Your Wedding: A Reflection of You

by Roxanne Buchholz, Studio Creative Team Manager

Your wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime experience; a day filled with love, laughter, and tears of joy. You are going to be surrounded by your loved ones and, most importantly, getting married to the love of your life. All of these elements create a unique story that is truly yours and should be reflected in your selection of wedding stationary, décor, and gifts.

Today, we are swooning over “Chalkboard Floral,” a lovely new wedding suite by Senior Creative Team member, Kari Pieratt, featuring the newly released “A Romantic Day” art collection. Retro yet modern, these templates are so easy to customize, beautifully designed, and memorable, to say the least.

 

To start it all out, every bride and groom will need “Chalkboard Floral Engagement” 7 x 5 invitation, template 119829 and “Chalkboard Floral Save the Date” 7 x 5 invitation, template 119822. As an alternative, “Chalkboard Floral Save the Date” 8 x 4 photo card, template 119828 is also available. To celebrate the bride, “Chalkboard Floral Bridal Shower” 7 x 5 invitation, template 119830 will be the perfect party invitation for a fun and casual girls’ get-together.

Four to six weeks before the big day, beautiful and memorable wedding invitations will need to be sent. “Chalkboard Floral Wedding” 5 x 7 invitation, template 119821, is right on trend with this chalkboard design that serves to highlight the bold, modern florals in tones of yellow and teal.

And don’t forget “Chalkboard Floral Address” return address labels,template 119834 and “Chalkboard Floral Thank You” 4 x 6 invitation,template 119831. To remember the special day, Kari has even designed a “Chalkboard Floral Wedding” 16 x 10.5 French-line metal print, template 119836, to show-off a favorite wedding photo personalized with the couple’s married name and wedding date.

In addition to the stationary and home décor, Kari has gone one step further and designed a coordinating guest sign-in book “Chalkboard Floral Guest Book” in the traditional 11.5 x 8.5 storybook, template 119832, as well as the lay-flat 11.5 x 8.5 storybook, template 119833. Wedding guests will enjoy writing special messages of advice to the bride and groom as they begin their journey together. And the collection doesn’t stop there. Look for a new wedding storybook coming soon to complete the set!

New to the Template Gallery this month are several new contemporary 11 x 14 prints by Roxanne Buchholz, which would be perfect as a framed wedding gift or as an anytime addition to your own home décor. These two templates can be customized to fit any state or province and color scheme of your choice. “State of Marriage – Vertical,” template 119774and “State of Marriage – Horizontal,” template 119775.

 

For a more traditional wedding aesthetic, “Bride and Groom Photo Grid,” 20 x 20 wrapped canvas, template 119779 and “Beautiful Things,” 20 x 16 wrapped canvas, template 119879, both by Roxanne Buchholz, will leave a lasting impression in your home with their elegant and romantic styling.

From the engagement party to the wedding and beyond, Heritage Makers has all the templates and products to help you make a big impression with your special event. Explore all that our Template Gallery has to offer, be inspired, and create that once-in-a-lifetime wedding that is truly a reflection of you.

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Your Style, Your Way - Happily Ever After Canvas Design Map

by Roxanne Buchholz, Studio Creative Team Manager

With the traditional wedding season quickly approaching, Studio Creative Team member Cassie Balser challenged the entire Heritage Makers Studio Creative Team to come up with a customized 20 x 24 wrapped canvas based off of her grayscale design map, “Happily Ever After Design Map,”template 119800.

Starting with a neatly organized grid, each designer was able to take this simple grayscale design and customize it to fit her own personal style. From Sara Wise’s whimsical, retro design to Michelle Bell’s elegant, transitional canvas, each designer’s personality really shined through in this challenge. With over 100,000 embellishments and papers in Studio, the possibilities for theme, style, and color are endless. Let’s take a look at each of the designer’s canvases below.


