Hello!Lucky Photoshoot

We have a bunch of sparkling new designs that we're getting ready to launch and we couldn't be more excited.  It's still top secret but we can tell you that everyone has been working like busy little bees around here.  Designers are designing, printers are printing, and the number crunches are... we'll we're not actually sure but it looks really hard!  Best of all the super cute and talented photographer Edyta Szyszlo is in the studio working her magic and taking gorgeous photos of our products.

We were so lucky to have a bright and sunny day here in San Francisco (no fog!) and our photo shoot glowed with natural light.

Our craft stash was the perfect place to find all kinds of goodies to use as props - buttons and bows, candies and clothespins!  We love to collect and hate to throw away so our storage room is filled to the brim with creative notions and vintage ephemera.

Lively backdrops make old favorites like Heirloom Harvest pop, while artful accessories give new designs like Midsummer (coming soon!) an appropriate introduction.

Weddings aren't the only life events we celebrate around here - a new baby deserves a shout from the rooftops... or at the very least an adorable circus animal announcement!  Our Big News Elephant gets the job done in style.

We love, love, love Edyta and her super creative assistant and welcome them back anytime!  Hello!Lucky staff glamor shots anyone?

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!

Pottery Barn Decorating Workshop

Last weekend, we got to teach a special event decorating workshop at Pottery Barn at Stanford Mall and at Chestnut Street in San Francisco!  We shared DIY craft ideas from Handmade Weddings, along with party & wedding decorating tips. I, for one, had been clueless about Pottery Barn's awesome entertaining selection before the workshop -- turns out the have fabulous glass drink dispensers, cake stands, linen-wrapped candles, and mercury glass votives -- all great accent pieces that make a table scape feel polished and stylish!

We showed the class how to decorate a table in two different styles: Romantic (left) and Happy Graphic (right), using similar projects in different palettes to show just how easy it is to create a unique look. The flowers were picked out by our friend, florist Nancy Liu Chin (we did a DIY arrangement -- Nancy, hope we did your flowers justice!).

We started with recycled glass jars, which we wrapped in linen and stretch denim and stenciled with table numbers - the same project gets a totally different look just by choice of materials.

We finished each wrap with a simple row of stitched "X"s. They slip on and off easily, and you can reuse the containers -- no special sewing skills needed!  We wrapped books in papers matching each palette to use as risers, adding height to the table (helped achieve a pleasing pyramid composition. And who doesn't have some books lying around? So easy!).

The Happy Graphic side featured a palette of reds, yellows, and blues plus kraft and denim accent textures. We incorporated patterns with fabric-wrapped favors and DIY bread basket liner.

We added graphic pop with an easy fabric-covered button napkin ring and striped dollar store party favors (who knows what these things are called?! please tell us!).

Drink flags are one of our favorite party details.  All you need are bamboo skewers (available at most super markets) and ribbon or paper. We did a simple satin ribbon flag for the Romantic side...

...and a paper pennant for the Happy Graphic side.

Thanks to Pottery Barn for hosting us, and to all the wonderful folks who attended the workshops - it was great meeting you!

Hello!Lucky Cards featured in Los Angeles Magazine

For any folks lucky enough to be in sunny L.A. right now, check out the latest edition of Los Angeles Magazine.

A spread about card shops in the Best of LA section features one of our Julia Rothman designs, Under the Sea, and one of our classic Hello!Lucky designs, Peeps!

Lucky Friday #17! Beer Stein Birthday Cheers!

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the seventeenth 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):

Jessica Southwick, Dennis Flinsenberg and Michael! Harr harr!

We’ll contact you early next week to aaarange sending your Best Mate card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Cheers!

Artist: Esther Aarts

Inspiration: It doesn’t take Einstein to find a good use for a stein. But it takes an Esther Aarts to put such fine steins on such fine stationery.

Who to send it to: Einstein, Lichtenstein, Bernstein— any old stein. Perhaps just a pal who loves pilsner or a fraulein with a fondness for fermentation.  An Oktoberfest birthday would be the absolute best!

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: Longnecks just didn’t have the same flair. And canned beers can’t clink cheers with the same festive finesse.

Favorite detail: Love the steins’ bendy legs and hopsy feet.

Why letterpress? Steins and Heidelbergs go together like sauerbraten and spaetzle.

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

Dreamy Candies at Andie's Specialty Sweets

Remember the sweet little sugar buttons we featured a while back? Andie's Specialty Sweets in Los Angeles has broadened their beautiful repertoire to include these gorgeous goodies:

Absolutely adore these acorns. And they're chocolate filled, with a cocoa bean in the center!

And this edible sugar skeleton key is fabulous! Reminds us of our Whimsy Save the Date.

Be sure to visit the Etsy Shop, here and find more sweet sculpted delights.

Watercolor wedding bouquets

100 Layer Cake posted about artist and photographer Jen Huang who is now offering hand-painted watercolors of wedding bouquets. What a wonderful and creative way to preserve your beautiful wedding flowers!

Hello!Lucky Featured on Ruffled

A few of our favorite wedding invitations— Whimsy, Big Day and Lavender Harvest are featured on the Ruffled Blog. Beautiful photos! Check it out!

Pot + Pantry: 7X7 Best of the City!

We're mighty proud of Donna for winning 7 x 7's award for her adorable housewares shop, Pot + Pantry in Noe Valley/Mission in SF! It was less than a year ago that she left us to start it all up, so we toast her honor.

And we had to share these hilarious cookies with you, perhaps as inspiration for Father's Day gifts, or just as a clever treat for the carnivores in your life:

Of course, the presentation is key.  It was all part of a "Meat Market" show she did a week or so ago.

