For his 1st birthday, Ian wanted a monster struck theme and his mommy, Syrita had his party at a children’s art studio. So, what to do? Create an invitation with both monster trucks AND art!
I love how it turned out!
Happy birthday Ian! I hope your party was a blast!
It’s September 2nd and summer has flown by in a flash. This year I tried my best to pack our summer with as much fun and adventure as possible while squeezing some contract work in the crevices between travel, camping, hiking, biking, swimming, and sleeping in. We spent a week with family in California. We camped and hiked with friends. We went on bike rides (which are way more fun now that I actually have a bike!). We had a real, week-long vacation in Lake Tahoe (the first in many years). We spent lazy Sundays fishing in high mountain lakes with Daddy. We had shave ice dates, frozen custard dates, gelato dates, and lots of swimming play dates.
Now school is back in session and my youngest and last baby started kindergarten! Since I make a sign for both of my kids every year, I figured that after eight years of being a WAHM (work-at-home-mom) I deserved one for myself. In case you can’t zoom in, it discusses how I would like to be on vacation when I grow up. My favorite foods are anything I don’t have to share and hard lemonade. My hobbies include quiet time, hiking, reading, cooking alone, and anything without an audience. My teachers are Netflix and Amazon and I’m 40 years young. I thought it was fitting to take the photo from my hammock overlooking a beautiful alpine lake… which is where we spent the whole Sunday before the first day of school.
Next summer I’ll add this sign to my Etsy shop so fellow parents can have a sign of their own.
All summer my youngest has had nothing but positive things to say about how awesome kindergarten would be and I’m so happy that his first full week lived up to the hype. Every day he came home tired, but ready for another day of fun.
My kindergartener is kind and smart and quick to laugh off scrapes of bumps that might slow him down, but fully admits that a BandAid will take the pain away. He loves Crocs, Lego, Paw Patrol and anything his big brother is into. He often narrates whatever he’s doing or playing with and when asked who he’s talking to, he’ll tell you he’s narrating a YouTube video for his subscribers. He loves taekwondo and his flexibility allows him to kick higher than his own head , much to his brother’s chagrin.
My oldest started fourth grade and is really excited for what this year will have to offer. He is so smart and wants to know EVERYTHING and show everyone that he knows EVERYTHING. We joke that he’ll be a Jeopardy! champion some day. He continues to train in taekwondo every week and is currently one belt below a black belt. He will be eligible to test for his black belt next year. He loves history and we watch YouTube videos about random history together and discuss the historic places we can visit. He also loves to play soccer and run cross country. He adores fishing and camping and has rather suddenly fallen in love with exotic cars. He is also becoming a foodie and loves to cook and try new foods.
Since my printer is down at the moment, I had all of our signs printed on card stock at my local Office Depot (it was less than $2 total). They did an amazing job and in photos they almost look like real chalkboards. These signs are available in my Etsy shop in the summer and ready to be customized for your kids.
Happy first day!!
Holiday cards are up in my Etsy shop and will be available until December 14, 2018. If you don’t have any Etsy account or would prefer to place an order outside of Etsy, you’re welcome to send me an email and I’ll get your holiday card made.
Here are some of the designs I added this year. Click on the images below to link to the listings on Etsy.
These two designs also have the option to showcase one portrait photo instead of two landscape.
This one below can be done with either a blue, red, or green background.
I also added our holiday card from last year. You can choose between a green, red, or blue faux knitted sweater background.
I added two background variations to my popular Santa’s Most Wanted holiday card.
The design below is a variation on the Santa’s Most Wanted Card that I created for a client a couple of years ago. This one really cracked me up! Through the listing you can choose from three different chalkboard background colors: red, green, or blue.
If you’d like to customize any of these designs with different colors, fonts, or layouts, it’s totally doable through a custom order. Just shoot me a message or email with any questions you may have: alextebowdesigns@gmail.com
Happy Holidays!
I was thrilled to get to create a bunch of First Day of School signs for so many awesome kids this year. First Day of School signs are available in my Etsy shop in the summer months through the end of September. They also can be ordered by sending me an email if you’d prefer to not go through Etsy. I customize the text using your child’s information and their favorite colors. Then you print the sign yourself.
Here’s a sampling of this year’s kids with their signs:
Here are my two boys this year. I wonder how many years they’ll let me keep doing this??
There will be three different font styles to choose from when they are available. The backgrounds look like a faux chalkboard and they’re set to print on 8.5x11 paper. If you want it to look more like an actual chalkboard, you can trim off the white edge and/or print onto thicker card stock. Or your can back it with a piece of cardboard. The colors print most vibrant on glossy paper, but then you have a potential glare when taking a photo. It looks more like a real chalkboard when printed on matte paper. The choice is yours.
If you live in a country where A4 paper is the norm, just let me know and I can send it at that size.
Happy First Day!!
For his first birthday, Kaius' mommy, Breana fell in love with the dinosaur invitation I created for Charlee (I'll get the post up someday!), so we changed it to go with the color scheme she had in mind and I love how it turned out.
Breana cut out paper hats in orange, blue, and lime green for the dinosaur on the invitations, and then cut out "bite marks" with a scalloped circle paper punch. I LOVE this little detail.
In addition to the birthday invitations, we also created a pennant banner that had the same faux chalkboard background. It said "Happy 1st Birthday Kaiusaurus Rex."
I also made a few signs for the food table. I think the Sweetivore sign is my favorite.
Many thanks to Breana for sharing a couple of photos from the party with me. All too often, I create such FUN items for a party or wedding and I never get to see how they looked. I'm so grateful for clients who remember to share them with me. Happy birthday Kaius!
I had a blast creating this ballerina-themed birthday party for Julianna. I love the fonts, the colors, and the sparkly star pattern I created for the party. I'm seriously considering adding this one to my Etsy shop.
I created wraparound address labels to coordinate:
Julianna's mommy, JoAnna asked me to make a Birthday Wishes card for guests to fill out since she didn't have one at her baby shower.
We created a faux chalkboard with all of Julianna's first year stats too.
Lastly, I created a thank you card using a beautiful photo of Julianna.
Beautiful birthday girl!
Cindy and Scott were planning a beautiful mid-October winery wedding in northern California and wanted to use simple and straightforward designs for their wedding invitations. I was more than happy to oblidge!
First we created a simple save-the-date with a chalkboard background. Cindy had these printed with VistaPrint. The matte finish really showcased the chalkboard texture.
When we got started with the invitation, they wanted to keep the same overall look with a chalkboard background, but incorporate their wedding colors: blue and gray.
These were printed by FolgerGraphics in Hayward, CA.
For a response card, Scott had fun creating a Mad Lib for guests to fill out. This was really fun to create for them!
The response card was a simple two-sided postcard. Their address has been changed to protect privacy.
For their wedding day, Cindy's dad (who's a wine maker), bottled his delicious Zinfandel Rosé for guests to toast with and I designed a custom label to go with them. Waterproof labels kept them from wilting when the wine was chilled.
In lieu of a traditional guestbook, Cindy's dad went above and beyond and had a giant wine bottle filled with his delicious Zinfandel wine and engraved with the same label design. He then built a wood mount for the bottle that allowed it to be spun without risk of it rolling off of the table. Guests signed with metallic silver Sharpie markers. This turned out SO cool!!
The bottling, engraving, and painting was done by Doc's Trophy Shoppe in Napa Valley, CA. They did an amazing job!
Cindy and Scott's wedding was a blast and I really appreciate the invite. Congrats!!
