We loved printing these pretty letterpress graduation announcements for our friends at Seaside Papery in Southern California. Showcasing our Alzette design from our Social Occasions album, they were printed in verbena and papaya inks for a fresh, youthful look that is both sophisticated and sweet.

As we near the end of our Smock Design Contest honorees, it’s time to share our 1st runner up – a beautiful custom letterpress social note brought to us by Francis-Orr in Corona del Mar, California. This design is truly unique, printed in seamist, papaya and midnight inks in a vibrant combination of color and pattern. The background of the card is our willoughby pattern in seamist and the patterned envelope liner also features our willoughby pattern in midnight. Guest judge Nole Garey of one of our favorite bogs, Oh So Beautiful Paper, loved this design and says, “A gorgeous mix of pattern and color! The papaya ink around the monogram creates a beautiful contrast against the pale patterned background. I’m also just as smitten with the juxtaposition between the flourish design details and strong serif type of the monogram. Gorgeous!”

This letterpress save the date is the last of our honorable mention in our Smock Design Contest, featuring a pretty floral motif from our Social Occasions album and boasting our Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. Printed in navy ink paired with blind deboss, we printed this customization for our friends at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in New York. It’s incredibly chic and effortlessly elegant, two qualities we happen to love in letterpress save the dates.

Stay tuned for the top place winners in our Smock Design Contest as selected by Nole Garey of Oh So Beautiful Paper!

As promised last week, we’re so excited to share with you the winning designs in our latest Smock Design Contest. This breathtaking customization of our Engadine design is a letterpress save the date brought to us by our friends at Gus & Ruby Letterpress in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The warm burnt orange and ruby colors were custom ink colors chosen specifically to match the look and feel of the couple’s wedding. Samantha from Gus & Ruby shares, “We were so happy to collaborate with Heather (the bride-to-be) to create a classic save-the-date that would set the tone for her fall wedding.  The rich colors and seasonal graphic made this design the perfect choice.”

Thank you so much to Samantha and Whitney of Gus & Ruby for bringing us this amazing customization. To learn more about their fabulous store, check out their recent Smock Store Spotlight feature.

Another custom design, these letterpress save the dates from Union Street Papery in San Francisco feature a cute penguin motif that the couple is incorporating throughout their celebration. We printed these in grass and midnight inks – they were then corner rounded and edge painted in grass. For the perfect finishing touch, the envelope was lined in our modsee pattern, also in grass. From the colors to the embellishments to the cute little penguins, everything about this save the date design is fun, personalized, and a unique reflection of this couple’s upcoming Southampton wedding.

These letterpress social notes are a customization of our Loire design from our Social Occasions album featuring a custom calligraphy monogram printed in robin’s egg blue. They are perfect for everyday correspondence, but equally appropriate when used as beautiful, personalized letterpress thank you notes.

This letterpress save the date is one of our favorites of the 2010 wedding season so far, featuring a pretty floral motif from our Social Occasions album and boasting our Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. Printed in navy ink paired with blind deboss, we printed this customization for our friends at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in New York. It’s incredibly chic and effortlessly elegant, two qualities we happen to love in letterpress save the dates.

It’s getting to be save the date season here at Smock as couples prepare for their upcoming 2010 weddings, so we wanted to share this sweet letterpress save the date. It is our Nevis design printed in pewter ink with corner rounding, brought to us by the folks at Fancy That in New York City. New for 2010, Smock is offering free letterpress save the dates when you order a suite of wedding invitations with outer envelopes and a reply set. Ask your local Smock dealer for details!

These pretty letterpress social stationery pieces are from our Juine suite featuring a folded social note and a grommeted hang tag. Both are printed in olive and azalea inks, and the envelope is lined in our mondsee pattern printed in azalea. The hang tag features our Smock Clermont calligraphy font while the social note showcases Farringdon, one of the standard monogram options available in our Social Occasions album. Thank you to our friends at Alphagraphics in Chicago for bringing us this cool customization!

With Christmas and New Year’s Eve just around the corner, we wanted to share a few more of the lovely custom letterpress holiday cards and invitations we’ve been printing this season. The first is a custom letterpress holiday invitation, a piece we printed for our friends at Paper & Chocolate in Dallas. It is printed in festive red ink with red edge painting paired with an envelope lined in our iznik pattern in grass ink.

This letterpress holiday card, brought to us by Cotton Idea Studio in Newport Beach, California,  features space to attach a photo and is printed in a unique holiday color combination of pool and spring inks. The card was then edge painted in pool.

These custom hang tags are the perfect holiday gift tags, printed for Buchanan Ink in Nashville. It is letterpress printed in spring ink then hole drilled and grommeted for the making of fabulous holiday packaging.