It has been an exciting couple of years for my wedding invitation portfolio. I've been challenged in wonderful ways and enjoyed the happy reactions of all of my clients. Below is a summary of my wedding design work from 2010 and 2011. "Love Tree" Wedding Invitations "Big Band Balloon" Save the Dates "The Elysian" Wedding Invitations "Snowflakes and Daisies" Wedding Invitations "April Showers" Bridal Shower Invitations "Summer Flowers" Wedding Invitations "Elegant Baroque" Wedding Invitations And of course, even though these are from 2008, I must include my own wedding invitations in my wedding roundup!

Design © Kate Holeman Friends of ours hired me to design their rehearsal dinner invitations. They wanted something modern and clean using their wedding colors: black and "spring" green. I created a bold icon at the top of the card with their initials and a cute little knife and fork "plus" sign. For the body text, I used the Archer font family. To add another level of design, I added a grey grid background behind the green box. For an extra flair, the grid also appears on the back of the card. Design © Kate Holeman

It's so exciting that baby Holeman is almost here. I have loved being spoiled with showers and gifts for him. One of my favorite handmade gifts is this precious button hat that my mom knitted. I cannot wait to see it on his little head!

Artwork © Kate Holeman. Not for resale. For one of my recent baby shower invitation commissions, I was asked to create a design incorporating children's building blocks. The mother-to-be is an engineer so my client wanted something with a "construction" theme. I think this vector artwork will come in handy for other projects and I want to share the file with you too. You'll need Illustrator CS4 or above to work with this file. I used the 3D "Extrude and Bevel" effect to create the shading and angles of the blocks. It's easy to change the sizes or the colors. Click here to download the file . Enjoy!

For one of my recent projects, I needed to buy a floral vector pattern to use for the background of a card. Usually I like to make my own but I didn't have the time to invest in such a detailed project. I also wanted a few options and didn't want to buy or make something that the client wouldn't use. My problem was solved when I discovered Dover Publications also sells vector clip art books! This is an exciting development because they used to just sell the flattened Photoshop images. Now, with the vector option, the images can be edited and enlarged to any size. Each book comes with a CD tucked in the back of the book. What a fantastic tool! I found a perfect floral pattern book for my needs. A few photos of the interior are below but you can also scroll through the entire book on the product web page .

Lady Rene is my latest font purchase from the Sudtipos studio . I love every font they create! Lady Rene has a sweet and nostalgic feel with a fun, handmade look. I can see myself using it on lots of different cards.

Another Minted.com contest is under way: Summer is Born Birth Announcement Design Challenge. This time I entered a variation of a birth announcement that I did for a friend last year. I love partaking in the Minted challenges but sometimes I am too busy to create something new. It's nice when the challenge topic involves a design I can enter with just a few tweaks.

This year I took the next step in my business plan by hiring an outside web developer to build a website for me. It was a huge relief to hand over Photoshop files for someone else to put online! The scariest part of doing something for the first time is the "unknown." I needed to find a trust-worthy web developer who was willing to work with my client's budget. Through my connections with Handmade Philly , I found and hired the talented James Martin of Helikopter Design . James is an easy-going web developer who can do just about anything. A perfect combination! All of my annoying emails were met with "Sure, no problem!" and the changes were done very quickly. In just about 6 weeks, my site was finished and my client was very happy with the results. These are just a few screen captures - you can view the complete site at www.alixcompany.com