MJ Squared Designs

-- It's a Boy! Baby Shower Invitations --

2012-02-16T12:41:00.000-08:00

I was recently contacted by a previous client to help design a baby shower invitation for a shower she is hosting. The mom-to-be is having a boy and they wanted something that celebrated that.

I always love working with my clients and this experience was so great as always. Thanks again to Sam and Stephanie for trusting me with this project!

-- Moving Announcement--

2012-01-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all the folks that follow this little blog! In case you might have noticed things have been a little quiet around these parts. Over the last few months, MJ Squared Designs was moving to a new home! Unfortunately when buying a fixer-uppper, all your free time ends up going into the house so everything else ended up taking a back seat. We were so busy with moving and settling in that we never got a chance to send out holiday cards so instead we decided to send out these new years/moving announcement cards to our friends and family.

Front:

Back:

Now that things have settled down, my goal is to give this little blog a little bit more attention so expected to see new things soon!

-- 40th Anniversary Party Invitations --

2011-12-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by Kate to do an anniversary invitation for her parents who were celebrating an amazing 40 years of wedded bliss! The design was left up to me and I decided to showcase the happy couple through the years and highlighting some very special moments.

A big thank you to Kate and her family for letting me design such a momentous invite and more importantly, a very happy anniversary to Kate's parents!

-- 1st Birthday Invitations --

2011-10-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Charlotte is a very special little girl and I was honored when her mom asked me to help design an invitation for Charlotte's first birthday. Charlotte's mom left the creative design up to me but only asked that there be yellow and pink in the invitation and here's the final product!

I'm so excited for this little girl because I know she's going to have a great first birthday! Thanks again to Charlotte's mom for letting me be part of your lives! Happy 1st Birthday from MJ Squared Designs!

-- Beach Theme Bridal Shower Invitations--

2010-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Fatima contacted me after she found my website while looking for beach themed bridal showers. She had a very specific vision in mind for the invitation since the bride was getting married in Jamaica and they were having an afternoon tea bridal shower so she wanted to marry the two ideas. She also liked the recipe card invitations I had previously done and wanted to incorporate that into the invitation as well. With so many ideas, I was worried about getting her vision right but I managed to get this idea designed out which Fatima loved.

-- Art Deco Bridal Shower Invitations --

2010-10-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Awhile back I got a call from a wedding planner letting me know that a bride she was working with was interested in having her bridal shower invitations designed by me. We discussed the venue and the theme and I learned that the location had a 1920s art deco decor to it which the bride would like to incorporate into the shower. From there I came up with 3 design samples for the bride and her wedding planner and the final pick ended up being the first one with some tweaks to the floral design and the addition of the bride & groom's monogram.

-- Retirement Party Invitations --

2010-10-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Kristy contacted me while planning her father-in-laws retirement party and was looking for a custom retirement party invitation that would help pay honor to her father-in-law's years of service as a foreman. I decided to do a few different variations of a construction theme and here's what I came up with.

Kristy ultimately decided on the classic 2nd option. Thanks Kristy for giving me an opportunity to have a little fun with these designs!

-- Photo Collage First Birthday Invitations --

2010-09-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I did Sean's birth announcements and now the time has come for me to design his 1st Birthday Invitations!

Sean's mom's only request was that the invitation have a collage of pictures from his first year so with that in mind I came up with two different versions:

In the end, Sean's mom liked them both so much that she decided to order half of each and send them both out! Happy Birthday little guy!

-- Adirondacks Wedding Programs--

2010-09-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

Before their big day, Amanda asked me to design wedding programs that would match the custom designed Adirondack wedding invitations I did for them. She wanted a half page invitation that used the same design we used for the invitations and below is the end result:

Since I was lucky enough to be a guest at Amanda and Justin's big day, I can tell you their wedding (and the bride herself!) was beautiful and everything turned out wonderfully. Congrats again to you both! Lots of best wishes for your new life together!

-- Princess Birthday Invitations --

2010-07-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

This blog post is a bit late but I'm getting it in just in time for Princess Isabel's big day! Miss Isabel is baby Joaquin's big sister and she's turning 4! To mark the special occasion, Isabel's mom is planning a princess themed party perfectly fit for this little girl. Her only requests for the invitation were that they be royal purple with silvery swirls and here is the final result!

