07/11/2012

Emma’s Modern Orange Bat Mitzvah Invitations

Bar and Bat Mitzvah invitations can be really tough: they have to walk a fine line, trying to stay away from being too adult or too childish while also remaining respectful of the tradition itself. Â Aubrey from J. Papers created these fantastic Â invitations for a recent Bat Mitzvah in Connecticut. Â The invitations combine bright orange with white foil for a crisp and modern design that is simultaneously youthful and sophisticated.

From Aubrey:Â Â This invitation suite has so much style and sophistication while remaining age appropriate â€“ we love that! Â The main invitation panel is made with extra thick orange stock. Â The invitation was foil stamped to get the crisp, opaque white text and border.

We also designed a basket weave pattern in Emma’s signature orange color to use for the envelope liner. Â There were two inserts: a letter flat printed on vellum paper; and an rsvp card on bright white cotton stock. Â Both the reply envelope and the invitation outer envelope were adorned with a custom stamp featuring the custom Bat Mitzvah event logo we designed specifically for Emma.

Thanks Aubrey!

Photo Credits: J. Papers

06/01/2012

National Stationery Show 2012, Part 12

Aaaaand… with a dozen posts full of paper awesomeness, we’ve reached the final recap of exhibitor booths from this year’s National Stationery Show! Â I’m ready for a super long nap as we head into the weekend, but first let’s take a look at some of the final stationery eye candy from the show! Â First up, the SmockÂ andÂ Bella FiguraÂ booth. Â I was super excited to check out the new gift wrap patterns and notebook collection, not to mention some of the new foil printed greeting card and wedding invitation designs!

Smock + Bella Figura

Every year, the Crane & Co. booth looks like a Fifth Avenue storefront â€“ complete with gorgeous window displays inspired by Bergdorf Goodman and other classic department stores! Â I always spend a few minutes gazing at the beautiful collection in each display…

I’m so happy to see Crane & Co. embracing its extensive history with Americana-inspired stationery collections â€“ they’ve been around since 1801 and have printed stationery for several presidents and even foreign kings and queens! Â At the same time, they’re incorporating modern design with bright new color options for the classic Crane & Co. hand bordered correspondence cards. Â And is there anything more classic and elegant than white engraved text on red paper? Â Beautiful!

Crane & Co.

I’m a big fan of the rustic vibe over at Old School Stationers. Â I always love their colorful letterpress art prints, greeting cards, and calendars featuring their signature hand-drawn illustrations!

Old School Stationers

Nashville-based Erin from Arboreal also has somewhat of a rustic vibe going on, but with a stationery collection largely inspired by Erin’s travels to Italy. Â The line includes gift wrap sheets, gift tags, and beautiful boxed note card sets.

Arboreal

The talented sisters of Spark Letterpress made a return to the Stationery Show with a huge booth full of gorgeous invitations, fun party bunting, and beautiful foil printed certificates and greeting cards. Â I’m a longtime fan of the Spark wedding invitation collection, but I’m so happy to see them branching out with more Bar and Bat Mitzvah invitations and other party invitation designs!

Spark Letterpress

L2 Design Collective never fails to make me smile with their colorful screen printed cards and journals. Â I’m seriously loving all the new holiday and Halloween card designs, and the bagel and cream cheese card below still makes me laugh!

L2 Design Collective

Envelopments recently collaborated with Kristy Rice of Momental Designs on an exclusive new wedding collection, called Trellis. Â Kristy was on hand at the Envelopments booth to talk about the new designs in person. Â Kristy creates the most amazing one of a kind hand painted wedding invitationsÂ â€“ and the Trellis collection captures her unique style in such a beautiful way.

Envelopments

Thatâ€™s it folks! Â I hope you enjoyed the recaps from this yearâ€™s National Stationery Show! Â If you missed any of the last eleven posts or want to check out the booths from last year, you can see all of my stationery show coverage from the last four yearsÂ right here!

Photo Credits: Stephen Michael Garey and Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

12/09/2011

Clever Gift Card Enclosures from Dingbat Press

For the last few years I’ve resorted to gift cards for my teenage nephew â€“ he lives on the West Coast and it was beyond my ability to keep up with his evolving collection of video games! Â These clever enclosure cards from Dingbat Press are perfect for dressing up a gift card or cash gift for someone on your holiday list. Â I can also see these coming in really handy for a graduation or Bar Mitzvah gift. Â Each 2.25″ x 4″Â letterpress card contains cute phrases that you can personalize with your own message and is paired with a green die cut pocket enclosure.

Check them out right here!

Photo Credits: Dingbat Press

*Dingbat PressÂ is one of my fabÂuÂlous sponÂsors; for more on my ediÂtoÂrÂial poliÂcies pleaseÂ click here.

05/24/2011

National Stationery Show 2011 – Part 9

Today we’re all about weddings â€“ or at least wedding invitations â€“ from the National Stationery Show. Â Several designers had booths either wholly or largely devoted to wedding invitations and albums, and of course I was like a kid in a candy store gawking at such lovely wedding stationery. Â After making her NSS debut last year, Meredith from Regas was back with a booth dedicated entirely to her new wedding invitation album. Â I’m loving all of the little design details throughout the collection, from literary-inspired details to crisp blind emboss patterns and bright pops of color.

