Alex's baby shower

We got ready to welcome the latest Hello!Lucky baby into the world recently. The expectant mom: Alex, one of our stationery consultants! We threw a shower for her at our studio, the highlight of which was the fabulous hand-crafted items created by our staff! Here's an adorable elephant baby snapsuit by Haley.

It even has a cute heart on the butt!

Shauna knitted Alex these adorable booties and hat.

And Jessica embroidered this cute baby tee with a snail (it says "snail" in German).

Since Alex is German, this was a definite theme. The highlight of the tasty treats was a delicious German Potato Salad by James, complete with its own authentic signage.

Stay tuned for updates as the latest Hello!Lucky baby arrives!

Mutant Octopi, Puppies, Giraffes!!

We had a great time today hosting a gaggle of hilarious second graders for a valentine making bonanza.  Here we are at the beginning of the session - all seems calm, but it soon descended into crafting chaos!

We worked on the Fuzzy Octopus card from our book, Handmade Hellos.  Above, some very serious crafting commences...

The kids were really creative - here is an octopus that ended up with 22 eyes at the final count...

We loved how creative the kids got!  Here a little girl who decided to go with a fantastic giraffe of her own creation.

A hysterical puppy...

Hilarious mutant octopus...

Aaron does a little printing demonstration for a rapt audience. Thanks to the kids and teachers of Leonard Flynn Elementary School for a great time! Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Card Making Party

Last week we hosted a Valentine's card making  party at Chronicle Books' shop on Union Street in San Francisco, featuring a valentine's version of the Owl-y Friend card by Petra Boase, from our book Handmade Hellos.

We had a great turnout - so much fun!

By the end of the night, we had a crazy number of variations on the owl, and lots of happy crafters!

The owls (and some non-owls) were as varied as their makers...

We dubbed this one the "red hot" owl - love the color combo!

And what about these "disco wings"!?

Glitter was one of the more popular supplies...a comedian once called glitter the STD of crafting, and our party proved that out...my the end, it had spread everywhere! Hilarious!

Some crafters were inspired by the Wood You Be Mine? project from the book, by Two Trick Pony, and made their own vignettes (this one uses some cute cardinal wrapping paper from Snow & Graham).

Or how about this hilarious birthday card? The little alien is made from a patterned paper by EIEIO.

Owl with wings and eyes akimbo... Thanks to everyone who attended, and a special shout-out to Christina Loff for organizing. Happy Valentine's Day!!

Flea market finds!

Sunday was the Alameda Flea Market and, as always, we were there in full treasure-hunting mode! This time we spotted some fabulous paper goods and crafting supplies..

Love this vintage wall paper -- we can't wait to use it to line some envelopes! We also found these little paper cups, lined with pleated crepe paper -- such a cute idea for containing favors!

And these buttons and fabric would be so fabulous for crafting projects!

Paper elephants! We can imagine using them as favors or place cards for a baby shower (slip the guest's name in the elephant's trunk!)

A pretty paper fan...so lovely! Ah, the flea is so satisfying!

Yulia Brodskaya

We found the work of Russian artist Yulia Brodskaya via Design Work Life - amazing.  She's taking quilling and paper craft to a whole new level!  We love the movement and color - gorgeous.

The Handmade Hellos Crafting Party!

The crafting party last night was a smash hit!

All of our demo stations were full of ambitious crafters–Hello!Lucky's snowy variation on Petra Boase’s Owl-y Friend yielded many colorful results! You can download the template here to try it out for yourself!

Our Handmade Hellos contributors demonstrated various craft projects. François Vigneault instructed guests on how to make postcards composed of found maps, a fun and easy project for anyone with a crafty eye.

Sarah Adler's magical banner project used dainty little boxes to enclose a quirky greeting one letter at a time!

Stacy and Nicole (above) from Pancake & Franks had a station devoted to their accordion card, which uses durable board ends to make up a booklet.

Jody Warshaw, Christina Loff, Kate Woodrow from Chronicle Books showing off their projects!

Happy crafters!

