Free Father's Day DIY Templates Updated for 2015

We've been getting requests for a version of our father's day diy templates updated for 2015. We aim to please, so here they are!  Download the links below and print these puppies up for your favorite father figure! 

Father's Day is right around the corner and this year we've got your one-of-a-kind gifts covered. You can jazz up a simple pair of socks, a bottle of wine, or a bottle of beer with these manly labels we've designed. Do you have a handsome and debonaire Dad? Print out our matching labels for a black pair of socks and a nice bottle of wine. We even created a slick card to match!

Is your Dad more on the rugged side? Why not make some beer and a pair of white socks a little more special with our free matching labels?

We printed ours on label paper which made sticking them to the bottles and socks a little easier, but these would look just as nice printed on regular white paper or card stock.

Simply click on the links below to print your free Father's Day cards and labels. Enjoy!

Sock Bands

Father's Day Card in White

Father's Day Card in Black

Wine & Beer Labels

And as always we love seeing our printables in action - so send us pics or post them directly to our Facebook page. And tell Dad we said Happy Father's Day too.

Local Love: Tender Loving Empire

In May, we partnered with our friends at Egg Press and moved our printing operations to their studio in Portland, Oregon. Since we now have a Hello!Lucky team up north in addition to our design studio in San Francisco, we thought it was only logical to extend our Local Love series and showcase some of the fantastic shops in Portland! We're starting with Tender Loving Empire, which was founded in 2006 by Portland-based artists and musicians Jared and Brianne Mees. It began as a record label and print shop and a year later expanded to include a consignment retail shop focused on locally produced items. The walls of the shop are covered in illustrations, and a mural above the front door reads "You are part of this place", which captures the spirit of the store and its dedication to community.

 

Its current location on Southwest 10th and Stark houses a full screen print shop and the Tender Loving Empire offices as well as the retail store front. The store sells exclusively handmade items and strives to represent Pacific Northwest artists. We're proud to see a few of our own on the shelf alongside cards made by so many talented local artists!

The screen printing studio produces T-shirts and prints, album packaging for the TLE label's artists as well as commissions for local businesses.

  

Tender Loving Empire

412 SW 10th Ave, Portland Oregon (503) 243-5859

Local Love: Little Paper Planes & Owl Cave

For this installment of our Local Love series we headed to Valencia street and visited one of our favorite new stores, Little Paper Planes + Owl Cave books. Little Paper Planes opened earlier this year in May and it's such a great addition to the bustling Mission neighborhood.

Little Paper Planes is owned and operated by Kelly Lynn Jones, who ran LPP as an online shop for years before launching this brick and mortar version of her store. Kelly is joined by Viniita Moran who brought her online bookstore Owl Cave Books into the shop. Owl Cave Books has a wonderfully curated selection of hard to find art books and magazines.

One of our favorite things about the shop is the space, which was transformed with fixtures and hand built pieces created by Kate Pruitt.

The shop also has a  print gallery which features a new artist every month and a residency program which can be found in the back of the store. The residency program offers space to artists, makers and curators.

If you're visiting the bay area or if you're a local who hasn't been to LPP + Owl Cave Books yet definitely make a trip there. They have such a great selection of goods and they're so well curated and displayed, you'll definitely leave feeling inspired and hopefully with something fun you didn't have before.

Little Paper Planes + Owl Cave 855 Valencia Street in San Francisco,  (415) 643-4616

Instagram Letter Love!

We're having such a fun time reading all of the entries you guys are writing in for our Pen Pal Giveaway. It's especially fun to see the photos people are tagging on instagram as part of the contest -- to enter to win on instagram simply tag your letter themed photo #LetterpressMailLove. We had to share some of these super fun photos. To enter the contest we asked you to comment on who your dream pen pal would be, living or dead. We love @tomehope's hand calligraphed envelope to J.D. Salinger. How beautiful is that?

And how gorgeous is this vintage Navy air mail stationery from instagrammer @redonthehead? Who ever she sends that to is one lucky pen pal!

There's nothing like a stack of postcards and hand drawn envelopes ready to get shipped off. Makes us happy inside! This one below is from @adelbethanny.

For details on how to enter to win our big pen pal giveaway head to this blog post. Happy letter writing friends!

