New! Custom Holiday Photo Cards

Although it's still early into the holiday season, our team of designers have been busy as elves preparing for the 2012 holiday collection. We've gathered inspiration from this years trends (color blocking, typeface design, mixed patterns) and put together a lovely assortment of custom holiday photo cards, ready to be signed-sealed-delivered. Customizing your cards is as easy as 1-2-3, all you have to do is input your greeting, upload a photo, pick your envelope colors and voila! Holiday cheer is ready for takeoff. Also, you can check one item off your list by ordering your cards early. From now until November 15th you can receive 20% off your custom holiday card order - just use the code EARLYHOLIDAY at checkout. Happy holidays!

Pictured above: Trees, Color Block, Classic Christmas

Pictured above: Holiday Ribbon

Pictured above: Jolly Holiday, Merry Plaid, Starlight

Pictured above: Bells

Most of our custom holiday photo cards come as photo/text combinations, but this year we're thinking ahead with a 2013 calendar.

Pictured above: Happy New Year Calendar, Bright New Year Calendar, Merry & Bright

To view all of our new 2012 custom holiday cards, head over to our website here!

Photos by Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Open Studio Event & Holiday Sale

This past weekend we opened our doors on a sunny Sunday for our Open Studio Event and Holiday Sale! We had a terrific turnout and want to say thank you to everyone who came by. Our guests experienced hands-on letterpress tutorials by our temporary printer, Lillian! She graciously showed visitors simple letterpress techniques and those who gave it a go went home with their own hand-cranked holiday cards (pictured below). The spectacular Lisa Congdon paid us a visit, and also got to experience the letterpress magic. She just designed a brand new collection of cards exclusive for Hello!Lucky - soon to be released in early 2013!

These are the limited edition prints we created just for the occasion. We'll be putting them on our site and on Etsy soon! Below Eunice and Sabrina are busy mingling with all the visitors. You can see pressman Jon back there running the windmill press. It was quite the production but with all the helping hands it was a great success!

Just a snapshot of some of the holiday cards we had on sale. What a deal! We still have some left over so be sure to visit our studio from Monday-Friday, 9:00 - 5:00 for excellent deals on holiday cards.

Thanks again for everyone who visited the studio! We are definitely planning more events in the future so stay tuned, and be sure to order your holiday cards today!

Pin it to win it! Holiday Card Edition

Back in September we had a lot of fun running our first ever Pinterest contest for our new letterpress printables. Since the holiday season is fast approaching we thought it would be fun to host another Pinterest contest focusing on some of our custom holiday cards. This time one lucky winner will receive 50 free custom holiday photo cards of their choosing!

To play, just pin any card from this page of our website or an image from this blog post. Once you have pinned your image, leave a comment below this post with the URL to your pin so we can check it out. Just like last time we'll randomly pick one lucky person to win free holiday cards. We'll announce the winner on Friday, November 16th.

*Note that the winner will receive 50 flat custom photo holiday cards (this excludes folded or letterpress cards). Happy Pinning!

To shop our holiday collection, visit our website here!

****CONTEST CLOSED*****

Thanks for all of your comments and pins! Congratulations to our winner Amy Williams! 

Holiday Cards with Rikki Ward Photography

As members of the wedding industry and as seasoned stationers, we understand the true power of a good holiday photo card. For newlyweds, sending holiday cards is often the first time a couple mails greetings to loved ones as a new family - and many times is an introduction to their new lives together post-wedding. But instead of snapping a quick portrait in your back yard or by a handheld camera, we highly suggest newlyweds take advantage of their wedding photos and upload a favorite into one of our new holiday photo cards. We tested a few of our favorite newlywed portraits by Rikki Ward Photography and we're loving the various themes.

Pictured above: Classic Christmas

Pictured: Chalkboard

Pictured: Holiday Stripes

If you're in the bay area book a holiday photo session with Rikki! We're offering her clients a special discount on all holiday card orders - more on her blog here.

