Sweet Paper Proposal

This might just be the sweetest proposal we've ever been a part of! Months ago we were approached by a strapping fellow in the early stages of proposing to his beautiful girlfriend. He explained how the lucky bride-to-be has always been a fan of Hello!Lucky, and that he wanted to go above and beyond by incorporating letterpress into a handmade book with which he would use to pop the ultimate question.

In just a few words, the future groom had us melting. His short and sweet story finishes with a hidden box and a sparkly ring.

And of course, this book has the happiest of endings...she said YES! We were immensely delighted to help our friend take the leap, and think it all turned out magically. Congratulations you two!

2011 Holiday Catalog!

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Now you can browse through all of our 2011 Holiday designs in one place! Thanks to Edyta Szyszlo for her amazing photography!

Featuring Lab Partners and Giveaway!

We couldn't have more love and admiration for our featured designer Lab Partners! Sarah and Ryan are the husband and wife team behind the super successful design studio based in Piedmont, CA. Prior to establishing Lab Partners, Sarah was part of the Hello!Lucky team working as an illustrator and designer. It's no wonder we're obsessed with their designs! They are the geniuses who created our Visit Series and we cannot wait to continue working with them in the future. Check out their cards in the 2011 Holiday Collection here!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

The candy bowl filled with sweets we always have out during the holidays. We also are big fans of the Christmas stocking so we had to do one of those.

What are you currently working on?

Right now we're working on a couple of projects with Chronicle Books that we're super excited about. We're also working with the Seattle Children's hospital on a project with one of our favorite artists, Amy Ruppel. It's probably the largest endeavor we've ever taken on and it's been such a great challenge and amazing experience so far.

What influences your style the most?

Color, textiles, animals, science and animation.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Definitely the day we bring the tree home. We always cook a fancy meal and watch The Sound of Music while decorating the tree. It's a great way to kick off the season.

Best holiday memory?

Sarah: Driving around with my family to find the houses with the super crazy lights.

Ryan: Visiting Austria at Christmastime, everything was so picturesque.

To enter to win 2 sets of limited edition letterpress cards designed by Lab Partners, head over to their blog here for the giveaway! Good luck!

(boxed sets include 6 cards and envelopes)

Featuring Hammerpress!

Today we're thrilled to bring you our friends from Hammerpress! Hammerpress is a design studio and letterpress company based out of Kansas City, Missouri. You may remember our delightful tour of the Hammerpress studio earlier this year. The crew was enormously kind and showed us a fabulous time. We love their mix of vintage and modern and their cozy, woodsy designs. They offer tons of cool cards and paper goods in their shop, perfect for any holiday gift! Keep up with their blog here for updates on new products!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

Our inspiration for this project was, with all of our work, to create a collection that we like and feel good about. The unique thing about this project was not being quite so limited with color since it was not being produced in house. All of our work is letterpress so we typically don't have as much freedom with the amount of colors. Also, there are some things that just would not work on press here at the shop that we can do digitally. Also, working with Hello!Lucky wasn't too hard to swallow either.

What are you currently working on?

We are fortunate to have many different kinds of projects going at all times. We are currently working on some identity work for a new soda fountain / coffee shop project here in Kansas
City.  We've been involved in the project in a very hands on way ( i.e. demolition and finding materials, etc.) so it's a great a joy to work on the back end of the project as well. Currently we've got a lot of return customers for holiday mailers which is great. Some of them we have been working with for years. We just finished a large project with Boulevard Brewing Company here in Kansas City.  Boulevard is a highly respected brewery and has continued to grow since there impetus in 1989. We have had a lot of their beer so it's an honor to work with such a great company. As usual, we are also constantly working on new card ideas and larger print work as well.

What influences your style the most?

I think we have a lot of influences here at the shop, we all look at different things. Primarily our ideas stem from ephemera and design work from the past. Anything from postage stamps and matchbox labels ( we just bought a huge collection of 300 or so Indian matchbox labels ) to broadsides, rodeo posters, ticket stubs, old faded signs, found photos, you name it. We have a lot of stuff laying around.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Spending time with family and friends. We usually have a Hammerpress dinner party and I really like that.