With the big birthday party just one day away, I want to send out a very happy birthday wish to Princess Isabel! Hope your birthday is a dream come true!

-- Postcard Style Wedding Invitations --

2010-06-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

I had another exciting client to work with recently who wanted a different take on their wedding invitations. Kelli didn't want to do the standard invitation set and instead wanted to have all the details and RSVP information on their wedding website. Ultimately the invitation she wanted to send out was to be a Save the Date/Invitation all rolled up into one.

For their wedding they are doing a very colorful and vintage theme which Kelli wanted to incorporate into their invitations. She also liked the postcard style invitations as well so here's what the end result looked like:

Front of Postcard Invitation

Back of Postcard Invitation

Along with the invitations, Kelli picked very colorful envelopes to mail the invitations and ultimately decided on a blue envelope that matched the font color on the back of the invitation. Thanks for being such a great client Kelli! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the wedding details!

-- Adirondacks Wedding Invitations --

2010-06-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm finally catching up on my blog posts and I'm so excited to share a couple new projects I've been working on! The first one is a wedding invitation set that I did for Amanda and Justin. Amanda had seen some of my previous work and had a pretty unique idea in mind. The two of them are getting married in the Adirondacks in upstate New York and she wanted an invitation that depicted their wedding location. Their wedding theme is around the Adirondacks and specifically the Adirondack chairs that are named after the area. We found a picture that they both loved and wanted to incorporate in the entire wedding invitation suite.

The invitation was done a bit larger than the traditional A7 size and we went with an A9 since Amanda wanted something a little bigger.

For the RSVPs, Amanda and Justin wanted to do a postcard style RSVP card and we included the same picture from the invitation to tie it all together.

Front of the RSVP postcard

Back of the RSVP postcard

I cant wait to start working on the rest of the wedding stationary and share them with you!

-- Ladybug 1st Birthday Invitations --

2010-04-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

Remember Rachel? Can you believe almost a year has gone by and Rachel's turning one!?!! Time certainly flies by and I have loved and been honored to be able to be part of this little girl's big milestones. When I started talking to Rachel's mom about what type of invitation she wanted, her only requests were that I try and have 2-3 pictures from Rachel's latest cake smash photo shoot and that it match the pink and green ladybug birthday theme. So I went to work and came up with this!

The green and pink color combinations worked out so wonderful and I'm so excited for this little girl because I know she's going to have a great first birthday! Thanks again Rachel's mom for letting me part of your lives!

-- It's a Girl! Baby Shower Invitations --

2010-04-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

I've been loving all the different shower invitations I've had the opportunity to do recently. Just like with weddings, I love being able to incorporate the different shower themes people come up with into the invitations. When Kate contacted me to design these baby shower invitations, she told me she was open to anything as long as it was pink and went with the girly and frilly theme of the shower. With so much freedom to design these invitations, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do and finally I decided to do one sophisticated/feminine invitation and one more fun/girly invitation. Kate and mom-to-be Jill ultimately picked the second option and I cant wait to see how this shower turns out! Congrats again to Jill and her family!

-- Tropical Bridal Shower Invitations --

2010-02-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

These bridal shower invitations were very special to me as a very close friend of mine asked me to design these for her sister's shower. I've known L for about 10 years and she is one of my few friends that I talk to almost every day. So when she asked me to design these shower invitations, I knew I wanted them to be awesome. Her sister is having a destination wedding in Jamaica and L wanted to follow the beach theme of the wedding for the bridal shower. I had all sorts of ideas running through my head as I have been wanting to do a beach theme invitation for awhile. In the end I went a little crazy and ended up designing FOUR different invites!

My favorite part of the invitations was the recipe card piece to it. The bride loves to cook and L wanted to have each guest bring one of their favorite recipes to the shower. In the end, we decided to include the recipe card on the invitation. Since the invitations were going to be 5"x7", I was able to make the recipe cards a standard 3"x5" recipe card size. I also perforated the recipe card to make it easier for all the guests to tear off the card and to ensure all the recipe cards would be the same size.

