This summer has been quite busy at the inkery and at home. In June, my twin sister, Jenn, and her husband, Justin, brought home their daughter from Ethiopia! I must say, I am quite the proud aunt to my adorable niece, Samara. We have had such a fun time getting to know her. It's been especially fun for my son Urban, who is just a week younger than Samara. A few of Jenn's close friends and I threw a shower/party for them two weeks before they left for Africa. (International adoption is tricky - even though the process lasted over 2 years, their travel date popped up fast and we had to plan a shower very quickly!) Nevertheless, it gave me a great opportunity to create a fabulous invitation for them! I may have gone a little overboard, but I had lots of fun. We went with an African animal print theme for obvious reasons, so I used four different animal prints on the four different elements of the invitation - giraffe for the invitation, zebra for the envelope liner, tiger for the gift registry card, and leopard for the response postcard.

I am especially proud of the zebra liner. I just have a thing these days for zebra print!

I created a "registry" card to give guests an idea of their daughter's age so they could appropriately buy gifts.

I created an address label for the black envelope that allowed for hand addressing in black ink.

I loved receiving these little postcards back in the mail.

Close up of the registry card - love those little animals marching along.

Tracy Bellman of Tres Belle Cakes expertly matched the cake to the invitation!

Close up of the response card