Submitted to us by our good friend, Elle at Petite & Sweet in Toronto, Canada these letterpressed Hekla baptism invitations are downright swank!  I mean talk about being up-to-the-minute!  These invitations showcase our royale and inkless blind deboss inks – and the end result makes for some of the most chic invitations we’ve had the joy of printing in quite some time.  The envelope liner adds another nice modernistic touch to this anything but simplistic set!  We think these invitations are the perfect prelude to such a memorable occasion – and helped achieve the vision the proud parents were hoping for.  We look forward to many more unique and current customizations from Petite & Sweet!

inks: royale + inkless blind deboss | fonts: shaw + social | paper: 2-ply white bamboo | printing: letterpress | edge painting in royale | liner: the ridley pattern in royale | invite size: S8

Get ready to blow out those birthday candles!  Check out these recently printed birthday party invitations submitted to us by our friends at Judy Paulen Designs in New York, NY.  Our plymouth die cut adds even more boyish charm to an already youthful looking birthday party invitation. We can’t get enough of the granby backing patterning in navy, and take a look at the envelope liner in reverse granby in navy-for another super cool customization.  Alright now, let’s get the party started!

inks: navy | fonts: smock harrison | paper 2-ply white | invite size: S-6 | printing: letterpress | die cut: plymouth | back pattern: the granby pattern in navy | edge paint: black | liner: the reversed granby pattern in navy

Here at Smock we don’t think there is anything cuter than letterpressed baby announcements!  Take a look at these recently printed Loire baby announcements submitted to us by our great friends at Houston Invitation Service in Houston, Texas.  Our blush ink blends so incredibly onto our pearl bamboo paper.  We think these are just darling and that they welcome a sweet baby girl into the world in the most precious way!  With a custom calligraphy monogram at the very top-this adds a truly personalized feel.  Congratulations to the proud family!

ink: blush | fonts: beaumont monogram + graham| paper: 1-ply pearl | printing: letterpress | card size: S6

Couldn’t make it to the Summer Social at Urbanic? Dying to make your own bundle of fabulous Smock pinwheels? Here’s the how-to!

No great pinwheel is complete without our eco gift wrap – it’s double-sided, so you’ll get bold & beautiful patterns no matter which way you decide to create your masterpiece. Our gift wrap is sustainably printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, FSC-certified paper, so it’s not just pretty, but it’s eco-friendly, too! We’re diggin’ the Sorbet, Pollen and Anchor gift wraps – so perfect for summertime. Pick out your favorite patterns & get crafting today!

Photography - The Why We Love

Our good friends and proprietresses, Sarah and Erin of Haute Papier, recently planned a first birthday party for Erin’s daughter inspired by our colorful red and purple Picadilly collection. We love how it turned out! The colorful patterns of our eco gift wrap were crafted into garlands, cheerful bunting, cones to hold cake pops and used to wrap gifts, of course. It’s always fun to see how people put our gift wrap to use, but this party takes the cake! Happy birthday, little Etta!

{Photos by Haute Papier.}

New England portrait and wedding photographer Brea McDonald recently planned a baby shower for her good friend, Amber. Hosted at The Blue Elephant in Saco, Maine, she pulled together a beautiful garden-inspired event using her collection of vintage table linens and a bunch of sweet DIY touches. The coolest part? The sweet DIY paper pinwheels she crafted using Smock gift wrap that she purchased at Gus & Ruby Letterpress, one of our beloved Smock dealers. We love this idea! Our gift wraps all feature colorful double-sided patterns printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper. It’s always a treat for us to see the unique ways people put our recycled wrapping paper to work, but these paper pinwheels are definitely one of our favorites!

To read more about this pretty baby shower, visit Brea’s blog.

{Photos by Brea McDonald.}

The next honoree in our Smock Design Contest is this cool custom letterpress birthday party invitation brought to us by our friends at Wordshop in Denver. A play on our Bourbon letterpress thank you card, it’s printed in gold and pewter inks in honor of a very special first birthday party. We love this custom design and are honored to include it among our Smock Design contest winners.

When Smock’s Master Calligraphy, Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill, welcomed a new granddaughter this summer, we were positively thrilled for her and her family. It was a true honor and a pleasure for us to print these beautiful custom letterpress baby announcements to welcome baby Natalia into the world. Perfect for welcoming a little baby girl, this customization was based on our pink Lamby greeting card and features lovely hand calligraphy on the inside from Debi herself. The baby lamb motif featured on this card is available through our new Social Occasions album, released earlier this year, so you can mix and match motifs, colors, patterns, and fonts to create the perfect baby announcement or social stationery to celebrate any occasion. This letterpress baby announcement was such a joy to print – we look forward to printing many more!

