The 2016 National Stationery Show, Part 7

It’s probably more than obvious around here, but I’m completely in love with calligraphy and hand lettering. Watching a calligrapher or hand lettering artist at work is one of my absolute favorite things – it’s like magic! So for today’s recap from the 2016 National Stationery Show, I thought we’d focus in on a few of the calligraphy and hand lettering booths at the show. Let’s start with an exhibitor making their debut at this year’s show, Shannon Kirsten! Shannon combines her unique calligraphy with gorgeous illustrations – I love all those amazing florals!

NSS 2016 – Calligraphy and Hand Lettering: Shannon Kirsten / Oh So Beautiful Paper

NSS 2016 – Calligraphy and Hand Lettering: Shannon Kirsten / Oh So Beautiful Paper

NSS 2016 – Calligraphy and Hand Lettering: Shannon Kirsten / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Continue reading after the jump for more from Shannon Kirsten, laLa Grace, Leen Jean, Bundle Design, Imogen Owen, Printable Wisdom, Sea & Lake, and Ladyfingers Letterpress!

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July Desktop Downloads!

Happy Monday everyone! Did you all have a fantastic 4th of July and enjoy the holiday weekend! We’re kicking the week off with a couple of brand new illustrated wallpapers from The Good Twin to help celebrate the month of July! The month of watermelon, fireworks, and enjoying all the wonderful things about summer. What could be better??

Watermelon / July Illustrated Wallpaper by The Good Twin for Oh So Beautiful Paper

iPhone | Desktop

Fireworks / July Illustrated Wallpaper by The Good Twin for Oh So Beautiful Paper

iPhone | Desktop

For personal use only. All illustrations by The Good Twin for Oh So Beautiful Paper

If you’re a designer or illustrator interested in contributing your own designs to this column, please email your design to submissions(at)ohsobeautifulpaper.com with the subject line “desktop downloads.” If it’s a good fit I’ll add it to the post for the following month!

A Ramos Aviation Fizz

Okay, so technically it’s July, but we couldn’t resist closing out our month of fizzy drinks with a real doozy. The Ramos Gin Fizz is a classic drink that hearkens back to the 1880s, a relic of a time when you could reasonably field an assembly line of bartenders to shake this labor-intensive drink. But it’s sublime and, it turns out, a fantastic template for cocktail mash-ups. So we took two of our favorites, the Ramos Gin Fizz and the Aviation, and jammed them together, and made something wonderful: a Ramos Aviation Fizz. Plus, it’s a wonderful shade of lavender. –Andrew

Ramos Aviation Fizz Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Ramos Aviation Fizz

2 oz Dry Gin
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Heavy Cream
3/4 oz Creme de Violette
1/2 oz Orgeat
1 Egg White
1/2 tsp Orange Blossom Water
Soda Water

Combine everything except the soda water in a cocktail shaker and add one or two big ice cubes – the bigger the better. Shake until the ice cubes have completely melted, a minute or two, and then keep shaking for another minute. Strain into a highball glass and add the soda water until the foam pops out of the glass a bit. Drop in a straw and enjoy!

Ramos Aviation Fizz Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Ok, so that’s a bit of work. It’s a lot of ingredients and quite a bit of shaking, but it’s worth it. All that shaking helps emulsify the acidic lemon juice and heavy cream (and only heavy cream will work here), whipping up a foam that should be stiff and merengue-like. It’s a drink that’s at once floral, silky and rich, gently sweet-tart, and zippy with carbonation.

Ramos Aviation Fizz Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The Ramos Fizz is really like no other drink out there, a throw back to a sepia toned era of American drinking. The Aviation is another pre-Prohibition drink, but much more modern than the Ramos Fizz – it only dates back to the 1920s. It’s a floral, crisp gin sour featuring nutty Maraschino liqueur (which we swapped for orgeat for extra creaminess) and purple, flora Creme de Violette. This version mashes them up into an extra-floral, extra-creamy drink that feels like something a Mississippi steamboat bartender might have come up with in 1882.

Ramos Aviation Fizz Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Just make sure to drink it quickly. Fizzes like this, without ice, are meant to be consumed before they warm up. That way, you can get started on your next one that much faster.

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Glassware by Liquorary

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Happy Weekend – and Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Friday everyone! And Happy (almost) Fourth of July! Do you have fun plans for the long weekend? I’m hoping to take our girls to a swimming pool for the first time in FOREVER. We took Sophie swimming when she was just a wee baby, but this will be Alice’s first swimming experience! Sophie hated swimming pools (and any large body of water, really) back then, but I’m hoping things have changed now that she’s an (almost) four year old. We’ll see! But in the meantime…

Envelopes by Lauren Essl (Blue Eye Brown Eye Calligraphy) via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Envelopes by Lauren Essl (aka Blue Eye Brown Eye Calligraphy) from the #dailydoseofpaper feed on Instagram!

…a few links for your weekend:

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

That’s it for me this week! Check back in a bit for this week’s cocktail recipe – it’s a REALLY good one! Have a fantastic holiday weekend and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday! xoxo

Fourth of July Cocktail Recipes!

We’ve made countless summer cocktails over the years (you can find all of our cocktail recipes here!), but with the Fourth of July coming up on Monday I thought I’d share a few of my very favorite recipes. It was hard to pick just a few favorites. Summer cocktails are full of wonderful, refreshing things like fresh fruit, mint and basil, and soda water. And then there are Tiki drinks with big tropical flavors! Well, it’s good to have options, right?? Consider this your menu for Fourth of July cocktail recipes and pretty much every weekend for the rest of the summer.

Fourth of July Cocktail Recipes / Oh So Beautiful Paper

1. Summer was made for smashes (aka cocktails with lots of muddled fruit), so there are several making an appearance on this list. The first one – a Blackberry Tequila Smash – tastes like a fun and fruity spin on a margarita.

2. You can’t go wrong with a Classic Mojito during the summer. Mint, rum, lime juice, and soda water = perfection on a hot and sunny day.

3. I’m kind of obsessed with turning cocktails into snow cones – especially for parties! Tiki drinks are perfect for cocktail snow cones, like this Zombie Snow Cone with like twelve different kinds of rum.

4. This Sage-Lime Tequila Smash is a light and refreshing cocktail – and a nice alternative to mint!

5. The Classic Mai Tai is a favorite in our household. Did you know that yesterday was National Mai Tai Day? There’s still time for a belated celebration this weekend!

6. We’ve only done one milkshake cocktail so far – this Boozy Piña Colada Milkshake – but this one was so good, I feel like we need to do a few more, STAT!

7. One of our all time FAVORITE cocktail recipes: the Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash. It doesn’t have your typical summer flavor profile, but this recipe is so good you’ll want to drink it all year long.

8. For any whiskey fans, here’s a Basil-Mint Peach Bourbon Smash that mixes oaky Bourbon with peaches and refreshing basil and mint leaves!

p.s. Even more Summer (and Fourth of July) cocktail recipes from last year’s round up right here!