Real Wedding: Ingrid and Howard

The setting of a wedding can really enhance the mood of a celebration, especially when it takes place somewhere as breathtaking as the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito! Ingrid and Howard's summery and stylish wedding just screams happiness - how could anyone feel otherwise when you're hanging out in a field of lavender and loveliness?!

The couple chose our Woodland Damask letterpress invitation - doesn't it fit nicely with the bridal party?

Love the collection of vintage stamps and the stunning calligraphy by Michele Papineau.

Check out more photos of Ingrid and Howard's wedding (along with an adorable video!) at Style Me Pretty!

All photos by Jose Villa

Visit to Kansas City!

Letterpress lovers take note! Recently, one of our intrepid employees took a trip to Hammerpress in Kansas City, Missouri and came back with some great photos of their lovely studio!

Check out their very organized shelves of metal and wood type, as well as the impeccably well kept presses.

In their impressive brick and mortar storefront, they sell greeting cards, posters and lots of one-of-a-kind goods.

A closeup view of their beautiful wooden wall and display.

Thank you to Brady, Matt, Eric and Jenn for the tour around the studio!

You can purchase their awesome posters here.

The Collection E.S. gals visit Hello!Lucky!

The girls at the Collection Event Studio recently visited our SoMa studio and shared a behind the scenes glimpse into the bustling world of Hello!Lucky! We love to browse their blog for creative inspiration, and are always amazed by their stunning collection of wedding and event resources. They snapped such lovely photos of our office, here are some of our favorites:

Meet our ravishing sales team! This handsome lad and three lovely ladies are the best when it comes to planning your special day!

And how adorable are their business cards?

(Pictured: Stewey, Lia, Kristine, and Lillian)

Above: John prepares specialty ink colors as James works the Vandercook press.

Anna B., along with the help of Lillian, are carefully assembling envelope liners.

Part of the design team (missing Anna H. and Shauna!) making all the perfect adjustments on every stationery order!

You can read the original post here. Thanks again for stopping by ladies!

All photos by Kate Webber Photography

Studio Snapshot: Charming wedding decor

Whether charming, rustic, romantic, or sweet, the brilliance involved with this wedding for our overseas friends, Lisa and Rory is really something! We're currently putting together their day-of wedding materials - it's really coming together!

These vintage style pub signs are getting cut out and used as table numbers!

Say cheese! These tiny cheese signs will be dashing on display.

Each guest will have a program paddle fan to keep them cool! These are really turning out to be one of our signature products!

Sunshine at the Curiosity Shoppe

The Curiosity Shoppe, a local San Francisco boutique that carries quirky home decor and funky personal accessories, is hosting a letterpress poster show that features a print (above) by our very own printer, James Tucker! We couldn't be more excited for him!  The show opens July 8th and also showcasing some of our favorite fellow Bay Area letterpress artists, like Pie Bird Press and Dutch Door Press. For more information about the show, please click here.

James' double-sided print, "Who Loves the Sun" was produced in a limited edition of 50 and is available for $40.

Studio Snapshot: New Visit Series Letterpress Invitations!

We've always loved our Visit Series created with Lab Partners so we just about fainted when we saw these babies on press today.  Watch out LA - we've got stunning 3-color letterpress Visit Los Angeles save the dates and wedding invites ready to make an impression (pun very much intended)!

This shot gets up close and personal showing an inked plate moments before it presses into the paper.

Two colors printed, and one more to go!

Each new color requires that the machine be cleaned, re-inked and fitted with a new plate.  Here invites-in-progress wait patiently to be pressed into wedding perfection.

Can you guess which designs these will turn out to be?  Okay we'll spill, its Visit Texas and Visit Chicago!

Adding the second color to Visit Chicago brings out details in the train and fountain.

We can't wait to see what new details will come out when the third color is added!

Lucky Friday, Sweet #16! Friendship Card, Pirate Style.

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the sixteenth edition of our Lucky Friday giveaway! Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Seema, Cherie and Amy Wingate!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Cool Dad card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Best Mate

Aarrrtist: Esther Aarrrrts (trans: Esther Aarts)

Inspiration: Arrrr ye pullin’ moy peg-leg? Can’t ye arrrready see what arrr influences arrrrr?

Who to send it to:  Ye ought to knoo who yer best mates arrrrr, oughtn’t ye?

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: Arrr, matey. We ‘ad a desoign arr two that ‘ad to walk the plank. With the cruel visage of Cap’n Hook and ‘is croc, readin’: “I’m Hooked on You.” Smelled ‘alf worse than a limey kettle o’ fish on a dead man’s chest.

Favorite detail:  Tharrrs naught quoite loike the soight of that foine ship sankin’ way out o’er yonder. An’ the billowin’ smooke.

Why Letterpress:  You canna foind a noicer caaarrrrrd anywhere on dry land.

Don't faarrrget—leave your comment, and check back next week to see if you've won!

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!

National Stationery Show Sneak Peek!

It's that time of year again when we're packing our bags and heading east to the National Stationery Show where we'll be debuting our Spring Release! We'll be at booth #1536 if you're planning on attending, stop by and say hello.