Best holiday memory?

My best holiday memory would have to be when i was 8 or so. I woke up and ran upstairs to the tree ( why our tree was upstairs I don't know ) and found not only the Hot Wheels mountain race track set but also the giant Godzilla action figure with the handle that made what I think was a plastic flame come out of his mouth. That was just too much to handle.

To see the entire Hammerpress holiday collection for Hello!Lucky head here!

Featuring Tom Frost!

Tom Frost is our featured designer living in the UK! Currently based in Bristol, Tom incorporates screen printing, painting, drawing, and even 3D design in his art. We love his vintage poster-like designs and that he hand-prints his funky 3D sculptures and toys. Be sure to check out Tom's blog here and online shop here!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

These three designs are a continuation of a recent series of stamp screen prints I did that featured birds, pond life and mammals of the British Isles.

What are you currently working on?

I have just finished a commission that involved me painting a large wooden rocket, which makes my job the best job in the world! There will also be a number of new screen prints, a new T-shirt very soon and a range of cider bottles that I am really excited about. And within the next few days, the best early Christmas present ever, the birth of our first child.

What influences your style the most?

A number of things from tin toys, vintage match boxes, folk art, mid century design, old meccano and childrens books. The list though, in theory, is endless.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

It has to be on Christmas eve, helping out my mum in the kitchen preparing homemade stuffings and breadsauce, with a large vat of mulled wine gentle warming on the stove. That and just sitting in front of the fire, with family.

Best holiday memory?

When I was a lot younger, we use to spend Christmas at my Grandparents farm. One night, sat infront of the roaring fire I witnessed a Great Dane sneeze on a sleeping Scotty dog. Not the best Christmas memory, but one that has stayed firmly embedded in my memory bank!

Visit the collection by Tom Frost for Hello!Lucky here!

Featuring Pie Bird Press!

This morning we're delighted to feature Hannah Berman of Pie Bird Press! Hannah is another designer neighbor living in Albany, California. She's had some fantastic experiences with letterpress printing and has come to create quite an accomplished company of her own. We are so excited to feature her in our collection this year because her designs are the brightest and boldest, and we love that they stand out. Make sure to visit her shop here!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

I am always inspired by nostalgia and the special moments that we remember from our childhoods. There's nothing quite like seeing a perfectly wrapped gift with a big bow on it to stir up excitement on any holiday!

What are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on Pie Bird Press' 2012 spring collection of stationery, due out in May. Keep an eye out for lots of fun, new designs!

What influences your style the most?

I am influenced primarily by color, and again by nostalgia. I find most of my inspiration at vintage stores, county fairs, and other all-American events that evoke a certain sentimentality.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

My family has a latke party every year, complete with my father's non-traditional potato pancakes. It's always a treat to sit around the table with our loved ones and see how many latkes we can take down.

Best holiday memory?

My birthday falls during the holiday season, and one year when I was a child we took a trip up to Mendocino for the occasion. There were record setting lows that year, and we found icicles hanging on the beach. For a California native, that was really something special!

Check out the Pie Bird Press collection for Hello!Lucky here!

Featuring EIEIO and Giveaway!

Today we're delighted to feature the adorable Jean Orlebeke of eieio papers! We love Jean's designs because she has a totally unique style, and her collection stands out with it's embellished and geometric flare. Not only did eieio come up with these awesome designs for our holiday collection this year, but she also designed a few of our most popular wedding invitations! Check out her shop of prints here and scroll down for a holiday giveaway!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

To get in the holiday mood I put the sound track for Charlie Brown's Christmas on and chose a few eieio 'classic' wraps to translate into cards. Usually I try to design wraps that are more embellished or festive than the rest of the eieio designs. I typically don't use classic holiday color palettes, as my customers are small shops, and want the wrap to work in January as well. Instead I add a metallic ink, a gloss varnish or draw a motif that is ornate. I had so much fun re-coloring some of my favorite designs into classic holiday colors.

What are you currently working on?

My work is around 70% branding and identity. Right now I am working on two new identity projects: a perfume label and a film festival. I'm also working on some textile designs and the interface for an educational Earth Sciences product.

