On the Road with Crow & Canary: Monograham, Broadway Paper and GREER

You might remember the awesome guest posts from Carina of Crow and Canary this past April – she’s a fabulous independent stationery rep who spends much of her time touring the country talking about beautiful stationery.  Well, today Carina is back with a profile of three wonderful stationery boutiques in the Midwest.  Welcome back Carina!

Hello there!  Carina from Crow and Canary here.  It’s my sincere pleasure to return to OSBP with a guest post profiling some of the finest stationery boutiques in the Midwest.  I think you’re going to love what you see – I was truly in paper heaven!

::MONOGRAHAM::

Let’s start off by taking a peek into Monograham Paper & Gifts in Delafield, Wisconsin.  This stunning boutique is run by Amy Graham Stigler, creative director and designer for Smock.  Every corner of Monograham held some lovely treasure.  It’s certainly the type of shop that you could plan to spend an afternoon shopping in.  I only wish that I could visit regularly!

A real treat to see the shop decked out for the holidays!

 

Left: Washi tape adorned bags were set up for an upcoming craft class that Monograham has recently begun offering.  Aren’t they adorable? Right: Some of the amazing wedding invitations available at Monograham.

A bright and colorful assortment of paper goods, including: Smock, Susy Jack* & Paper Source.

A peek into Amy’s adjacent studio space: Breathtaking wall of smock gift boxes, they make quite an impression.

A bit of designer’s inspiration, such a cozy space.

::BROADWAY PAPER::

Broadway Paper has been on my radar for some time, I was so excited to finally have an opportunity to visit, as well as to enjoy a few precious minutes with Kate Strzok, Broadway Paper’s owner and fearless leader. Kate is always a delight! Broadway Paper is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Historic Third Ward and is surrounded by other great boutiques and cafes. I loved getting to ogle BP’s creative merchandising and handmade touches. I’m still obsessed with the paper log display below, so very clever.

Near the entrance to Broadway Paper: Snow & Graham 2012 calendar window display.

I couldn’t resist one of Avie Design’s sweet hand-folded bows; luckily it made it home unscathed.

These modern card racks are a sight to behold, not to mention all the cute cards that fill them.

A display of Cream City Ribbon, an eco-friendly ribbon manufacturer and Milwaukee based company.

Little Book of Letterpress and Little Book of Screen Printing sandwiching Mara Mi ribbon.

Very cute display, including the infamous handmade cardboard logs that I so admire.

::GREER CHICAGO::

GREER Chicago and proprietress, Chandra Greer, are true legends in the stationery world. I’m fortunate to count Chandra as a friend and mentor and I know that her positive attitude and giving nature have been paramount for many emerging stationers over the years. GREER is beyond my wildest dreams fabulous. It’s very clear that Chandra hand picks the merchandise and works with an above average staff to maintain stunning presentation; you don’t have to take my word – have a look yourself…

 

Left: This Hammerpress calendar makes me think of pink lemonade, love! Right: I only wish I’d had time to look through every drawer, so many hidden treasures!

 

 

Left: Luscious ribbon in a vintage card catalog. Right: GREER’S Love Civilettes are perfect for “Spontaneous Adoration.”

Perfect Chicago holiday greeting from La Familia Green.

A sincere thank you to Amy, Kate and Chandra for finding time to meet with me and allow me to come into their lovely spaces to take photographs, not always the easiest feat during a weekend in December! Their grace and generosity are much appreciated. And if you see something that you’re dying to get your hands on, both Broadway Paper and GREER Chicago offer comprehensive online shopping.

And last, but far from least, thanks to my traveling companion and partner in paper crime, Kimberley Yurkiewicz.

Photo Credits: Carina Murray

“On the road with Monograham, Broadway Paper and GREER” is a guest post by Carina Murray of Crow & Canary

Leslie + Ryan’s Modern Woodland Big Sur Wedding Invitations

Leslie and Ryan’s woodland-inspired wedding invitations come to us from designer Yvonne Pingue and photographer Scott MacDonald.  The modern invitation features a double-sided design inspired by the natural environment of wedding venue on the California coast and the couple’s love of music.  I love the way Yvonne incorporated pattern and bright color into the invitation to retain a modern design sensibility.

From Yvonne: For Ryan and Leslie’s wedding invitation, I wanted to illustrate their love for both Big Sur and music, while keeping it clean and modern.  Their wedding was taking place at the Henry Miller Memorial Library near the coast, so I knew I wanted to incorporate the ocean.  They are also die-hard music fans and travel all over the country for music festivals.  I researched music posters for inspiration and tried to integrate that style with the natural environment of Big Sur.

