Over due for an update…

My apologies as I am way over due for a blog and sharing with you what I have been up too. Its sad to say that I haven’t had an update since January, and here it is the last day of March. What can I say…I’ve been busy

Here are a few of the Finger Print Guest Trees that I have done over the last three months…

and several Signature Trees…

I also completed a bridal bouquet for a summer wedding out of shades of navy blue and ivory and a surprise birthday party centerpiece out of oranges and pinks. I really enjoy making my paper flowers. I have been exploring a lot of options for centers as a way of bringing in more texture.

At the end of March I helped throw a bridal shower where again, the colors were hot pink and orange. A great color scheme for such a “blah” time of the year. For this shower I designed the invitaions, center pieces and wine glass favors. In addition to the color scheme of pink and orange, Poppies were a main focus.

Hopefully I will be better with updating in the future….but no promises. Until then, check out my facebook page for more updates.

Meg & Mike’s “Winter Wonderland”

 On Saturday, December 17^th I had the honor of putting my creative touches on the wedding of Meg and Mike. Meg and Mike’s reception was held at the Hall Of Springs in Saratoga, NY. Although the day did not bring any snow, the feeling inside the reception hall was that of a “Winter Wonderland”. The Hall Of Springs was uplighted with soft blue lighting and there were several Christmas trees decorated in white and silver.  It really put me in the spirit of the upcoming holiday. I also want to send a very specia Thank you to my friend and sister-in-law, Heather for helping me se up Meg and Mike’s wedding.

 

            Meg and Mike asked Christina Norris Designs to design their favors and place cards. Considering the time of year, an ornament seemed most appropriate for their favors. I designed a round irredescent glass ornmanet for the big day. The ornaments were filled with snow and I then detailed them with a silver snowflake on one side and Meg and Mike’s name and wedding date, on the opposite side. Every year when their guests decorate their home and Christmas tree for the holidays, they will be reminded of the love these two have for each other as well as the wonderful time that they shared celebrating with them.

 

 

          

To present their guests with a “wow” factor the bridal parties ornaments were hung on a snow covered “tree”. I tied several real branches together and placed them in a vase of snow. The “tree” was displayed in the entry-way next to the Fingerprint guest tree, another Christina Norris Designs original. When I designed their Fingerprint tree I focused on the bride and grooms theme and color pallette. The tree was drawn in silver ink and silver snowflakes were sporatically placed amongst the branches. The ink colors were shades of blue. I then detailed the ground area with crystal snow for some sparkle.

 

              

 After the cocktail hour, the remaining ornaments and placecards were laid out for Meg and Mike’s guests to take back to their assigned tables. Keeping in mind that the ornaments were fragile each couple was provided a box, at their seat, to take their favor home in. I again kept with the theme, decorating the boxes with silver and blue snowflakes. Blue tissue that matched the bridesmaid’s dresses was placed inside the boxes and a tag was attached to the box that read “Snow in Love” Love, Meg & Mike.

 

 Congratulations to Meg and Mike and Thank you for allowing me to be invloved in your wedding day. I had a great time designing your favors, place cards, favor boxes and guest tree. What a wonderful time of the year to be married.

 

 

Happy Holidays

The holidays are here! I hope that everyone had a chance for some relaxation and family time. I was finally able to relax and spend some much-needed time with my family and I am enjoying every minute of it! The last 6 weeks have been very busy here at Christina Norris Designs. From November 19th – December 17th I filled 27 orders for customized Family Trees and Couples Trees. Orders were shipped every where from Canada to California. I believe the lady at the post office now knows me by name.  I really enjoyed all the special requests, such as including family pets and the chance to theme paintings to specific places or seasons. I always enjoy a challenge and love venturing away from the norm.

Thank you to all my clients for making the 2011 holiday season a great one! I hope your family and friends enjoy their gifts as much as I did painting them. Here is a sampling of some of the trees from the holiday season.

Happy Holidays!

    

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas with Christina Norris Designs

Make your Christmas shopping easy this year and do your shopping with Christina Norris Designs. Family Trees and Couple Trees make great gifts, especially for those “hard to buy for” on your list. Your babysitter, employee, boss, neighbor, family member or close friend would love a personalized tree to display in their home.

All my trees are one of a kind and come in a variety of styles and sizes. The possibilities are endless. Trees can be themed to match home decor, a specific season or holiday, wedding colors or a specific love or interest. Why not include the family pet at the base of the tree?

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I will be accepting Christmas orders through December 5th. Orders placed after the 5th will include a rushed-order charge. The absolute last day that I can accommodate any Christmas orders is December 18th.

Happy Holidays

The Wedding Celebration of Sarah & Jeff

I cannot believe that a month had gone by and I had yet to post about the wedding of Sarah and Jeff.

Let me begin by telling you a little about the bride and groom. Sarah and Jeff are two of the most beautiful people that I have come to know. Genuine and loyal to each other and both their families and friends, their wedding was one that everyone anxiously awaited. From the tale of how they met to the many parallels in their life everyone knew that Sarah and Jeff were meant to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last, the big day was here. Sarah and Jeff choose September 3, 2011 as the day that they would become one. The Old Daley Inn on Crooked Lake provided a beautiful location for both their reception and lake-side ceremony. I believe that The Old Daley Inn on Crooked Lake will be the new “hot spot” for weddings in the years to come. Between their beautiful rustic-meets-modern décor and picture perfect location, this place is hard to beat.