Jeffrey McGrew from Because We Can fashioned his card into part of his ensemble!

Nancy Deane from Chronicle Books shows off her owl.

Sarah Adler watches as one of her students displays her very own magical banner.

The Hello!Lucky staff were, of course, busy at work! Pictured above, Max Koch and Shauna Leytus were the studio bartenders while, below, James Tucker and Alex Ewers greeted incoming crafters!

Aaron Cohick, our lead pressman, was kind enough to demonstrate the ins-and-outs of our vintage Heidelberg presses throughout the evening.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Gettin' ready for the crafting party!

We're getting ready for tonight's crafting party! The studio's abuzz with decorating and preparations!

Anna made these adorable buttons for H!L staff.

Alex hanging decorations in our front window...

And Anna hanging signs on our card display...

We're going to be making great holiday-inspired craft projects tonight, courtesy of Handmade Hellos contributors. Here's Sarah Adler's set-up (she owns Hearts & Anchors) - so cute!

Crafter extraordinaire François Vigneault getting his project ready...

Hello!Lucky is doing a snowy variation on Petra Boase's Owly Friend from the book (download the template here!).

More decor from around the studio!

The party starts tonight at 6 p.m. Come one, come all!

Hello!Lucky Studio 977 Howard Street (between 5th and 6th) San Francisco Closest BART: Powell Street Closest Parking: 5th & Mission garage - just 1.5 blocks away! There is also street parking on Howard and across the street from the studio.

SF Chronicle article & book launch party!

Thanks to Anh-Minh Le (who also writes a fabulous blog!) for her article about us in today's San Francisco Chronicle!

The piece compares and contrasts our aesthetics, as reflected in the style of our homes.

Eunice's dog Simon also makes an appearance - his, ahem, windy antics are the inspiration behind our I Stink (I'm Sorry!) skunk card.

For those of you in the Bay Area, come check out our book launch party Thursday, December 11 from 6 - 8 p.m at our studio at 977 Howard Street (between 5th and 6th). There'll be crafting galore with Handmade Hellos contributors Hearts & Anchors, Pancake & Franks, Pie Bird Press, Francois Vigneault!

Royal Buffet

We stumbled across Mollie Green of Royal Buffet via the ever fab Vintage Glam and fell in love with the light, ethereal quality of her mobiles, wreaths and garlands.

Love this quirky Lady & Gentleman mobile - her pieces are all made from clippings from vintage French magazines and the like, adding charming and romantic flair.

Beautiful brooches & pendants

Okay, folks, it's time to get serious about Christmas shopping! So herewith, we're going to start presenting you with some of our favorite gift finds. First up - Poodlebreath, one of our favorite etsy sellers!

She makes absolutley stunning porcelain pendants & brooches, like this pretty bunny! Perfect gift for nature lovers and gals with vintage-y romantic flare.

All are available right here for under $50!

Bazaar Bizarre!

This weekend we were peddling our wares over at Bazaar Bizarre, a fabulous (and busy!) art & craft fair sponsored by Craft Magazine.  There were over 100 vendors selling all sorts of handmade goods from the lovely to the hilarious.

Piperoid was at the next table over with their fantastic DIY paper robot.  They come flat packed in these ingenious little kits that require only a pair of scissors!

More robotic goodness...

I Heart Guts was there - they always amuse with their adorable plush innards, hilarious t-shirts and other gut-related goodies.  One of our favorite items was the "When Urine in Love" t-shirt sporting two perky kidneys mooning over each other.  Silliness is always so satisfying!

Eunice got this awesome crab necklace from our next door neighbor, The Brown Banana -  Gabriel Colaluca, proprietor of the Brown Banana makes all kinds of fabulous-one-of-kind jewelery from recycled materials such as watch faces, silverware, Scrabble pieces and more.

Another member of the banana family, BananaSaurus Rex, had adorable reversable bibs, gorgeous totes, wine wraps and more, all made from vintage tablecloths and the like and were handing out free lavender sachets with purchase, to boot!

