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!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all are having a happy Easter weekend! Here is one of our newest offerings in our ongoing collaboration with Shop Toast: the Honey Bunnies card! Perfect for Easter, or just to tell someone special that they are your honey bunny. Fans in Hawaii can grab theirs at Shop Toast - this won't be available through Joie Studio until after the National Stationery Show! Hope you are having a brilliant time!

Merry Ornaments!

Joie Studio's Merry Ornaments are in the Etsy shop (well, the square cards are, anyway)!

Hope you had a great Turkey day! Don't forget, Joie Studio's holiday sale (25% all items) goes on through Monday! Just enter coupon code "BLACKBDAY" at checkout! Enjoy!

Holiday Letterpress Card Offerings

So sorry I've been so slow to share our holiday offerings online! We've been going through a bathroom renovation and GEESH it's been a little insane.

Here are the first three up! A new one for 2010 is our Mele Kalikimaka card:

And, of course, they're BAAAAACK! The ever popular Nice or Naughty letterpress holiday cards are back!

Also back are the gorgeously luxe Holiday Sparkle Cards:

I have two more brand new holiday designs to share with you but I was pretty remiss in getting some seasonal help at the studio and so it's just me this season! Please bear with me, I've got a pretty sweet one coming up soon!

These three cards are up and available in the Etsy shop! More soon, I promise, and stay tuned on the blog for a very special Holiday Sale in our Etsy shop and a calendar giveaway on the blog!

In the islands, we do it island style...

This design has been a long time coming, but it's finally available in Joie Studio's Etsy shop! It's no secret I'm from Honolulu...and here I am with yet another homage to my home state. I gave a sneek peak of this design in June, and I've finally gotten around to scoring them, folding them, and packing them into nice sets. Love the embossed effect on the hibiscus because of the debossing of the background stripe and then floral design - the leftover unprinted paper around the flower looks raised in comparison.

I also printed 'mahalo' in orange and aqua. It was originally meant to have another color scheme entirely, but I really really love the mandarin orange / aqua blue color combination, so I thought I'd go with that instead.

Mahalo for looking and I hope you enjoyed!

Meet the Gang!

Meet the Cheeky Faces, Joie Studio's newest collaboration with my friends at Shop Toast. Say hello to...

Yum Yum

Squeals

Rosy Cheeks

Bright Eyes

Sorry

A hallmark feature of this collection, besides the three color nature of the design collection, is the blind impression of the background pattern in the back, which gives the cards a quilted appearance. Love it. All of the cards are up in Joie Studio's Etsy shop, and the cheery faces are available in a set of 4. Enjoy!

Unique OC Recap: Joie Studio's Booth

Okay, it took a week, but I am finally recovered from Unique OC. I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera, and here they are! Here are some new cards that were on display at Unique OC, "Programmed to Love" in the top left and our newest collaboration with Shop Toast, "Cheeky Faces" in the middle row:

There are the four Cheery Cheeky Faces, and one Sorry Cheeky Face (below):

Also debuting at Unique OC were the "Hawaiian Style" series, which we placed right in front of our "Old Hawaii" cards:

A new setup for craft fairs that I am trying out showcases Joie Studio's custom work. I need to tweak it a little bit, but I really like it. We set the table for three different invitations...

...asking the question, "What's your style?" (below):

We showcased some invitations that we will be showcasing soon on the blog, including Starfish (below):

and the lovely invitation suite designed by Jennifer Olmstead (below):

The rest of the week will be dedicated to recapping Unique OC and featuring some Unique OC vendors that I really enjoyed meeting. To my San Francisco friends and fans: I will be bringing an abbreviated version of this setup to the J-Pop Summit September 18th, so come visit!

Hello Honey Bunny!

Poor Honey Bunny has been sitting around, unboxed at the bottom of one of my moving boxes (yes, the studio is still not quite 100% unpacked). So I took pity on him and boxed him up! He is the first of Joie Studio's second collaboration with our friends at SHOP TOAST. This design is letterpress flat stationery (A2 in size) printed in 4 (yes, four!) handcrafted ink colors. My friends at SHOP TOAST like to make me work hard at their designs.

Honey Bunny is available in Joie Studio's Etsy shop!

Hina Matsuri Letterpress Card

Okay, so I will have to admit that it has taken me FOREVER to actually take product photos of this card. And it's really funny, too, because I meant for this card to be sold in January or February for Girl's Day (in Hawaii) or Hina Matsuri (in Japan) on March 3rd, so I printed them two Februarys ago but didn't finish them in time for Girl's Day. And I sold out of the ones I had packaged at Unique LA Holiday and never got around to scoring and packing the rest of the cards that I had printed. But *whew* finally! Here they are, my three Japanese dolls letterpress printed in three gorgeous colors.

As an aside, this was one of my first forays in photopolymer using a homemade aluminum base that my cousin helped mill. And it's one of the first projects that I did on the Vandercook 4 after attaining it.

It's listed in the Etsy shop! Enjoy!

Quails of a Feather...

Introducing the Quails of a Feather!

This is the marquee card of the collection -- "One of a Kind." I printed this card maybe a year (or over a year ago) and never got around to printing the message inside. Life (or JoieBaby), I guess, got the best of me. But I carved out some time a couple weeks ago to finish the card after Shino from Fugu Fugu Press helped me score all my A2s lying around here. Thank goodness for friends! Some of you who have seen the Momma Quail Mother's Day card at craft shows have already been introduced to the collection, but I love my little quirky quail!

