Things have been a little quiet around here in recent weeks as we’ve been busy preparing for the National Stationery Show. But don’t worry, there’s good reason. New at the show, we’re introducing our largest Everyday release yet! Letterpress notepads, notebooks, keepsake gift boxes, gift bags, sticky note squares, new gift wrap, new letterpress greeting cards, new offset cards, holiday, and more. And all of it eco, of course, featuring either our bamboo paper or our 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Our new FSC certified lokta paper gift bags are truly one of a kind, made by a really cool community-owned group in Nepal dedicated to sustainable forestry. We have so much to share with you in the coming weeks – stay tuned! While we’re away, you can follow along with all the fun here and on Twitter.
It’s hard to believe, but the 2010 National Stationery Show officially opens in just twelve days! We’ve been hard at work preparing for the show – there are so many fun new things to come from Smock this year! Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been mailing out invitations to our favorite retailers and media contacts to visit us at booth 2241 to check out all of the exciting new releases. While we can’t share everything just yet, we did want to give you a little sneak peek at the pretty letterpress printed envelopes that have been arriving in mailboxes nationwide. They feature beautiful hand calligraphy addressing from our dear friend Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill. For those attending the show, we’re excited to announce that Debi will once again be in the Smock booth offering hand calligraphy for visitors from 9 to 6 on Sunday, May 16th, and again from 11 to 2 on Monday, and 10 to 1 on Tuesday. We look forward to seeing you there!
New England portrait and wedding photographer Brea McDonald recently planned a baby shower for her good friend, Amber. Hosted at The Blue Elephant in Saco, Maine, she pulled together a beautiful garden-inspired event using her collection of vintage table linens and a bunch of sweet DIY touches. The coolest part? The sweet DIY paper pinwheels she crafted using Smock gift wrap that she purchased at Gus & Ruby Letterpress, one of our beloved Smock dealers. We love this idea! Our gift wraps all feature colorful double-sided patterns printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper. It’s always a treat for us to see the unique ways people put our recycled wrapping paper to work, but these paper pinwheels are definitely one of our favorites!
To read more about this pretty baby shower, visit Brea’s blog.
{Photos by Brea McDonald.}
At long last, we’re excited to share the winner of our Smock Design Contest, a custom letterpress and offset wedding invitation sent to us by our friends at Papery & Cakery in Boca Raton, Florida. This design features offset printing in a custom palm tree design on the front, printed in sand ink, combined with letterpress text printed in midnight ink. It’s a sophisticated combination of texture and color that is exemplified with the perfect finishing touches – corner rounding and edge painting in midnight. The envelope was lined in our payette pattern in midnight, perfectly coordinating with all of the other design elements for a look that is polished and simply beautiful.
Our special guest judge Nole Garey of Oh So Beautiful Paper selected this design as our contest winner, because she fell in love with the combination of letterpress and offset printing. She says, “I love everything about the design, from the color selections to the midnight blue edge painting to the calligraphy details. I love the way the soft palm trees almost look like delicate feathers against the ivory background.”
Thank you so much to Papery & Cakery for sending us this incredible design and to all of our design contest winners for continually inspiring us. Thanks are also due to Nole for helping us out with the difficult task of narrowing down all of the amazing designs to just a few winners. Thank you!
To learn more about Papery & Cakery, check out their recent Smock Store Spotlight.
As we near the end of our Smock Design Contest honorees, it’s time to share our 1st runner up – a beautiful custom letterpress social note brought to us by Francis-Orr in Corona del Mar, California. This design is truly unique, printed in seamist, papaya and midnight inks in a vibrant combination of color and pattern. The background of the card is our willoughby pattern in seamist and the patterned envelope liner also features our willoughby pattern in midnight. Guest judge Nole Garey of one of our favorite bogs, Oh So Beautiful Paper, loved this design and says, “A gorgeous mix of pattern and color! The papaya ink around the monogram creates a beautiful contrast against the pale patterned background. I’m also just as smitten with the juxtaposition between the flourish design details and strong serif type of the monogram. Gorgeous!”
After showing off the honorable mentions in our recent Smock Design Contest, we’re down to the final three winners! First up is our 2nd runner up, this beautiful custom letterpress baby announcement from our friends at The Write Image in Salt Lake City. It’s printed in a soft color palette of silver and pearl inks and features our champlain pattern and one of the cartouches available in our Social Occasions album. We love everything about this pretty birth announcement, so perfect for celebrating the arrival of a new baby girl, and so did our guest judge, Nole Garey of Oh So Beautiful Paper who says, “An absolutely perfect birth announcement. Simple and sweet, with both feminine and neutral design details perfect for a baby girl.” Thanks so much to the folks at The Write Image for bringing us this beautiful design!
This letterpress save the date is the last of our honorable mention in our Smock Design Contest, featuring a pretty floral motif from our Social Occasions album and boasting our Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. Printed in navy ink paired with blind deboss, we printed this customization for our friends at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in New York. It’s incredibly chic and effortlessly elegant, two qualities we happen to love in letterpress save the dates.
Stay tuned for the top place winners in our Smock Design Contest as selected by Nole Garey of Oh So Beautiful Paper!
Brought to us by the friendly folks at Paper & Chocolate in Dallas, the next honoree in our Smock Design Contest is a custom letterpress holiday card that was an absolute joy to print. The design was created using a Spencerian calligraphy motif from our Social Occasions album printed in red and grass inks. The patterned envelope liner uses our iznik pattern with patterned backing on the card itself in our sherbrooke pattern. The piece was then corner rounded and edge painted in red for a complete look that is incredibly festive and perfect for the holiday season.
To learn more about Paper & Chocolate, check out their recent Smock Store Spotlight.
Keeping on with our Smock Design Contest honorees, this next design is a custom Haddington letterpress wedding invitation sent to us by Just Paper & Tea in Washington, DC. It was printed in tangerine and a custom bright pink ink with bright pink edge painting and a matching liner in our payette pattern. We love this bold modern take on the classic wedding invitation using our Haddington calligraphy design in bright cheerful ink colors. Paired with edge painting and a patterned envelope liner, it’s a thoroughly modern interpretation of a timeless design.
Thanks so much to our friends at Just Paper & Tea for sending us this amazing creation!
The next honoree in our Smock Design Contest is this custom save the date that we printed for our friends at Saluations in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is a double-sided design that we offset printed in peacock and seamist inks on our 1-ply bamboo paper. Salutations’s self-proclaimed Chief Style Officer Holly shares, “This save the date is my favorite so far! This was a collaborative effort with a fabulous bride who had a great design sense. We started with a vintage duogram. Inspiration was then drawn from the Tallulah design in the Social Occasions album, as well as the champlain pattern that she saw on a Smock box we had in the store from an order that had just arrived. It was so exciting to see the design ideas crafted into a beautiful reality by Smock’s wonderful designers and printers!”
Thank you so much to the team at Saulations for bringing us this incredible customization – it’s one of our very favorite save the dates!