I had a really hard time coming up with my favorite version of the invitations but L and her sister picked the third one with the palm trees since the wedding invitations had palm trees on it as well. Which one is your favorite?

-- Photo Collage Cupcake 1st Birthday Invitations --

2010-02-20T16:54:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited about these birthday invitations because these little girls are so loved! Cambria and Kaylin's parents had been waiting what seemed like forever to meet their little ones and now that they are a family of 4, they are so grateful for their little blessings. Their mom, Tiff, reached out to me several months ago about having me design her twin daughters birthday invitations and I could tell how excited she was even then to celebrate their first birthday. She told me about the trials and tribulations they went through to start their family and I was so moved. I knew right then that these girls' first birthday would be extra special and any extra special birthday would have to have an extraordinary invitation ;).

The girls are having cupcake themed birthday and to further add to the theme, Tiff got their cake smash pictures taken especially for their invitations! Look how cute they are!

front of the card

back of the card

As it turns out today is the girls ACTUAL first birthday, so a very very happy birthday goes out to these little ones! Have a great time at your party! From all the planning your mom has done, I'm sure it will be amazing!

-- Wedding Placecards & Table Numbers --

2010-02-17T19:48:00.000-08:00

Once again I'm extremely behind on blogging but I finally have a follow up to my original post about Davida and Chris' wedding! Davida also asked me to make table numbers and place cards using the same designs we used for the invitations. For the table numbers we kept it consistent with the invitations. With the placecards, since they were offering 3 different menu options, we went with birds of different colors which helped distinguished the different meal options...green for meat, gray for vegetarian and black for fish.

Table Number

Placecards

Congrats again you guys! Still waiting to see wedding pictures, I cant wait!

-- Bird Themed Wedding Invitations --

2010-01-30T12:54:00.001-08:00

This is an extra special blog post because I have been saving this to mark the very special occasion of Davida and Chris' big day! I met Davida and Chris over the summer and after they got engaged in the fall, Davida contacted me and asked me if I could help her with their wedding invitations. Their colors were black, gray and green and she wanted to use birds as part of their theme. We went through a few revisions until we got it just right and I have to say I love the colors they picked for their wedding! The green just pops against the black and makes everything so striking. For the rsvp cards, I carried over the colors and the birds from the invitation to help tie everything together.

I'm so excited for the two of them to be tying the knot today and I cant wait to see pictures. Best wishes to Davida and Chris and many happy years together!

Up next I'll be sharing their placecards and table numbers!

-- Cartoon Ladybug Birthday Invitations --

2010-01-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

When I heard from Sarah's mom about her second birthday invitations, she told me how much she liked the cartoon version of Pierce that I did for his first birthday invitation. She also mentioned that Sarah's birthday theme would be ladybugs and it took me awhile to figure out how to incorporate a cartoon version of Sarah with ladybugs but here's what I came up with:

I love the little cartoon Sarah and how much it looks like her (check out Sarah's blog to check out all her adventures). A very happy birthday goes out to this little miss, hope you have a wonderful day complete with chasing ladybugs!

-- Monkey Themed 1st Birthday Invitations --

2010-01-24T19:10:00.000-08:00

Let's go bananas at Joaquin's 1st Birthday!

Joaquin's mom contacted me last month about designing the birthday boy's monkey themed 1st birthday party. Such a cute theme definitely deserved a super cute invitation to go along with it and here is the final product:

A very happy 1st birthday goes out to Joaquin! I know his mom's been very busy planning a very memorable and fun birthday for the little man and I can't wait to see the pictures!

-- Custom Holiday Cards --

2010-01-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

Apologies to all my readers for the lack of posts, I'm very behind on my blogging! I wanted to start off catching up on my blogging by sharing a few of the custom holiday cards that I designed for clients during my big November 2009 promo.

Remember Baby Sean? I was lucky enough to design his family's holiday card this year as well. I love his expression in this picture!

The next 2 designs were also for a client looking for a custom holiday card. I did 2 different versions of this card and I still can't decide which one I like more!

