Congratulations Erin and Mike!

Congratulations to Erin and Mike! Erin and Mike were really open to one of my favorite beach color schemes: aqua and gold! Erin wanted starfish on the invitation, so we worked in our Marbella swirls with some sweet little starfish to give her a perfect beach themed letterpress wedding invitation!

Erin and Mike's wording was a good solution when one set of parents have remarried and all sets of parents are helping to pay for the wedding:

And more pictures of the invites:

As a special gift to my bride and groom, I made them custom letterpress stationery to match so they can get started on their thank yous:

I hope you enjoyed the starfish letterpress wedding invitations with the beach themed colors as much as I enjoyed designing and printing them!

Congratulations again to Erin and Mike!

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!

Hello Fabulous!

Oh these gorgeous yellow boxes. Filled with gorgeous Italian paper with deckled edges. When I first started printing, Fabriano Medioevalis was what was recommended for us to use in class. It's safe to say that I learned how to letterpress on Fabriano Medioevalis. Now I print mainly on Lettra, which is also a wonderful paper but it is a very very different paper.

One of my favorite clients, and probably one of the most fabulous people I know, asked me to letterpress her business cards and stationery on Fabriano Medioevalis, and I was reminded of how fabulous Fabriano Medioevalis is. It was a little bit of a pain with the deckled edges (it made the paper stick together, the deckling made the paper not quite uniform the whole way through...I could go on), but the results are absolutely fabulous!

Laura has a blog chronicling how to be fabulous everyday, and I'm loving the tips and reviews she's blogged thus far. I have to say some of her posts have really gotten me to think about little things I can do to have a more fabulous life. Check out Laura's blog at www.fabulous365.com!