Isla's 1st Birthday Invites

Custom ‘It’s a Small World’-themed Invitations

One of my very best friends from the 7th grade recently reached out to me for some help with her daughter’s 1st birthday party invitations.

When she told me her party was going to be “It’s a Small World” themed I was so excited because I love the work of Mary Blair, the brilliant illustrator behind the ride’s bold, timeless style. I wanted to push myself to illustrate in a style inspired by Blair but I also looked to the ride’s more recent illustrations done by Joey Chou. I’ve never tried to illustrate in either of their styles before, so it was a big challenge.

the illustration

I worked in Procreate for this one and even though this timelapse makes it look so easy (and fast) it took me hours and hours to get just right.

I studied lots of different photos of Isla. But, luckily for me she looks like an adorable little doll in real life so creating her smiley little character came pretty naturally. I loved drawing the ride’s facade most, playing with different layers of texture, line-work and nesting in the number one.

printing with moo

We only needed to print a fairly small run and because we didn’t have a huge budget I went with my go-to—Luxe Moo Postcards (in white).

If you saw the last custom invites I did for my niece Zoe’s first birthday, you know I love me some Moo Luxe printing. (No, I’m not sponsored by them, but I probably should be.) But honestly, the print quality is wonderful for the price and what I really love is Moo’s printfinity option. For these invites, I created 5 unique color versions of the illustration.

gold edge painting

Besides my deep love for variable printing, I am also obsessed with Moo’s Luxe cards because they are perfect for edge painting.

That being said, I actually had a really difficult time working with gold paint in my airbrush machine. After many failed attempts (and nearly giving up on gold) I finally found a tiny bottle of Golden High Flow Acrylic in Iridescent Gold (Fine) in my studio and it was a lifesaver. I had started with gold airbrush paint, which you would think should’ve worked fine, but for whatever reason it kept clogging up my nozzle. For those interested, I’ll be posting a tutorial soon on how I add edge-painting to Moo Luxe cards.

envelope addressing

I created a whimsical modern calligraphy style just for Isla and used Ziller’s Mauve Mist ink (matte) on 80lb. rose quartz metallic A6 envelope from envelopes.com (another one of my go-to resources for customizing on budget).

We didn’t end up doing it for these envelopes, but I usually recommend getting a custom stamp to match and an embosser for the return address to place on the back flap.

putting it together

Probably my favorite part of every project is packaging everything up as beautifully as possible.

I sent these out in signature ink+ash boxed sets and included Mary Blair’s Golden Book, You Can Fly so Isla would know the artist that inspired her theme. And of course, got a little extra with the mailing supplies—found some holographic plastic wrap at Michael’s and purple crinkle paper to keep everything in place (and in theme).