While you should be showing the one you care how you feel all year long, Valentines Day is but one very obvious excuse to make declarations of love. It might also be a good time to make babies. Although apparently that should happen all year round too!

So, to celebrate both of life’s greatest pleasures we have in the shop some new love and baby cards.

Here’s a peek:

And the baby cards:

Aside from the love and baby cards, we also have one very special offering, just for the guys!

See you over at our Etsy and Felt & Wire shops!

~ Cassie

{ images taken by Christine }

But at the risk of mocking a culture that I should be proud of, there is generosity at the heart of many Chinese traditions. I’m referring specifically to the Lucky Red Envelope that generations above, hand to you filled with money at Chinese New Year. And if it’s your birthday, you are the one handing red envelopes to all the guests. So despite all the bizarre acts of wishing others wealth, good fortune, and happiness, there is at least something that is simple and thoughtful.

To celebrate Chinese New Year on Monday, Jan. 23rd, we have posted a free template here for you to download and print. It’s our take on the red envelope.

Here’s what you do:

1. Right-click and download the PDF to your desktop.
2. Print using a colour photo printer – one side at a time. This is double-sided, so you will need to know how your printer feeds the paper.
3. Cut and fold the flaps so the center is in the shape of a square.
4. Fill with money!
5. You can choose to seal all flaps with a sticker at your option.

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Cheers,

> Christine

{ images taken by Christine }

With family spanning across the globe (literally) they opted to have their wedding in Hawaii with receptions following in New Zealand and Canada.

This meant wedding invitations that had to do triple duty. While some guests were invited to all three events, most were only invited to the event in their nearest country.

In what was our most daunting project yet, but also one that was incredibly fun to do we came up with a set of stacking cards, inspired by the Eames house of cards.

We designed 12 cards that bundled together depending on the reception location. Guests of the Hawaii reception received all the cards while those attending the New Zealand or Canada party received only six.

With bride and groom from different continents, their circle of friends and family were mostly mutually exclusive. We felt the invites were the perfect way for all the guests to learn more about the couple. And that’s exactly what we filled the 12 cards with. Along with the requisite event and venue information each card highlighted cultural differences, facts about their hometowns and divulged personal quirks. All together it made for an exceptionally personal invitation.

Christine and I were so happy with how they turned out and loved that we got flex our typographic muscles. We also designed their thank you cards, place settings, a crossword for guests at the table and a recipe collection wedding favour making the entire wedding collateral unified and complete.

Thanks Kelly + Simon for having us be a part of your special day(s)!

~Cassie

{ wedding images courtesy of Kelly + Simon, images of invites taken by Christine }

As paired by the hosts, we had a few weeks to introduce ourselves and send a surprise calendar in the mail. And what I got was a nice geometric and reusable treat from Amanda – a wall hanging quilt pattern letterpress calendar by Fourth Year Studio.

LOVE IT. Each month contains a unique pattern that can be torn off and reused as a note card. The calendar comes with recycled envelopes for an even more eco-friendly appeal. Here’s a taste of a few of the patterns. You can find these from the Fourth Year Studio shop on Etsy.

Oh and if you’re curious about what I sent my swap mate, you can view it here. Unfortunately, the Veer store has closed, but you should still be able to view the item.

Cheers,

> Christine

{ images by Fourth Year Studio and taken by Christine }

Here’s a peek at some of the new designs:

To see the rest, head over to our shop. If you visit before December 4, 2011, all cards are Buy 3 Get 1 Free. And in honor of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we’re also offering FREE SHIPPING on any order placed Friday November 25, 2011 to Monday November 28, 2011.

Happy holidays!

~ Cassie

Heather’s fun and easy-going personality made this a super fun project to work on. We’re pretty flexible here at I’ll Know It When I See It, but when we were given so many ideas and options to play with, we were like a kid in a candy store. We had a pretty wide selection of colours, type, and overall presentation ideas to play with. The only requirement was to keep it simple.

The illustrations and design were to reflect “destination”, but more importantly, the personality and union of this couple. Heather was inspired by scenes of surfboards sitting in the sand with palm trees growing in the background. So with a combination of diagonal text, surfboard motifs, and palm leaf-like patterns, the invites became laid-back and simple.

All of the information is communicated on one side of the card, letting us keep it simple with a two-toned pattern for the back. And to our fortune, shimmery envelopes in a turquoise shade were available. Not to much blue in the overall look, but a balance between light and dark colours.

The surfboard motifs are unique to Heather + Blair, as is with all custom designed invites. When apart, they only look like personalized surfboards. But when together, they show the union between the couple.

Heather and Blair, it was a pleasure of working with you!

Cheers,

> Christine

{ images taken by Christine }

Based in Brooklyn, NY, Bianca + Dylan were looking for a fun invite that guests would say, “that’s so Bianca and Dylan” when they opened it up. With the bright colours, playful robots and cute wording, it certainly matched the mood of the wedding that would be held in the artistic enclave known as DUMBO.

Despite the tight turnaround, Bianca was so great work with – on the ball and together we made it happen!

Along with the invite we also designed some matching jar labels to go on the gummy bear wedding favours.

