My Christmas cards are finally finished! After a snowed in Sunday sketching, painting, scanning and editing, they are now printed and headed out the door.
This year’s cards are #10 single-sided prints on 180 lb. textured cardstock with red-orange envelopes, both purchased at Hollo’s last year. I’m excited to finally finish them and move on the next thing on my list…. laundry.
Congratulations to Sycamore Street Press’s Eva and Kirk on their new baby girl, Ingrid! While Eva and Kirk are busy welcoming their new bundle of joy into the world, I’ll be filling in as guest contributor this week on their blog!
If you’re unfamiliar with Sycamore Street Press, Eva’s illustrations are second to none and I love her use of letterpress to enhance her detailed lines. Here is a snippet of their work:
You can follow me on the Sycamore Street site all this week right here and you can see more of Sycamore Street Press’s prints and buy some of your own right here.
Oh, how I love inspiration boards. I started a stationery line while at Igloo Letterpress in the Spring and unfortunately, haven’t added to the line of letterpress cards I created 8 months ago. Until now! Paper Remnants is coming back to life and much of this weekend was spent creating inspiration boards and cards for the next few months of holidays and gifts. The pictures featured below are just a snippet of the images I gathered that move me most and the direction Paper Remnants new pieces will take.
I like to stay away from using too many graphic design pieces in my inspiration boards, instead using interiors, photography, fine art or type to inspire me, because I find myself wanting to set a mood with the images rather than a style. It’s easier to see if my design fits in a mood rather than if it’s a style I tend to use over and over. It helps to keep longevity within my designs and give me the freedom to create what I want and not get stumped after 12 cards with dark blue Trade Gothic type.
The things I have noticed about my inspirations so far are: I love color (duh), vintage details, personalized or handwritten scripts and type, the texture a paintbrush leaves and did I mention, color? Clearly, your future Christmas cards will be bright. I warned you now.
I’m excited to bring this little passion back to life and I feel good about the direction so far, so stay tuned!
Wow, things have been busy! I figured a quick (picture-filled) update on life was in order! First off, I posted a few months back the letterpress wedding invitations I designed for my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding and finally have pictures from the phenomenal photographer Melissa Pauquette of the final pieces. I wish I could take credit for their adorable flowered favors, but that was all Kelly. She has the blisters to prove that she made each and every flower herself. The day was amazing and was such a great memory, especially with the entire family involved in the big day. You can see more of her photos from the big day on Melissa’s blog, here.
{ photos copyright Melissa Pauquette Photography }
Along with getting ready for the wedding and freelancing fulltime first at Lane Bryant and most recently at La Senza, I just accepted (on Tuesday!) a full-time position with The Limited in Columbus! I’m so SO excited to become a part of their amazing design team. I’ve fallen in love with retail design and can’t wait to dig in!
And the last of the updates is about a new project I want to start on my blog. I’ve had the privilege to learn some great tid-bits about resources, books, websites and tricks-of-the-trade from working with talented designers at work and from having friends that know quite a lot more than I do! They’ve all taught me a huge amount about being good at what we do and I think it’s information that’s worth sharing.
I’m excited to announce a monthly article called Wish I Had Known. I want to share the information that has helped me grow and continue learning once I left the classroom. I think the resources are for more than just designers, too, and hope that anyone can find something interesting in each of the posts I have in store. Look for the first post on Monday!
Well, I think that’s enough updating for one day. I will resume my ‘inspiration’ posts since most of the craziness has died down and I’m getting back into a routine again. See you Monday!
They’re finally finished!!! My sister’s wedding plans are well under way and this was one piece running a little behind… We finally finished letterpressing her invitations this weekend and now it’s time to wrap them, address them and say goodbye! See more pics of the invites here and see us hard at work after the jump!
Pictures from the Igloo Lettepress booth and of the Rockefeller Building.
The Paper Remnants board and a giveaway bag from Sapling Press that made us all laugh!
The National Stationery Show was a success! The past week has flown by and I can’t believe the people we’ve met and the experiences we’ve had in the Big Apple. Three and a half days with other stationers, artists and letterpress enthusiasts leaves me really excited for the creative summer ahead.
We had the pleasure of meeting Nole from Oh So Beautiful Paper (a great paper blog), Ellie of Mint (another favorite), Jen and Omar of These Are Things were able to make the trek from Ohio, Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co. and Jessica Hische and Jason from the Heads of State were at Syrtex and we met them both for the first time. We were located in a row of other fantastic designers including Hammerpress, A Favorite Design, Egg Press, Hello! Lucky, Let (her) Press and so many others.
Along with all of these great writers and designers, the amount of creativity in the (extremely huge) Javits center was so strong, the ideas are still flowing. Talking with Jen and Omar, we all agreed that our notebooks are full of ideas and there just aren’t enough hours in the day to finish it all!
Igloo Letterpress featured on the NSS coverage on Oh So Beautiful Paper! Thanks, Nole!
Overall, the only thing I would have changed was that I would have taken more pictures! (yes, the ones above are from my iPhone… Sorry!) It was a whirlwind of a trip. Now to start planning for next year…
Finally! The pictures to match my post about my new line, Paper Remnants! Here are 6 of the 10 letterpress card designs debuting at the National Stationery Show starting Sunday. I can’t believe so much work has gone into the show itself and so much love (as well as blood, sweat and tears!) has gone into each and every piece we’ve printed. You can find Igloo Letterpress, the home of Paper Remnants, at booth #1550 at the show. We hope you stop by and say hello! I’ll be posting pictures from the show and the other 4 cards next week, so I hope you stay tuned!
One of my first projects when starting at Igloo was to redesign Allison’s website. It’s finally finished!!! Click here to see the site live.
New business cards! Printed at Igloo Letterpress, of course.