Hello!Lucky & Egg Press Pen Pal Giveaway

Remember how good it feels to write and receive letters.To make new friends at summer camp and stay pen pals through out the year? Nothing beats the feeling of finding a handwritten letter in the mailbox. To celebrate our new partnership with Egg Press and remind everyone how awesome it is to send and receive mail we decided to throw a fun little giveaway that revolves around one of our favorite things ---  snail mail! We've been sending letters back and forth all summer with Egg Press and it has been such a treat to find sweet packages alongside our bills and junk mail.

Here's how it works! To enter to win simply comment on this blog post or Egg Press's blog post about this contest and tell us your dream pen pal. It can be anyone, living or dead. Jack Kérouac, your Grandma, a Buddhist monk. For an additional entry, post a mail-themed photo on Instagram tagging us at @helloluckycards and @eggpress and using hashtag #LetterpressMailLove.

We'll have three lucky winners for this giveaway, below is what they'll receive.

Grand Prize: Hello!Lucky and Egg Press will be your pen pal for a year. You'll receive fun mail every other month which might include things like cards (big surprise, right?), recipes, chocolates, pens, seeds and more! There’s no obligation to write back, but we would love to get to know you better.

Second Prize: A years worth of cards from Egg Press and Hello!Lucky, 24 cards total!

Third Prize: 4-5 of our founder's favorite pens. And believe me, these ladies know pens!

You have until August 29th to enter to win, we'll announce all the winners on our blog. Happy letter writing!

New Cards in the Shop!

Our latest release of greeting cards has something for everyone. We've got gold bling, neon rainbows, victorian circus acrobats and tiny baby dictators. To celebrate this new release we're offering 15% off all our greeting cards until July 1st. Just enter NEWCOLLECTIONS at checkout.

Enjoy!

Don't Forget Dad!

Just a reminder that Father's Day is June 16th! Don't forget to give a card to dear old Dad! To help you out we're offering 15% off all greeting cards. Enter code DearDad at checkout. Be sure to order your cards by June 7th to assure they arrive on time. Offer expires 6/7.

Still stumped on what to get Dad? Download these free printable sock, wine and beer labels we designed for Father's Day last year. All of our free printables can be found here.

Stationery Show Favorites, Part 1

We're having a great time at the NSS this week. It's impossible to get photos of everything we've seen and loved. But here's our first post to share some of the goodness we've been staring at all week.

HAMMERPRESS  - We've long been fans of this Kansas City press shop and we love that our booth is directly across from there's at this years show. They've got some great new designs. Including some sweet die cut holiday cards.

YELLOW OWL WORKSHOP - Just around the corner from our booth is one of our hometown neighbors and friends, Yellow Owl Workshop. We were so impressed during set up to see Christine painting a masterpiece in her booth - check out these lovely walls! As you can imagine their booth is definitely a stand out and we love how the cards match her amazing walls.

EGG PRESS - Another stand out booth is the this homemade beauty from Portland based Egg Press. Check out their custom built walls. Some great new designs from another one of our favorite letterpress companies -- and we're not just saying that in light of our big news.

9th LETTER PRESS - Another close neighbor to us at the show is 9th Letterpress, based out of Winter Park, Florida. They've got some lovely new designs and we're also liking their big spacious booth with simple wood shelves. We love the infusion of bright cheery colors in their designs as well.

Alright! We're off to the show for another day. Check back for more of our favorites which we should have up here soon!

National Stationery Show here we come!

We’re packing our bags and getting ready to head to New York once again for the National Stationery Show. We’re super excited to catch up with old friends, favorite designers, customers, editors, and everyone else we’ll see in NY. This new release is one of our biggest yet and we can't wait to unveil it to the world. Fingers crossed everyone else will like it as much as we do! We’ll be sure to take lots of photos and share all the goodness we see at NSS with you here on the blog.

                                                                                                                                                             

If you'll be at the show please come by and say hello, we'd love to see you!

Don't Forget Mom!

Just a reminder that Mother's Day is May 12th! There's still time to get mom a sweet letterpress card and some personalized stationery.

To receive 20% off your order just enter DearMom at checkout.

Hot off the press: Circus Cards!

We're gearing up for the National Stationery Show in May which means our printer is busy at work cranking out all of our new letterpress card designs. We'll be launching around 50 new cards this May and we haven't been this excited for a new release in a long time. One of the things that makes this release so special is the fact that we're now able to incorporate gold foil in our cards. We can't wait for that sparkly release.

