As 2016 winds down to a close I wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU to all of our wonderful clients. Thank you for choosing us for your invitations & announcements, thank you for your kind words and feedback, thank you for being wonderful you! There are many families that I have been working with for years and I truly enjoy "seeing" their kids grow through their photos from year to year.

I have to say that 2016 was a bit of a bittersweet, rollercoaster year for us. We added a sweet baby boy to our family in February, and in June lost one of the most cherished people in our lives after a year-long battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Managing a business as a sole proprietor hasn't been easy while raising a little one (and all on 4 hours of sleep!), but it's something that I wouldn't trade. This business has been such a fulfilling creative outlet for me for the past 9+ years and I can't imagine doing anything else. 

(family photos on back of card by Amanda McMahon Photography)

In March 2017 Lil' Sprout Greetings will celebrate 10 years in business and I'm excited for what this new year has in store. New beginnings, new product, and hopefully more growth. I look forward to working with clients, old and new. I hope your holidays were filled with joy and the new year holds great things for you as well!

If you haven't already taken a peek, head on over to check out the new designs added to our holiday card section! 

This year metallics such as gold, rose gold and silver with black and white continue to be popular choices as well hand drawn lettering and accents. I've added many new designs with these elements and really focused on offering options for each of the new holiday card designs such as color options and number of photos. 

Our Blessed Family holiday card above is the perfect example of multiple offerings. The black/white/gold option above offers a clean, modern option while the red/black plaid and multi-color options below offer a holiday and more child-oriented option. 

In many cases we can also change colors to suit whatever you would like, just drop us a note first! 

More Christmas card designs will be added throughout the month of November, as time allows for creating!

It's finally here! I don't know about you, but fall is my favorite time of the year! Perfect weather, beautiful trees, and all things PUMPKIN! It's also the perfect time of year for outdoor birthday parties, mainly pumpkin patch parties. Our fall birthday invitations have been such a hit that we've added a couple of new designs for this year. For double birthdays, triple birthdays, friends, siblings, etc. Colors can be customized to suit your needs.

Our fall - pumpkin patch themed birthday invitations can be found under the joint birthday party invitation section of our site.

The blog and website have taken a bit of a back seat the past few months, as we've added a new "Lil' Sprout" to our family...

Meet Grady. Loved by his parents, but most of all by his big brother. He's got us all wrapped around his little finger. And fast forward 4 months...

This little man is growing waaaay too fast! He will stop crying in an instant when his big brother walks into the room and loves to babble and screech. We couldn't be more in love with this sweet boy. 

I've recently added a simplified version of his birth announcement to the website. I designed the front to be simple and we added an 8-photo collage to the back as a way of sharing as many photos as possible with our families (who all live 600 miles away!). For the site I've decided to keep the back more of a simple design as you'll see below. I've also included a girls version in a soft pink shade. These print beautifully on a white, matte cardstock and the simplicity allows baby's photo to be the focus. 

As with any of our designs, colors can be changed and photos can be added to the back side of cardstock cards for an additional fee. 

New to the site: a colorful, photo free joint birthday invitation. Offered in the shown color choices or ANY colors requested, what makes the "You're Invited" invitation design so great is its ability to be used for young children or teens. The demand for no-photo invitations has grown and we're working hard to accommodate your requests with all new joint birthday invitation designs for 2016.

Also new to the website are two new themed joint birthday invitations- a train themed joint birthday party invitation and a race car themed joint birthday party invitation. 

With summer upon us, backyard gatherings abound. Having grown up in Maine and now living in Maryland, seafood boils, lobster bakes, and crab boils are the go-to plan for a Saturday afternoon with friends. New on our site: general party invitations. The seafood boil invitations and luau party invitations can be found now, with many others to be added in the next couple of weeks. 

Our crawfish boil invitation is created in bold shades of yellow, blue and red. This invitation is also offered for lobster and crab boils as well. For those two options we've changed up the graphics a bit for a more appropriate feel (and because there are NO palm trees in Maine or Maryland!). The wording and colors can be changed to suit any other type of event you may be having. 

Below you'll find our Luau invitation. This versatile design has been used for not only Luau's, but for rehearsal dinners, corporate dinner cruises, backyard BBQ's and retirement parties! The colors on this invitation really send a summer feel. 

Both the Luau and Seafood Boil invitations can be found on the Lil' Sprout Greetings website here. 

Congratulations to the members of the Class of 2015! With graduations in full swing, thank you notes are at the top of many to-do lists. Our free printable graduation thank you card will save you time searching for proper thank you cards. 

Formatted as 2 thank you notes per 8.5x11 inch sheet, the file simply needs to be printed on cardstock, cut in half and folded to create two thank you notes that measure 4.25x5.5 inches each. Wondering where to print? We formatted these cards with a white/gray-stripe background so that you can print easily at home without using vast amounts of ink, or we highly recommend printing in-store at your local Staples or Office Depot. You can either upload the files to their print center online or save the file to a flash drive and take in store for printing on their laser printers. At roughly .67 per sheet of cardstock, that's less than .34 per card!

So, what about envelopes? These notes will require A2 (4 3/8"x5 3/4") envelopes. A2 envelopes are normally available in-store and can also be found at craft stores such as Michael's and A.C. Moore for around $5/pack 50. Ready? Download the graduation printable thank you note.

With graduation season upon us AND the launch of the new (and improved) website, what better time to offer free graduation printables?

Your Open House celebration can still be simple with the free printable graduation banner and cupcake toppers. The files are formatted for printing on standard 8.5x11 inch sheets of cardstock and can be printed at home or your local Staples, Office Depot or Staples. Simply upload the files to their copy and print services online or save to flash drive or memory card and take in-store to print on their laser printers. I was able to print the entire banner and a page of 12 cupcake toppers at Office Depot for under $5 and they were ready to pick up in under 45 minutes!

Assembly is just as simple. The cupcake toppers require a 2" circular scrapbook punch, which can be found at a craft store and either toothpicks, wooden skewers or lollipop sticks to insert them into your cupcakes. If you're really feeling creative, the toppers can also be printed on full-sheet adhesive sticker paper and used as envelope seals for your invitations and thank you notes. 

The banner contains 5x7 inch panels to spell "Class of 2015". The panels print 2-per 8.5x11 inch sheet. Banner assembly is easy: cut out the panels, punch holes in the upper left and right sides of each panel, and string them together. In this case, I used some raw twine that I had lying around, but ribbon also works well. If you're in a rush, you can also use clothespins to pin the panels to a piece of string or tape them to a wall.

The banner panels can be strung together into one long banner (gold end panels are included but not shown) or you can create a two-tiered banner as I have done above. This is great for smaller spaces or taking up empty space behind the buffet. 

Ready to get started? Download your free graduation banner & cupcake toppers.

If you're in need of graduation announcements, be sure to visit the shop where you'll find a variety of designs, all offered in a print your own, photo paper or cardstock printed format. 

Yes, it has been nearly two months since the last blog post, but with good reason: business as been B.U.S.Y.! Even working weekends, it has been difficult to catch up. Over the past few days I've managed to add a few new wedding shower invitations to the website, including my favorite design EVER. Yes, EVER.

Keeping with the trendy chalkboard theme, this wedding shower invitation offers beautiful hand drawn flower blooms (just to clarify: I did NOT draw the flowers), a ribbon detail, and a series of popular fonts. Better yet, this design is also available in a soft blue color or a lavender color to coordinate with a variety of bridal colors.

As a bonus, there are also advice cards, thank you notes, and recipe cards to coordinate with this wedding shower theme. More on these items coming soon!