At home with Shana Faust

Last week we spent a couple days at the home of Shana Faust, a former style editor at Martha Stewart Weddings, working on our new book project. Shana's Brooklyn apartment is full of inspiration, as one might expect! And, the latest inspiration is her new daughter, Sophie Bea...

A few snaps from Sophie's room...

This little Japanese band is so hilarious!

A stack of pretty mini-pillows...

Kissing cowboys...

Sophie's colorful bookshelf...

Shana's kitchen, full of pretty whites and neutrals...

And there she is! Miss Sophie Bea, with Eunice Sophy!

Sophie's birth announcement, photographed and designed for Shana by friend Rebecca Thuss.

Anna Bond

We love Anna Bond's illustrations - she's the owner of Rifle Design and has a fabulous blog.  We adore (covet, are wildly envious of, etc.) her whimsical and naive style...

This was an illustration done for her wedding invitation - you can see details from her amazing wedding on Brooklyn Bride...

Sneak peak: New designs by Joel Dewberry

And now for a sneak peak of our new wedding designs, part deux - Joel Dewberry! Joel is an incredibly talented textile designer and whose fabrics we'd been coveting! When we finally met we instantly connected - we completely identify with his "eclectic modern" philosophy  - it was a match made in heaven! Here's a sneak peak of the results of our collaboration on a new wedding invitation collection...

These designs will be available exclusively on our website in 2 weeks (both letterpress and digital). Check back soon, and check out Joel's amazing fabrics here.

Sneak peak: New designs by EIEIO

We have long been huge fans of Jean Orlebeke over at EIEIO - she's created an amazing range of modern gift wrap designs, which are sold at high-end boutiques (think MoMA design store). She's hands-down one of the most talented designers we know, so we were thrilled when she agreed to collaborate with us on an exclusive collection of wedding invitation designs! Here's a sneak peak...

We're so excited to be working with Jean! This designs will be available in both letterpress and digital formats on our website in the next 2 weeks. Check back for more info, and call us to order in the meantime!

Photos by Sara Remington.

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!

New York Gift Fair

We just wrapped up exhibiting at the NY Gift Fair - it was a little quiet given the economy (crickets..!...tumbleweeds!)...but that's okay because we still got lots of inspiration and made new friends. Plus it's always great to catch up with our fellow designers/small biz owners and the wonderful independent boutiques that carry our cards. There's Chun Yee (intrepid founder of our London office) and Sabrina in our booth...

We were completely smitten with Pikku's new stationery - it's a beautiful combination of pretty, mod design, gorgeous letterpress and hand stitching. That Valerie is so talented - everything she does incorporates pretty textile-inspired details...

Pikku was also showcasing these lovely silk-screen wood wall calendars. So cute!

Angie and Ted of Poketo were there with their super-nip line of t's, plates, wallets and other delectable collectibles.

Here are some of their new mugs, available righ here.

We also spotted these fab new Orla Kiely journals from Jasper + Black.

Love these kooky dinosaur wall decals from Wall Candy Arts.

Super cool coat hooks from Fluffy Co.

And fabulous hand-made guest books and albums from Rag & Bone Bindery (this one uses Amy Butler fabrics). Gorgeous!!

John Patrick Organic

We're at the New York International Gift Fair this week and one of our favorite finds has been John Patrick Organic, an ultra-chic organic cotton fashion studio created by designer John Patrick. We love these airy dresses from his Spring collection - how fabulous would these be for to wear to a summer wedding (as a bridesmaid or guest!)?

Love these looks!

John was at the show with his lovely assistant Olivia previewing his gorgeous new beach line, Playa Organic.

Elegant flow-y beach lounge wear  organic straw hats, and light striped wool scarves -- on display at their booth at the Gift Show. Makes us want to get on a plane to Cabot!

What we love most, though, is John's passion,  ethic, and super-positive attitude -- he sources from small cotton growers and is completely dedicated to creating chic, lovely clothes; the details and quality are amazing!  We heart him!!!