The always inspiring Mara and Anna from Dutch Door Press had a wide array of beautiful things for sale - our favorite was their new series of prints of birds and flora from all 50 states (this is a new release and so far only California, Illinois and New York are available here, but we can't wait to see them all!)

Being knitting junkies, we couldn't resist purchasing some hand-dyed yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm (despite our ever growing collection of unfinished projects and piles of yarn yet to be used!) The colors were so enticing, the voice of reason was immediately stamped out in favor of a couple of skeins of "Pink Octopus". If you're in the Bay Area, they are opening their new shop in Berkeley on December 6th!

Jocelyn Nguyen of Nous Savons had (as usual) a fabulous selection of jewelery, hair pieces, and clothing.  The Nous Savons aestheic can be summed up with these words: Like wandering in your crazy great-aunt's attic. Fabulous.

We also stopped by to visit the talented Sarah Adler of Hearts & Anchors.  Her whimsical, victorian-inspired notes (available here) are always a favorite of ours!  She is also one of the contributors to our new book, Handmade Hellos!  We were thrilled to see that the books were selling like hotcakes!

Check Out Our Bust!

Ahem, our feature in Bust Magazine that is!  A couple of projects from our new book, Handmade Hellos, are showcased in this month's issue!  Very exciting!

The cards are based on projects by contributors Sarah Neuburger of the Small Object and the always sassy MikWright.  Learn how to make hilarious mini-family portraits (complete with stylie hair) through the age-old practice of thumbprint art! And that circa-1965 shot of Aunt Cheryl in a plaid pantsuit that's been crying out for an audience?  A perfect candidate for a cheeky holiday greeting - just add scissors and glue!

Happy crafting!

Learning the Letters

In a never ending effort to increase our stationery geekiness, a couple of us made our initial foray on a quest to learn calligraphy. With the help of the talented Michele Papineau of Papineau Calligraphy (the go-to specialist for all H!L calligraphy needs) we learned the basics of letterforms, angles, and some tricks of the trade. Michele has been doing calligraphy for over twenty years - her work has been featured in Elegant Bride, Martha Stewart Living and Cooking Light among others.

Her Oakland studio is full of beautiful calligraphed wedding invitations, handlettered  poems and a vast array of pens, nibs, inks and paints.

Michele showed us some basic letters - she made it look so easy!

Calligraphy is definitely a lot harder than it looks. It's going to take a bit more practice for the rest of us!

Thanks for all your help Michele!

Kate Sutton

Speaking of fabulous illustrations, we just have to take a moment to opine about the brilliantly talented Kate Sutton. She just posted these new cuckoo clocks on her blog - how hilarious are they?! Love the squirrels especially.

Here are some hilarious soft items she sewed - the pirate peas and carrots are our favorites! Avast, pea hearties! ha ha

Kate has not one but two projects in our new book, Handmade Hellos, including this charming pop-up birdie card...

The beaks pop open - a chirpy way to say hello!

Kate also illustrated these fantastic letterpress valentine's day cards for us; check out all her cards for Hello!Lucky here. We'd seen Kate's work around - like this poster for the Renegade Craft Fair - and fell in love with her quirky style!

We also love this  custom illustration she did for a baby girl named Grace. What a sweet idea! Check out Kate's work and blog here.

Handmade Hellos is here!

It's official! Our new book Handmade Hellos: Fresh Greeting Card Projects from First-Rate Crafters, published by Chronicle Books, is now available at a store near you (including Barnes & Noble, Fred Flare, and of course here on our website)! There are way too many great projects in the book to showcase them all (click here for more info and a full list of contributors), so here's just a taste!

Simple, elegant Big Number Birthday Card by our talented friends at Binth.

Fabulous Owly Friend collage card by the lovely and talented UK-based Petra Boase.

New Baby Nest fabric collage card by London-based Abigail Brown.

Brilliantly simple and stylish origami self-mailing note by Norway's Darling Clementine - you'll be using this folding technique for years to come, trust us!

Pop-up "Ahoy there!" pirate ship card by one of our favorite illustrators, Kate Sutton.