 

Thanks Scott and Yvonne!

Design: Yvonne Pingue

Printing: GreenerPrinter.com

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more beau­ti­ful cus­tom invitations!

Photo Credits: Scott MacDonald

Kim + John’s Letterpress Airmail Wedding Invitations

I love travel-inspired elements on wedding invitations, and I’m officially a happy camper when designers combine a sense of global wanderlust with the signature red and blue pattern of an airmail envelope.  Well, Kathleen from & Kathleen Design did just that with her latest wedding invitation, and the result couldn’t be more stunning!

airmail-travel-inspired-wedding-invitation

From Kathleen: Kim & John stumbled across my work while searching for a fun airmail invitation design.  They immediately hired me to design their own custom wedding invitations.  Kim and John only needed an invitation card – nothing else – so we decided to make it extra special by having it letterpress printed on a thick matte cover stock paper.

airmail-modern-travel-inspired-wedding-invitation

I kept the colors a classic red and blue and from there designed a custom invitation within the traditional striped airmail border.  Kim & John were ecstatic to receive the final prints and I was thrilled to have another happy client.

airmail-foreign-travel-inspired-wedding-invitation

Ooh, letterpress + airmail?  Yes please!  Thank you so much Kathleen!

{image credits: & kathleen design}

Best of 2010 Wedding Invitations: The Indigo Bunting

Designer Erin Jang of The Indigo Bunting has an amazingly vibrant and modern design style that just makes me smile each time she posts a new wedding invitation design.  Erin created one of my favorite wedding invitation suites from this year (Emily and Dan’s modern houndstooth invitations), but she’s created so many other fantastic designs that it seemed unfair to pick just one!

Erin-Jang-Modern-Houndstooth-Wedding-Invitations

Erin-Jang-Wedding-Save-the-Date

Erin-Jang-Modern-Black-White-Green-Stripe-Wedding-Invitations

Erin-Jang-Heart-Shaped-Wedding-Invitations

For more of Erin’s beautiful wedding invitation designs, check out The Indigo Bunting!

{image credits: erin jang}

Crane Stationery, A Tour – Part 3

As promised, I’m back with a third installment of our tour of Crane & Co stationery.  After visiting the platemaking and printing facilities at Crane Personalized Design Services, we moved over to the Crane Stationery Division, located in a separate building in Dalton.  This is where all of the non-custom stationery orders are filled, from boxed stationery sets to holiday cards to designs in the Crane Studio Collection, as well as where envelopes and packaging materials are assembled.

Crane Stationery Tour Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

{I love that so many of these buildings date back to the 1800s – the building architecture alone is completely fascinating}

Crane Stationery Tour

Our first stop in this building was a large warehouse room, where Crane keeps all of the different sheets of paper used as envelope liners for stationery and wedding invitations:

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour Crane Stationery Tour

{so many lovely envelope liner sheets!}

Crane Stationery Tour Crane Stationery Tour

From there, we went to the envelope room – with the biggest paper cutting machine I’ve ever seen!

Crane Stationery Tour

{stacks of paper waiting to be cut down to size}

Crane Stationery Tour Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

{if you look closely, you should be able to see the outline of the envelope template above}

In the next room, another huge machine – this one takes the envelope-size paper and folds it into actual envelopes.  The envelope machines are truly enormous, I think each one was about 25-30 feet in length!

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

{finished envelopes coming out of the machine and being counted}

From there, we went into a larger room, similar to the printing floor at Crane Personalized Design Services.  In this room, all of Crane’s boxed stationery sets and stationery collections are assembled and packaged for delivery.

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour Crane Stationery Tour

{a cool installation and painting on the wall as you enter the main room}

Most of us probably don’t think much about the actual stationery packaging, but Crane makes all of its own boxes.  The box machine (I’m sure the machine has a formal name, but I didn’t catch it) is probably the biggest machine that we encountered during the entire tour!

Crane Stationery Tour Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

Crane Stationery Tour

{that’s all glue above!}

Crane Stationery Tour

I tried to capture the entire process, but static images just can’t really give you the full effect – luckily the folks at Crane have captured the process on video!

After gawking at the box machine for a few minutes, we moved on to another room where hand borderers create the colorful borders on personalized stationery and writing notes.  I took photos of a hand bordering demonstration at the National Stationery Show, which you can see here – it’s truly an amazing skill.  Again, Crane has helpfully provided a video of the process:

Up next, the final stop on our Crane & Co. tour – the museum!

{all photos by me | video courtesy of Crane & Co.}