And don't forget about our holiday promo going on right now. Just enter EarlyHoliday at checkout and receive 20% off your order from now until 11/15.

Photos by Rikki Ward Photography

New! Letterpress Holiday Cards

Way back in July we were busy printing our new letterpress holiday greeting cards and we're so excited to finally reveal them! Some of our most popular holiday cards have been from our visit series and we couldn't wait to add more cities to the collection this year. Happy Holidays from Texas, Washington, D.C, and Seattle are the newest members to the letterpress card family, and thanks to the Lab Partners for their dedication and expert design skills, we're certain they will be a hit.

We also have the new Christmas Parade, New Year's Eve, and Toys Under the Tree, photographed with some best sellers from last year (Good Times by Office of Nature, Paper Chains by Debbie Powell). Click here to see all of our Holiday cards!

Photos by Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Pin It To Win It!

Are you as obsessed with Pinterest as we are? We're guessing a lot of you may answer yes to that question. So we thought it would be fun to start doing some giveaways through our favorite social bookmarking site. Help us spread the word about our new DIY Printables and one of you will win a set of 20 letterpress printables of your choosing. Bonus points if you tell us what you would use the printables for -- a dinner party, bridal shower, kids birthday party? The options are limitless with these letterpressed beauties.

Here's how it works. Pin one of the photos from this blog post or one of the designs from the printable collection on our site here. Then comment on this post with a url to your pin. We'll choose one winner who will win the product they pinned (if you pin a photo from this post you can tell is which design you'd like us to send you). It's as simple as that! Sound like fun? Let's try it! We'll announce our winner at noon PST this Friday, September 14th.

Thanks to everyone who participated! A winner has been chosen. Stay tuned for more fantastic giveaways!

Photos by the talented Edyta Szyszlo

Giveaway limited to letterpress printable invitations only.

Lucky Friday # 71, 1st Birthday

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the 71st edition of our Lucky Friday Giveaway.  Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress greeting cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The winners from last week are (drum roll, please): Derek Rigby, Nicky, and Sierra Catherine! We’ll contact you next week to arrange sending your Hipster Party card.

Design: 1st Birthday Artist: Esther Aarts Inspiration: We had a little block about this one— our train of thought didn't have rails, but then we got on the ball and it ended up being a real bunny of a design. Who to send it to: We can think of some one, one for whom it's perfect, the one and only, the sweetest one of all! Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: The text "One Is the Loneliest Number" didn't suit the occasion— not one bit. Favorite detail: Ooh, that's a tough one... Why letterpress: We can give you one good reason... it's one-derful.

Don’t forget to post your comment and tune in next week, same time, different stationery, to see if you’ve won!

New Rehearsal Dinner Invitations!

It's officially summer and that means our studios are bustling with new projects for weddings. Since this is our busiest time of year, we try our best to keep things easy and accessible - from organizing our office to organizing our website. If you're planning a wedding or rehearsal, you might be feeling the same way! One way we can make your planning a little easier is with our new customizable rehearsal dinner invitations! Now in just a few quick clicks your rehearsal dinner invitations can be personalized, printed, and on their way to your home. Our designs match all of our wedding invitation suites, so your wedding details will come together just right.

Planning a bachelorette party or baby shower? These invitations work perfectly for any occasion. Dress it up or down by customizing colors and fonts and your guests will be impressed.

Be sure to check back on our website for even more designs to come! View the entire collection here.

Lucky Friday # 68, Thanks a Brunch!

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the 68th edition of our Lucky Friday Giveaway.  Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress greeting cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The winners from last week are (drum roll, please): Karen, Karolina and Kyle! We’ll contact you next week to arrange sending your Better with Age card.

