Hello!Lucky
Letterpress greeting cards, thank you notes, DIY projects, free printables and craft inspiration.
Paraphernelia is a jewelery designer (for both ladies and gents) based in Manchester, UK. We love their Victorian (and slightly gothic) style.
We love this new series of buttons ("I'll trade this button for a...") - they'd be great party favors! And we adore their necklaces using vintage silhouette vignettes.
Do you ever visit a store and wish that you could move in immediately, Anthropologie style? That's exactly how we feel about Bell Jar, a relatively new boutique in the ever-cooler Mission District here in San Francisco. Owner Sasha Wingate fills her airy space with vintage finds, fashionable wears, and fabulous letterpress greeting cards. Everything is displayed in such a beautiful and thoughtful presentation - it's hard to resist! There is even a gallery space in the back with changing exhibits.
Bell Jar
3187 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415.626.1749
www.belljarsf.com
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We were introduced to the designers from Mizzonk by our friend Stacy (another fabulous designer!) and were immediately blown away by the intricacy and level of detail in their work. As a Canadian based design workshop, they produce an amazing laser cut art collection (featured here) as well as furniture and home accessories.
Mizzonk's work is sold in stores and galleries internationally. For a list of retailers, please click here.
Lyndie Dourthe is a French artist that we came across via the lovely folks at Rag and Bone. She makes these amazing little dioramas and bits and bobs from paper, fabric, beads and other ephemera. We love the mysterious, cabinet of curiosities inspired quality of her work. Given our ongoing fascination with the aesthetic of 19th century natural science and the like, we find these magical little bits of nature captured under glass absolutely irresistible!
Her boîtes à trésors are available at Egg Mercantile. They feature images taken from encyclopedia illustrations of the 17th & 18th century. The images are transferred onto coarse cotton canvas which is then filled, embroidered and/or beaded, and hand stitched. Each has a silver plated stick pin attached so it can be worn as a brooch and comes in its own painted box. Lovely!
Although we are slightly obsessive about all things vintage, we also have a strong affection for modern design. Especially modern design from Publique Living, a local San Francisco studio. Although everything that Publique Living creates is truly well designed and beautifully crafted, some of our favorite pieces include these limited edition posters, which feature a typeset airport code over a graphic interpretation of a landmark of that particular city:
They also produce stunning gift wrap, as well as luxurious alpaca throws, which we are coveting something fierce!
But our all time favorite item are the laser cut placements - don't they just make you want to have a dinner party tonight?!
One of the best things about going to the big shows is meeting people that you truly respect and admire. We set the bar pretty high with our encounter with Jonathan Adler, but we were still more than thrilled to meet stationery icon, Anne Taintor.
Anne has been making some of the most clever and witty stationery and gift items for the past twenty some years. Her collaged cards, magnets, totes and other products bear such ingenious phrases as "I love not camping," "martinis....they're not just for breakfast anymore" and "someone was going to have to set a bad example." Anne's booth is based on the design of her kitchen, and it fits the retro quality of her products perfectly. She even has a section on her website that interviews the models (called Taintorettes!) used in her products. Anne is an inspiration to those in the stationery world and she was so kind and friendly - great to meet you Anne!
As you know, we love to visit our various stockists around London and especially those close to one of the four branches of Ottolenghi as there is nothing better after an arduous spell of summer shopping than a lazy lunch in this bastion of good food (...other than a lazy dinner!) The heaped displays of puddings and salads almost pull you, siren-like, through the doors and the fresh ingredients for the kitchens are stacked waiting along the walls of the dining room.
Their philosophy is to create familiar, straight-forward and yet highly innovative food such as the stuffed courgettes and pea salad shown below and both of which went down a treat! The only difficulty may be in choosing what to have as everything is so beautifully prepared and meticulously presented.
Ottolenghi also run cookery courses, cater events from the smallest of dinner parties at home and have published a book of their recipies. We prefer just to be spoiled from time to time - all in the name of work!
Ottolenghi have branches in Notting Hill, Islington, Belgravia and Kensington.
Today, we had the honor of meeting one of our biggest design crushes, Jonathan Adler, when he stopped by our booth at the New York Gift Fair. We can't begin to describe how happy this made us (see our died-and-gone-to-heaven smiles above!).
Maybe it was the feng shui of our booth, or maybe it was just meant to be. We used Adler's fabulous Utopia Totem Vase in our booth display, and just yesterday shot the cover story for The Nest magazine at Sabrina's house, which is features several of his pieces. The day before, we'd even received an order from India Hicks, host of this season's Top Design (on which Mr. Adler is a judge), for her lovely shop The Sugar Mill in Harbour Island, Bahamas.
We're thrilled to say that he was simply charming in person - and was even kind enough to pose for a photo with us. Our crush lives on! Swoon!
We always love catching up with Tracie Stier-Johnson, owner of Broadway Paper, and she recently e-mailed us to tell us about her brand new blog. It's a fun place to learn all about goings-on at the store (including celebrity sightings!) as well as musings about life and Tracie's wonderful family (we did her daughter Hunter's birth announcements what feels like ages ago!)
The shop is a paper destination in Milwaukee and carries some of our favorite fellow designers, including Egg Press (love their thumbprint note cards!), Snow & Graham, and newcomer Susy Jack.