Up next: wedding invitations and birthday cards galore!

-- Happy Holidays from MJ Squared Designs --

2009-12-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone! I still can't believe the holiday season is upon us and 2010 is just around the corner. This holiday season was quite a busy one for me designing invitations and holiday cards. I cant wait to catch up on my blogging and share my latest designs with you all.
I want to extend a HUGE thank you to those of you who made my first promotion a success! An even bigger thank you goes out to all of you who follow this little blog! I’ve really enjoyed sharing my ideas and invitations over the few months and I can’t wait to share more in 2010!

I hope you are all having a happy holiday season with your loved ones. Since you have all been so amazing and let me into your families and lives, I wanted to share our holiday card with all of you. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

front

back

-- Holiday Card Promo! --

2009-11-01T11:40:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it's already November?!? Do you know what that means? 55 days until Christmas and it's time to start thinking about Holiday Cards! I'm very excited to offer my first holiday season promo, check out Package A and B below!

Your package A options include the following designs:

Holiday Ornaments

Silver Bells

Snowman Family
Customize the snowman family to match yours!

Holiday Frame - Oval

Holiday Frame - Rectangle

Snow Birds

Holiday Swirls

Snowflakes

Red & Green Squares

Dots

Ho!Ho!Ho!

Have something specific in mind for your Holiday Card? Want to get a head start on a birthday invitation, save the date card, birth announcement, or another stationary need? Then consider Package B:

If you're interested in either package or have any questions, feel free to contact me at mjohnson@mjsquared.net.

-- Photo Birth Announcement --

2009-09-22T11:02:00.001-07:00

I was so excited about doing this birth announcement because it was for a very special couple and we're all so thrilled for them that their baby boy is finally here! Sean is such a cutie and I had the chance to also take the pictures for this birth announcement so thanks Sean for putting up with me and my amateur photography skills :). His mom wanted a modern and unique birth announcement and here is the end result! I love it!

Sam & Mike congrats again and cant wait to see baby Sean soon!

-- 60th Retro Birthday Invitations --

2009-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Remember Rachel? She's not the only one in her family with an eventful year, her grandpa's turning 60 and he's having a party! Since this is the second 60th birthday invitation in a row that I've designed, I'm starting to sense that 60th birthday parties are becoming all the rage. The birthday party has a really fun retro theme and Rachel's mom gave me some ideas on what she was looking for so I came up with this:

I was so excited when Rachel's mom contacted me again, it means so much to me to have satisfied repeat customers. Thank you again for trusting me once more with your stationary needs! Hope you all have a fabulous time at the party!

-- 60th Birthday Invitations --

2009-07-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

I was contacted by Kim to do a birthday invitation for her father-in-law who's turning the big 60. She sent me a sample of what her and her mother-in-law liked so I used that as my basis and came up with this:

A big thank you to Kim and her family for letting me design such a momentous birthday invite and an even bigger happy birthday to Kim's father-in-law!

-- Photo Damask Birth Announcement --

2009-06-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Rachel's mom contacted me about designing birth announcements for her new baby girl. She wanted the birth announcement to match Rachel's nursery color scheme of brown and aqua blue. The winning choice ended up being a classic design with a damask print. Welcome to the world little Rachel!

-- Pool Party 1st Birthday Invitations Part 2 --

2009-06-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

In addition to the invitations I created for Pierce's mommy Amy, I was also asked to design the envelopes. In continuation of the pool party theme, here;s what I came up with:

Front of envelope

Back of envelope with return address

-- Pool Party 1st Birthday Invitations Part 1 --

2009-06-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Amy from Elmwood Court Photography contacted me about designing invitations for her son Pierce's pool party first birthday. Once again I couldn't stop coming up with ideas for designs and I ended up with three options for Amy. Amy ended up selecting the first design and I hope Pierce liked it as much as his parents did! Happy 1st Birthday Pierce!!

-- Floral Bridal Shower Invitations --

2009-04-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Lily contacted me recently requesting bridal shower invitations for her friend's bridal shower that she was hosting. With the bridal shower taking place in the spring and the wedding colors being red and cream, I decided to do a floral theme to the invites. I was so excited to do these that I ended up designing 3 different invites for Lily. She picked the last design which was also my favorite!