Preparation for Sarah and Jeff’s wedding began with their invitation. When designing their invitation, Sarah has only two requests. 1. To include the color of yellow and brown and 2. To have a flower of some sort. I went with a traditional, yet whimsical feel and came up with the following. I like to combine different textures and dimensions for a unique appearance.

Invitations often times set the tone for the party or occasion. So with keeping of the theme of yellow, brown and whimsical, I set forth to design their place cards and programs. For the place cards I used a smaller flower in the same color as their invitations. The flower on the place cards was 3-dimensional and included a textured center, like that of the invitations.

   

For the programs, I used the same flower and color scheme, but this time also included a little bit of blue. Sarah’s junior bridesmaids and flower girls wore blue, and Jeff’s groomsmen had blue accents in their ties.  I choose to have Sarah and Jeff’s names printed in blue as a way of highlighting their names while accenting the blue in their bridal party.

After a beautifuland emotional ceremony, Sarah and Jeff celebrated with their family and friends for the first time as husband and wife with an outside cocktail hour. The spread of food was amazing and tasted just as good. Displayed during the cocktail hour was a Fingerprint Guest Tree for their guests to “Leaf” their names for the bride and groom.

I thank Sarah and Jeff for allowing me to artistically be involved in their special day. Their wedding celebration ended up being amazing by all accounts, a day that they both deserved.

Kanika & Shaheen

    Words cannot describe the picture perfect and magical event that unfolded as my dear friends Kanika and Shaheen wed on Saturday, July 30^th. A palette of white on white with subtle accents of soft blues, grays and pinks was chosen for the event, allowing the bride and groom to present their guests with simple, yet sophisticated and classy details. It was by far one of the most beautiful weddings that I had ever attended.

Kanika had given me the honor of making her wedding bouquet out of my paper flowers. Keeping in mind her color scheme I choose a soft flower petal shape and produced twenty-eight white flowers of varying size for her bouquet. The center details were done in shades of grays, whites, pearls and pinks. To finish off the bouquet, the stems were wrapped in an ivory silk ribbon to complement Kanika’s dress. The overall effect was classic and timeless, a look and an item that can be passed down from generation to generation.

A beautiful cocktail hour and reception followed the ceremony, underneath a white tent where again the look was white on white with blues, grays and pinks. When I first presented Kanika with  her bouquet, she liked it so much that she wanted to incorporate the flowers in her wedding reception and asked that I make a flower for each of her guests to be used as place cards on the tables.

 

For the place card flowers, I made miniature versions of the flowers that had been used in Kanika’s bouquet, this time adding a leaf. I used four different leaf colors to correlate with which meals had been chosen by each guest. The flowers were a big hit amongst the guests, receiving lots of camera time. The girls placed them in their hair and behind their ears while several male guests wrapped them around their ties.

The evening was picture perfect and one that Kanika and Shaheen, as well as their guests will never forget!

Celebrating Sarah

Every once in a while we are lucky enough to meet someone who will change our lives for the better and bring us much love and happiness. About six years ago, I met my friend Sarah. Sarah is one of those rare people who is beautiful inside and out and who has forever changed my life.

Late this summer Sarah is getting married!!! Therefore, a celebration was in order. It was time to start planning. When organizing Sarah’s shower we wanted to tailor the event to the bride-to-be and to make sure that we included many of the things that bring her happiness.  Sarah enjoys being outside, loves the color yellow, has a weak spot for wine and enjoys visiting the city of Saratoga, especially in the summer months. In fact, Saratoga is where Sarah and her fiancé officially met.

A shower was planned for Saturday, July 16^th at Mallozzi’s in Schenectady. Keeping in mind Sarah’s love of the sun and being outside, we chose to take advantage of Mallozzi’s new terrace. The terrace allowed us to plan a shower outdoors, while being completely covered in the event of an extremely hot or extremely rainy July day.

 

We chose to go with a sunflower theme, as sunflowers mimic the sun and of course are yellow. When designing her invitations, I used a simple sunflower design paired with brown. For the centerpieces, we filled large brown ceramic vases with beautiful New Jersey Sunflowers. Each guest received a Sparkling Saratoga water in reference of where Sarah and Jeff met. In addition to the water each guest took home a hand painted red wine glass.  I hand painted the wine glasses to look like Sunflowers and I have to say that they looked great on the tables with our sunflower centerpieces and the bright blue glass water bottles.  A small brown paper bag was also given to each guest as a convenient means of bringing home their wine glass and water. When planning Sarah’s shower, I learned that Sunflowers are a symbol of happiness, warmth and loyalty. We attached a tag to each bag that read:

“For centuries, Sunflowers have been known as a symbol of happiness, warmth, and loyalty.

Please accept this hand-painted Sunflower glass as a token of thanks, for celebrating with us today.

We hope that you will think of Sarah & Jeff every time you use it, and be reminded of the happiness, warmth and loyalty that they share with each other, as well as with each of us.”

 

 

To keep with the sunflower theme, for dessert, we chose to have  cupcakes and of course decorated them to look like sunflowers. We baked and decorated almost 100 cupcakes.

Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves and it was so nice to see Sarah with a permanent smile on her face, spending time with her family and friends. I was very pleased with how the shower turned out! The Sunflower theme and décor came together beautifully and was perfect for celebrating such a beautiful person.

Mallozzi’s Bridal Show- July 17th, 2011

 Today I spent the afternoon at Mallozzi’s for their Bridal show and $30,000 Wedding giveaway. I had a great time and was able to meet hundreds of brides and grooms who are planning for, and anxiously waiting for their big day to arrive. Although I was unable to watch the contest for the giveaway I heard that it was very entertaining. All in all the afternoon was great and I had a wonderful time.