This year we also expanded some of our favorite existing lines. Expect to finally see more sock monkeys! Another line we've been itching to grow is our vintage circus series. You can see the first card hand drawn by Eunice here.

We're adding 5 more cards to the circus series and you're the very first to see all 5 of the new designs. One of the things that makes these cards so special is that each one is hand drawn by our founder and creative director Eunice Moyle. We had so much fun coming up with the ideas you see illustrated on these cards. And our printer did an amazing job letterpressing these beauties.

We hope they're as well received in the rest of the world as they are in our studio.

Do you have a favorite? Leave a comment telling us which one and one lucky commenter will win all 5 - before anyone else can get their hands on them!

Look for these cards in stores and on our site in mid-May.  

Winner picked and announced here! 

New Letterpress Card Designs & A Giveaway!

We are so very excited to launch our new greeting card line and have loved sharing glimpses of what it looks like with you here on the blog, on Facebook and instagram. Well today one lucky commenter will receive one of our brand new cards, long before it's available in stores or anywhere else!

To enter to win just leave a comment and tell us who you would send this 'Thanks A Ton' card to. We'll pick a winner today and announce it here!

Update! We were so thrilled with the awesome response from you all that we picked 5 winners! Congratulations to Tasha, Tammy, Rebecca, Natasha, & Mary! You'll be receiving emails from us shortly so be on the look out! 

Eunice's Sketchbook

One of the most fun things we do around the studio is brain storm ideas for new cards. We usually have a meeting, throw out all of our silly ideas, and then whittle the list down to something manageable since Eunice usually ends up designing the bulk of our greeting cards. One of the most lively conversations we tend to have is when we come up with card ideas that center around anthropomorphic food. The idea for a 'Wokin' Birthday' card came from a dinner Eunice and Sabrina had at a Chinese restaurant.

As you can see Eunice is still in the midst of sketching but we had to share these shots of her sketch book from this morning. She said it's not easy conveying veggies and pieces of tofu dancing so she tries to imagine Wil.i.am as a piece of tofu. These veggies definitely look like they are getting down so her method seems to be working. We can't wait to see the final design for this hysterical birthday card and will be sure to show you as soon as it's on press.

In the mean time have a Wokin' Thursday!

Easter Card Giveaway!

Easter is just a couple of weeks away so today we're giving one lucky commenter these three Easter cards. Leave a comment  on this post by 4pm PST (7pm EST) today. We'll pick one winner this afternoon and send out the cards tout suite so you get them in time for Easter.

Hop to it little bunnies!

*Update! You all are the funniest bunch of bunnies ever! Thanks for playing and for brightening our day with your witty comments. The winner today is Tammy! But be on the lookout for more giveaways here soon! And happy weekend everyone!

Happy Friday!

Are you happy it's Friday? We are. To make this Friday a little sweeter we're giving away one of our letterpress YAY! cards - perfect for any occasion that warrants many exclamation points and excitement. Just leave a comment or share a link to this blog post on Facebook (and tell us you did so in the comments) and you'll be entered to win.

We'll announce a winner here at 4pm today. Have a fantastic Friday and  thanks for playing.

Yay!

Update! Congratulations to our winner Christina! And thanks for playing everyone. Have a fantastic weekend.

Inspired By: Wee Gallery

How clever are these Wee Gallery Dress Up animal cards? As stationers it's sometimes a challenge to come up with designs that can be suitable for both kids and adults, but these cards definitely bridge that gap. We love the simple and painterly illustrations and the thought of kids customizing these card for a friend or sibling. So sweet! The Wee Gallery definitely has a knack for kids, and their focus on making “smart art for little minds” is brilliant. Getting kids to channel their creativity at a young age is a great way to inspire new ideas and we've got to give props to Wee Gallery for contributing.

They also just released a book to go along with the clever cards! It would be a great stocking stuffer or gift for kids (oh, and did we say this is fun for adults too?!) We can probably come up with 32 ways to dress up a pig, bunny, and fox. Can you?

Since Jude, Alex, and James are all obsessed with sea creatures and animals (remember their costume sneak peek?), these Sea wall graphics would make a fantastic addition to their rooms.

Visit the Wee Gallery website for more awesome kid-spiration!