Today we are thrilled to welcome a guest to the Smock blog, Seana, who recently hosted the most incredible first birthday party for her daughter Madeline. Inspired by the Smock letterpress party invitations she sent to guests, Seana crafted a beautifully handmade, eco-friendly party that has us dreaming up any number of excuses to host great parties. Without further ado, Seana shares with us more about Madeline’s fabulous birthday celebration…

A couple months after my daughter Madeline was born, I was perusing the web for eco-friendly paper companies who had cute birth announcements. I came across Smock and fell in love with the Horsey stationery suite. I decided right then and there they would be the invitations for my daughter’s 1^st birthday party. Needless to say, I never actually sent out birth announcements (I know, bad mom!) but as Madeline’s June thirtieth birthday was approaching, I went back to Smock and bought the invites along with the matching Delft correspondence cards for thank you notes. They became my inspiration for her party! I went with an aqua and coral color scheme and started planning the decorations, cake and menu.

It is very important to our family that we make as little impact on our environment as possible so Madeline’s party was planned with that in mind. On my home computer, I designed and printed the happy birthday banner and the party favor nametags. I bought some scrap fabrics and ribbons in coordinating colors in order to make the flag banners and “doilies”. One of my favorite projects was the picture banner. I made a fabric flag banner but left some extra space between the flags, there I used graphic clothes pins to hang home printed pictures of Madeline starting at birth and on through her first year. There won’t be a birthday party for Madeline every year but I will continue to hang the birthday banner, I’ll just change out the number.  I will also continue to hang the picture banner, switching out photos for ones from the year we are celebrating. It will become a birthday decoration tradition and it’s much better to re-use than to buy new every year.

The cake, cookies and mini smash cake were fantastic! I went to this really great bakery right down the street from our home in Chicago, The Bleeding Heart Bakery. It is an organic bakery known for their innovative designs and the environmentally responsible way in which they operate their business. I brought in the invites and thank you cards for inspiration and they came up with a delicious carrot cake with the invitation horsey on it. They also made the bird cookies to look like the bird sweetly perched on the horsey’s back. Madeline’s mini smash cake was actually sweetened with agave nectar instead of sugar, a request I made so as to curb that sugar overload for such a small body, and they were happy to oblige.

I will admit that if there is a way that I can get out of a lot of clean up after a party, I am all for it. One way is to use disposable utensils, plates and napkins. Unfortunately using all of that plastic is just not good for the earth so I set out to find some environmentally ways to make the party easier without compromising quality. After doing my research I found some great alternatives. We used disposable, compostable bamboo plates made by the company Bambu and we used disposable, biodegradable utensils made from potato, yes potato! Called Potatoware, these utensils were strong, in fact a lot less brittle than your regular plastic kind. I really couldn’t justify using paper napkins, so we went with cloth, but that was ok, it gave me another excuse to add some color by tying the rolled utensils with ribbon.

The simple menu consisted of:

• Green salad made from our CSA lettuce, organic cherry tomatoes, onions and artichokes all topped with a goddess dressing.

• Fruit salad made up of our CSA strawberries, in-season organic blueberries and in-season cantaloupe.

• Cheeseburgers with condiments also coming from our CSA.

It’s amazing how you can have a fairly simple meal taste SO good just by using fresh, in-season local food.

It was not a very large party, just a few of our close friends and their kids but it was such a nice way to get together to celebrate our little girl’s first year. Madeline is the joy of our lives; she is such a happy one year old and she thoroughly enjoyed her party. We look forward to many more birthdays in the future!

Thank you, Seana, for sharing Madeline’s party celebration with us – we are so completely inspired! And, a big Happy Birthday to Madeline from all of us at Smock!

Today we are excited to bring you the latest feature to Smock’s blog, our new series Smock Eco Reads. At Smock we recognize that green living extends beyond pretty letterpress stationery so we are thrilled to be sharing some of our favorite eco reads, the places where we gather inspiration and insight into all things eco. First up, two blogs I count among my personal favorites – Inhabitat and Inhabitots!

Naturally, Smock’s love for great eco design extends far beyond our own eco-friendly letterpress stationery and letterpress wedding invitations so it should come as no surprise that I am completely in love with both Inhabitat and Inhabitots, a duo of eco blogs centering on sustainable design. Covering a range of projects, products and inspiration from architecture and interior design to toys, games and clothing that are as child-friendly as they are eco-friendly, the team of Inhabitat/Inhabitots are always providing fresh insight on new ways to make your life increasingly green. From the serious to the playful, you are sure to walk away feeling educated and inspired to adapt real changes in your lifestyle for the greater good of the environment.

A couple of my favorite recent posts include these adorable upcycled umbrella raincoats for dogs, designed by industrial designer Taryn Zychal. I wonder if she can make one large enough for my full grown black lab?

And, seriously, how much prettier are these beautiful Easter eggs colored with natural dyes than the garish fluorescent colors you get with one of those grocery store egg dye kits?

I love the mantra of the Inhabitat crew that good design and green design should be one and the same and with Inhabitots they take it a step further, setting out to prove that becoming a parent does not mean having to sacrifice good style nor true sustainability. And if you ask me, they do a brilliant job at both. What can I say? I’m a huge fan.