Happy Weekend!

The peonies are blooming! After the most miserable winter on record, I want to drink in every single drop of spring this year. My beloved lilacs have sadly faded, but the peonies started to emerge just at the right time, and my roses are just behind them. I wish it could be Spring all year long! I’m gearing up for a busy weekend preparing for the National Stationery Show – it’s the last weekend before the big show! But in the meantime…

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Photo by me via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend!

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

Check back soon for this week’s cocktail! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week! xoxo

NSS 2014 Sneak Peek: Paper Lovely

Our next NSS sneak peek comes to us from Kim at Paper Lovely – and she’s been having a lot of fun experimenting with new techniques and mediums this past year! Kim’s newest collection includes watercolor illustrations, die cutting, and dip dyeing. The Botanical Watercolor 2015 calendar is both digitally and letterpress printed and new notepad designs are created from original watercolor illustrations. Paper Lovely (Booth 2065) will also debut a new Luxe Stationery line letterpress printed on extra thick cotton paper with rounded corners, along with a bunch of new letterpress greeting cards!

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Thanks Kim!

Photo Credits: Paper Lovely

NSS 2014 Sneak Peek: Steel Petal Press

Happy Friday everyone! Today we have not one but two sneak peeks for the upcoming National Stationery Show! First up today, Steel Petal Press – a Chicago-based letterpress and design studio that made their NSS debut last year in the Ladies of Letterpress booth! This year, Shayna has graduated to her own booth (2256, yay!) and will be filling it with tons of new letterpress goodies, from greeting cards to gift tags to coasters. Here’s a small sample!

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Thanks Shayna!

Photo Credits: Steel Petal Press

Tori + Dan’s Purple Woodland Fabric Wedding Invitations

This wedding sounds like such a dream: a beautiful garden estate, with the ceremony in a rustic converted barn and followed by an elegant ballroom reception. Jeannine from Blue Magpie had the responsibility of designing wedding invitations to fit all aspects of the wedding – elegant, rustic, and a little bit glamorous. Jeannine designed a custom woodland fabric featuring horses and Carolina Wrens, then finished the suite with a deep purple ribbon and silver card stock!

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From Jeannine: My bride fell in love with a particular fabric we featured on our website, but unfortunately, it was no longer in print and we just couldn’t find enough for her wedding invitations. After going through several rounds looking for a good substitute, it dawned on me that we should design a fabric just for her! The bride loved horses, the groom loved birds, so they requested that the fabric feature both – and specifically, the Carolina Wren because it mates for life.

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The wedding was to be held on a beautiful garden estate with an amazing ballroom for the reception, but the ceremony was to be held in a converted barn with rustic white wooden beams, so the invitation had to be both elegant and rustic to match the amazing venue and tone of the wedding. We settled on a beautiful printed cotton featuring birds, horses, and woodland branches for the whimsical and rustic elements and paired it with a rich purple silk ribbon and a shimmery silver card stock border for glamour and elegance.

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For the save the dates, we decided to bring in some graphic elements from the printed cotton and to back it in the same rich purple silk as the ribbon to provide guests with a subtle hint of what was to come! And of course, the birds and horses had to make their appearances again on their custom postage and escort cards!

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Thanks Jeannine!

Blue Magpie is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of Jeannine’s beautiful work right here or visit the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Blue Magpie

Calligraphy Inspiration: Lydia Robin Hendrix

It’s my favorite time of the month! This month’s Calligraphy Inspiration comes to us from the hand of Lydia Robin Hendrix. Lydia, a South Carolina based calligrapher, comes from a creative family and it certainly shows. Her portfolio pieces pull your focus with the simple elegant charm of the handwritten. A blend of traditional style with a bit of a modern flare, Lydia’s work speaks for itself. So stunning, don’t you think? – Julie

Calligraphy Inspiration: Lydia Robin Hendrix via Oh So Beautiful Paper

A dreamy watercolor invitation suite; I love the subtle washes of colour and the calligraphy that flows overtop. A gorgeous look!

Calligraphy Inspiration: Lydia Robin Hendrix via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Calligraphy Inspiration: Lydia Robin Hendrix via Oh So Beautiful Paper

You really can’t go wrong with a classic black and white approach. Especially not when the main feature is Lydia’s beautiful calligraphy.

Calligraphy Inspiration: Lydia Robin Hendrix via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Calligraphy Inspiration: Lydia Robin Hendrix via Oh So Beautiful Paper

For more on Lydia’s work, check out her Etsy shop and Facebook page.

Photo credits: 1 Lady Letterpress; 2 Landon Jacob;  3, 4, 5 Lydia Robin Hendrix