We were so thrilled to hear the great reactions from Bianca + Dylan’s guests upon opening their invite. As designers, we truly aim to wow the pants off anyone viewing our work and these comments really made our day:

“I hate canned, stupid, typical invites…yours is so awesome…way to go out on your own and be original.  Fabulous.  Well done.  Honored to be invited.”

“We got your invitation in the mail and it is off the hook! By far the best wedding invitation of all times. Seriously, so perfect and so you two and so impressively individualized. Well done!”

“I got your fantastically amazing wedding invite the other day – seriously hands down it’s the best nuptial invite I have ever gotten! Did you guys design it yourselves?”

And from Bianca + Dylan:

“Cassie and I’ll Know It When I See It were a wonderful part of our wedding planning.  Robots have a special meaning to us and we were eager to incorporate them into our wedding invites.  Cassie really understood the aesthetic that we were going for, came up with great recommendations, and at the same time, listened to what we wanted.   She was extremely attentive and changes came back quickly which we truly appreciated.  Everybody thought our invitations were so unique and nobody had ever seen anything like them.  More importantly, we absolutely loved them.  In addition, I’ll Know It When I See It came up with wonderful labels for our party favors that tied back in with the invitations.  Cassie, you were the best, thank you for all your help!  You were an absolute pleasure to work with and we look forward to working with you again!”

Thank you Bianca + Dylan for letting us be part of your special day and congratulations again!

~ Cassie

{ wedding images courtesy of Bianca + Dylan, wedding invite images taken by Christine }

Just a few pics to share with you all on the goodies everyone went home with – thanks to Yuri, who baked and personalized each sugar cookie. It was a delight to design a tag that was quirky and personal.

Cheers,
> Christine

{ images taken by Christine }

There were two things I absolutely had to eat before I left: Beecher’s famous mac and cheese and chowder from Pike Place Chowder. The photos don’t do the dishes justice AT ALL but I swear it’s a must try if you’re there.

Because we’re a two hour drive from home with shopping stops along the way, it was difficult to buy anything fresh. So instead, these pictures are the best way to take a bit of the market home with me.

~ Cassie

{ images taken by Cassie }

We booked the Gourmet Seattle Food & Cultural Tour with Savor Seattle. With 17+ tastings we were pretty excited. Not so exciting? Hour long wait at the border, accident on the I-5 and a booking mix-up causing us to arrive late and miss the first stop at Andaluca restaurant.

But our super friendly and awesome guide, Eric, more than made up for it. He quickly met up with us and whisked us to the second stop at Serious Pie, a Tom Douglas restaurant.

By this time we were STARVING so it didn’t take long for us to scarf down quite possibly the best pizza I’ve ever had.

First, chanterelle mushroom and truffle cheese followed by buffalo mozzarella and San Marzano tomato. Um, truffle and buffalo mozzarella – talk about heaven on a plate!

We headed to Pike Market for our next stop at La Buona Tavola.

There we met the owner and truffle queen Rei Hanscomb. She let us sample various truffle creams, balsamic vinegars and other delicious sauces. The best thing there: truffle salt. One small sprinkle and it was a full assault of truffle. The olive bruschetta we tried:

We returned after to buy some goodies and Rei was kind enough to tell us about some wineries and B&Bs to check out in Italy for our trip in September. Looks like our next vacation maybe be the ultimate foodie trip!

About a block away we stopped in at Il Bistro. It was before dinner service so we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. Chef Nathan Luoma sat with us and chatted about the history of the restaurant and sourcing ingredients from the market. Here we had saffron risotto with clams and mussels and a glass of Waving Tree wine. It was so good that we ended up going back there for dinner. Their happy hour menu is a steal and a great way to try their fare.

Three more tastings to go, just around the corner and down the alley we headed into The Pike Brewing Company. Meeting us at the back door was Abil who enthusiastically filled us in on the history of beer, how it’s made and The Pike.

We got to sample three beer and cheese pairings: the Kilt Lifter Ruby Ale, the Pike I.P.A. and my favourite, the Pike Dry Wit, Seasonal White Ale. The I.P.A. was too strong for me but I easily could have drank a pitcher of the Dry Wit.

A culinary tour wouldn’t be complete without visiting Asia so we stopped in at Thoa’s for contemporary Vietnamese cuisine with Pacific Northwest ingredients. I love pad thai and the Vietnamese style interpretation we had here was no exception!

Last but not least it was time for coffee and dessert. We stopped in at Gelatiamo for our final tasting.

While they offer some pretty mouth watering pastries and cakes, that day we sampled two kinds of gelato, one sorbet and a delicious cup of coffee. First we had stracciatella gelato and raspberry sorbet. Stracciatella is like the classy, Italian version of chocolate chip ice cream, made with vanilla gelato and chocolate shavings. And because Eric heard me wistfully yearn for the salted caramel gelato, I got to taste a spoonful of that too!

This was the perfect way to spend an afternoon in downtown Seattle. I would highly recommend taking a Savor Seattle tour and all the places we visited I would go back to for a proper meal. I had no idea that there were so many great restaurants in Seattle and we considered staying an extra night so we could try a few more. Good thing we don’t live too far!

The following day we walked Pike Market and as luck would have it, the Cheese festival was on! I LOVE CHEESE so it could not have been better timing. I’ll have some pics from the market up so check back soon.

~ Cassie

{ images by Cassie }

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