What influences your style the most?

Modern sculpture, natural forms, fiber art.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

My family's Christmas Eve casual dinner. My mother always made a big buffet, which included everyone's favorites. We would make up our plates (several times) and eat sitting around the fireplace. Before we went to bed we had a funny ritual that my dad would tape each year: each of us would enter the room doing silly improv dances and make a grandiose presentation of hanging our stockings up on the fireplace. My mom's was always the most dramatic performance. She would hang up a thigh-hi stocking -- which in our family was a punchline that never got old.

Best holiday memory?

I always wanted a cat when I was growing up and on one Christmas Eve (I was 13), as I walked through the kitchen I saw a tiny gray paw reaching out from under the basement door. My parents were planning to give her to me on Christmas morning, but there was no way that little kitty was going to spend the night in the cold basement alone!

To enter to win a 2 boxes of Hello!Lucky letterpress holiday cards, leave a comment below telling us your favorite foods to eat during the holidays. We will choose a winner on Monday November 14th at 12:00pm. Good luck!

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

Featuring Susy Jack* and Giveaway!

Today we're thrilled to feature the magnificent Susy Jack*! Susan Connor is the magic force behind the name, and works as a triple threat as designer, artist, and author/editor of the blog Hey Susy. Currently living and working in New York City, her inspiration comes from textiles, fashion, art, and sometimes from the hardware store. If you browse through her shop, you will be stunned at her collection of beautiful patterned pieces and office accessories. We love that she can turn her talent from product design into crazy cool holiday cards! Check out her collection here!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

My designs were inspired by the sweetness and wit of making up your own holiday traditions. Around here, our holidays are never very cookie-cutter, but they have a lot of heart. I started with the "Make Merry" mittens design, and the "Do You See What I See" glasses cards...which I thought expressed the idea of holiday DIY in a really fun way, and the other ideas grew from there.

What are you currently working on?

Right now, I'm taking a big step with my line, and launching into some new categories, which my customers have been asking about for a while. It's exciting. Not only am I really happy with the way the new product development is coming along, I'm also looking forward to a website relaunch, which will offer a better shopping experience, and an expanded view into my creative work, for my customers. These are a couple of big upgrades that I've been dreaming about for a long time, and it feels like the right time to put them out there.

What influences your style the most?

My style is most influenced by the idea of combining everyday iconic elements we all recognize - like a bow, or a clothespin - with motifs and ideas that are a little unexpected, a little luxurious. I love an item that has wit, fun, and style all at once - that, for me, is a winning combination.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Well, it's probably the Holiday Walk. We live in the middle of Manhattan, and it's very loud most of the year. The winter holidays are always strangely calm, and people seem to slow down and get dreamy. I love being stuffed full from a great holiday meal, putting on my mittens and giant puffer coat, pocketing a flask of eggnog, and venturing out to walk Central Park with my boy. We will often stop for Chinese on the way back. The cold air on my cheeks, the quiet joy in the air, and the spirit of another year gone by, and a new one on it's way always put me in a thoughtful, serene, and happy state of mind that is quite unique to the holidays.

Best holiday memory?

I have been blessed with a lot of happy holiday memories...too many to pick a true favorite. But, I will say the one thing that stands out is a tradition in my family. We would always get spindly trees -- probably because we weren't moneyed, but my mom and dad would tell me it was so the ornaments showed up better. We had a LOT of ornaments. Our ornaments were mainly vintage - typical Woolworth's 1940's glass - from my Mom's family in Schenectady - it is a miracle many of them survive. Each year, it was a joy to unwrap them and take them from their old cardboard boxes, and ancient cotton batting....and put them up on the tree one by one. Each one was like an old friend, and we would always discuss which ones were our favorites and why. My mom would always save one for the very end - a tiny silver glass elephant rearing up on his hind legs, trunk curling up. And he would go right under the star - at the tip top of the tree. He was special. I think about those glass ornaments - the lights playing off them, the faint smell of pine, and our little tree, completely weighted down with shimmery ornaments, in our creaky, drafty, weird wooden house. It was storybook in a strange way - and truly a memory that I cherish.

