Calligrapher to the stars – now available to you

The question of how to address invitation envelopes came up often when I was an invitation dealer. I told my clients they had several options:

• Address the invitations yourself by hand or using a computer. This generally is the least expensive option.
• Order invitations from a company that will deliver them with the guest addresses already printed on the envelopes – not the least expensive but probably the most very convenient.
• Hire a calligrapher, which is generally the most expensive option.

For my daughter’s bat mitzvah I considered yet another option (otherwise known as "a crazy idea"): learning calligraphy so I could address them myself. A friend who is an accomplished calligrapher assured me that it was a matter of tools and techniques that I could learn despite the fact that I have terrible handwriting. So I took a class and learned that there are some skills best left to the professionals. I gained a new respect for calligraphers, and began to evaluate the options for our own event.

This collage features my daughter's bat mitzvah invitation. I drew my inspiration from the orchid ink and the beautiful marble envelope lining, rich with shades of purple and gold. The linings from two envelopes were pieced together to create the first layer under the invitation.

Fortunately, we had ordered a Checkerboard invitation, and Checkerboard was just introducing its “EasyAddressing “envelope addressing service. I didn’t want to recommend this to my clients without proof that it worked, so I used myself as the guinea pig. Following instructions, I submitted the list online and waited for the invitations. I speak from experience when I tell you that it was fabulous to have the invitations arrive all addressed and ready to go.

Checkerboard offers more than 600 fonts, and you can use any of them for your guest addresses. So it offers one of the advantages of calligraphy – having your envelopes addressed in a beautiful font (whether or not it matches the font used on your invitation).

Now Checkerboard is making the advantages of calligraphy more widely available – and not just for addressing the invitations. They have a gorgeous new line of invitations created by world-famous calligrapher Maria Thomas. To create these spectacular invitations, “your names or monogram are personally penned by Maria Thomas to create a unique calligraphic piece of art. This hand-lettered art is combined with a custom font chosen by Maria to complete your design.” And of course, “matching motifs by Maria are available to embellish your envelopes.”

Wow. These are just jaw-droppingly beautiful. If you're in the market for a truly personalized wedding invitation, this is the place to go. And if you're on the receiving end of one of these invitations, you can be sure that turning it into a framed keepsake will be a unique gift that will be very much appreciated. Visit www.purpleraincoat.com and let us create something spectacular that will honor the invitation and be the perfect touchstone for memories of that special wedding day.

Maria’s bio notes that she has designed custom wedding invitations for the Trump family as well as for Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. So the same pen that creates invitations for celebrities is now available to create an invitation for you. How cool is that?

Do you have Educated Tastes?

At Purple Raincoat, we believe in giving back. There are so many wonderful organizations doing great work, and nothing feels better than being a part of a cause that’s close to your heart. That’s why I’m proud to be working with the Lexington Education Foundation (LEF), an organization dedicated to enhancing educational excellence for students and teachers in the Lexington, MA public schools.

Each year, LEF hosts the “Educated Tastes” (ET) fundraising gala, a festive evening that includes sampling food from local restaurants and caterers, plus live and silent auctions. Our auction committee works hard all year to gather unique and highly desirable auction items. You may not be able to sample the food in advance, but you don’t have to wait to check out the ET auction items: for the first time, all of the silent auction items are available for viewing online at www.educatedtastes.org. This would not be possible without the website design efforts of students and teachers at Lexington High School, who have done a magnificent job in helping us spread the word about our auction.

Please visit the website to browse the silent auction items – there’s something for nearly every taste and budget, from vacation homes to Red Sox tickets to cooking lessons to jewelry. Included among the auction items is a Platinum keepsake collage donated by Purple Raincoat – and as you know Purple Raincoat collages make great gifts for all occasions. You’ll find lots of other great gift ideas (Mother’s Day will be here before we know it) as well as gifts you may want to give yourself (clothes, makeovers, a night on the town…).

