SPRING FLING SPECIAL: Letterpress Wedding Invitations

I'm trying something new this spring to celebrate all things spring!

Introducing our Spring Fling Letterpress Wedding Invitation Special!

For a limited time only, Joie Studio is offering 100 1-color letterpress invitation sets (your choice of Maybelle, Gigi, Bridgeport, or your own print ready design) for $495 plus shipping and 100 2-color letterpress invitations (Antoinette, Gwendolyn, Austin, or your own print ready design) for $685.  The sets include A7 invitation, 4bar response card, outer and response envelopes.  You can customize the invites with any of the ink colors on our color chart.  I've included the design images below.

This is such a deal!  I've listed this deal on our Etsy page and in our online store but you can also email us directly for the deal.

Joie Studio will also be offering a discount on all custom wedding invitation orders through the end of April.  Mention the Spring Fling Wedding Invitation Special to get your discount!

Today & Tomorrow! Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco!

We are here in San Francisco!  Heather and I will be bleary eyed but ready to vend at Bazaar Bizarre today and tomorrow at Booth #229 (I think).  A bonus gift! I hear the first purchase made at BazBizSF with your Square Wallet will come with $10 off a purchase of $25 or more.

OH and we have free (FREE) letterpress remnants (bookmarks, scrapbook fun?) and mention this blog post for FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE.

Los Angeles Printer's Fair This Saturday!

OK so this is the 3rd time Joie Studio will be participating in the Los Angeles Printers Fair.  We always have a lot of fun at this event, especially since we not only sell a sampling of our letterpress papergoods, we also bring a bunch of letterpress supplies and have sort of a mini garage sale on envelopes, paper, and other doodads and knick-knacks.  So come on out to Carson on Saturday! 

Say hi!  Oh, and I'll have a little gift item for you if you show me that you follow Joie Studio on Twitter or Facebook.  So easy-peasy.  Come, "like" or "follow" Joie Studio, and get a little love from us!

Sneak Peek: New Special Edition Cards

I so loved doing the split fountain the other day on the calendar cover that I decided to make them into cards.  You likey?  I likey!  Split fountain for the back pattern...next step after they dry to is to letterpress the greeting onto it.  I'm chugging along printing a bunch of new card designs.  More soon!

Mad Hatter Kind of Wedding

I had the pleasure of working with the ever wonderful Fresh Events Company on Robbi & Charles' day-of-wedding stationery, which included placecards, table cards, programs, and menus.  I almost never see the end result.  Usually the last that I see of the cards, they look something like this, spread about a work table in the studio, waiting to be packed up for delivery:

So imagine my delight when I saw this picture on Fresh Events Company's Facebook page:

 

Can you spot the table cards and one or two menus?

Here is a closeup of the programs, gorgeously letterpress printed if I do say so myself:

Sorry for the cell phone pictures!  One of these days I'll lug out the SLR and take better pictures!

Congratulations to Robbi & Charles!  I'm hoping that the photographer took some awesome pictures of the wedding day stationery so we can see more details!

Sneak Peek: 2013 Calendar on Press

 Joie Studio's first ever split fountain!!!

So we were printing our 2013 letterpress desk calendar and I thought the chevron pattern would look great as a split fountain.  I had fluorescent orange on the press and decided add hot pink.  I worked fast and got the whole run in with this split fountain, which I'm really happy about.  The result on the press rather reminds me of a tequila sunrise...ah delicious!  I love it so much I'm probably going to do a split fountain for two different greeting cards.  Anyhow, here's a little sneak peek of our "Bright 2013" calendar!  It'll be ready in time for the LA Printer's Fair!

Hello Beautiful...

Sorry I've been away for so long! I don't know if you knew, but I was pregnant, had another sweet baby boy, and am now just returning to the wonderful world of letterpress. It's been on back-burner to share a wonderful photo shoot we had with Kristin Carlson before baby #2. I think my Joie Boy ("I'm not a baby anymore, Mommy!" he likes to say now) is one of the cutest things in this beautiful world, so how can I not be completely in love with Kristin's work when she takes a picture like this one:

 

Or like the ones on her blog. She was kind enough to share with me some photos she took of Joie Studio's work, too!

 

 

Kristin, I owe you majorly for capturing my family and my work so beautifully!

Unique LA Tomorrow & Sunday!

It's crazy here in Pasadena, California! A huge windstorm hit us Wednesday night and the studio is now almost cut off from civilization! There are chainsaws going everywhere as people try to clear the debris of fallen trees and we were unfortunate that our fences didn't hold up to the 50+ mph winds. Luckily, we're going to be at Unique LA this weekend sharing Booth #129 with the ever talented Kimiko Design (gorgeous handmade pillows people!) this weekend, not dealing with the mess and celebrating some good ole holiday cheer with locally produced goods. Come on by, pick up some letterpress gifts and goodies, including a FREE with purchase pinwheel! See you there!