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate to Hello!Lucky (which you could use to order SusyJack* holiday cards!) head over to Susan’s blog here where she’ll be hosting a giveaway. And to get a free download of gift tags inspired by SusyJack*s designs, head over to How About Orange to print! Good luck!

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

Studio Snapshot: New Valentine's Day Cards!

Here's a little sneak peek of some new letterpress Valentine's Day cards on the press as we speak! This is just one of many new card designs making their big debut soon, so stay tuned!

Featuring: Darling Clementine & Giveaway!

Today we're featuring the lovely and charming duo behind Darling Clementine! Ingrid Reithaug and Tonje Holand are too cute for words, and have a mod style that we are crazy about. In addition to graphic design and illustration, these ladies make beautiful stationery. You can order their adorable and customizable digital holiday cards here, but as a special offer, the DC ladies are giving away 2 boxes of the limited edition letterpress cards! We want them all for ourselves, but know you will love them just as much! Darling Clementine has its own shop in Norway, but if you can’t get there you can purchase their illustrations, trays, cushions and other stationery products online here. Enjoy!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

The inspiration for Darling Clementine's cards for Hello!Lucky is a combination of objects that have a traditional Scandinavian Christmas feel and objects from our modern ways of celebrating the holiday. We wanted to express the expectations we have for the holiday by indicating present shopping, Christmas decorating and finding traditional objects from the loft.

What are you currently working on?

We are both on our maternity leaves at the moment, so currently we are both spending the days looking into the beautiful faces of our newborn babies; our proudest creations so far!

What influences you the most?

Our Scandinavian design heritage combined with our modern color palette.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

We love taking part in a Christmas fair for designers that is hosted in Oslo every first weekend in December, having a chocolate gift box workshop with red wine and dark chocolate overload, as well as putting up favorite baubles in our windows!

Best holiday memory?

Christmas present shopping in London and the wonderful smell in childhood homes Christmas morning!

To enter to win 2 boxes of limited edition letterpress cards designed by Darling Clementine, comment below and tell us your best holiday memory! The winner will be selected Friday, November 11th at 12:00pm. Good luck!

**Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner of the Darling Clementine giveaway has been chosen. Stay tuned on our blog for more fabulous holiday giveaways to come!**

Featuring Debbie Powell and Giveaway!

Today we’re excited to feature the lovely and talented Debbie Powell! Based in London, New York, and Southbourne, Debbie is an illustrator and hand letterer who loves working with all sorts of art mediums. From water colors to linoleum printing, pencil and pen to printmaking, her brilliance shines in all forms.  We love an artist who experiments with new things and especially love that in her spare time Debbie makes jewelry with the family collective Rah and Rah and her own handmade pots! What more could she conquer!?

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

Long walks, hot cocoa on chilly evenings, Christmas parties, snowflake patterns, cinnamon sticks and paper chains!

What are you currently working on?

I have a few projects on the go at the moment—illustrations for a 2013 diary, patterns for textiles, and a regular spot in the travel pages of the British newspaper The Independent which keeps me busy.

What influences your style the most?

For a long time I have been very much inspired by the Wabi Sabi approach to art and crafts. This is the idea that nothing is perfect, and beauty is found in imperfection rather than flawless perfection.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

My family lives right by the sea so every year on Christmas day we all bundle up and take a long walk along the beach for some after dinner fresh sea air!

Best holiday memory?

When I was ten years old my folks sent me to New York for Christmas to stay with my aunt for three weeks. We had the most amazing time: I got taken to Radio City, Rockefeller Center ice rink; I saw Santa at Macy's; New York at Christmas feels really magical!

To enter to win 2 boxes of limited edition Paper Chains letterpress cards, head over to Debbie’s blog today where she will be hosting the giveaway! Best of luck!

(boxed sets include 6 cards and envelopes)

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

Featuring Esther Aarts and Giveaway!

Today we're featuring our friend Esther Aarts! Esther lives in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and runs an illustration and design studio called Esta. We love the playful stories her designs tell and her use of bold color combinations. In addition to illustration and hand lettering, Esther also enjoys experimenting with "small press" projects, like making mimeograph and Gocco prints. We've had the pleasure of working with Esther over the years and always admire the designs she dreams up. Her retro cards are sure to make your friends and family smile this season!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

Dutch graphic design from the 50s and 60s mixed with contemporary illustration styles and my tendency to stick eyes on non-living things.