Design: Thanks a Brunch Artist: Eunice Moyle Inspiration: We had a short stack of ideas— we didn't want the design to be over-easy or too syrupy sweet, so the smorgasbord result suited us to a tea! Who to send it to: A friend who's a fiend with a French press, who's bringin' and makin' the bacon, and who's got a sure cure for what ails you in the A.M. Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: The "Toastest with the Mostest," "Eggs-cellent Job," and "You Take the Pancake!" cards were all wrapped up, thankfully, in one big brunch bonanza. Favorite detail: Took us a sec to figure why the toast is wearing a beret. Guess we might need a spot of that coffee. Why letterpress? Good grapes, can't get over that gorgeous purple overprinting!

Don’t forget to post your comment and tune in next week, same time, different stationery, to see if you’ve won!

New! Love London Save the Date and UK Promo

In celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee we're delighted to release our newest London wedding suite Love London! The classic lines and bold typeface make it fit to be a favorite.

Right now we only have the Save The Date available on the UK site, but be sure to look for the rest of the suite in the coming weeks. And if you'd like to order it sooner feel free to contact our UK office directly at 020 7378 9740.

We hope you all had a wonderful weekend celebration. If you're in the UK be sure to take advantage of our 20% off sale on all UK orders until midnight on June 5th. Enjoy!

The Best of NSS, Part 3

There was so much good work at NSS this year that it was hard to keep it to just two posts. So here is my third and final post, but really I could have done about three more! Rose from The Great Lakes Goods always has a strong showing and this year was no exception (above and below).

Newcomer Pei Designs featured some super cute illustrations - all letterpressed (above and below)!

Our buddy Susy (from Susy Jack) really knocked it out of the park this year with her awesome recipes boxes, paperweights and calendars (above and below).

Do you recognize the feather illustration?

The always amazing Rifle Paper debuted these ridiculously adorable cocktail coasters:

Fawnsberg is run by two sisters, and features sweet illustrations on their cards and rubber stamps (above and below).

Finally, Atlanta-based Alee and Press really nailed it with their ombre style:

Whew! It was a great show and I loved checking out all the beautiful new work. Let us know in the comments if you discovered anyone new and amazing at the show this year!

The Best of NSS, Part 2

Hey peeps! It's time for more goodies from this years National Stationery Show (click here to see Part 1). First up is the amazing work from 1 Canoe 2 (above and below): 3 talented girls who draw, design and letterpress print in a barn in Missouri. Living the dream.

Making their NSS debut this year was Los Angeles based The Social Type (below). I love how the same sentiment can be interpreted in many different ways!

Another favorite of mine was Banquet Atelier & Workshop, based in Vancouver. Our mutual love of neon was obvious:

How incredible is their guest sign (below)? I'm loving their prints also.

My favorite birthday card of the show came from Anemone Letterpress (below). So clever!

Stay tuned for part 3!

The Best of NSS, Part 1

This year we didn't have a booth at the National Stationery Show but our New York satellite office (aka Design Director Shauna Leytus) was there visiting some of our favorite artists and making new friends. She'll be doing a series of posts recapping what she saw and loved. Here's her first post!

Where do I begin?! There was so much amazing work at the National Stationery Show this year from new comers and old favorites. Making her NSS debut, Left Field cards (above) showcased nine letterpressed "baseball cards" complete with mustaches, edibles and bizarre injuries. Collect them all!

One of my favorite cards of the entire show belonged to Red Camper (above and below). Need I say more?

A fellow card maker sharing a love of food-themed imagery was Fox Tail Press (above and below). When I asked when "national spaghetti day" actually was, Danielle rightly answered "everyday". Duh.

Design*Sponge declared Linda & Harriet's over-sized Quilt Calender the best thing she saw at the show and I couldn't agree more. My photos do not do it justice - this is a work of art and it is amazing.

More coverage of the show to come!

Hello!Lucky B Sides & a Giveaway

We think one of the most delightful things about our greeting cards is the fact that the design often continues to the back of the card.

It's a fun little surprise you find when you hold one of our cards in your hands. And since only the front sides of our cards are shown online people often don't get to see this fun little party on the back. So here are some rarely photographed back sides of our cards. We're sharing some brand new designs along with a couple old favorites.