Check out the Pot + Pantry Blog for more fun.

It all made us think of our BBQ Parade Father's Day Card.

Happy hunting!

Super Monkey, Help!

It was a stormy weekend in the Bay Area, in more ways than one! Our website went down on Saturday at about 9:30 a.m. PST due to a power failure at our web host's datacenter (yeah, we're not sure what that means either!). It finally came back up Sunday evening around 9 p.m.

Ultimately, the site was restored, but, boy, do we wish we could have called Superman (or, as the case may be, Super Monkey) to turn back time!  There are a few things we would have done differently (and will be doing differently in the future) to contain the damage. It was a lesson very painfully learned!

So if you were affected by the outage, please accept our deepest and most sincere apologies, along with a 15% discount site-wide - just enter the code SUPERMONKEY15 at checkout (good through June 12).

Sincerely,

Sabrina & Eunice

Pikku Designs: New Pocket Tees

Pikku is debuting some dapper, darling new tees! Some of the Hello!Lucky boys got them as a surprise gift, and we had to share a preview.

Click on the images to visit the Pikku shop.

Have you seen our Pikku baby announcements? If you like these simple, sweet patterns, peruse our Pikku birth announcement designs. With a simple change of text they can be re-purposed as a birthday invitation, too!

Reminder— A Midsummer's Eve Affair, Tomorrow, June 4th!

Come craft with us tomorrow, at a Paper Source near you! See you there!

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!

Craft night clothing swap!

Eunice and I began hosting a weekly craft night back over a year ago when we were making crafts for her wedding (and, subsequently, researching our book, Handmade Weddings).  From the beginning, it turned out to be a great excuse to drink, eat, and shamelessly girl-talk (oh, and sometimes to craft!).

This week was especially thrilling - our first-ever clothing swap!  While in New York for NSS, I picked up a copy of The Happiness Project at Anthropologie (why were we shopping at an NYC Anthro when there's one just steps from our San Francisco studio, you might ask? The allure is just that inexplicably powerful.) on our way to ABC Kitchen. In the book, Gretchen Rubin describes the exhilaration of purging her closet (among other great tips!).

Confession: I am a vintage clothes hoarder. Half a decade of monthly trips to the Alameda Flea Market have led to packed closet full of vintage frocks from polyester to plaid and everything in between. Each one has such personality, but guess what? I haven't worn most of them in years!

The craft night girls came over at 7:30 and within minutes you could no longer see the living room floor. The stack of pizzas we had ordered sat unopened. People barely even stopped for a sip of wine.

Dara ended up being the biggest winner - her retro style and curvaceous figure are perfect for the vintage look.

Love this quilted Chanel-esque number!

Divine frock for summer parties!

At the end of the night, everyone had a few (or a few dozen!) new looks to try. It didn't cost a dime, and the best part is that if we tire of one of our "new" pieces, we can swap them again later!

Summer Streamers and DIY Party Decor

The DIY experts over at Made recently posted this tutorial on creating colorful streamers that we absolutely love!

Wouldn't this make great decor for a summer wedding?

Perhaps a great compliment to our Mi Amour design with Mexican paper flags?

Sewing paper ... how perfect!

Studio Snapshot: Farmers Market

We LOVE walking to the farmers market each week and coming up with new recipes to share.  How gorgeous are these colors!  Wouldn't a Summer wedding be perfect with jars of fresh herbs instead of flowers at each place setting or tucked into a fragrant bouquet?

Hello!Lucky's Heartland design featured in Inside Weddings

Hello!Lucky's Heartland wedding invitation design was featured in a spread in this summer's Inside Weddings magazine. Grab a copy from your nearest newsstand and check it out! Hope you had a great holiday weekend!

Lucky Friday #15 Father's Day Edition

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the fifteenth 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):

Marife, Debbie Boswell and Reyna!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Catching Up card.

Now for this week’s Father's Day Card edition:

Design: Cool Dad

Artist: Anna Hurley

Inspiration: Maybe some Jimmy Stewart, with a pinch of Atticus Finch and a dash of Dick Van Dyke.

Who to send it to: A rad dad, a cool daddy-o, or maybe even a sugar daddy if you’re feeling coy.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one:  We thought of it saying “Happy Super Suave Dude’s Day,” but we decided we’d rather just stick with “Father.” And we thought of "Happy Dada Day" with a cartoon of Marcel Duchamp standing by a snow shovel, but we thought we'd narrow our audience too much.

Favorite detail: How could we choose just one?

Why letterpress: Any dad would be glad to know a lad or a lady who had such mad card selecting skills.

Don't forget to leave your comment below and check back next week to see if you've won!

Beautiful Decals by Shanna Murray

We are huge fans of Shanna Murray and found this  post on Creature Comforts about her new decal collection.

We think a customized decal would be fantastic as decoration for a wedding, such as "The Smiths" or " Eunice & Daniel"!

Or maybe a sweet note on the wall of a baby's nursery or playroom...

How darling!

Studio Snapshot, at work and home! Eunice and Sabrina in Anthology

Eunice and Sabrina are featured in the latest issue of Anthology, and we had to share a little taste!

The article shares a snippet of how the sisters' distinct personalities and tastes have molded their work and living spaces.

Did you notice the Joel Dewberry-designed backdrop from Eunice and Daniel's wedding? That's part of our Woodland Damask wedding invitation design— how great that she's re-purposed it as a bohemian-style faux window in her living room. Love it!

Sabrina's style is more graphic modern, and a lovely contrast.

There's so much more to read and see at the Anthology site.

Enjoy!