I can hardly believe the time has come to write this post. I am taking a brief blog break between now and September while I prepare for the birth of our little baby boy and stumble through the first months of parenthood. Here is a sneak peek at the beginnings of our birth announcement design for the little guy. Super heroes, wizards, cowboys, soccer players, pirates, and knights - unite!

© Jillian Tamaki for Penguin Threads series I've recently discovered how to use Pinterist and I don't think I will ever stop! It's very addictive and a really good way to find visual inspiration on the web. In a basic search for "illustrated book covers" I came across a plethora of beautiful pieces. My search results introduced me to new designs and reminded me of past favorites. These embroidered book covers by Jillian Tamaki were all over the blog world a couple of months ago but I wanted to share again in case some of you hadn't seen them. Everything about these embroidered covers is exquisite. The Penguin Threads series is due to be released with Penguin's Fall 2011 collection.

Design © Kate Holeman Friends of mine recently commissioned me to create their rehearsal dinner invitations. Because these have not been mailed yet, I am just going to show a couple detailed cropped images. The couple knew they wanted white ink on brown paper as well as an organic, artistic vibe. I loosely drew a knife and fork for the top of the card and a matching decorative line for the middle of the card. I used Business Penmanship for the display font and Univers for matching body text. The card stock is 100lb Recycled Speckletone Kraft from French Paper Co. The cards were printed using a silkscreen process and plastisol inks. One of my initial challenges was finding an opaque white ink that would "pop" on the brown paper. I tried offset printing but the white was too translucent. Silkscreen with plastisol (a thick, heat-set ink) ended up being the solution. I also like the textured look of the silkscreen printing method. Bon Appétit! Design © Kate Holeman

Design © Kate Holeman Nothing says "summer baby" better than sailboats and seersucker stripes. I was recently commissioned to create these cute yet classic birth announcements and matching thank you cards. The announcements are square and tuck into matching blue envelopes. The thank you notes are a petite 4bar size, folded and blank on the inside. They also fit into matching blue envelopes. Both cards were printed on luxuriously thick Mohawk paper using a digital offset technique . This inkjet process is a wonderful low cost alternative to traditional offset printing.

There are certain books from my childhood reading list that will remain lifelong favorites. One such book is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. While perusing the internet for pretty book covers, I came across this illustrated cover from the 1971 Puffin edition. Can't you just feel the magic? I love all of the colors, different mark-making techniques, and the hand-drawn title. It looks like the artist, Antony Maitland, used a mix of pastels and watercolors. Two of my favorite mediums!

My husband and his brother went on a trip to Cartagena, Colombia in June. Unfortunately, being 7 months pregnant in a 3rd world country did not comply with my doctors wishes so I had to stay put. Sigh. Their photographs make me jealous but they are too beautiful not to share. One day I will get there too!

Design by Kate Holeman A few weeks ago I shared that I was working on a baby shower invitation for an engineer. I ended up using my building block illustrations in a simple background pattern. To add some cuteness to the card, I also designed letter blocks for display text at the top. The nursery room colors are going to be red, white and blue so I incorporated that idea by combining a cherry red with a baby blue and cool grey tones. We ended up with a clean, modern design with a kid-friendly feel. Design by Kate Holeman

I can't get enough of this  pop-up card  tutorial! I make them all the time now. This is one I did for my sister-in-law's birthday. Have you tried to make a pop-up card yet?

A friend of mine recently received this donation card in lieu of a favor at a Philadelphia wedding. Designed by local artist, Andrea Lewandowski, these cards creatively combine the interests of the animal- and Philadelphia-loving couple. I especially like the souvenir penny glued between the guinea pig and the dog.

  My husband introduced me to this fun challenge over at Toyota Racing . It's a lot like what you can do on the Adidas shoe site . This is my car design - pretty snazzy, huh? I feel like pirate symbols always make for a good race car design. The actual site for the challenge is: www.sponsafier.com/#/home . It's a nice way to procrastinate from real work and, who knows, you could win!

In May I shared a note about my greeting card line designed exclusively for On the Tudor Trail. Well, the store is live and she's shipping her cards all over the world. It's very exciting to have such a global audience! To help with sales, I designed this animated web button for her to advertise the cards on her site.

Happy 4th of July! Here are some tasty and refreshing patriotic recipes for your celebrations. Fresh Fruit Flag Red, White and Blue Parfaits Blueberry Cobbler Cocktail

I actually created this card for my dad for father's day. He was working on a big project in my home town called " Field of Flags ." The big dedication event happened to be father's day weekend and I wanted to show him my support with a handmade card. This would also work for a 4th of July card! The original instructions can be found over at Oh Happy Day blog. This project is so easy and the result is always fun! Below are some of the photos from my own process. Field of Flags Memorial in Granby, CT