Official Tooth Fairy Kit

Every once in a while we come across a genius that product that gives us major design envy. Behold! The Official Tooth Fairy Kit!

We love the seriously gorgeous design and all the hilarious little details, including the following filing instructions (the idea of making small children go through ridiculous and unnecessary bureaucracy is so amusing!):

The kit contains one letterpress Certificate of Record for filing with your local Tooth Fairy and one reusable silkscreened cloth deposit bag for your first and all subsequent transactions. The official certificate keeps record of name, age, tooth lost, method of extraction and compensation information.

Available via the Office of the Tooth Fairy (ha!) for the bargain price of $16

via Oh Happy Day!

ISES Top Design

We were thrilled to work with the talented Morgan Doan to create this uber-chic table design for the ISES Top Design competition yesterday. Morgan worked with Blueprint Studio Collection to create the custom-upholstered chairs and table cloth in slate grey.

Hunt Littlefield ceated the gorgeous architectural floral displays, including a stunning orchid chandelier!

We created coordinating letterpress menus in a citrus green and slate grey (using one of our new designs created in collaboration with pattern designer Joel Dewberry), displayed in Japanese book cloth photo frames created by bookbinder Stephanie Haney.

And (drum roll, please!), we won the award for Top Design! Congratulations, Morgan and everyone on the design team!

2009 Preview Party!

We recently held our 2009 Stationery Preview party and are thrilled to report that it was a huge success!  We collaborated with some of the most amazing wedding vendors in the Bay Area to transform our working letterpress studio into a beautiful event space complete with red carpet!  Above, the fab Morgan Doan, event planner extraordinaire and mastermind behind this event, and Sabrina chatting by the welcome table.  Our sponsor booklet featured our new Sparrow design by Joel Dewberry.

Guests arriving...it was a fantastic crowd - some of the best and brightest in weddings...

The studio on its way to being transformed. Got Light? did an amazing job with the lighting and draping - we were truly blown away by the difference a little "pipe and drape" made.  The back-lit bar was provided by Blueprint Studio Collection and Wildflower Linens provided the lovely table clothes. DJ John Jow turned the place into a mini-nightclub with his expert music mixing.

Jane Hammond Events provided the seriously delicious hors d'oeuvres, including bite-sized crab cakes, empinadas, and mushroom tartlets and the most amazing brownies of all time.  Andronico's Market provided the excellent wine (selected by the talented Jeffrey Porter).

We made these little buffet signs - the holder was just a standard restaurant sign holder that we spray-painted a matte pink and the orchid pattern on the sign is from one of our new collaborations with Joel Dewberry.

One of the things we were celebrating was the launch of our latest invitation collections including a collaborations with EIEIO, Joel Dewberry, Julia Rothman, and the always amazing Lab Partners.  They did a destination series featuring New York, San Francisco, Hawaii and London (London and New York pictured above).  We've already gotten such and incredible response, we're already thinking about adding some new destinations to the line!

Sharla Flock designed the gorgeous floral arrangments - we love her subtle use of color and texture.

She used pieces from our large collection of flea market found vases and bowls to create an eclectic look.

One of our talented printers, James, did demonstrations of the letterpress printing technique.

We were also celebrating the launch of our new website which we are SO excited about.  The dapper Mr. Daniel James of Three Rings and brilliant event planner, Lisa Feldman, check out the new look.

We had a whole selection of our work on display - this was a variation on our popular Cherry Blossom design - including fan programs, and round menus designed to fit into the dinner plates.  We were also introducing our new digital printing option - an excellent (and fast!) alternative to letterpress (or a budget-friendly way to augment beautiful letterpress invitations).

Gorgeous photography by Allure West.

Thank you so much to all our incredible partners in this event and to everyone who came out for the party!

Oh Orla!

We just read, on SFGirlBay and v that Orla Kiely, of whom we are big, big fans, has created a new line of fabulous home wares for Target which will launch this Winter. So drool-worthy, we had to write about it too (picture us jumping up and down and trying to contain our glee)!

Check out these fabulous tins - reminiscent of a stylish 70's kitchen but without all those awful appliances in "avocado"!

