I have a super amazing nanny, Beny, who is literally the French Mary Poppins (as seen here with a couple of fairy charges) and recently whipped up a fun business card for her French immersion camp. The art was pulled from our spiffy new Kids Love Candy valentines card that will be released next year - here's a little sneak peek! One of many exciting new valentines we have up our sleeve. Can't wait to reveal them all!
What's Your Kid's Funniest Obsession?
New Kids Party invites!
How to woo the new kid on the block? Dazzle em’ with a fresh new custom invite, that’s how! We have brand spankin’ new designs, one to flatter any theme. Be it your boy’s bash or your little lady’s day to remember, we've got it! But that’s not all… Tomorrow we are offering 25% off to one lucky contest winner! Stay tuned for the details that will be posted here, and on our facebook page. In the meantime, pick out your favorite kids party invites here!
Lover Bee Botany
We met many talented vendors at the FLAX DIY wedding fair last weekend, and were especially taken with the work of Lover Bee Botany. Owner Brie styles floral and botanical displays for weddings, parties, photo shoots, restaurants and more.
Family Photo Shoot with Leah McCormick
Just before Imogen was born, we were lucky enough to squeeze in a family photo shoot with the AMAZING Leah McCormick...
We just got the photos back this week, and I couldn't resist sharing them - Leah did such a fabulous job capturing our family (and all accompanying silliness)...
The shoot was so relaxed and fun that even my husband Daniel, who is usually a bit grumbly about being made to participate in such shenanigans, had a great time - and was super pleased with the results...
Love her sense of composition and the way she captures light and color!
You would never guess that I was incredibly exhausted and quite whale-ish at the time!
Leah does beautiful wedding photography as well - check out her work at www.byleah.com!
Wild & Free: Vintage Map Envelope Liners
As summer comes to a close, we can't help but reflect on all the adventures that have filled our days for the past few months. In that spirit of adventure, we decided to put some old maps to good use and make envelope liners. Liners are a great way to utilize old magazine pages, scraps of gift wrap or calendars that have served their time.
DIY Envelope Liners (Check out our handy how-to video!)
Supplies needed:
Envelopes Paper Templates Scissors Glue stick Bone folder
Book Review: Modern Calligraphy
A little over a year ago we did a blog post on some of the most beautiful calligraphy we've seen in a while, which was created by Molly of Plurabelle Calligraphy. You can imagine how thrilled we were when we found out Molly was coming out with a book, now available and called Modern Calligraphy.
Molly's publisher sent us a copy of her book, which is just as lovely as her calligraphy. The book is the perfect primer on how to master this fresh modern lettering style. It includes 20 DIY projects where you can apply your new talent.
We love how Molly's book breaks the calligraphy process down into simple steps so anyone can learn to create their own wedding invitations, thank you cards, gift tags, and more. She starts with an overview of the supplies—from paper to ink to pens—you will learn how to form letters, words, and then phrases by following Molly’s clear step-by-step instructions, and by practicing with the provided templates.
You can purchase a copy of Modern Calligraphy here. Congratulations on your beautiful new book Molly!
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
Chronicle Eye Candy
Chronicle Books is celebrating Sewing Month in September with special prices on some of their crafty e-books, including our book Handmade Weddings. See all the deals at Chronicle Eye Candy or head directly over to amazon and pick up a digital copy for only $2.99! Happy crafting!
Winners for the Hello!Lucky & Egg Press Giveaway
To say we were blown away by the entries for our pen pal giveaway with Egg Press is an understatement! We absolutely loved reading your comments and seeing the #LetterPressMailLove photos you tagged us in. Here's a sampling of some of the great photos you shared on instagram.
The three winners for our giveaway were....
Grand Prize Winner Jaclyn: My dream pen pal would be my Great-Great-Grandmother Angelina who immigrated to the U.S. from Italy. Never adopting the English language, I’d love to translate her italian handwriting to read her firsthand account of growing up in Italy in the late 1800s, moving her life to America, and raising 8 children in Delaware. I’ve heard only stories of the strong woman that she was, and her letters would be something I could pass on to keep those stories alive.
2nd Prize Winner Angela: Oh I love this! My dear friend and I have been consistent pen pals since 1997-ish. We even wrote letters when we lived in the same city (we haven't shared a zip code since 1999). The last two Decembers we have tried to make and mail a postcard a day to each other (Daily December). This year we are working on a postcard a week (52 for You).
3rd Prize Winner Samantha from Instagram: Sharing a photo of her correspondence-covered fridge said "Because I live far from friends and family sending letters is an important way for me to keep in touch. I post correspondence with pride."
Thank you all for participating and making this such a fun giveaway. We will definitely be doing more of this in the future so stay tuned! And in the mean time happy letter writing.
Photos above from @apoth, @ImagineJoy, @sammade and @8mmideas.
