. Kreeley knew she wanted puppies, flowers, candy, games, movies and, most importantly, no boys at the party. That kept it pretty open for me. Her mom and I thought of "Midsummer Birthday's Dream," but Kreeley wanted us to make sure we didn't forget the puppies. (Are you sensing what's at the top of Kreeley's birthday wish list?) So with that in mind, I moved away from the fairy aspect of a true Midsummer Night's Dream party and decided to create a dreamland for Kreeley - with the focal point being her own cartoon caricature. With that decided, I started sketching!

1. It all begins with rough sketching—really rough sketching.
2. Then I start to refine the sketch to try different styles. Some (like the one pictured) are not winners, but are getting me closer to something great. I can almost start to feel it.

3. I keep refining until it finally just feels right. Oh, I just love this new cartoon girl. The beautiful, big (soon-to-be blue) eyes and the detail of the headband are so Kreeley!
4. I then turn the pencil sketch into an ink drawing that I can scan.(Sometimes I paint or use colored pencil depending on the feel, but this time I wanted to create something I could turn into a digital illustration.)

5. Now it's time to turn the ink drawing into Illustrator Vector Art that I can digitally color in any combination I want. Should she be in orange, pink, polka dots? I never know where the drawing is going to take me.
6. Lastly, I can insert the character into different "dream world" settings. This drawing was screaming to be put in a black-and-white world where only some things are in color. And did you notice that Kreeley does indeed get her puppy, even if it is subtle!

That's it for now, I can't wait to see where else this little character takes me. I'll be sure to follow up with the final invitation and all the fun stuff we design for the party!