Another signature Hello!Lucky card trait is anthropomorphizing food, which we're big fans of around here. We've got dancing deviled eggs, talking pancakes, and laughing champagne bottles. Tell us which food you'd like to see come to life next and we'll send one lucky commenter 3 of our new cards! We'll pick a winner this Friday, May 18th.

Cards in order of appearance: Happy New Year's Eve, Yeti Love, Animal Parade, BBQ Parade.

On Press: Overprinting

For this year's new trade releases, we are doing a whole mess of overprinting, but Max's registration is super clean. By overprinting one color smack on top of another, we can turn two colors into three, and it looks super cool. But it can be a difficult process that allows no room for error.

On Eunice's new hand-drawn "Thanks A Brunch" card, the overprinted third color outlines the images and is the color of the text. So, even the slightest shift in registration would not go unnoticed.

 Max is an exceptional printer, and they look amazing. Great Job!

New Greeting Cards!

Our brand new letterpress greeting cards are hot off the presses and arrived just in time for spring! We've got smashing new designs by Esther Aarts, Julia Rothman, and yours truly. We've taken a new spin off our popular BBQ Parade Father's Day card and created Thanks a Brunch, and Julia's Better With Age card speaks simply the truth - we are especially fond of this card being so close to wine country!

Our wedding Skyline series is such a hit we couldn't wait to offer letterpress skyline cards for all our favorite cities! San Francisco, New York City, and London are all available now but there are more to come! Also making it's big debut is our bright and cheerful Visit Seattle card.

To view the entire collection of new letterpress greeting cards, click here!

New birth announcements!

Our brand new birth announcements are now available! For all you happy parents to be, you won't want to miss out on these fresh new designs. The best part is that they are completely customizable, so if pink or blue isn't your style, try a sage green or sunshine yellow to change things up. Toy Train (pictured above) is modern but still playful with it's youthful illustrations. The possibilities are endless with this card - just customize the wording to make a fantastic toy train kids party invitation!

You'll be welcoming your bundle of joy in fashion with this Bundle of Joy announcement. And with all those lively rooftops, this card is perfect for city-dwelling parents.

Our Butterflies announcement also looks fabulous customized in any color, and the retro butterflies suit both genders.

To view all of our photo birth announcements, click here!

Photos by Edyta Szyszlo Photography

On Press: Dinosaurs--Trimming and Packaging

This week On Press we show the final steps in the process of creating Hello!Lucky's birthday card, "Dinosaurs." This sweet card was designed by Julia Rothman for Hello!Lucky. Max trims them down on the guillotine and folds a few to make sure each cut is perfect. Then each card is folded by hand, packaged, and bundled in packs of six.

New Personal Stationery!

Spring has sprung and so has the busy gift-giving season. Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduations, birthdays, weddings, first anniversaries, you name it! There are endless reasons to give the gift of fine quality paper. Our brand new collection of personal stationery has a little something for everyone - including moms, dads, and grads. You can even customize the colors and fonts for free, to add a personal touch.  View the entire collection here!

(clockwise from top: Figs, Vines, Flora and Fauna, Feathers)

These colorful designs are inspired by some of our newest wedding suites, along with a few modern trends.

(Daisy, Tropic, Secret Garden, English Rose)

(Bohemian, Ikat, Cross Stitch, Float)

(Calligraphy)

(Sailboat, French Bicycle, Plaid, Whimsy)

(Darling Buds)

Photos by Edyta Szyszlo

On Press: Dinosaurs--Printing and Scoring

Finally! This week our 'On Press' video shows Max in the final stages of this three part series chronicling the making of a letterpress greeting card. Here he's at his windmill printing and scoring Julia Rothman's "Dinosaurs" birthday card design. Scoring, also called creasing, helps prevent the paper from cracking, and it also makes the cards easier to fold.