This year’s event will be held on March 2, 2008 at the Boston Marriott at Burlington. There’s plenty of time to develop a bidding strategy before March 2, and to check your calendar to see if the available dates for your favorite item fit your schedule. We’ll be adding the live items soon, to whet the appetite of those who will be there. It’s sure to be a wonderful evening, and we hope you can join us – you can still order tickets through the website.

Even if you can’t attend, you can bid on these exciting silent auction items. “Outside” bids will be accepted on these items by phone or email from Monday, February 25 through Friday, February 29th; bidding instructions are on the website. Good luck – you may be a winner!

Are you involved as a volunteer with a local charity? Here’s a great idea – if your organization is holding a major event, there’s probably an invitation associated with it. Are you honoring someone? If so, give them a framed keepsake by Purple Raincoat to help them remember the occasion. Have you been the chair of a successful event? A Purple Raincoat keepsake collage will bring back memories of that special day.

No matter what the special occasion, Purple Raincoat can create the perfect gift. Visit us at www.purpleraincoat.com and see what we can do for you. Then get in touch with us so we can get started.

What’s cream and black and red all over?

Happy Valentine’s Day! Because this is the day when roses and the color “red” rule the world, I thought I would share a collage that takes a simple cream and black invitation and kicks it up several notches by adding red roses.

When I was gathering papers for this collage, I came across some gorgeous red rose printed paper by Stemma. The roses on the paper are so vivid you can almost smell them.

Previously, I had worked with white, pink, and yellow rose paper, but I had never seen red rose paper, and I was drawn to it immediately. The dark tones of this paper just seemed to complement this invitation, so I decided to be bold and "go red" with this keepsake.



Along with the red rose paper (see it in the lower left corner), textured paper in various shades of cream, red, and black are incorporated into the design. Texture and dimension are added by the unusual "fabric" paper with the red, black and gold floral print, the beaded cream paper, black ribbon, satin flowers, and gold and black skeleton leaves.

Sometimes, people tell me they don’t want to have Purple Raincoat create a collage because they receive an invitation that they think is “too simple” or even “ugly.” I say that just as all babies are beautiful in their own way, all invitations have “inner beauty” that doesn’t always shine through until put into the right context. And that’s what Purple Raincoat can do, no matter what the invitation looks like.

And here's something I learned today about St. Valentine: "He is the Patron Saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers, young people." According to the same source, "saints are not supposed to rest in peace; they're expected to keep busy: to perform miracles, to intercede. Being in jail or dead is no excuse for non-performance of the supernatural." So if you need a miracle in any of these areas, now you know who to ask.

On MSNBC, Keith Olberman just mentioned the beekeepers and as he noted, maybe that's why we call each other "honey". Have a sweet day.

Purple Raincoat collages make any day a sweet day. Visit us at www.purpleraincoat.com to see samples of our unique collages, which make the most memorable gifts.

It's all about fonts, for a change

Will the presidential nominees be decided by their choice of font?

One of the most important thing I learned in my years of designing and selling invitations is that the choice of font contributes enormously to the emotional impact of an invitation. As I always told my clients, “fonts have feelings.”

Using a font that looks like a ransom note, for example, may be appropriate on a surprise birthday invitation but probably wouldn’t be right for a wedding or a retirement party. Fonts that are straight up feel different than slanting fonts - look at the difference between regular Georgia (that's the font used on this blog) and Georgia in italic, for example. Similarly, an invitation in a very formal and intricate script-type font will have a different feeling than the same invitation with a newspaper-type block font.


This invitation successfully combines a block and script font. See more samples of bat mitzvah invitations at www.purpleraincoat.com

So what does this have to do with the presidential election?

The emotional connection that people make with fonts undoubtedly was considered by each of the major candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations in designing the graphics for their campaigns. A few days ago, the Boston Globe published an analysis of the candidates' logos to see which fonts were more effective in promoting the idea of “change,” something that has been embraced by so many of the candidates as a central theme of their campaigns. This fascinating assessment, written by Sam Berlow and Cyrus Highsmith of The Font Bureau, highlights the subtle and not-so-subtle influence of the chosen fonts on how voters decide which candidate to support.