What are you currently working on?

Some cool client work, and I'm working on a new set of prints containing 4 dueling characters. They're a bit different than my usual prints, and I'll be working with overprints a lot (when two colours printed on top of each other create a new third colour), which makes the project a bit unpredictable in an exciting way.

What influences your style the most?

I'm a total sucker for traditional print with a limited amount of colours. Hello!Lucky is a great fit for me with the letterpress! Even when doing work for offset or web, that old school aesthetic influences me on a subconscious level. There's also a lot of seriously good work from other designers to look at—which has a continually butt-kicking effect!

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

We've got our typical Dutch variation on Santa Claus, called Sinterklaas. He celebrates his birthday on December 5 by giving lots of presents and candy (typically marzipan, chocolate and gingerbread-like mini cookies). Tradition is giving and receiving the first letter of your name as a chunky chocolate letter. If your Sinterklaas is very generous, you get your entire first name in Chocolate Letters!

Best holiday memory?

New years eves, playing records with friends and selecting all sorts of silly tunes and generally having a good time!

To enter to win an assortment of 20 letterpress cards by Esther Aarts (assorted occasions) head over to Esther’s blog today where she’s hosting a giveaway! Gooood luck!

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

Featuring Karin Soderquist and Giveaway!

Happy weekend everyone! Today we're featuring the talented artist Karin Söderquist! Karin is an illustrator and recent grad currently living and working in London! Her latest interest is working with colored paper collage. We can't get enough of her friendly animal characters and must admit, we share a true love for "bubblegum colours, snowy mountain tops and endless summer days."  Another jolly holiday card genius! Check out her shop here!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

Making holiday cards in the middle of summer felt bizarre, but I listened to a lot of holiday music to get me in the mood (A Christmas Gift for You, Phil Spector's Christmas album was a favourite). I wanted to create something that felt like Christmas did when you where a kid. Full of expectations and fun. I want people to look at the cards and be reminded of all the good things about Christmas, having some time off to spend with the people you care about.

What are you currently working on?

I've just started working on a piece for an exhibition. The theme for the show is to create something that fits into a matchbox, so it's going to be tiny!

What influences your style the most?

My style has developed over many years, and it is still developing. Right now I work a lot with paper cut collages. I started doing that because sometimes I felt very constrained when I was drawing and I was looking for a way of working that I would feel more comfortable with. Subject wise I'm inspired by a bit of everything, music, movies, art etc. The process of creating is inspiring in itself; it's like the more you make the more you want to make. Creativity breeds creativity!

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

I live in London and the rest of my family lives in Sweden. Since moving here I don't get to see them enough so my favourite tradition is going home to Sweden and spending some time with them, eating and drinking too much.

Best holiday memory?

In Sweden Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December. When I was a kid my family lived in the countryside and on the morning of the 23rd, after we had breakfast, we'd put on warm clothes and go out into the snowy forest and cut our own Christmas tree. The 23rd of December also happens to be my birthday!

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate to Hello!Lucky (which you could use to order Karin’s holiday cards!) head over to Karin’s blog today where she’ll be hosting a giveaway! Good Luck!

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

Featuring Jacqui Lee and H!L Giveaway!

Today we're checking in with our featured designer Jacqui Lee! Jacqui is an illustrator currently enjoying life in Vancouver, BC. Much of her work is inspired by decades past, and she hopes to take some of that retro charm and add it to her own creative endeavors. We love her hand drawn text and illustrative qualities in each of her holiday cards. It must be fun to live inside her head when she's coming up with such hilarious designs like Fa la la and Animal Sweaters. Who doesn't love a band of musical woodland creatures? So glad Jacqui is a part of our collection!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

To be honest, there wasn't any specific thing that inspired me. It was more of a group of things. What I can definitely say is the enthusiasm shown by the Hello!Lucky team when we were first going through ideas was a huge inspiration. It was a great starting point that propelled me through the whole process. Oh, and I may have listened to some holiday tunes on repeat.