Los Angeles Printer's Fair!

Come by and see us at the Los Angeles Printer's Fair!

A Kickstarter Project Near and Dear to My Heart

So a solid fact about me is that I am totally in love with music. Totally in love. All sorts. I print to 80's music, I sing along to 90's alternative (the songs of my youth!), I have favorite operas, I'm in love with musicals, I am moved by classical. My 2 year old son listens to hard rock and requests Radiohead. And since I have zero musical talent, I especially love my dear dear friends who can.

My friend Libbie Schrader just released a gorgeous album funded entirely by her fans. She, my friends, is a fellow Claremont alum (Pomona, I went to CMC, but whatever, 5-C solidarity), won a national song competition, went on to tour with Jewel and Poe, has had her music on TV shows, and produced this amazing new album without a label. And that's awesome.

Now my dear friend Mike TV of the band Get Set Go has started a Kickstarter project of his own. Mike TV and I were flatmates for years, and I had the pleasure of being there when he signed onto a label and put out his first CD, which is still my favorite. I was around when he wrote so many of the songs on the band's next couple releases, so many of which he practiced ad nauseum that somedays when I close my eyes I swear I still hear him singing "Suicide" in the background. One of my favorite songs in the early days was "Firetruck," and I was so thrilled for him when the show Jack & Bobby picked it up. Then, after Michael moved out, my new flatmates were watching this new show on TV when suddenly out of nowhere was Michael's voice as some young doctors were in an elevator on Grey's Anatomy. I had never watched the show and was, as you might imagine, weirded out that my friend's song was on network TV. I got the same weird jolt feeling when on Grey's Anatomy's musical episode this past season, one of Michael's songs was sung by someone that wasn't Michael. His song "Wait" was just beautiful sung by Chandra Wilson, and I excitedly called him to see how long he knew that his song was going to be a part of this major music-driven episode.

Despite all the exposure, Get Set Go isn't a commercially successful band with lots of radio play. In fact, quite the opposite. I wager most of you have never heard of them. When the goal is to make music, sometimes the dollars just don't add up. I swear that despite all the exposure his music has received over the years, Mike TV drives this beat up van and lives on peanut butter and puppy kisses and that's it. When the goal is to put as many songs out there as possible, and record labels are stuck in a business model that favors multimedia megastars, well, sometimes you just gotta ask your friends and fans for a little help to put out the music you want to put out. So, if you've never heard of Get Set Go before, check them out on their website, check out their Kickstarter campaign, and kick something down in support of indie rock music.

NSS Report: 10 Minutes After the Show

It is so funny how fast this show breaks down. Set up is over the course of two or three days, and it seems as if break down happens in like 5 minutes. The row carpeting is the first to go. Candie and I worked feverishly hard to move all of our furniture and products to the back corner of the booth in fear that the forklifts coming through later would have little care about our stuff (this is generally a good assumption, by the way). I waited with Brad from Maginating for about 3.5 hours for our crate to come back. We packed up, borrowed screws from whoever was around to fix the crate and reseal it, and then for good measure, pallet wrapped it. And then left it all lonely like in the middle of a decimated hall.

Here is the view of our row as we were leaving:

And here is the view of the lower numbered rows from our booth location:

All gone! Isn't it amazing how quickly the show breaks down?

I hope you enjoyed our coverage of the National Stationery Show! It's been quite the ride!

NSS Report: More Friends, Old & New

A wonderful part of the National Stationery Show has been getting to meet all the stationers that I have admired over the years. One such stationer is ilee, whose desk calendar is a constant awe-inspiring piece of ephemera. I had the pleasure of meeting Ja, designer and printer as she was based not too far from our corner:

Shelley of Albertine Press & Angela Ligouri were two rows down in their beautifully blue booth:

And across the way from Shelley and Angela were Joel and Lauren from Old Tom Foolery in a double-wide booth (so jealous of the double wide):

I have a soft spot for people named Joel, and Joel and Lauren were the greatest. I also had lots of fun with Shauna of Hello Lucky and made it a point to venture really far away just to see their booth. Shauna sent me home with all this Hello Lucky swag (well, Joel and Lauren stuck a bunch of their cards in my hands as well before I realized I was trying to LIGHTEN my load, not get free stationery).

Alison from Igloo Letterpress was a joy, and since she's got a Pasadena connection, she can be an honorary member of the Pasadena Letterpress Club:

And I cannot tell you how wonderful my 5 minutes chatting with Nicole from Nic Studio was. Twitter friends turned into real friends is super great. I feel like I have a a great new friend. Love Nic posing with our paper pinwheel:

I hope you enjoyed our trip our new friends through the National Stationery Show. I honestly didn't leave the booth enough, and I have more pictures of all these amazing booths than I've had time to sort through. Next up: NSS break down!