Love the trays - you can never have too many trays!

The new Orla Kiely Target collection will include tumblers, mugs, serving trays, dinner plates, storage crates and totes, place mats, napkins, floor and seat cushoions, and super adorable (and affordable!) aprons!

We can't wait for this collection to hit the stores!

Real Wedding: Danielle Spinetta & Greg Piché

We recently did fabulous invitations and day-of paper for our friend and fellow card maker, Danielle Spinetta of Tallulah.  She and her husband, Greg Piché, were married at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco, and had a fun vintage movie theme - Foreign Cinema has a giant wall for projecting movies (so cool!) - they showed Grease and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid during the reception. Love it!

Photography by Beth Hurley and Deb Mindel of Greg Piché Photography.

Danielle had her save-the-dates printed at the amazing Hatch Show Print and asked us to do the rest of the pieces in a similar show poster style (an aesthetic we happen to love, so needless to say it was a great pleasure to work on). Here's the menu (above)...

The place cards were inspired by vintage movie ticket stubs...

We designed these great custom cocktail napkins from For Your Party - such an adorable detail - served alongside these delicious looking glasses of huckleberry lemonade.

Love these Hooray! flags made by So Inviting (she also made the flag for the cake)...

The truffle cake was made by  I Dream of Cake

Love the earthy modern look of Foreign Cinema.  The giant letters in the background were made by Madeline Edwards. Congratulations, Danielle & Greg!

Daniel Egnéus

We came across Daniel Egnéus on the lovely Tatielle -  we love, love, love the fluid, gestural lines and the quirky, surreal imagery...

Like this series of "mad hatters"...

And this series called "Berlin Zoo Ballet" - the figures are so elegant and evocative...genius!

A few more...so lovely...

Chamo!

We are so enamored of French illustrator Chamo's adorable and sassy illustrations.

Vintage flavor and anything nautical is always a favorite - we love her take on the tattooed french sailor.

How fantastic is this blue tiger?  Love the Indian inspired aesthetic and the genius subtle off registration, so typical of the print quality - it adds a hilarious authenticity to the illustration.

We might actually eat more fruits and veggies if they came in this chipper packaging!

Ah Zombie Love...

This monkey really knows how to cut a rug...and his hip-shakin' dance partner with her cleverly positioned maracas - we can hear the steel drums!

Brilliant, brilliant...

Destination wedding invitations

We're thrilled to release our new Destination series wedding invitations designed by local artists (and friends!) from Lab Partners. Inspired by vintage travel posters, their adorable illustrations couldn't be more perfect for a fun San Francisco affair, a glamorous London soirée, a tropical event in Hawaii or an elegant wedding in New York!

Don't see your destination? Contact us to learn more about our custom design services.

Pardon Us While We Swoon over Andrew Bannecker

How much do we love the work of Andrew Bannecker?  Alot, that's how much!  We found him through the always genius Grain Edit.  We love his color palettes and the combination of layered detail and textures with flat graphics - and the hilarious, tongue-in-cheek tone of his work, well, needless to say, right up our alley!

Love the little wind-up guys and the fabulous super fuzz detail on the giant hair/hat!

The Hug-n-Kiss Dating Agency?!  Ridiculous and hilarious - and what a charming fellow - who could resist, really?

You can also buy his limited edition prints at Charming Wall...

Brand Bird Damasks

Jules of Brand Bird does these fabulous damask patterns.  We love the fact that they are made up of bits of flora and fauna - a quirky take on a traditional damask.

How hilarious is the pattern above?  Hilariously titled "Fancy Feast".  Love the sassy fashionistas too!

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!

Featured Retailer: Hygge & West

Online boutique Hygge & West opened last week with a fabulous selection of clothing, accessories, stationery, home decor, and really fantastic wallpaper. Hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) is Danish term that translates loosely to mean the heart of living well. You'll certainly be living well with exclusive items like Julia Rothman wallpaper (above) and Jessica Rust San Francisco mug (below).

Just in time for the holidays! Happy shopping!