Road trip post card set by the brilliantly creative Francois Vigneault!

Genius silk-screen on balsa wood valentine by Two Trick Pony (can also be adapted to a save the date card or even a dinner party invite "Wood you come to dinner?" ha ha).

Witty horoscope card by the talented crew at Egg Press.

Hilarious thumbprint Humpty Dumpty card from The Small Object (there is a broken Humpty inside, making this the perfect sympathy or apologies card) - check out the upcoming issue of Bust magazine for a wonderful family portrait variation on this for the holidays, which must be seen to be appreciated! (Also included in the issue is a variation on the fantastic MikWright contribution to the book!)

Adorable Library Book birth announcement by Paper + Cup.

Ridiculous and hilarious Fuzzy Octopus by the fabulous Daniel James which we had fun making with both kids and adults at last spring's Maker Faire.

And of course there are a few projects in the book by us, too, including this snazzy Blue Ribbon Card...

The adorable how-to illustrations were created by Sarah LaBieniec, half of dynamic design duo Lab Partners. So quick, get your copies - stocking stuffers for all!!

Bound.To Journals

Craft-tastic! We just discovered this fabulous hand-bound journal using  our Julia Rothman chandelier gift wrap, by Etsy seller Bound.To.  What a wonderful way to re-purpose wrap!

Here are some other beautiful journals she's created with other papers, too!

DIY Postcard Table Cards

We came across this cute and relatively easy to execute idea for do-it-yourself table cards on Lovely Morning.

Kristina has taken vintage postcards with different images of Palms Spring (her wedding venue) and has mounted them to card stock.   The actual table numbers are on the opposite side.

And, voila!  A highly personalized table card.  Of course, you can adapt this idea to just about anything. Patterned paper, wall paper, photographs, etc... could all make suitable backings.  Nice to remember that a do-it-yourself project doesn't have to mean hours and hours of crafting and can add such a memorable and personal touch to an event.   Check out more of Kristin's wedding planning and more here.

Wendy Kromer's Gorgeous Cakes

You've likely seen Wendy Kromer's work if you have ever picked up a copy of Martha Stewart Weddings - she is an incredibly talented cake designer and has created some of our all-time favorite cakes.

Wendy has a bakery and design studio in Sandusky, Ohio which would seem incredibly inconvenient for those of us who covet her cakes, but much to our delight we have discovered via BFF Bridal that you can buy her gorgeous sugar flowers as well as cake kits (like the amazing Magical Marzipan Forest Cake featured above) so that you (or for those of us who are less daring, your favorite local baker) can emulate some of her most fabulous designs.  Shop online at  Wendy Kromer Specialty Confections.

If you're still dreaming of one of her cakes for your big day, she will deliver her wedding cakes throughout Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois.  If you're further away, no need to fret; they will deliver throughout the United States and even internationally!  All of their cakes are hand-carried on planes - it seems like a nerve-wracking job to us, but there you go!

You can also check out more of her cakes the new book she co-authored with Martha Stewart, titled Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes, where over 100 of her cakes are featured.

Message in a bottle save the date

While 3-d invitations can be a little extravagant (postage costs can exceed $3 a pop!), we love it when they're tied conceptually to the design or theme - like these message in a bottle save the dates we created last year. The message was tied with a blue ribbon and inserted in the bottle, which was filled with a bit of sand, and mailed in a simple cardboard mailer. So sweet! (P.S. this is a great DIY project!)

DIY Thank You Notes

As everyone knows, we're big fans of DIY crafts so were excited to see these cute DIY thank you card projects on Martha Stewart (from the Fall issue of Weddings).

Most projects come with how-to instructions or templates. While some are a little hard to imagine doing in multiple (hand-cutting 100 intricate paper cutouts with an exacto blade, anyone?), others like this birdie card (which basically just entails xeroxing clipart and embellishing with a little 3-D missive) are simple and sweet.

Remember doing linoleum block prints in grade school? It's simple and great for multiples. Happy crafting!