Love those pops of (almost-neon) peach!

The suite above was inspired by Victorian-era literature â€“ so library chic!

Regas

The ladies over at The Lettered Olive also had a brand new and absolutely stunning wedding invitation album, with their signature blend of classic southern style and charm.

In addition to a gorgeous wedding album, they also had one of the coziest booths at the show… well, it was really more like a tent â€“ look at that roof!

And please forgive my terrible photo, but I just can’t get over how cool this is â€“ the entire wedding album comes on an iPad along with samples of the actual invitations contained in the album. Â The ladies gave me a demonstration at the booth and it’s clear they’ve put a lot of thought, time, and effort into creating an album app that is both easy to navigate and contains a ton of beautiful invitation eye candy. Â Well done ladies!

The Lettered Olive

Avis from Avie Designs also premiered a brand new wedding invitation album, along with holiday cards, calendars, party accessories, and imprintable invitations perfect for a low key or last minute party. Â My favorite invitation is the papel picado-inspired design based on the invitation from Avis’s own wedding a couple of years ago.

Avie Designs

The team over at Twig + Fig are the masters of unique wedding and party invitations, including some awesome Bar and Bat Mitzvah invitations, incorporating non-traditional materials â€“ from acrylic invitations to cork with gold foil. Â So cool!

A license plate Save the Date!

Beautiful calligraphy from Betsy Dunlap

Twig + Fig

Amber from Flywheel Press had a beautiful booth â€“ all chalkboard paint and hand drawn chalk decorations! Â Seriously pretty â€“ and full of lots of pretty paper, from wedding invitations to note cards.

Love the split fountain wedding invitations!

Flywheel Press

Jodi from Paisley Tree Press had a booth full of letterpress goodies â€“ from note cards to calendars to coasters, but of course I was particularly smitten with the wedding invitations. Â Red accents with a blind impression and letterpress calligraphy? Â Yes, please!

Paisley Tree Press

Katrina from Paper Mill Designs sent over a sneak peek of the greeting cards making their debut at the show, but she also exhibited some fun and modern wedding invitations in her booth!

Paper Mill Designs

Of course you’ll remember the gorgeous new Dauphine Press wedding invitation album from the sneak peek last week â€“ it was so great to see the full collection in person at the show!

Dauphine Press

The Gwyneth Paige Couture Letterpress booth was also full of pretty wedding invitations, along with a brand new Bar/Bat Mitzvah album!

Gwyneth Paige Couture Letterpress

Finally (at least for today), Robin from Meant to be Sent, with a collection of patterned and travel-inspired invitations and imprintables!

Meant to Be Sent

I’ll be back with more coverage from the National Stationery Show tomorrow!

Photo Credits: Flywheel Press, Paisley Tree Press, Paper Mill Designs, Dauphine Press, Gwyneth Paige, and Meant to be Sent by Brian Tropiano Photography for Oh So Beautiful Paper, all others by me.Â Please ask permission prior to re-posting.

05/23/2010

NSS 2010 – Part 8

This next group of booths from the Stationery Show includes a few of the booths that managed to fit an incredible amount of personality into their tiny space! First up, Enormous Champion, with tons of details from their Kingdom Animalia series and letterpress stationery all the way to their customized booth sign offering free high fives, hugs, and handshakes:

{enormous champion}

Night Owl Paper Goods had one of my favorite booth designs at last year's show, and this year did not disappoint! The booth was totally full of Night Owl's signature wood veneer stationery and letterpress cards, as well as new notebooks and a sneak peek at their 2011 calendars:

{night owl paper goods}

Over at the Sycamore Street Press booth, Eva and Kirk used charcoal gray fabric backdrops and a sweet paper garland to highlight their new letterpress cards, prints, and 2011 poster-style calendar:

{sycamore street press}

Even with a more minimalist booth design, the Old Tom Foolery booth is a must-visit at each year's Stationery Show. This year, Joel and Lauren debuted a poster field guide to typestaches (mustaches created from different fonts) and a new headline collection of greeting cards:

{in keeping with Old Tom Foolery's signature typestache, each booth visitor was asked to pose with an OTM typestache-on-a-stick — can you spot me and Ami in the mix?}

{old tom foolery}

I always love stopping by the Two Trick Pony booth at the Stationery Show — the bold stripes and bright colors make for a very happy booth environment! And this year, in addition to their collection of screen printed note cards and invitations, you can check out a peek at Two Trick Pony's first ever calendar:

{two trick pony}

Ami and I stopped by the Twig & Fig booth to check out their latest greeting cards and invitation designs — the team at Twig & Fig has also been working with some pretty unusual materials recently, like the hot pink acrylic invitation below!

{kind of incredible, right?}

{although intended for a bat mitzvah, I could totally see this swarovski crystal invitation also being used for a bridal shower}

{twig & fig}

And last up for this group, Hammerpress, with some of my all-time favorite Valentine's Day cards, as well as other holiday cards, calendars, note cards, and prints: