01/14/2010

Claudia Pearson Valentine’s Prints

I'm sure that, like me, many of you have been glued to the coverage of the earthquake disaster in Haiti. Some of you may already have donated, and some of you may be trying to figure out the best way, or additional ways, to help. Illustrator Claudia Pearson wrote to me this morning letting me know about a fundraiser that she is doing to help victims in Haiti – 25% of all sales of Claudia's two new Valentine's prints will be donated to Yele Haiti:

Check out Claudia's blog for additional details on her fundraiser. For more information on other ways to help, please click here.

{image credits: claudia pearson}

01/14/2010

Jessica Hische Drop Cap Prints

I'm a huge, huge fan of Jessica Hische's amazing typography and illustration — her Hendrix invitation was one of my picks from Bella Figura's 2010 letterpress wedding invitation collection. Since September, Jessica has been illustrating one decorative letter per day in a project that she calls the Daily Drop Cap:

I'm absolutely thrilled that Jessica is now offering signed prints of her illustrated drop caps! Just choose the letter you want from one of three full alphabets:

I'd love to pick up a few prints with my + my husband's initials. Yet another piece I'm adding to my wishlist for our new apartment…

{image credits: jessica hische}

01/13/2010

Wedding Invitations â€” Porridge Papers

I first came across the work of Porridge Papers on the Clover & Bee blog – and was instantly smitten with their eco-friendly letterpress wedding invitations, many of which are printed on plantable and recycled papers.Â Â Based out of Lincoln, Nebraska, Porridge Papers creates completely custom invitations, working with eachÂ couple to create a suite that captures the mood and style of their wedding or event.

Samantha and Christopher from Porridge Papers were kind enough to send over a few examples from their custom wedding invitation portfolio, so let’s take a look:

{acorn}

{pfeffer}

{marroquin}

{marilyn}

{shayla}

{elizabeth}

{jessica}

{ruth}

{andrea}

{cindy}

From Samantha and Christopher: Many of our invitation packages are printed on our 100% recycled handmade paper that’s made right here in our shop. Our most popular papers are our plantable papers that have seeds embedded in the fibers. Once the invitation is sent, recipients can plant the invite and grow gorgeous wildflowers or delicious herbs. Customizing is really our specialty, the designs we use are all unique and we can customize everything down to the paper color.

For more from Porridge Papers, you can check out their wedding invitation gallery right here, read more about their plantable seed paper here,Â and follow their blog, pulp obsession.Â Thank you so much, Samantha and Christopher, for sharing your beautiful work with us!

{image credits: porridge papers}

01/13/2010

Ink + Wit Baby Announcements

Tara at Ink + Wit is getting ready to release a line of readymade baby announcements, and I'm loving this sneak peek into her upcoming designs:

The animal themes are incredibly sweet, while still fresh + modern. Tara will be offering both letterpress and offset printing options. I can't wait to see the full line!

{image credits: ink + wit}

01/12/2010

Julie + Spiro’s Bilingual Greek Wedding Invitations

Today’s real wedding invitations come to us from an incredibly adventurous bride, Julie, who was willing to not only learn how to letterpress print her own wedding invitations, but also to print the invitations in both Greek and English!

Julie fell in love with the tactile feel of letterpress invitations and decided to explore letterpress printing the invitations for her summer wedding in Greece. Â Julie chose a beautiful color palette of yellow and gray for her invitation suite:

From Julie: Â I was a DIY bride in almost every aspect of planning my wedding, which happened on July 25, 2009 in Greece. Â When it came to creating my wedding invitations I desperately wanted letterpress, but it was out of my price range. Â So I decided to take some letterpress classes at a local printers museum.

I designed all of the elements of my wedding suite (with a total of 5 pieces). Â With the help of my instructor, who was kind enough to allow me to use her Vandercook presses at her print shop, my husband and I cranked out all 220 invitation suites in around 7 hours.

{above, the rsvp card in english; below, the greek rsvp card}

It was exhausting, but such a great experience for me that since then I’ve started up my own side business of creating letterpress invitations specializing in bilingual invitations (similar to mine, which is half Greek and half English).

Not only did Julie create beautiful wedding invitations, but I love that she had so much fun in the process! Â You can read more about Julie’s letterpress adventures on her blog right here, and check out more of her bilingual letterpress wedding invitation designs on her website, Cartoules Letterpress. Â Thanks Julie!

{image credits: cartoules letterpress}