Thanks to Alchemy...

Late in May, my parents are throwing us a bridal shower. Because our friends and spouses are invited, the guest list is pretty substantial. I offered to help my mom find an affordable invitation. Chris and I first thought we would design and print them ourselves. The more we tinkered and worked on the invites, the more we realized that the cost was going to add up. So, we took the image we had pirated (Oh, did I say that!?) and went to Etsy.com.

On Etsy.com, there is a place called Alchemy where you could post work orders for artists to bid on. We wrote that we were looking to spend no more than $30 on the invitations with the envelopes. We also included our colors and inspiration image (above) that had a couple with a bike. Personally, I thought the request was a little far fetched, but it was worth a shot.

Much to our amazement and utter disbelief, the emails and bids on the job came flooding in. If this wasn't a testament to the bad economy, I don't know what is. Most of the artists submitted examples of what they intended to do or examples of their previous creations. There were several artists that were contenders. This included Kandy Ann's Kreations who created the image shown here. She made a die cut from our image and paired it up with some paper with various textures. We were floored! Unfortunately we decided to stay close to our original idea and pick a graphic artist who would print the cards. You really should check out Kandy Ann's Creations for more crafty options! Her work is beyond impressive AND is really cute.


Lindsey Ryan Design offered the look that we were looking for and lacked the know-how to create on our own. Her shop was filled with stationary that was just fantastic. She sent us a link to her online portfolio. We loved her work! We even had thoughts of possibly asking her to design our invitations. (We just love those Cat Seto's Willow invitations!) But, what really sold us was her rough sketch of what she planned on doing for us. We loved it! Well, not the bike, but the rest of it we loved. She quickly set off on a hunt for a more realistic road bike and we settled on this one. Then, Chris was happy. Lindsey has been a true professional. She has showed us draft after draft. I believe we have come to an agreement and the invitation is as follows:


What do you think!? Here is a picture of my love at Easterns last year. You should see how skinny he is right now!