The presidential race is evolving so rapidly that several of the candidates mentioned in the article are no longer in the running. Who knows what impact the fonts in their logos had on their lack of success in winning the nomination?

So on the eve of Super Tuesday, I thought it would be interesting to pass along their article, which draws an interesting conclusion: “If we were to predict the results based on typography and design, we would pick McCain and Obama.”

By Wednesday morning, we will have a great deal more evidence of how accurate their analysis is.

If you’re in a state with a primary election tomorrow, don’t forget to vote! And if you’re still undecided, maybe this information will help you make your choice.

Looking for a unique gift? Turn to Purple Raincoat, where we are experts at creating the gifts that people will be talking about. Visit us at www.purpleraincoat.com to see what we can do for you.

Romance is in the cards for Valentine’s Day

This Valentine keepsake collage was inspired by the Herman Hesse quotation: "If I know what love is, it is because of you."

We’re a country that loves to send greeting cards. At Christmas, it is estimated that Americans send out 2.6 billion cards. What’s the second largest card-sending holiday? That would be Valentine’s Day, February 14th. I’ve always wondered who St. Valentine was and why we focus on romance in the middle of February. Turns out that February has a long tradition of being associated with romance (it’s the shortest month - go figure). So it isn’t your imagination - the pressure to find not only the perfect Valentine's Day gift but also the perfect card to go with it has been going on for centuries.

Expect some crowds when you’re shopping. To avoid the rush in the greeting card aisle of your local drugstore, you might want to check out smaller shops with more exotic offerings. Cards can be found in some unexpected places. For example, the frame shop where I work on many of my collages (Frameworks in Burlington, MA) has a wonderful selection of unusual gifts and funky but elegant Valentine's Day cards.

Now consider the following scenario: You seek out the perfect card to express how you feel about your significant other (or someone you hope will become more significant). You find the card. It says exactly what you want to say. It’s perfect. You give it to your loved one, who also thinks its perfect.

Come February 15th, what happens to the card? No one wants to throw it away, but what should you do with it? Putting it into a drawer or a shoebox (with all those photos you have hanging around – but that’s another story) doesn’t feel quite right. If the sentiment is truly heartfelt and inspiring, why not showcase it in a framed keepsake collage where it can be seen and enjoyed every day? Card and gift all in one. The perfect Valentine’s Day gift. That’s a grand slam in anyone’s book.

So if you’re the card giver,consider making a big splash by presenting the card already framed and ready to hang. And if you’re the card receiver, show your admirer just how much the card means by having it framed.

Want to be even more of a hero? Create the perfect card yourself with the help of our friends at the Kodak Gallery. Use your pictures and your own words. To inspire you, they have created some special Valentine’s Day designs for cards (and other personalized gifts).

Of course, you can also have Purple Raincoat create a collage for you using a favorite saying on a card we design. For example: “To the world you’re just one person but to me you are the world.” You can specify the colors and we can work together to find the font that feels just right. Or you could use song lyrics. You could add a photo to it…the possibilities are almost endless.

Want inspiration for the perfect gift? You're sure to find it at www.purpleraincoat.com. Visit us and see why we are the experts at creating the perfect gift for any occasion.

It’s January 2008 – do you know where your Ketubah is?

My husband and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on December 30, 2007. Everyone knows about the gifts that are “traditional” for some milestone anniversaries, such as silver for the 25th anniversary and gold for the 50th wedding anniversary. But you may not be aware that there are lists of traditional and modern gifts for nearly every wedding anniversary.

The traditional gift for the first wedding anniversary is paper, so a piece of paper-based art is a most appropriate gift. It’s a great time to frame your own wedding invitation, if you haven’t done so already. But for many couples, there is another piece of paper to frame and display as a wedding keepsake: a marriage contract.

As part of most Jewish wedding ceremonies, the husband gives his wife such a contract, known as a Ketubah. Ketubahs can be beautiful pieces of artwork - decorative statements celebrating a couple’s relationship and commitment.

