New Wedding Design Available Now!

Get ready to tie the knot with our playful new wedding invitation! As promised, we have lots of exciting new designs coming to the Hello!Lucky collection, and here's one that you can now get your hands on. Outdoor enthusiasts will breathe easy with the Rolling Acres suite. It's the ultimate combination for a summer wedding, or customize the colors to fit an autumn event. Originally designed as a birthday party invitation, this design works for any occasion!

We'll be releasing more designs soon, so be sure to check back!

 Photo by Edyta Szyszlo Photography

Custom Holiday Card Bonanza!

We are soooo excited about our new collection of custom holiday cards! It was such a pleasure getting to collaborate with artists that we've been coveting for years like Hammerpress...

and Darling Clementine (how adorable are these?)...

Jolby did a series of  cards that feature their signature quirky characters - the rabbit with a Santa hat on each ear is just too hilarious...

Love these winter animals by Karin Soderquist...

and how about these charming type-based designs by Office of Nature?

We also worked with some of our fav old friends like Lab Partners...

EIEIO...

...and, of course, the always geniusy Esther Aarts...

We're also super excited about our new accordion format! An excellent solution to either the problem of not being able to get everyone into one shot (this is our big problem - squirrelly toddlers don't make for a really great family portrait!  Plus there's always too much fun stuff to share!)

SusyJack* did a couple of really gorgeous accordion cards, among others, for us this year...

Anyhoo, we were so thrilled to get to work with some of our illustration idols (this just the tip 'o' the iceberg, bye the bye!), we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Triumphantly Announcing Our New Website!

Drumroll, please...We are thrilled to announce the launch of our brand-spankin'-new website!  We've been laboring over this baby for months and months and are sooo excited that it's finally (finally!) here!

The new site includes a fab new collection of custom holiday photo cards: This year we got together 16 of our favorite illustrators/designers—the likes of Susy*Jack, Hammerpress, Tom Frost (featured above), Lab Partners and more—and collaborated on a whole collection of fun and unique holiday cards.  We can't wait for you to see them!

Additionally, the new site features beautiful photography by Edyta Szyszlo...we had so much fun styling these shots!

We also have a gorgeous new wedding invitation collection with Anne Smith (another illustrator we've admired/been deeply envious of for years and years)...

And we're thrilled to introduce our brand-new customization tool, which is going to make it a breeze to customize cards.  It's super cool, if we do say so ourselves, and allows you to change colors, choose fonts and drop in photos on the fly. It makes ordering fun and easy and gives you a lot of control over the final result.

You can also send your order straight to print (that's how much control you have over design, people!) to cut down on the turnaround time.  Normally, it can take 1-2 business days (or weeks, for those of you prone to dilly-dallying!) to approve a manually-created proof, so this is an exciting new feature.  Of course, you still can have our designers put their finishing touches on your design or incorporate any special requests, but how awesome is that??

That being said, please bear with us as we get settled into our new digs (there are bound to be a few hiccups along the way!). Some products may be temporarily unavailable online while we get our shop in order, but we promise they'll be back soon!  If you have any questions or need help with a product that is currently not available on our site, don't hesitate to drop us a line or give us a ring! We'd love to hear from you! US: info@hellolucky.com or 415.355.0008  UK: ukinfo@hellolucky.com or 020 7378 9740

Featured: Visit Hawaii on Hapa Hale!

Ahh, to be soaking in the sweet Hawaiian sun! We wouldn't mind sipping mai tai's, or tasting crunchy macadamia nuts, surfing in warm water or hiking ancient volcanoes. But, that giant blue ocean has come between us, and we must find other ways to treasure all the glory that Hawaii has to offer. One of those ways is to visit our Visit Hawaii invitation suite. Recently Hapa|Hele, a blog devoted to island life, featured our tropical invitation, and left us dreaming about all things aloha.

Things we love about Hapa|Hele? Island hopping. From these Na Pali coast prints (above) to the Big Island's magical getaways, we're gushing with island envy!

Letterpress love: Menus for Chez Panisse

Ahh, the world of letterpress shines again. Menus for Chez Panisse is a visual record of forty years of food, love, and appreciation for fine printing. In this unbelievable collection of letterpress menus printed by Patricia Curtan, you will find images of hand carved linoleum block illustrations and lead type text describing the mouthwatering ingredients from the early days of Chez Panisse. In the early 1970s when Alice Waters first opened the iconic Berkeley restaurant, Patricia printed the menus. by hand. for years. and we are gushing.