And now here's a sneak peek of the latest and greatest including a new product we are super excited about!

Drum roll please....introducing our new reversible letterpress journals to bring out the word smith in you whether you've got a hare-brained scheme (doh!) or a big idea (yay!).

But wait there's more! More hilariously genius greeting card designs from Julia Rothman and Esther Aarts:

Julia's Rockin' Birthday conjures up childhood memories of Jem and the Holograms or Kids, Incorporated!

Whether to say bon voyage or congratulations on your engagement, this adorable card from Esther Aarts is sure to wish you well on your new adventure.

Stay Tuned for more sneak peeks!

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.

Studio Snapshot: Hot Off the Press!

Our printers have been busy cranking out a delicious new crop of letterpress greeting cards including some adorable designs by Esther Aarts.

Max adjusts a plate to ready it for the press.

Stacks of printed cards await their turn for trimming and folding.

We're so excited to send these out - Christmas in July maybe?

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!

Letterpress Rug

Decorating (and re-decorating!) is clearly one of our favorite pastimes. This letterpress rug couldn't be more perfect for our new studio makeover!

Via Swiss-Miss

Lucky Friday Week #4!

Now onto the fourth edition of our weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we’ll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Ana P, Amy Wingate and Words and Eggs!

Heather will contact you shortly to arrange sending your Support card.

Onto this week's offering:

Design: Lionheart

Artist: Eunice Moyle

Inspiration:  We didn’t have to scratch too hard to find a wealth of one-lioners about big cats.

Who to send it to: Your pride and joy. Your favorite Leo. Your mane man.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one:  The lion’s share of ideas were good, but this one gave us a hearty laugh.

Our favorite detail: ROWR can be such an elegant understatement.

Why Letterpress? The crush of letterpress preserves the beauty of all the details and fine lions.

Don’t forget to post your comment and check next Friday to see if you’ve won!

Lucky Friday Week #3!

Now onto the third edition of our weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we’ll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Melissa, Anneleen and Amorette!

Heather will contact you shortly to arrange sending your Stinky Skunk Card!

This week’s feature:

Design: Support

Artist: Julia Rothman

Inspiration: We don’t mean to leave you hanging, but we’ll tell you when you’re older.

Send it to: A female confidant, a bosom friend, or a gentleman that you wish to befuddle udderly.

Our Favorite Detail: We like that we can’t quite tell if the lingerie style depicted is staying abreast of the trends, or if it’s a little behind the times.

Ideas we scrapped for this one:  We were a little “strapped” for ideas for a men’s version of the card.

Why Letterpress? Gives you the street cred to make designer in-jokes about Pantone and PMS, type-drawers and point size. (Whuh?!)

Don't forget to post your comment and check next Friday to see if you’ve won!

Lucky Friday Week Two!

If you missed last week's exciting edition, we'd like to announce a new weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we’ll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

KT Rachel  Katie Kaiser

Heather will contact you shortly to arrange sending your Esther Aarts Oompah Band Card!

This week's feature:

Design: Stinky Skunk

Artist: Eunice Moyle

Inspiration: Pepé Le Pew, but of course, mon amour, with a whiff of swinging sixties baroque

Send it to: Who knows? The Shadow knows!

Our favorite detail: The concentric smoke rings of skunk funk, and the innocent expression on the striped perpetrator.

Ideas we scrapped for this one: We rejected a couple of Skunk drafts that were a little too ripe.

Why letterpress? A tactile letterpress card can make even the coldest heart a little scent-imental.

Remember to post your comment and check next Friday to see if you've won!

Introducing Lucky Fridays!

We're delighted to announce a new weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we'll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we'll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we'll announce the winners on the following Friday!

Design: Oompah Band

Artist: Esther Aarts

Inspiration: Tahoe Swiss Chalet restaurant; Swiss Oompah bands,  Lowly Worm, Esther's fabulous retro illustrations

Send it to: Your best drinking buddy, nephew who is learning to play the recorder (gateway to any number of crazy, erm, AWESOME, instruments), anyone who plays the flugelhorn or tuba.

Our favorite detail: The musicians' curly chins

Ideas we scrapped for this one: Dutch milkmaid milking a flower-garland & bell-bedecked cow: "Happy Birthday! Milk it for all it's worth!"  Erm, might conjure up image of cow's udder...

Why letterpress? Makes it feel like an heirloom you found in your Swiss uncle's attic, next to his size 56XXL lederhosen.

Photo credit:  Alan Morrison via Just Brass

Remember, post a comment and check back next Friday to see if you won!

Letterpress Coasters

We are cracking up over these letterpress coasters by Canadian illustrator Ray Fenwick for Pantry Press - what a great icebreaker for a wedding, party or your local hipster bar!

Via Grain Edit.

San Francisco Typography Map

This awesome San Francisco typography map was created by Axis Maps using only type - how cool is that! Available for purchase here, and there is even a limited edition letterpress version coming out soon!

Via NotVentures.