January 17, 2022

Sam Allen Creates: May to August 2021

Many of the projects shown here, I truly felt like I was working on just yesterday! This whole year just flew by!

May

Kicking off this post will be the launch of these bridesmaid tags! Funnily enough, I’ve had this listing in my shop for years but once I revised the verbiage to gear more towards bridesmaid gift tags, they quickly took off faster than ever! Since then, I’ve created over 1,000 name tags for such a range of bridal party members even aunts, ushers, and officiants! Shop name tags.

Bridesmaid cards

More than ever, my printed bridesmaid cards have become one of my best sellers! Shop bridesmaid proposal cards.

But even more so, the card sets with personalized envelopes! Shop here.

As well as my “to my….wedding day” cards with personalized envelopes. Shop here.

Mother’s Day Gifts

Right in time for Mother’s Day, I created a last few gifts. 🎥 Watch this portrait come to life here.

Custom Paintings

Creating custom paintings are some of my favorite projects. It keeps each day different and they always include some fun creative exercises for me to learn more in my craft. For this painting, it was in honor of my friend Jamie’s grandparents. They had these Just Joey rose bushes in their front yard, greeting the family for each visit along the brick pathway to the front door. What a beautiful sight to see upon their arrival! It was an honor to paint these roses for Jamie, to bring the memory of her grandparents into her home. 🎥 Watch this painting come to life here.

And of course, I always love when past customers return for more! in 2020, I created a watercolor portrait for this bride but now she commissioned her vows to be written in watercolor! What a stunning collection to display as keepsakes from her big day! Shop watercolor vow art here.

Wedding BTS

This was quite a month for creating wedding items for those summer celebrations! Here’s just a glimpse into my studio but keep scrolling to see some of these used in their real weddings!

Real Weddings

The month of May brought some of the most gorgeous weddings to my desk! I loved working on each and every one of these and have really had a hard time narrowing down the photos to share with you!

First up, a wedding photographed by Lauren Kearns Photography… I was absolutely giddy when I received this gallery based on that welcome sign photo alone! It’s truly so hard to get photos of real weddings, but to get a gallery that’s so full of amazing captures like this is a dream come true!

I remember the day Nikki first reached out to me last April to create table signs named after their favorite cities! I love working on custom projects like this! She also inquired about personalized menus, little did she know I had already done these but hadn’t listed them yet! Many thanks to Brian Lee, of Etcetera Photography for these gorgeous photos!

And finally, a few more May weddings to share… stay tuned for more of this next wedding as she recently had me paint her wedding bouquet!

June

Let’s keep this going, but with a quick pitstop to celebrate the birthdays of two of my favorite people in this world!

Birthday Party

With our little one’s birthdays just 10 days apart, it only seemed right to celebrate these milestone birthdays together! Thankfully my son let me pick the Neverland theme as it went so well for the two of them, especially as Lily is definitely our fiery pixie!

We celebrated their birthdays at a local park, the same one we had Isaiah’s first birthday at actually! 95% of the decorations were pulled from around our house and from Lily’s Neverland themed nursery.

Andy lastly, I loved making this milestone chart, pulling artwork I created for her room as well! Love my girl!

Father’s Day Gifts

The month went on to celebrate Father’s Day with a few orders of sibling papercut silhouettes!

As well as a watercolor portrait combining quite a few different photos to get this father in the perfect pose with his kids! The video of this painting is still to come!

Baby Girl Nursery

I say this all the time but I truly adore when past customers return for more! In this case, I painted a letter for this little one’s BIG sister so little sister needed a Floral Letter for her room too!

Before moving on to all things June weddings… I had the privilege to write the inscriptions in all these bibles for the new elders at our church! It truly was an honor!

Envelope Calligraphy

Ready for weddings!? To get started, photos of these dark navy blue envelopes I addressed for a small wedding in California!

Brush Calligraphy

And here’s loads more behind the scenes photos of projects I snapped photos of in my studio before mailing them off! From tags and table numbers to cards and signs, paint was flying across the page daily!

One more BTS shot… a chalkboard for a family friend getting married in Utah!

Real Weddings

This wedding was one of my favorites of the entire year with so many glorious photos of all these dusty blue details, it truly deserves it’s own post (and it’s coming, I promise!)! But here are some sneak peeks, all planned by Susan La Reau Events and photographed by Katherine Brackman.

Another favorite wedding of the year is this gorgeous pink wedding, photographed by Clary Pfeiffer. See more of this wedding on my portfolio page here!

Can you guess what I’m about to say? ANOTHER FAVORITE! This one was shot by For The Moment Photography down in Florida! See more on the portfolio page here.

And now for a few more June weddings, these I just did the escort cards and the placecards for…

Photography Du Jour
Photography Du Jour

Styled Shoot at The Marquess

As one of the only styled shoots I participated in last year, I’m glad I chose one that was THIS perfect and THIS beautifully executed! While I work on a full blog post of the day, here’s some sneak peeks! Photographed by Stephanie Weber, planned by H+L Lovely.