-- Retro Wedding Save the Dates --

2009-02-25T07:56:00.000-08:00

My friend Y needed some help with her Save the Date cards and here's the final design!

-- Season's Greetings from MJ Squared Designs! --

2008-12-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

Being a newlywed, I wanted our holiday card to include some of our wedding pictures. We had many guests who were unable to make the journey out to celebrate with us and I wanted to share some pictures from the day with them. As much as my husband hated the top right picture, the pictures and the card were a big hit!

Pictures courtesy of Pix Of Life

-- Wedding Favors, Placecards, Programs & Thank You Cards --

2008-11-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

Here's some more stationary stuff from M&M's wedding.

Programs
To help tie in all the stationary, I used the same cardstock and ribbon from the invitation pocketfolds for the programs.

Picture courtesy of Pix Of Life

Favor Tags
These favor tags were wrapped around the couple's shot glass favors.

Picture courtesy of Pix Of Life

Place Cards
Guests were treated to a sit down meal during the reception which made it necessary to differentiate what each guest ordered. Thus, the design on these placecards were color coordinated to help distinguish the different meal options. To help tie in the colors of the wedding even more, I used a brown color for the design on the beef place cards, cream for chicken, green for vegetarian, and black for the kid's meals. Also instead of menus for the entire table, I printed the each guest's menu on the inside of the place cards.

Thank You Cards
I created two different variations of these thank you cards. They both had the same design however one of them just said "Thank You" and the other had the couple's monogram. Having the standard "Thank You" card came in handy while writing thank you cards for gifts received before the wedding while the monogrammed ones were using for writing thank you cards after the wedding.

-- Pocketfold Wedding Invitations Part 2 --

2008-11-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the bride wanted a ribbon tied pocketfold invitation set. So without further ado, here is the final product! Please note, that with all the designs I do, I change names and personal information so the actual names and addresses on these invitations have been blacked out to protect the innocent.

Each invitation had the name of all the invited guests on the outside attached by the ribbon band.

-- Pocketfold Wedding Invitations Part 1 --

2008-11-04T15:09:00.000-08:00

Another first for me! I've finished a invitation set! The bride wanted ribbon tied pocketfold invitations that represented the brown color scheme of their wedding. Here are the final invitation pieces:

RSVP Card

Accommodations Card

Rehearsal Dinner Card

Next post - the final product!

-- Photo Collage Wedding Save the Dates --

2008-10-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm so proud of thevery first Save the Date cards I created! I wanted to use baby pictures of the bride and groom as well as a current picture. Guests love to see pictures and what better way to share some than on your Save the Date!

The colors for the wedding were brown and cream so I tried to use those colors as much as I could.

Front of Save the Date

Back of Save the Date

-- Contact Me --

2008-10-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

My goal is to help clients find the best option for their printing needs and thus I provide design only as well as design and print services.

My design only package includes email or phone consultations to figure out what you are looking for in a design, a proof of your custom design emailed to you, any edits that you may require, and the final design emailed to you in high resolution file so that you can print them yourself or take it to a local printer.

My design and print package includes the same design process as the design only package but will also include, depending on your order type, printing on highest quality photo paper or cardstock and envelopes.

For pricing information or any questions regarding my products or services, please feel free to contact me at anytime. I look forward to hearing from you!

-- First Post! --

2008-10-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the MJ Squared Design blog!

This site has been a long time coming and I still can't believe how far my hobby has come. While taking photography, painting, and pottery in high school, I came to find I had a passion for the arts but I put them on hold while I went to college and got a degree in computer science. After college, I landed a job doing web design and had a chance to learn Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Fast forward about 5 years, I found myself engaged and having a difficult time finding invitations that I liked so I dusted off my design skills and went to work designing all of our wedding stationary. Once the wedding was over I found myself getting requests to do design projects forothers and thus MJ Squared Designs was born.

I cant wait to share all the work I have been doing recently with everyone so stay tuned!