“Happily Ever After Design Map,” template 119800 and “Happily Ever After by Cassie,” template 119801



“Happily Ever After by Sara,” template 119607 and “Happily Ever After by Kari,” template 119799



“Happily Ever After by Michelle,” template 119891 and “Happily Ever After by Roxanne,” template 119853



“Happily Ever After by Leanne,” template 119767 and “Happily Ever After by Brooke,” template 119655

All of our wrapped canvases are on special this month with an additional 10% off at check-out, so think about those home décor projects that you’d like to get done. Are you or someone you know getting married this year? Or do you have special photos of your family that you’d like to make into wall art for your home? These canvases make lasting impressions, so get started on yours today. With our wide selection of templates and grayscale maps, you should be able to find the perfect fit just for you.

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Photography Tips: Faceless Photography

Photographing the graduation, wedding or Mother’s Day gathering? Capture a least a few photos that are face free. Relationships and settings are often more powerfully demonstrated with tight close-ups of things other than faces. Let’s look at a few shots you won’t want to miss.

Hands

Snap grandma holding hands with grandpa or the newest member of the family. Grab a photo of the bride and groom hand-in-hand as husband and wife or capture the diploma in your young graduate’s grasp. Show Mom helping her daughter prepare for the prom or graduation. And too, if the event has associated traditions like a tea ceremony or signing a wedding certificate, those moments also deserve the power that a close up, face-free photo brings.

The Details

Get in close and capture the décor, the jewelry, the shoes and socks, or lack of them, which make your family’s special occasion unique. If it’s a graduation, document the program, the flowers, and the school emblems that are displayed along with the Hawaiian print shorts your son will wear underneath his graduation gown. And if it’s a wedding, remember most wedding décor is chosen to be a reflection of the young couple. Will the bride be sporting jeweled flip-flops under her wedding dress? Are the paper lanterns a nod to her Chinese ancestry? Will one of the groomsmen be wearing purple socks? Let the personal touches they choose for their celebration live on forever in photos, and the memories made will be remembered long after the event is over.

The Location

Trying to get everyone in the photo and still see the scene behind is often just not practical. Always include at least a few face-free shots to help define the location. Whether it’s the celebration table, the high school sign, the outside of the church or a photo of the road sign; such scene-setting photos add context to your pages and projects.

Adding Context and Detail

While faces are the mainstay of photographed moments, you can add rich detail and important context with your no faces photos. Never let them replace those smiling faces. Just think of them as the icing on the cake!

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Template Spotlights: Weddings

With wedding season just around the corner, Heritage Makers offers this peek at three beautiful wedding collections, all of which can be customized for just about any bride’s fancy.

Our most recent bridal collection is by Darcie Toom and uses “Blessed” art and a classic style and feel. Incredibly beautiful, the neutral silvers, whites, and greens coordinate with any color scheme.

For additional touches of color, add blossoms in the bride’s colors or change the inside papers at the side or bottom of the page. In the Template Gallery search field, enter “Blessed” to find the entire collection.


Also new, our “Natural” collection by Sandra Dovre is a clean, white on natural design that can be changed quickly and easily to match any bride’s color scheme.

Neutral colored elements allow background papers of any kind to be swapped for the natural color shown and give an instantly different look like those shown here.

In the Template Gallery search field, enter “Natural” to find the entire collection or use the ID numbers below to find individual pieces. Products available in this collection include:

"Natural Wedding Thank You" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 55500
"Natural Wedding Bridesmaid Album" Square Flip Book ID 55499
"Natural Wedding Parents Album" 8 x 8 Storybook ID 55498
"Natural Wedding Album" 11.5 x 8.5 Storybook ID 55497
"Natural Wedding Guest Book" 11.5 x 8.5 Storybook ID 55496
"Natural Wedding Invitation" 7 x 5 Greeting Card ID 55495
"Natural Wedding Save the Date" Playing Card Deck ID 55494



One of our most popular wedding collections is the “Love Story” collection by Jill Means. The design is simple but elegant and features classic swirls and beautiful lettering.




