DC Paper Love

Happy Monday everyone!  As I mentioned on Friday, I’m taking this week off to recover from the totally awesome Ladies of Letterpress Conference and hang out with my newly-returned hubby.  I’ve asked two awesome ladies to help out this week – my awesome friend Maggie and the equally awesome Melanie from You Are My Fave.  First up today, Maggie!

Hi everyone!  I’m thrilled to guest-post for Nole while she and her husband enjoy a much-deserved reunion.  Nole and I are old-fashioned neighbors in Washington D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood who met in a decidedly new-fashioned way: through blogging!  Since we both work from home, we like to take advantage of extended lunches or early happy hours in our neighborhood, where I selfishly try to convince Nole to open a brick and mortar stationery shop in the ‘hood.  I like to imagine that this fantasy stationery shop will bring the incredible world of pretty paper that Nole’s created here online right into my neighborhood, where I’d never again have to pay shipping fees to feed my letterpress addiction.  On that note – and in honor of the wonderful city that we call home – here are a few DC-themed items that would be right at home on the shelves of Nole’s hypothetical store.

This DC flag letterpress print made up of local neighborhood names from Grey Moggie Press is so my kind of thing that I actually already own it.  I think I’m going to hang it in our guest room.  Related: you know what kills me about framing letterpress?  It’s impossible to pet the paper when it’s behind glass!  Sigh…

This whimsical letterpress map of Washington from Gooseberry Press would be perfect for a Save the Date… or matted and framed in, say, a home office.  Is this the time to admit that I own this one, too?

Here’s another kind of map that warms my heart, showing typography at its best.  No, I do not own this… but I sure wouldn’t mind it!

I adore Art Shark Design’s red umbrellas series, particularly this Washington Monument piece.  So romantic!  Especially since mine was a gift from my husband when we first moved to DC.

Now that I’ve exposed a little of my DC-themed paper addiction, I hope you’ll join me in the campaign to convince Nole that our neighborhood – and my shopping habits – need her.  Right, Nole?  (I’m pretty sure she’s going to kill me for this post.  Ed Note: Nope, definitely grinning over here!)

- Maggie

{images from their respective sources}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  Today I’m in Asheville, North Carolina to attend the Ladies of Letterpress Conference – I’m looking forward to meeting so many talented printers over the next couple of days!  Next week I’m taking some time off to relax with my husband, and I have two amazing guest bloggers lined up to fill in while I’m away.  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend!

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

That’s it for me this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  xoxo

Photo Credits: Virginia Galvez via You Are My Fave

Topographic Map Wedding Invitations

I will always love a wedding invitation that incorporates any kind of map detail, and these letterpress topographic map invitations printed by Parrott Design Studio are no exception.  The couple will be married in Maine later this year and created the design themselves, using the wedding location as the basis for the topographic element.  I love the simplicity of the blind impression detail in the topography and the pops of red.

Topographic-Map-Letterpress-Wedding-Invitations

Topographic-Map-Letterpress-Wedding-Invitations

So, so pretty.  Check out more photos and a bit more about the design over at Parrott Design Studio!

Photo Credits: Parrott Design Studio

DIY Perforated Modern Save the Date

It’s the ladies of Anti­quaria, back with another fab­u­lous and cre­ative DIY project for you all!  This week they’re here with instructions on creating a perforated enclosure for your invitations or save the dates!

For this Save the Date DIY, we were inspired to create a suite that appealed to a more modern aesthetic.  The clean lines of  the black & white design create a classic look while the handmade touches add texture and personality to these otherwise simplistic pieces.  The most exciting part??  It’s so easy to do perforation yourself!!

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

For this suite, we combined a printed accommodations/website card with our “Sophisticate” save the date stamp to provide layers of texture.  We recommend sending out the accommodations and website information with your save the date so that guests have plenty of time to make arrangements.  The perforated website card is small and useful.  Guests can take this small piece to the computer or travel agent to book their trip.

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

Step One: Using a pencil & ruler, faintly mark where you want the perforated line to be.

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

Step Two: Remove the thread from your sewing machine (top spool & bobbin).  Set your stitch length to be relatively small (we set it on 2 on a scale of 1-4).  Sew along the pencil line.  Since there is no thread in the machine, all that will be left are tiny needle holes that create the perforation.

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

Step Three: On a hard, flat surface, lay out your paper that you want to stamp.  Ink your stamp (we used the “Sophisticate” save the date) in desired color, lay down gently on paper and give the stamp even pressure. Remove the stamp to reveal your inked image.

DIY Perforated Black and White Wedding Save the Date

Step Four: Tie the pieces together with a string.  Now all that’s left is address and mail them!!

** Please make sure to “hand cancel” the postage if you use the string and button envelopes.  This will help to make sure the Save the Date arrives in pristine condition.

 

Materials:

Custom Rubber Stamp – we used our “Sophisticate” Save the Date stamp

Accommodations/website card – Use a word processing program or design software to create an #10 card.  We have also just recently added an accommodations rubber stamp to our webstore, see the whole collection here.

Paper – We used the Paper Source Luxe, white cover stock (8.5″x11″) for this tutorial. Have the paper cut to size to fit the #10 envelope (3.75″x9″) for the accommodations/website card. Have the paper cut to (3″x4″) for the Save the Date card.

Envelope – We love the string and button tie of this #10 envelope

Ink – We used black for this suite.

Black embroidery thread – you can find this at your local craft or fabric store.

Photo Credits: Antiquaria

Jim’s Modern Architecture Graduation Announcements

Ravyn from Three Fifteen Design created these cool and modern announcements for her husband’s graduation from architecture school.  I’m loving the clean and modern design – so fitting for the graduate from an architecture program!

architecture-custom-graduation-announcement

From Ravyn: My husband recently graduated with his master’s degree in architecture.  With this huge accomplishment, I definitely wanted to create custom stationery for his announcement.  We worked together to design his modern graduation announcements that we sent out to family & friends.  Being an architect, he loves clean, modern design.  I typically design wedding stationery & logos/branding pieces, so I thought this was a great opportunity to do something a little out of the norm… something a little more masculine.

architecture-custom-graduation-announcement

architecture-graduation-invitation

I decided on this ribbon banner as the main graphic element, and thought I’d play around with some clean text with a retro feel.  We kept the back of the card pretty simple, and used lines to reflect the linear feel on the front.  These were printed on crisp white, linen paper and paired with kraft brown envelopes.

architecture-graduation-invitation

Photo Credit: Jim and Ravyn Photographers