Valentine's Day Discount

It's almost Valentine's Day! Are you feeling the love yet? Well you can start today because we're offering 10% off all Valentine's Day cards and gifts. From now until February 13 you can send your family and friends some love for less with tons of letterpress cards to choose from. If you can't get your list together on time, be sure to get your hands on our free printable Valentine's Day cards for a quick hello. Check out our newest love and friendship cards here, and enter the code SMITTEN2013 at checkout for your discount!

Monthly Card Subscription GIVEAWAY!

Attention all card lovers! You have a chance to win the letterpress lottery. We're giving one lucky reader a monthly card subscription for one whole year! Yes that's right. Three letterpress cards, every month, for a year. You can send them as a gift or keep them for yourself. Make a new year's resolution to send more cards to your loved ones. The best part? All the cards are pre-stamped, so you can just sign, seal, and deliver. To enter to win, simply comment below telling us who would receive the first card and why. You can get bonus points by liking us on Facebook, too!

We're choosing a winner next Wednesday, January 30th, so leave your comments soon and like us on Facebook to double your chances.

Entries are no longer being accepted and a winner has been chosen. Thanks for participating!!

New! Free Printable Valentine's Day Cards

Last year we released our first free printable Valentine's Day cards on the blog and they were a huge hit! Lots of readers downloaded the cards and we were really feeling the love. This year we're vamping things up with our newer designs, just for you! Simply visit the free printable page on our website and click each product to download. There you will also have access to last year's cards, so there are plenty to choose from.

Each download is formatted to fit four cards on an 8.5 x 11" paper, so simply print on a home computer, cut, sign, and send! We recommend using a thicker card stock for a more durable card. They're great for classrooms,  coworkers, or even sending a little love to your honey.

When Valentine's Day comes you'll be well prepared to spread your love with these witty wonders. To download all cards, click here!

New! Lisa Congdon for Hello!Lucky

When Lisa Congdon agreed to do a line of cards with us for 2013 we were beyond thrilled. We love Lisa's colorful illustrations, hand lettering, and imaginative renderings of nature and animals. We think her cards are perfect for any occasion but we're especially excited to launch the line just in time for Valentine's Day. Check out these images of her studio (Taken by Victoria Smith of SF Girl by Bay). No wonder her designs are so bright and cheerful, her space is an inspiration in itself!

We asked Lisa a few questions about her process and what she has in store for 2013:

What is your process like? Does it change with every project?

It does depend. Sometimes I draw things straight from my brain, especially if I am making a simple drawing without much nuance. The cards I did for Hello!Lucky were all things I drew that just came from my imagination. When I paint or draw something more realistic or complex, I find images (photographs) to use as reference, so I can get the proportions and lighting right. Typically, especially in my commissioned illustration work, I make sketches first. And then I move to making the final artwork.

I always start by drawing things by hand. Always. None of my work starts as digital work, even if it ends up as digital work. In the case of the card line for Hello Lucky, I drew the designs in pen on paper, then scanned them and turned them into vector so they could be reproduced as plates for letterpress printing.

What was your inspiration for this line? 

I remember I got really simple, straightforward art direction for this line: create designs in your own style around the theme of love. So I brainstormed different sayings that would lend themselves easily to colorful illustration: things like You are My Sunshine, You are my Queen, You Light up My Life. It was really as simple as that! I really enjoyed it!

Do you have a favorite in the collection or do you love them all equally?

I think You Light Up My Life is my favorite! But I like them all.

(My Sunshine, Sailboat Love, Falling for You, Lighthouse)

We loved your 365 days of hand lettering project you did for 2012. Is there a favorite quote/motto you have from that project? 

One of my favorites is: "Leap and the net will appear," which John Burroughs is quoted as saying. It's the motto for many things in my life.

What are you currently working on or what's your latest release? Is there a 365 day project for 2013?

I just launched a weekly project for 2013 with Maria Popova of Brain Pickings called The Reconstructionists. It's a a yearlong celebration of remarkable women who have changed the way we see the world. Every Monday in 2013, we'll publish an illustrated portrait (by me) of one trailblazing woman (artist, scientist, writer), along with a hand-lettered quote that captures her spirit and a short micro-essay (by Maria) about her life and legacy. I'm pretty excited about it!

(Queen, King)

Thank you Lisa for being such an inspiration and so much fun to work with! Visit Lisa's website for more lovely illustrations and follow along with her blog here. Shop Lisa's new collection for H!L here!

Product Photos by Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Portrait of Lisa by Leslie Sophia Lindell Photography