Stuff We Love: Crane & Canopy
Lately we've been obsessing over the beautiful bedding and pretty home goods from Crane & Canopy. Besides coveting their lovely products we're also big fans of their story. Like so many great founders Karin Sheih created Crane & Canopy when she was looking for something she couldn't find. Shortly after purchasing her first house she was so excited to start decorating but quickly got frustrated when she couldn’t find exactly what she was looking for without breaking the bank. So she did what most sensible people do when they can't find what they need, she started a company that produces exactly what she was looking for -- high quality, innovative bedding and home goods, all available at a great price.
How pretty are these designs? We also love that many of their collections are named after San Francisco neighborhoods. Below is the Ashbury Pink, great name and great color palette.
We're smitten with their new collection called Floral Belles, which allows you to mix and match with detachable flowers-- perfect for people who get bored quickly with their bedding, and a really fun way to freshen up bedroom decor.
If you haven't had a chance to check out their collections head to their site now!
They're also extending a discount to all Hello!Lucky friends, enter the code CRANEANDCANOPY+HELLOLUCKY for 10% off all orders over $150.
End of Summer Sale!
To celebrate the end of Summer and welcome in Fall we're having a little sale on the Hello!Lucky site. We're taking 20% off all orders for invitations, kids stationery and invites and personal stationery -- basically anything on the site with the exception of our greeting cards. Just enter the code HelloFall at checkout. Offer expires 9/6.
Happy shopping!
Real Wedding: Jeska and Brad
We absolutely love it when we get to work with clients who think outside the box and aren't afraid to veer away from tradition and get creative with their weddings. This was absolutely the case with Jeska and Brad, who had one of the most unique celebrations we've seen in a long time.
Jeska and Brad chose our Big Day suite in letterpress. We loved the pop of purple in their invites, which was definitely a running theme throughout the wedding -- from the brides hair, to the flowers, to the purple layer at the bottom of her gorgeous custom made dress.
A good reminder for everyone's big day!
These robot cake toppers are pretty amazing, we're especially loving the paper flags with their initials.
Jeska and Brad printed out our free Big Day table numbers and mounted them on purple paper of course. How pretty are those flowers?
Genius seating chart which let's people know where they are sitting and also explains who everyone is.
Congratulations Jeska & Brad! Thanks for being such a fun couple to work with!
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
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!
Welcome to the World Imogen Hope James!
This past weekend Eunice gave birth to a beautiful little girl, Imogen Hope James. Mother and baby are doing fantastic and big brother Jude is already in love with his little sister.
Congratulations to Eunice and Daniel! Together Eunice and Sabrina have 4 boys -- the Hello!Lucky team is so happy to finally have a sweet little girl to spoil and dote on!
Welcome to the world Imogen!
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!
Vintage Wedding Dress Ads
While looking through some old photos for 'throw back thursday' on instagram yesterday we got a little obsessed with vintage wedding ads. There are some really amazing ones out there and we just love looking at them and seeing how far we've come. We found the image above on Etsy and you can purchase it here.
Here's some of the text from the ad above, also note you could purchase these dresses for just $40! The new filmy look for Spring, magnificently interpreted in lace and nylon tulle…and making much of the exciting new longer torso. In beautiful new Spring shades. About $40 each. Found via Bellz and Whistlez Blog.
How perfectly 70's is this wedding gown pattern? Someone should totally rock that today.
What's a wedding without a little Pepsi-Cola?
Five Quick Wedding Invitation Tips
Naturally we get asked about wedding invitations all the time. How to chose the right ones, what to look for, what wording to use --- all such important questions! We thought we'd pull together a quick post on how to pick wedding invitations. Here are our top five tips!
1. Choose the design that's right for you. Don't too get caught up in worrying about tradition; instead, choose an invitation that fits your style, whether it's colorful or classic.
2. Embrace paper. While it's tempting to do a lot of things digitally these days, remember that your wedding is a great opportunity to slow down, reflect, and celebrate.
3. Begin with the event in mind. The invitation sets the tone for the wedding, so the design should ideally reflect the style of your venue, your color palette, and the level of formality.
4. Simplify. The only things guests really need to receive in the mail these days is an invitation -- the rest of the details (e.g. travel, accommodations, registry, RSVP) are often best communicated by a wedding website or e-mail. That said, if you have the budget and desire for a pretty invitation package, by all means go for it! Your guests will be thrilled.
5. Have fun! Wedding planning should be as fun and enjoyable as the event itself, so stop yourself if you're turning into a bridezilla. Remember it's not the end of the world if you don't get the EXACT shade of purple font you were dreaming of. At the end of the day what matters is the big event and the small things that may go wrong on the way are worth brushing off!
Be sure to check out our extensive wedding wording and planning advice. Have more questions? Ask us in the comments!
A Trip to the Flower Mart
We were recently lucky enough to make a special trip to the San Francisco Flower Mart to drop off some wedding invitations to a wedding planner we work with. We love going to the Flower Mart and could spend all day in there!
The Flower Mart is where wedding vendors and other professionals can get locally grown flowers direct from growers at wholesale prices. It's always such a treat walking through the Mart and we thought it would be fun to show you some behind the scenes photos, including prep for the wedding we did the invites for. Enjoy!
