January 3, 2019

Sam Allen Creates: April thru June 2018

The craziness of 2018 continued through the spring… what can I say, I absolutely LOVE my job!

View Part 1 of my 2018 Review here.

April

Rapunzel is my favorite Disney princess so I was ecstatic to be chosen to participate in a Tangled themed photo shoot! You will definitely be seeing more of this shoot with a full blog post soon! Photos by Jess Palatucci

While crafting an adoption party invite for one of my besties… I tried my hand at making a watercolor portrait of their growing family. It was just the perfect touch to commemorate such a joyous occasion!

At this time, I created these navy watercolor tags and cards for a custom Etsy order—without knowing at the time what an impact these would have on my shop! Prior to this, I hadn’t made much of my watercolor work easily available to purchase but after sharing these watercolor tags and bridesmaid thank you cards later in the year, they became a big seller and kept me pretty busy in the fall!

Oh my, when this bride wrote me about needing day of stationery for her elopement in Greece, the answer was a BIG YES! And I’m so glad we got to work together because these photos from her photographer, Allen Tsai Photography, are such a dream!

And then a past bride wrote me about needing place cards for her child’s first birthday! I just LOVE when my brides turn to moms and come back for more. It’s just about my favorite thing EVER!

To close the month of April, take a look at this little cutie! Papercut silhouettes available for purchase here.

May

What comes to your mind with the month of May?! First up for me is Mother’s Day!! Here’s a couple pieces made for some amazing mothers!

The month of May also includes the anniversary of Pixar’s movie Up! This is such a favorite of mine so I had to paint up a little something to commemorate!

Remember that watercolor family portrait I just mentioned in the April section? Well I never had a shortage of friends who are willing guinea pigs for my new products? Thanks friends for helping me build my portfolio for your adorable families! Watercolor Portraits available for sale here.

In addition to the above watercolor portrait, in honor of my bestie Amie’s birthday, I created a Floral Letters Paper Cut Silhouette as I shown in my last blog recap post!

Another past customer of mine reached out as well but this time for a calligraphy tattoo!! Oh yes, please!! And I just adore the photos that Kacie Deale captured of the beauty!

This was a favorite project of mine, AND BIG!! These Rascal Flatts song lyrics were painted for an old friend to commemorate his mother’s passing , are so near and dear to my heart because of my own little boy! Due to a small mistake, I ended up redoing the whole canvas for them and kept the original in my office! So now I get to look at it everyday!

June

To start this month, we celebrated my baby boy’s 2nd birthday with some fun on the farm!

And then a couple days later, I made the drive down to Ramona to bring my handlettered goods for Janita Mestre’s styled shoot at Milagro Winery! This is another one that really needs a full blog post to share all the lovely vendors! But for now, here’s a small peek!

Photo by Morgan Dove Photography

Next up, a twist on a previous suite I made to have a “Twilight” theme for KSS Photography. This shoot was so amazing and I feel so lucky to have a small part in it… and a short time later it was published in Contemporary Weddings!

The month also included creating the placecards for this absolutely breathtaking wedding in Yosemite! Annie and Corey also had me write out the Irish Blessing on handmade paper to be read during the ceremony. Wedding tablescape photos by Kyro Digital.

How cute is this escort tag display?! Each table was named after a different Maine lighthouse and then little buouys attached! Photo by Sharyn Peavey Photography.

And then to close the month of June and this post, I worked with one of my favorite returning customers, Karianna, on her wedding invitations!

First step was creating a digital mockup of the invitation and then painting the pieces at a larger scale. These larger paintings are then scanned into Photoshop and composited for the final invitation!