What are you currently working on?

Something really exciting that I can't talk about (yet).

What influences your style the most?

This is a tough question! I feel like I'm always being influenced by the new and different things coming out of the creative community. If I wanted to try and pin a specific influence down, I would have to say mid-century illustration, especially children's books. During my time in art school I was definitely influenced by all of the amazing work surrounding me, but I think I've always been drawn to the whimsical and charming work done by illustrators like Art Seiden, Cliff Roberts, and Charley Harper. Visually devouring all of this work has probably made a mark on my own to some degree.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Baking cookies! I must have my gingerbread men.

Best holiday memory?

My childhood home had a very large hill in the backyard where we would have all-day-long toboggan parties with friends and family. We would hurtle ourselves down that hill all day long until it was dark out. Then we'd retreat inside to eat cookies, drink hot chocolate and warm up by the fireplace.

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate to Hello!Lucky (which you could use to order Jacqui Lee’s holiday cards!) head over to her blog today where she’ll be hosting a giveaway! Best of luck!

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

James Tucker in Uppercase Magazine!

The fall UPPERCASE magazine is out and features our very own letterpress printer, James Tucker! The issue is all about sharp objects like hooks, knives, and other cutting tools. Check out the "Labor Intensive" section to see James's gorgeous wood-cut print! Congrats James!

Featuring Morris & Essex and Hello!Lucky Giveaway!

Today’s feature is about Morris & Essex! Morris & Essex products are all designed and printed by the mastermind Eliza Jane Curtis in her farmhouse studio in the small historic district of Limington, Maine. Her work is a combination of letterpress, linoleum cut block-printing and silkscreen, using both traditional screen printing techniques and a Gocco machine. It's obvious Eliza takes extra special care when creating her gorgeous cards and patterned prints, because they are impeccably made! We love that her production process includes carving with her bare hands and that she takes advantage of all the wonderful possibilities of printmaking. For more fabulous designs, check out her Etsy site here!

Q: What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

A: Each of the cards has a different look, and my inspiration was pretty diverse for each of them. I was thinking of beautiful Nordic fair-isle knitting patterns while drawing the "Stars" card. "Folk Tales" is definitely inspired by traditional folk arts too. I happened to be staying in Barcelona while working on some of the other designs, so I think some of that city's gorgeous tile patterns and busy colors found their way into the designs.

What are you currently working on?

I'm sketching up some cute Valentine designs, and I've been working on lots of patterns. I'm silk screening some really bright, fun patterns on canvas for sewing into tote bags and zipper pouches. I'm hoping to have those up in my Etsy shop in time for Christmas.

What influences your style the most?

History. I have a big collection of old cards and magazines, craft books and junk from the past hundred years; a lot of them I got from my grandmother. That's one of my favorite places to look for inspiration. And of course I'm also inspired by nature; I live in the country, and I spend lots of time taking pictures of flowers, leaves, seeds and stalks and vines and weeds, and those forms always find their way into my work.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Christmas at my parents' farmhouse in Maine; my cousin Lisa's buttery, fresh homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast; a day spent cooking and lounging around with family and smells of food and pine needles filling the house; a sumptuous feast in the middle of the afternoon (especially my mother's cranberry-orange relish and my father's homemade fruit pies!) and then after dinner, a long afternoon walk in the snowy fields to work off a little of the food, with all the dogs running alongside and tumbling in the snow.

Best holiday memory?

Northern lights in the sky on Christmas night.

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate to Hello!Lucky (which you could use to order Morris & Essex holiday cards!) head over to Eliza’s blog today where she’ll be hosting the giveaway! Good luck!

**A winner has been chosen! Thanks for participating!**

Shannon May Giveaway!

Today we’re featuring the lovely designs of Shannon May! Although Shannon spent her childhood on the coast of southern Connecticut, we're excited to have her as a neighbor illustrator living in Berkeley. Her designs are inspired by science and geometry, and still maintain a whimsical quality that we just adore. Not only is she a killer card designer, she spends her free time making fabulous jewelry (lintu) and fine art (themooncraft), all available on Etsy. We can't wait to see more of Shannon's work in the future!

