Thank you for visiting my site! If you'd like to discuss a custom project, please don't hesistate to reach out.

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!


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…

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.


July

Custom Watercolor Portraits

This was such a sweet commission… ordered by a sister for her brother’s fire academy graduation of him and his wife! Love!

Bridesmaid cards

Bridesmaid cards took an upswing again, majority for the day of the wedding like the “to my… wedding day” cards or thank you cards but there were still some proposal cards thrown in.

Wedding BTS

Looking back, there was so much working being pumped out in July, as well as August, but there was SO MUCH work going out that I barely snapped any photos! But here’s a little sneak peek….

I loved crafting these tags for an August wedding (which you will see below)… each tag is carefully torn by hand, then personalized by name in gold watercolor! 🎥 Here’s a video of my creating a mockup of these tags!

Real Weddings

I can’t say enough how thankful I am when brides send me their wedding galleries! It’s so special and such a gift to receive these photos back!

Morgan Taylor Photography

And lastly, a wedding from the very last day of July… this bride ordered my personalized menus but with a twist! She planned to add a wax seal to the top, such a great idea! I loved the result with photos by Mary Dougherty.🎥 Here’s a video of my creating a mockup of these menus!

Vow Books

And of course more vow books and wedding photography from Stephanie Weber!

After the big day is over, I love when brides return for me to create their wedding vows into keepsake art! 🎥 Watch the process of how these are created!

Chalkboard Lettering For Bloom Ice Cream and Coffee Shop

To round out the month, I’m so happy to share these photos of the chalkboards I made for the opening of a new local ice cream and coffee shop! Our friends opened this shop up for our community and I AM IN LOVE! Their creations are so unique and also absolutely delicious… take a look at their IG page but most importantly, please stop in if you’re in the Lake Elsinore area (it’s a perfect pit stop from the LA area down to Temecula)!


August

On to the last month of this post! Who’s still with me?!

First Day of School

From here on out, August will always mean the start of school in our household as our little Isaiah started Kindergarten this year! To celebrate with those precious first day of school photos, I made him, and a few friends, some fun little pennants to hold!

Custom Paintings

I also had the honor to create a couple paintings for my friend’s wedding anniversary. These were so heartfelt and truly show the beauty of marriage and the reality that it is the hard work that follows the wedding day…. vases inspired by the song “Broken Together” by Casting Crowns, paired with a painting of the lyrics below.

Bridesmaid cards

As always, can’t forget to include bridal party cards for the wedding day and thank you cards as well!

Wedding BTS

August was an insane month of creating watercolor paper goods for September weddings! There was actually so much work being made that I barely had time to photograph any of it, but here’s a taste at what was made!

This next set of paper goods were created for a wedding right at the start of September. Everything at the wedding was going to be rustic elegance with whites and greens, so we kept the stationery very monochromatic with the classic white and black pairing.

Real Weddings

And now for some more favorite weddings! I linked the creation of these hand torn name tags above, now you can see how the bride actually styled them with these amazing green and gold wax seals and tassels! Photos by Alyssa Christine Photography

I loved this collection of photos as well from Jaye Avery Photography, of Emily’s wedding at the Ryland Inn in New Jersey! I had a hard time picking the favorites here but you can see more here on their portfolio page.

Kristyn Miller Photography

If you made it to the end of this insanely long blog post, THANK YOU!

If you are interested in purchasing any of the above, don’t hesitate to reach out via my Contact page or directly through my Etsy shop: yournewfriendsam.etsy.com

I believe in magic. I believe in the power of true love. I believe in fairy tales and happy endings. And I live to create stationery and art for the young at heart to allow my fellow dreamers to treasure all of life’s most wondrous moments!

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: