Toddler Twins: Cute Any Way You Look At Them

Okay, folks. Let's get down to the brass tax. Toddlers are cute. Twins are cute. Toddler twins? I can't even handle. It's no secret, we love us some cute kids here at FP. I've pretty much stopped caring about my friends with kids as individuals. No more idle chatter about their work or interests or shows we both watch. Who even notices their haircut or that fun new pair of fall boots. Nope, I just open cold with, "Let's see 'em. Pics. Of your kid. Now." And when the little people with big cutes are actually IN MY OWN FAMILY, it's just that much harder not to squish them until they cry "auntie." So when my brother-in-law Ted and his wife Erin asked us to do thank you cards for these 3-year-old cuties, we knew we had to make them special.

In the consultation, Erin said she just wanted something fun and different for them. Oh yeah, and colorful. I asked her if she was in the "twins are people too" camp and wanted do separate cards for each of them. She chuckled like only a busy mom of twins could and said maybe when they're old enough to actually each write their own. Until then, she'd stick with one streamlined thank you from the both of them.

In the spirit of Erin's efficiency, Lisa and I began to brainstorm fun ways to make one card do the work of two. We toyed around with some ideas for a gatefold, a 2-sided postcard, maybe something circular. Then, Lisa remembered seeing this gem. Not really the kid-friendliest concept, but hey, you can't fight true inspiration. The brainstorm sesh went thusly:

"What is this even called? An anagram? Palindrome?"
"It's called an ambigram."
"wtf is an ambigram?"
"It's that. It looks like one word and when you turn it upside it's another word. The words are flippy."
"That the technical definition?"
"Yes. Ambigram: the words are flippy."
"It's cool. Too bad we couldn't do it for Finn/Riley... Could we?"
"No way.
"Not possible."
"Maybe?"
(Short silence, just fervent sketching...)
 "You'd have to make the y long like an f..."
"The n would have to drop down for the l..."
(More sketching...)
"It's so close, but I'm stuck on the double n. It's not working for the—"
"I think I got it! I got it!"
HOORAY! Our first digital pass went something like this:



No less than 3 hours and 50 files bounced back and forth, tweaking tiny little swoops and curves and refining every stroke, we finally landed on this BAM!bigram. (That's what I'm trying to call it. I'm so far alone in this.)




 Wait a second...



Yup, that's right. Bam!bigram. We just can't decide which side we like better.

All upside-down meeting aside, we're super happy with the way these turned out. We've even considered starting a line of custom ambigram cards. But then we thought about all the Elizabeths and Tims getting married out there and figured we should just relish this one awesome ambigrambial triumph.

I'm in the snowy Rocky Mountains for the holiday week with my husband's family, and yes, Finn & Riley are still just as squishy as ever. I, for one, am very thankful for all the cutienutballheads in my life.

Have a happy Turkey Day, everyone. Safe travels and lots of gravy and kid cuteness to all.

} jp-c

Inspiration Monday: Ruff Translation

The thing I feel like people ask most of our work is, 'How did you guys ever think of that?" I'm compelled to quote the ever-wise Lucas from one of my all time fave movies, Empire Records: "Who know where thoughts come from. They just appear."

It's true. Like pure kismet, ideas do just appear. Unless they don't. And that's when we hop online to our trusty design blogs for some distraction and, perchance, some inspiration. Kis...net. (Yes. I just did that.)

One of our latest series of cards was born of just such fortunate blog-wandering happenstance. Our design idols at Apartment Therapy had some lovely things to say about adding ruffles to your home. We fell in love with this chair from Aiveen Daly.

Now, this isn't the first time we've found divinity in fabric, but it was less about the fabric itself and more about the way it's been used. The ruffles add such an unexpected touch to a classic chair!

And, so, we asked ourselves, could we be so lucky that fabric ruffles could have the same awesomizing effect on a set of letterpressed thank you cards? More wisdom from Empire Records, and we knew we were guided by a force muck greater than luck. We were sitting on top of a good ole fashioned good idea!
Mixing solid and patterned fabrics with different colored thread and ink made for an eclectic little batch of fun notes.

Throw in some colorful envelopes, and there you have it, folks--some tactile, gratitudinal note cards that would hopefully make anyone's day. Would it be totally ridiculous to send a thank you note to the blogger gods for inspiring us with such a rad thank you note?

} jp-c

email us at info@farewellpaperie.com if you're interested in purchasing some ruffle cards of your own. they'll also be up on etsy very soon!