Every element and paper in this clean and modern collection is color customizable. Slightly different from simply changing out papers or elements, in Jill’s designs, you can change the color of swirls, lettering, backgrounds, and overlay papers to colors “sampled” from the bridal bouquet, the bridesmaids’ dresses, or any color you fancy.

In the Template Gallery search field, enter “Means” to find the entire collection or use the ID numbers below to find individual pieces. Products available in this collection include:

"Love Story - Swatch Book" Square Swatchbook ID 37812"Love Story - Formal Wedding" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 32436"Love Story - Photo Wedding Invitation" 7 x 5 Invitation ID 32434
"Love Story Save-the-Date Invitation" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 32433"Love Story - Bridal Shower Invitation" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 32432"Love Story Wedding Album" 12 x 12 Storybook ID 32431
"Love Story Parents Album" 8 x 8 Storybook ID 31178"Love Story - Photo Wedding Invite" 7 x 5 Invitation ID 37473

These projects are just a few of the many wedding templates available in the Template Gallery. Enter “wedding” to find more. And remember, with Studio templates, every single paper and element can be customized to fit even the most unusual of wedding needs or color schemes. With Heritage Makers, your bride can really “have it her way.” Help the newly weds in your life to treasure the memories of their beginning by creating one of these elegant keepsakes today!

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Studio Showcase Winners

This year at Reunion, Heritage Makers added a new category to the "Best Of Heritage Makers" - Studio Showcase! There are so many fun things to be done with our products, outside of the regular storybooks, etc!

Watch the 4minute video below to check out some of these innovative ideas!

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Weddings and Babies

I've been getting invited to lots of weddings and baby showers lately - it must just be that time of year again :)

While I love our Direct Shipping option, sometimes one just doesn't receive notice for some events to give one enough time to design a unique card, have it published, and have it shipped in time!

However, with all of our artistic options, and the fact that our beautiful cards are cheaper than going to the card store, it makes it worth it (and lots of fun!) to publish some generic (but in YOUR style) Wedding and Baby cards to have on hand for these special occasions!!

Check out these beautiful cards that I found (and played with) from the Template Gallery!

Baby Girl Card (template id: 17691)

I liked this one so much that I changed it to make a boy version! (if anybody wants these "altered" cards in their account to publish or further alter, just let me know :))

And then for those impromptu baby showers where the baby hasn't been born yet, and the gender is left to be a surprise... (template id: 20616)

And I loved these 2 beautiful Wedding Cards (template id: 26522 and 34660)

So if you invite me to a Wedding or a Baby shower anytime soon, you might just be getting one of these gorgeous cards attached to your gift :)

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Then Comes Marriage

I am so excited about this mini-poster! It is on an 11x14 print, and is the 2nd in a series of posters I'm making for our family - my next work in progress is one of our first baby :) I had so much fun designing it, and even though it is covered in beautiful embellishments, it was cheap, fast, and easy to make!

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My Wedding Album

For those of you who know me, you'll know that I start projects with the greatest of intentions, but that I haven't always been great at finishing them. This was how the original wedding album began - the beginning of my scrapbooking hobby! I invested hundreds of $ into our wedding album, only to have it sit on our shelf for the next 4 years, in all its unfinished glory. Incomplete journalling, pages that were still waiting for pictures to get developed, and then eventually it got dropped and the binding broke. My one and only copy of a very special event.

So when I discovered Heritage Makers, I told my husband that I was going to re-do our wedding album. And FINISH it. I don't think he really believed me. But I did it! I scanned some of the original 12x12 pages that were special to us, and put them into a Legacy 11x13 book (I really wanted the leather!) and I finished all of the journalling, re-did a few pages that used to make me cringe, and completed all of those unfinished pages! And it only took about a week! And now, with our Heirloom Assurance, I'll never have to worry about this being my one-and-only copy, and our children can feel free to read the story of their parents' love as much as they want!

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