Q: What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

A: I've always been interested in math and science, finding beauty in the simplicity of equations and diagrams. But, being more of a visual art person than a physicist, I try to use that same imagery to describe other things, like the holidays!

What are you currently working on?

Illustrating a cookbook for an amazing publishing company here in San Francisco, but it's still under wraps... Shhhh.

What influences your style the most?

Math and outer space!

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Finding the pickle ornament! My mom would hide it in the tree and all the kids would scramble to find it. The one to find it first got a gift, and I was very, very good at finding it.

Best holiday memory?

Hearing hooves on the roof.

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate for Hello!Lucky (which you could use toward any of Shannon May's lovely designs!), comment on this post telling us your favorite part about the holidays! The winner will be selected at 12:00pm Friday, November 4th and we will email you with the exciting news!

**Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner of the Shannon May giveaway has been chosen. Stay tuned on our blog for more fabulous holiday giveaways to come!**

Featured Designer and Jolby Giveaway!

In celebration of the new website and the beginning of the holiday season, we will be featuring the amazing designers that collaborated with us on our new 2011 custom holiday collection! Each artist or group truly inspired us with their festive illustrations, and after months of collaborating behind the scenes, we're ready to shine a little light on our dear designer friends. We've gathered some Q&A about the creative minds behind our spectacular collection, and the first to the spotlight? Jolby!

Jolby began in 2005 when design duo Colby Nichols and Josh Kenyon joined forces in Portland, Oregon. Their jolly illustrations and super colorful combinations create the perfect mix for holiday merriment. We're more than excited to feature their cards this season, and hope you all find as much fun in their designs as we do!

Q: What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

A: For us the holidays have always been about celebrating with family and coming together to recharge. We wanted both cards to reflect that and to make whoever was receiving it smile. As far as style goes, we are both heavily inspired by mid-century children's book illustrators and especially their holiday pieces. Hopefully a little bit of that comes through on these cards!

What are you currently working on?

Each year we try to take some time to work on a solo art show for a gallery, and we're up to our ears in one right now. The new collection of work is called "Shapes & Smiles" and it explores everything in our lives that makes us happy. It's really refreshing to take a break from our client work to produce art and explore new mediums.

What influences your style the most?

So many things: Our favorite artists, the amazing creative community that surrounds us in Portland, nature, our family and music. We are always trying to push one another to try something new and to take something further. What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Colby: When I was a kid, my dad used to make these homemade cinnamon rolls and they are amazing. I always look forward to those. Josh: For me it's Thanksgiving dinner. It was my mom's favorite holiday, and it just rubbed off on me. I love gathering with my family around the table to talk, eat and be with each other. Nothing is better. Best holiday memory?

Colby: Finding a Mega Man NES cartridge in my stocking one year. It blew my mind! I played it all day. Josh: When I got "Denver the Last Dinosaur" pajamas and a fake guitar as presents.

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate of customizable Jolby designs from the holiday collection, head over to their blog here!

DIY Paper Quilt!

We can't believe this beautiful paper quilt was crafted entirely out of misprints and unsellable papers from Linda & Harriett's deliciously patterned calendars.  Gorgeous and green!

We're always looking for new ways to use scraps of paper and old letterpress samples (too pretty to toss away!) and this just might be in the mix for our next craft night.

Embroidered Wedding Portraits

Happy Monday everyone! It's hard to believe September is over, and with exciting changes coming soon to Hello!Lucky, we're taking deep breaths as we welcome October in anticipation for the holiday season. Although our minds are wrapped around holiday festivities and winter cheer, wedding bells are still ringing and we had to share the perfect wedding gift for any time of year. These hand-embroidered canvas portraits by Michelle Rigg are completely customizable and turn any standard wedding portrait into a work of art.

We love all the meticulous details that go into each design. From the seams in the wedding dress, to the perfect outlines of the figures, it's easy to tell this artist takes extra special care.

Any why not make it personal? Love can be found in all forms, and for a couple with a shared interest, adding a little humor never hurts.

Check out more from Michelle Rigg here!