I really love the design. It reminds me to celebrate uniqueness. And I can't help but smile whenever I see this quail letterpress printed on bright white 100% recycled paper. It's a gorgeous bright white stock.

I don't generally do inside messages, but since I wanted to flood the card with quails, the message went inside in the same orange as the one of a kind quail in front:

Here is a closeup of One-of-a-Kind Quail:

I just love how the eyes pop and show the impression. And of course, in the back is Joie Studio's logo:

I've listed this card on Etsy. I think I only printed like 50 of them for the first run (I was pregnant, I was tired, I probably had to pee). Get them while they last!

Peekaboo...I see...Bamboo?!!

Along the fence right outside the door to my letterpress studio is a little grove of bamboo. I use the term "little" loosely because the bamboo wants the entirety of our outdoor space and it's all my gardeners and I can do to keep them contained along the fence. Our bamboo, for all its appetite for world domination, helps to create a very zen atmosphere and shields the studio from heat. When it's 100+ degrees out, it's a manageable 80 degrees in the printshop without AC.

When the fellas at Smock introduced bamboo paper to the letterpress world a couple years ago, I was (and honestly still am) skeptical of how much MORE eco-friendly bamboo is than cotton. I mean, cotton paper, as luxurious as it is, is made from linters (basically waste product from the ginning process), making it as eco-friendly as they come. But Smock was saying that bamboo paper was the cat's meow and the bee's knees and on top of it all more eco-friendly than cotton. It really made me curious to try bamboo paper. So when I saw a letterpress printed sample of Legion Bamboo at the Stationery Show, I decided that I should look into trying it out, especially since I had an awesome design that I was about to print that would fit perfectly with bamboo paper -- a panda!

Introducing Peekaboo Panda:

He's an A2 folded card letterpress printed on bamboo paper and paired with a 100% recycled (30% PCW) kraft envelope. Quite possibly the most eco-friendly card we've ever printed. I couldn't resist putting the card up in the bamboo --

And, because Mr. Panda is special, I decided to print a little note in the back of each card so everyone would know that Peekaboo Panda was letterpress printed right here in southern California on bamboo paper:

I also letterpress printed Peekaboo Panda as A6 flat stationery:

I'm a little indecisive about whether to round the corners or not. The original design calls for but I like the way it looks with square corners, too. So I will continue to waffle on the corners for a couple days. (If you have an opinion, let me know!)

My foray into letterpress printing on bamboo paper was fun. Legion Bamboo is a tad thinner than Crane's Lettra and Reich Savoy at 265 GSM (I believe that translates to 100lb cover, only slightly thinner than Lettra and Savoy at 110lb and 118lb, respectively). It has a different feel to it -- I can't describe it exactly -- and the paper behaves in a slightly different way on press. I really like it actually, but it's been a madhouse in the printshop right now because we've been printing on five different papers and it's been blowing my mind a little bit trying to remember the personalities and peculiarities of each type of paper! I'm going to figure out a way to use bamboo to complement Joie Studio's current collection, but if you want bamboo for your next project, just let me know.

The good people at Legion Paper have been really lovely taking care of Joie Studio, so I'm excited to try out some other letterpress papers that they sent me. Check back on the blog for further reports later!

Happy letterpressing!

Sneak Peek: Hawaiian Style!

I have to admit - I'm missing home just a little bit. No, not my home in Pasadena. Home. Hawaii. Honolulu. Where I grew up. The last time I was back to Hawaii was 3 Christmases ago. And airfare is expensive and I have a year old baby and my family keeps coming to visit so I have little reason to go back home anytime soon. * Sigh * I pulled out a design that I had plated awhile back (in 2008) and never got around to printing, and it made me feel just a little more connected to home. Here's a sneak peek at my Hawaiian inspired letterpress:

After the first run of aqua (top), I was thinking I should just stop because the print looked SO good with just one color. Then I put the second color on and I was completely in love with that look, too. So now I'm conflicted on if I will offer the single color or not. Both look awesome:

Here's the persimmon/aqua combination, complete with coordinating persimmon envelope:

And a closeup:

I'm loving how the white unprinted areas just pop so beautifully as an outline to the hibiscus. The persimmon/aqua combination is an A2 flat stationery set, and it's a special combination in celebration of summer. The other color combos you see above are for upcoming cards.

Have a great Aloha Friday!

Happy Girls Day

Happy Girls Day!

In Hawaii, March 3rd is Girls Day, and the tradition comes from the Japanese hina matsuri, where, if I recall correctly, girls showcase their doll collection. We made a whole letterpress collection inspired by Japanese dolls and this festive day, and what better day to give you a preview of the design than Girls Day?

Here it is in production:

And here's a closeup shot of the A2 card:

We've yet to score and fold the cards, but here it is in all its cuteness.

The design was lovingly illustrated by yours truly and is a 3-color letterpress registration nightmare to print. But I do love the design so so much. I can't wait to finish it and pack it up so it can go to new homes! In the collection are Ready-to-Write Letterpress Invites, the A2 card pictured above, flat stationery, and gift enclosures. I've also been toying with thank you cards but we'll see. There is also a limited edition 8x10 art print that I'm working on with this collection. More info to come as I complete the collection! Enjoy!