Located at: 191 North Broadway, Milwaukee, WI (414) 277-7699 Store hours: Monday - Friday 9-7; Saturday 10-5; Sunday noon-4
We happened upon Paper Dragon Books on our way to the gift show. Intrigued by their antique book presses, we invited ourselves into their studio. Owner Gavin Dovey was kind enough to show us some of the projects that he was working on, including these stunning handmade boxes made to look like classic leatherbound books:
Paper Dragon hosts classes at their Chelsea studio, as well as creating their gorgeous custom work. We loved their airy studio filled with tools, buttery swatches of leather and a vintage guillotine paper cutter:
Paper Dragon Books
145 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
We're set up (finally!). We filled our frames with cards today, and it's looking pretty cute. Okay, so maybe we're a little biased, but we're quite proud of ourselves, given that we had less that two weeks to pull it together! It's a amazing what can be accomplished with a can of spray paint and a Sharpie. You can't see us, but there's some back patting going on! Tomorrow is the first day of the show, and we are (hopefully!) all ready. If you are in the New York area, we are in Pier 92, booth 36009. Stop by and say hi!
Thanks to Decor8, we recently discovered photographer Catherine Ledner's gorgeous and funny collection of animal portraits. Ledner, a veteran photographer, creates striking images of animals in front of pretty patterned wall papers, often to hilarious effect. We've long been inspired by animals in our greeting card designs, so we feel a kinship with Catherine's whimsical take on these fine, furry and feathered friends!
See the entire collection, conveniently organized in alpha order by animal, here (note - they are even more gorgeous in person!), or order a book of her collected animal prints here.
We arrived this morning in New York somewhat bleary eyed after an exhausting overnight flight (ah, the glamorous world of the gift show) ready to rumble! We made book cloth panels illustrated with a variety of ornate picture frames and hand lettered (we went through various eras and genres - there are Art Deco frames, Empire, Kurbits, and, of course, a little squirrel/nut action. By the end, we were going a little, erm, nuts, but so far it's looking pretty sharp!):
Next, we'll fill them with cards - we'll report back with photos of the completed booth!
We recently ran a save the date giveaway on Style Me Pretty - participants sent us their concepts for their upcoming weddings and we chose winners whose ideas we found especially inspiring (it was a tough, tough decision - everyone had such lovely ideas! In fact, we ended up choosing multiple runner-ups because we just couldn't decide!). This save the date card design was inspired by one of our runner-ups and by old school Sailor Jerry tattoos and the Rockabilly aesthetic, which we absolutely love. We even have a card line dedicated to this style - check them out here.
We're off tonight to the big apple for the New York International Gift Fair. If you are going to the show, we'll be in Pier 92, booth 36009. Please stop by to say hi!
Wouldn't these vintage door hangers be a fantastic addition to any home hosting out of town guests? And we can totally imagine creating custom door hangers based on vintage designs to greet your wedding guests at their hotel. Oh, the possibilities! Michael Lebowitz just posted a whole collection on his blog.
Found through Grain Edit's blog. (an amazing source for vintage inspiration!)
We just discovered these gorgeous photos of Prize, an eclectic shop in Ashland, Oregon, on the Paris Boutique Hotel blog (a favorite!) and we are frothing at the mouth! We want to drop everything and go, right now (unfortunately, however, we blew our budget for vintage ephemera at last month's Alameda Flea Market so we may need to postpone the spontaneous road trip!).
You can visit her adorable website here - just note that you can't shop online just yet. See more gorgeous photos here.
264 East Main Street, Ashland, Oregon (541) 482-0345
Store hours: Monday-Saturday 10:00-5:30 Sunday: 11:00-5:00
We just love the notion of using mix-and-match vintage stamps on wedding invitations. While it can take patience to amass enough 15- and 3-cent stamps to match today's postage rates, we find the look to be worth the effort (wouldn't this be just the perfect task to delegate to some well-meaning family member who wants to help with wedding preparations? We think so!).
Above, designer Lena Corwin's wedding invitation courtesy of Design Sponge, and a lovely assortment of stamps courtesy of Duet Weddings.
And of course we have to mention Martha Stewart Weddings, who have long championed the idea - trust them to compose each envelope perfectly...!
Where to buy? Ebay, of course. We're partial to seller SeaJay Stamp and Coin, who allows you to "buy it now" (no waiting around for auctions to end!) and offers topical sets featuring different themes, e.g. flowers, birds, butterflies, etc. Just be sure to look out for "mint" (e.g. unused) stamps.
Here are a few more of our favorite travel posters - colorful San Francisco and deco New York City (a stylized skyline like this, minus the airplane of course, would be beautiful on a save the date or invitation paired with elegant Art Deco fonts...)
We love these cherry blossoms, and the pretty pastel color palette of this Seville poster.
And for beach destination weddings, these posters from Hawaii and Cote d'Azur are breezy and fabulous!
We have a longstanding love affair with vintage travel posters, and these next two posts are nothing short of an outright, shameless plea: if anyone is having a destination wedding and wants to use the golden age of travel to inspire your save the dates or reply postcards, please call us! We are dying to work with you!
We just love the color palettes and composition of these posters. Not to mention the Glamor, the Glory, the Romance!
At Hello!Lucky we specialize in Letterpress greeting cards, as well offer DIY step by steps & free printables. Led by sisters Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, our small team of expert designers and artisan letterpress printers specialize in creating neon & foil, holiday cards, birthday cards, & thank you cards, that are full of creativity and whimsy. We've been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Design Sponge, Style Me Pretty, Real Simple, and many other leading publications. Please feel feel to contact us via chat, phone or e-mail - we'd be happy to assist you!
Hello!Lucky | P.O. Box 17605, San Francisco, California