The ketubah was designed as a practical document to protect a Jewish bride’s legal and financial rights in the event of their husband’s death or a divorce. But ketubahs aren’t just for Jewish weddings anymore. All kinds of couples have embraced the custom of creating a marriage celebration document or “contract”.

Ketubahs come in sizes, styles, language and price points to suit everyone – check out www.ketubah.com for some examples of what is available. These contracts may be signed as part of a wedding ceremony, when a couple renews their vows, or to mark a milestone anniversary.

In Jewish marriages, the safekeeping of the Ketubah traditionally is the bride’s responsibility. When my husband and I got married, our rabbi told me that I should always know where our ketubah is. Our wedding was arranged and held within two weeks (that’s a story for another time) and we never thought about what our Ketubah would look like – the rabbi said he would provide it. We signed it and had it witnessed and filed it away. I didn’t even really remember what it looked like; in fact, I remember thinking that I didn’t love it and wished we could have done something different.

But recently, a Purple Raincoat client asked us to create a collage based on her Ketubah as an anniversary gift for her husband (well after their first anniversary). Despite the fact that the Ketubah was in only fair condition – it was faded with many creases and ragged edges – the collage turned out to be beautiful. That got me thinking about our own Ketubah. Fortunately, I knew where it was. I used it in a collage which I gave to my husband for our anniversary. Now our framed ketubah is hanging in our bedroom and I have a whole new perspective on our Ketubah – I absolutely love it.



The ketubah is layered on violet, cream-and-gold flowered, silver, black and gold textured papers. The collage's background is the same grey parchment print as the background of the ketubah. Silver and gold ribbon, violet skeleton leaves, and gold mesh accent the design. A beautifully textured black frame completes the design.

So when you’re thinking about an anniversary gift, think about having Purple Raincoat create a beautiful showcase for your own marriage contract, if you have one. If you don’t, consider having one made for you and your significant other – it’s a great way to reaffirm your commitment and celebrate any anniversary.

Purple Raincoat is the expert at creating wonderful one-of-a-kind gifts for weddings, anniversaries, and other special occasions. See samples of our work and get inspired by visiting our portfolio.

Don't forget about your memories: Six tips for making events more memorable using photographs and keepsakes

When you’re planning a celebration of a life milestone event – a wedding, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, first anniversary, 25th anniversary, or other special occasion – you want to do everything you can to make the event memorable and meaningful.

Everyone knows that looking at photographs is a wonderful way to bring back memories. So photographs that show the growth of a child or a relationship over time can be used to enhance your event.

Here are some ideas for using old memories when you’re making new ones:

1. Present a group of photographs on a photo board.
These can be simple – a few photographs pasted on a poster board. Or they can be more elaborate, done scrapbook-style using paper, stickers and other elements to enhance the photos and tie them together visually.
You can do this yourself or hire someone to do it for you –
yes, there are professional scrapbook artists out there, and some event planners provide this as a service.
If you’re going to make a scrapbook-style photo board, you might want to learn how to use some basic scrapbooking supplies and techniques. Check out the websites of Simple Scrapbooks magazine (www.simplescrapbooksmag.com) for basic ideas, and Memory Makers magazine (www.memorymakersmagazine.com) for some more elaborate examples.




A sample from a scrapbook-style bat mitzvah photo board - see Tip #1

2. Go digital
Many online photo services, such as the Kodak Gallery (www.kodakgallery.com) or Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com) will create digital collages of your photographs. This is especially convenient if you already have uploaded your photos to one of these websites.
Digitized photos also can be turned into multimedia slideshows with music, titles, and other effects. This can be done by some online photo services, as well as by many local businesses that process digital photographs. Many software programs (such as Apple’s iLife software) are available to help you do this on your own.

3. Incorporate photographs into your favors
The range of products that can be personalized with a favorite photograph is almost unlimited – everything from mugs to playing cards to T-shirts, key rings, and puzzles. Start with the online photo services for ideas.