NSS Report: SoCal Letterpress Friends

What is kind of fun about the National Stationery Show is getting to hang out with your stationery colleagues for the better part of a week. We bump into each other a bunch here in southern California, but it was nice to see everyone's work displayed.

First and foremost is Maginating, based in Studio City. Brad of Maginating was so so helpful in actually getting Joie Studio to the National Stationery Show. And he was right across the aisle from us, which was absolutely wonderful:

Annika from DeMilo Designs of South Pasadena was one row over from us with her eco-friendly, fair trade paper and her wonderful letterpress designs:

Joie Studio friends and fellow Pasadena-letterpress printers Ken and Shino from Fugu Fugu Press:

And new friend Theresa from b. t. elements, also based in Pasadena:

Theresa was repping Papermum Press from Arcadia:

I missed taking a picture of Anemone Letterpress at the Ladies of Letterpress booth. What's kind of funny is that people kept stopping by and saying, "Wow, there are so many letterpress printers from Pasadena!" And I was just rolling with it for awhile until I realized that there were only three of us there - Joie Studio, Fugu Fugu, & Anemone. I mean, four if you count DeMilo from South Pasadena, but there were at least as many letterpress printers from Brooklyn there at NSS. Next post will be some of Joie Studio's new friends from other states at NSS.

NSS Report: A Built & Dressed Booth!

Okay, so my report of the National Stationery Show majorly stalled. But I blame my 2 year old son, who came home with the nastiest stomach bug and proceeded to infect the whole household, dog included, with it. But I'm back, barely. And I showed you our NSS booth setup, here it, finally, the booth, all set up.

Before the show, my friend Carl and I adhered all the vinyl decals (not an easy task), and at the show, Candie and I adhered the acrylic logo. GAWD I'm still aflutter about how great Joie Studio's logo looks:

The card wall:

And Candie and me, taken by our good friends at Fugu Fugu Press:

NSS Interlude: It wasn't all work...

New York wasn't all work - Candie and I made time Saturday before the National Stationery Show to go to lunch at the acclaimed 3-Michelin star restaurant Jean Georges. We literally went to Javits in the morning, worked on making the booth pretty, took a cab to lunch, and then walked the mile back to Javits to finish our setup. It was totally worth it. I'll admit to being a closet foodie. I've eaten at my fair share of 1-star and 2-star restaurants, but Jean Georges is my first 3 star restaurant. And their lunch deal was hard to beat - $32 for 2 courses. AMAZING for such a high caliber restaurant. Here's my attempt at food blogging.

The dining room is small, with the focal point being this huge octopus of a light fixture:
We start with the amuse bouche, which was some sort of pasta bite, a canape, and "to finish" carrot water:
The order to eat the amuse bouche was exactly that. Taken out of order, I think the carrot water's lingering flavor would have been weird with the other tastes. And I will tell you - that little morsel of pasta goodness was a real party in my mouth. I could not stop thinking about it the entire meal, and that's saying something.

Candie ordered the tuna ribbons, which were AMAZING. I'm from Hawaii, I've had lots of raw tuna, so the item didn't interest me so much, but this tuna was AMAZING:
I ordered the soft shell crab - yum - the flavors weren't as assertive as the tuna but still really good:
Candie ordered the beef. The meat, she said, was average, but the sauce underneath was mind-blowingly delicious (I can attest, I tried it):
I rarely get the chance to order veal sweetbreads, and since it was on the menu, I had to have it. The sweet chili sauce underneath had just the right amount of heat. I did, however, second guess getting two deep fried items for lunch once the sweetbreads came out. I don't think I thought that one through so much. Whatever. It was delicious delicious delicious:
I have a general aversion to fine dining desserts (except at the Dining Room in Pasadena under Chef Strong - best dessert EVER) where I think it's too high concept and not enough OMG OMG OMG YUM, so we waited for another table to get dessert to see their reaction before deciding. It didn't seem orgasmically good (they were just eating it like...eh...dessert) so we decided to skip it. Besides, thanks to Patina in LA, I have a strong strong preference for those fancy marshamallows at the end:
Lavender macarons (a little too sweet and floral for me) rather reinforced my opinion about not getting dessert. Although the marshmallows at Jean Georges were really high caliber. I am a huge fan of gourmet marshmallows!

Hope you enjoyed our little food trek in NYC!

NSS Report: Booth Setup Day 1

Hey all! So day 1 of booth building is done. We've gone from booth building at home (picture above) to actually building it at Javits (below):
We successfully opened the crate, put up the walls, put down the carpet, build the furniture. Yay! Tomorrow we shall deal with product and Sunday the show begins! Yay! Gonna do some work now. An exhibitor's work is never done until we're done exhibiting!

NYC or Bust!

The crate left early last week, and I'm leaving tomorrow. We're on our way to the National Stationery Show! Yay! Wish us luck! Either Candie or I will report back once we get situated in New York City!