It's almost painful to imagine how many restaurants treat menus these days, when Alice Waters presented her guests with hand printed art at their dinner plate. It just goes to show how a nice quality menu really enhances the dining experience!

Be sure to purchase your own copy of Menus for Chez Panisse here or here.

Photos from Mint

...introducing Elliot!

There's a new babe in town! Elliot is the newest baby to join the growing H!L family and we are thrilled! Almost as adorable as Elliot's button nose is his letterpress printed birth announcement designed by our very own Anna Hurley. How cute are the worms and mushrooms?!

Welcome Elliot and congratulations Kelly & Erich!

Design Notebook: a kitchen bridal shower!

Sometimes the cutest cards start with the simplest of ideas.  Kendel was having a kitchen bridal shower and wanted to send out invites that were playful and fun along with recipe cards so her guests could share their favorite dishes.  We love the tiny faces on the bowl and spoon reminiscent of our Big Day rsvp cards and Type(face) thank you cards.

We also created custom artwork to be printed on aprons for the party.  Eunice did a few sketches, scanned in the best one, and got to work designing the most adorable illustration!

How darling is that apron?  I'm sure the ladies looked fabulous and had a blast cooking and sharing recipes!

Real Wedding: Michelle and Jacob

Just married! We recently had the pleasure of designing a "Just Married!" photo card for Michelle and Jacob's private June celebration. This one couldn't be any more playful! The whimsical watercolor, precious pinks and tell-all photograph just screams pure joy.

Michelle and Jacob wed at the San Francisco City Hall, accompanied by 15 close family and friends. The photographer, our dear friend Edyta Szyszlo, shot these utterly romantic images of the big day, and their reception at Bar Jules in Hayes Valley (below). We're loving the simplicity of the event, and the casual/comfortable setting for their reception. Just the right amount of table decor paired with classic dinnerware makes for an effortless yet chic display.

All photos by Edyta Szyszlo.

Jude's French flash cards

At craft night, Eunice has been working on French flash cards for her son, Jude. They are pen & ink illustrations with a watercolor finish - absolutely fantastic for any aspiring bilingual babies!

Eunice is trying to raise Jude bilingual in French and English, so she's always trying to find fun ways to teach him new vocabulary (ok, so he doesn't speak yet, but!) as well as adding to her own French vocab.  She has a love for making flash cards - the words really stick and it's a fun and quick excuse to doodle.  It's also a great excuse to play around with painting/watercolor techniques - the perfect platform to practice on (being the raging multi-tasker that she is!)

Her inspiration for each card is to find things Jude has seen, or words that are just plain amusing (like the fact that raccoon directly translates to "a washing young rat" more or less!) - both the raccoon and the otter are animals they saw at the zoo recently.  The kites are from a recent outing to Crissy Field and the race car is a noise he's learned to make lately.  Next up are a horse, gorilla, tiger, cow and duck - more noises he's been making lately (for the gorilla he pounds his chest!). Once he sees a cow and starts mooing, he will moo for the next 20 minutes!

Signing Party: DRAWN IN by Julia Rothman

For those of you lucky folks in the NYC area, check out this must-attend event! Julia Rothman will be in attendance, in addition to several other artists included in her new book— Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists. They'll even have an assortment of original sketchbooks for guests to peruse.

Here's the Facebook Event Page, if you'd like to RSVP.

And the Google Books page if you'd like to take a peek inside, to see more of the diverse artists' offerings.

And a link to the (did we say gorgeous?) book on Powell's and Amazon.

The event will be held at:

powerHouse Arena

37 Main Street

Brooklyn, New York

Thursday, June 30 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Hope you can make it!

National Stationery Show: Our favorites!

We saw a ton of inspiring work at this past National Stationery Show, including these cheeky postcards (above) from La Familia Green. We were also pretty smitten with these adorable pencil cases and tea towels from Pie Bird Press:

Our neighbors at Egg Press wowed us with their bold colors and quirky illustrations:

Suzy Jack had these fun pencil cups:

And first time exhibitor Fig. 2 wowed us with these neon cards:

National Stationery Show!

