Invitation Inspiration

{designs by michelle may for checkerboard and photographed by adoniram sides}

For over 10 years I have been designing invitations for Checkerboard, here in the Worcester area. If you are planning an event, no matter how big or small, and would like some rocking invitations or announcements, I can help you out. No matter what your budget is, we can find the perfect choice for your event. I will work with you from concept to completion if you would like something completely custom, or we can choose something simple and elegant and have it to you within a few business days. We use the finest heavy weight papers and have award winning design and typography.

{image inspiration board by checkerboard}

Working with some pretty outstanding designers, many of which have been featured here (links to their personal art over on the right) in itself is inspirational. I love to go to work everyday and create with paper and imagination. Some of my designs have been chosen by personalities including The Rolling Stones, David Baldacci, Princess Firyal of Jordan and Lionel Pincus, Queen Rania of Jordan, Robert Cray, and President Clinton.

If you are thinking of printing invitations yourself, for the same price that you may spend on papers and inks and trying to design your own, I can find a you a better solution that will save you time and effort...and will not go over your budget. I look forward to creating amazing invitations every day, and I would love to make them for you and create excitement for every guest you invite to your event!

{image inspiration board by checkerboard}

Wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Sweet 16, Corporate Events, birth announcements, first birthdays, graduation, holiday...whatever your event may be.

cheers {noroc},
Michelle

If you are interested in finding out more, please email me: mlhiggs2@yahoo.com
and if you are not in the local area (MA) and still wish to find out more about invitations, feel free to inquire. If I can't assist you from here, I will help you find someone in your area that can!

A Creative Evening

Scott Boilard and I sat around the dining room table tonight and zentangled, with wine of course. It's Monday, so why not. Tomorrow is the evening reception for the seminar and we are gearing up to have some cool stuff to bring with us. Bottom line...Scott's are much better than mine. He is the sketch master from another universe, so maybe I should go easy on myself. He can draw anything from memory with the finest detail known to humans. He is not real. His zentangles were a little more of the prolific and extraordinary talent with microns and profound vision that is Scott Boilard. Am I jealous, no, there is no way you can compete with this guy...unless you are DaVinci himself.

While we were "tangled" in the moment, Vladutz the photog was taking some pix. It's funny. I knew he was taking pictures, but I was lost, and didn't realize how long or how many he took. I was somewhere else. Scott and I had spotty conversation...we were just in the moment, enjoying a sip of wine and exchanging thoughts about the Oscar winners. BTW, He highly recommended Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight, and trust me if Scott recommends a movie, he knows. This is his other talent.

(see previous post on ZENTANGLE info)

fa la la ...

I have a very cool job as a designer of holiday greeting cards, wedding invitations, birth announcements, Bar and Bat Mitzvah invitations, and stationery. It is my great fortune to think about momentous occasions all of the time. Celebrations, life's most memorable events involving family and friends in cool places around the world. I consume everything about design, color, texture, technique, fashion, decor and history, roll it all around in my head and create...I am so fortunate to do what I love and work with extremely talented people (check out the artist friends to see their personal work). What is even more outstanding is to see my designs being chosen by brides and grooms, new parents, parents of mitzvah kids, and people that just love paper and the art of presentation.

Someone who understood the passion of paper was Louis Prang, the father of the American holiday greeting, came to the US and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1856. It is here that he started rolling out lines of prestigious greeting cards. I read that people used to count how many "Prangs" they received. Unfortunately, cheap foreign-made knock offs put Louie out of business in the card division. Fortunately for all educators and art lovers, he also was passionate about learning and printed the very first artist's instructional text, others followed. Prang crayons? Yup, that's him. Louie Award at the National Stationery Show? Yes, indeed. The award for creative excellence in greeting card design.

When you send your greeting cards out this year to your family and friends, know that some deep thought and resourceful design went into them by someone who gets to be passionately creative everyday, especially if they were made by me!

images from above red swirl, chocolate & blue holiday and winter branch: www.einvite.com/festival