4. Use photographs in your table decorations
Photos can be used instead of table numbers – imagine people sitting at the “First Grade” table for a bar/bat mitzvah or a “First House” table at a wedding. A photo tree could be used to display a group of photos as part of a centerpiece.

5. Make a photograph the focal point of your sign-in board.
Sign-in boards make great keepsakes and give your guests a chance to create a unique personalized memento. Make an enlargement of a favorite photo, have it dry mounted on foam core and let your guests use it as a sign-in board. You also can buy sign-in boards that come framed and formatted to include a photo.

6. Display a keepsake collage that uses photographs
Show off a wedding photo with the original wedding invitation at a 25th anniversary party. Use a newborn photograph and a recent photograph for a milestone birthday. These collages could incorporate memorabilia from a past event; they also can be made to celebrate the current event, using the invitation from your special occasion. Purple Raincoat will be happy to create one for you.



This invitation keepsake collage was created for the couple's 20th wedding anniversary, using an original invitation and photograph from their wedding day, which we restored and reprinted.

When your event is over, be sure to preserve the memories with a personalized gift from Purple Raincoat. We're the expert in showcasing your memories. Visit www.purpleraincoat.com to see what we can do to help celebrate your special occasion.

Here's Dorothy and Murray showing off their Purple Raincoat collage, which they received on their 70th wedding anniversary as a gift from their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Is someone in your family celebrating a special occasion? A milestone anniversary, like Dorothy and Murray? A special birthday? A new member of the family? The experts at Purple Raincoat would love to create something special for you. Visit www.purpleraincoat.com to get inspired.

Amazing Accomplishment: Massachusetts Couple Celebrates Their 70th Wedding Anniversary

A deteriorated, black and white wedding photograph is transformed into a timeless keepsake to preserve the memories of 70 years ago.

Lexington, MA (PRWeb) November 29, 2007 -- Dorothy and Murray’s love story began shortly after Dorothy immigrated from Europe in the early 1930s. As children, the two lived across the street from each other in Worcester, Massachusetts. After getting married, the couple lived in Worcester, where they raised their family. Murray was a baker and Dorothy worked in a children’s clothing store. In their wildest dreams, they could not have foreseen that in 2007, they would be celebrating Dorothy’s 91st birthday, Murray’s 90th birthday, and their 70th wedding anniversary at their home on Cape Cod.

Planning Dorothy and Murray’s anniversary party, their family was faced with a unique dilemma. What can you get a couple who has been married for 70 years? They gave the matter considerable thought and couldn’t come up with an appropriate solution. Fortunately, a granddaughter in the family knew about Purple Raincoat, (www.purpleraincoat.com) a company that creates personalized keepsakes to preserve life’s special events. Every Purple Raincoat creation is a unique, one-of-a-kind keepsake designed to enhance and complement your invitation or announcement.

Dorothy’s and Murray’s 70th wedding anniversary was indeed an occasion worthy of just such a keepsake. Unfortunately, no one in the family had a copy of Dorothy and Murray’s wedding invitation. But they did have a black and white wedding photograph, although it had deteriorated over the years. Purple Raincoat was able to restore that photograph and transform it into the perfect keepsake capturing the spirit of Dorothy, and Murray’s wedding 70 years ago.

Gary E. Haffer, a local artist, writer, and businessman, stated, “When I saw the finished product, I could hardly believe this transformation of an old black and white photograph into a timeless work of art and a special tribute that will preserve the memories of Dorothy’s and Murray’s wedding for generations to come.”

Here’s some interesting news. When Dorothy and Murray’s great-grandson, Dylan, had his Bar Mitzvah the family turned to Purple Raincoat to make a keepsake of his Bar Mitzvah ar Mitzvah. (www.purpleraincoat.com/portfolio.html )

About Purple Raincoat(http://www.purpleraincoat.com/about.html )
Purple Raincoat uses framed invitations and/or photographs to create personalized keepsakes that preserve the memories of life’s precious moments. These personalized keepsakes become cherished mementos that will be appreciated now and cherished for a lifetime. Visit us at www.purpleraincoat.com to see samples of our work for special occasions.