Whew! We just wrapped up another National Stationery Show - complete with old friends, new designs and lots and lots of inspiring new work. Our own booth featured a lovely felt sign made by our staff (above) and a couple projects from Handmade Weddings, like these yarn wrapped bottles...

...and fun paper link chains!

We were super excited about our new products, like this "Treat Yourself" card from Julia Rothman....

...and our reversible journals!

Some amazing people stopped by our booth to visit, but our favorite visitor was Eunice's son Jude - he really put the rest of us to shame with his amazing sales skills!

Design Notebook: Sarah's Woodsy Mural

When Sarah first called us to create custom wedding invitations inspired by her gorgeous venue, the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, she had a very specific vision for what she wanted.  She loved the hand-draw illustration style of our Cala Lily suite but wanted to recreate the flora and fauna depicted in the hotel's painted mural.  In her words, "vintage elegance with a little bit of whimsy".  Sign us right up!  We don't want to steal her thunder, so here's just a glimpse at a few of our favorite bits. The details are the best part!

How cute is this little guy heading up the Particulars card?

New Julia Rothman fabrics on Design Sponge

Design Sponge just featured one of our all time fave designers, Julia Rothman, and her fab new fabrics!

Cloud9 is producing these rich, ornate and fun designs—all printed on organic cotton.

Be sure to check Design Sponge for more pics and for a link to more of Julia's work .

Did you know Hello!Lucky carries a line of Julia Rothman cards and gift-wrap as well as many gorgeous and whimsical wedding invitations?

A Craft Podcast Studio Visit, Revisited

We'd almost forgotten this one! Waaaay back in 2008, when we'd first moved into our current studios in SOMA, we did a little interview for Craft Video Podcast. There's some great stuff toward the middle/end where James shows how the polymer plates work in the Heidelberg presses while printing some wedding invitations. Then Eunice shows some of her inspiration and drawings for a couple of the fab letterpress greeting cards we've featured on Lucky Fridays! So stay tuned, or skip ahead to those parts if you're short on time.

The video is great for its completely ad-lib, unrehearsed, unplugged honesty. :D Hopefully we won't embarrass Shauna or Eunice too much.

More Royal Wedding Souvenirs

Okay, okay - so we're clearly not over the Royal Wedding (and its related details)...check out this amazing plate designed by HL longtime favorite, Rob Ryan. We're also pretty smitten with these tea towels from Thornback and Peel:

Finally, there's also a print, tote, mug, and keychains from The House that Lars Built. So cute!

Design Notebook: Katie's Big Day

We're SO excited to share this sneak peak of a custom design we recently created for the lovely Katie and Gary.  The concept was based on one of Katie's favorite childhood books, Katy And The Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton.  We just went nuts over the super detailed illustrations and knew her invite had to be something special!

Eunice hand-drew the illustrations and scanned them in to Illustrator where she created vector artwork and "mapped out" the details of the wedding suite (pun intended - hint, hint!)

Each ink color requires a separate plate and press run and Katie was able to meet with the printers and check in as the job progressed.

As each new color is added, the illustrations start to take shape with more detail and depth.

Katie and Gary met while on vacation in San Francisco and traveled to so many exotic locales that they knew they wanted a map to be central to their wedding invitation.  With so many adorable icons and illustrations is hard to choose a favorite but we have a feeling Katie's a bit partial to the Disney World flamingo - Gary proposed in the park!

And voila!  The finished invitation suite - a tri-fold map invitation and rsvp set alongside its literary inspiration!

Congrats and best of luck Katie & Gary!

Commemorative plates

It may seem as though we are just a wee bit obsessed with The Royal Wedding, but when we found these plates designed by our most favorite, Jonathan Adler, we couldn't resist! They are part of a series of designer commemorative plates that will be auctioned off on April 29th to benefit Shelter, a British housing and homelessness charity.

Alternative Wedding Invitations

R.S.V.P.H.R.H is an exhibit of re-designed wedding invitations for the royal wedding at the Rag Factory in London. What a dream project!

Read more about the exhibit here.

Hot of the Presses: Visit the Riviera

What could be romantic than a wedding in the Riviera?! Our most recent collaboration with Lab Partners features bougainvillea, yachts, postcards and suntans! See the whole suite here.