This cool Hekla custom letterpress + offset invitation suite was submitted by our friends at Hitched in Washington DC. The invitation is letterpress printed on our bamboo 2-ply paper in black with a blind deboss ink that makes it pop. The edge painting in spring and an offset back pattern in black add to the uniqueness of this piece. To top it all off, they decided to go with one of our new chesapeake die-cuts. It is accompanied by an outer envelope lined with our ashford pattern in spring. The piece that makes this suite amazing is the custom sleeve – offset with our seneca pattern in black.

inks: black + spring + blind deboss | fonts: percy + louise | paper: 2-ply white  | printing: letterpress + offset | liner: the ashford pattern in spring | back pattern: the van pattern in black | sleeve: the seneca pattern in black | invite size: S-8 (chesapeake die-cut)

Save the dates should help generate excitement for your special day and these contemporary custom offset save the dates are spot on!  Submitted to us from our good friends at Papery & Cakery in Boca Raton, Florida these fun save the dates are perfectly personalized.  We’re absolutely smitten with the ultramodern and trendy feel of this set.  The dark pewter ink helps the spring ink stand out and this color pairing is absolutely enchanting!  We love seeing save the dates that express style and these certainly do the trick.

inks: pewter + spring | fonts: custom | paper: 2-ply white bamboo | printing: offset | liner: the seneca pattern in spring | invite size: S-5SQ

The second honoree in our design contest was sent to us by Ilyssa at Brenda Himmel Stationery. Ilyssa worked with in-house graphic designer Lindsy Aragona to create the custom artwork, and we can’t get enough of these cheery letterpress social notes! The social notes were printed in 3-color letterpress, and combine our Verbena and Grass inks with a custom ink color that Ilyssa selected. The custom artwork printed beautifully, and pairs perfectly with a coordinating Payette liner, also printed in Verbena ink.

The font selection is a perfect complement to the design and looks incredible in letterpress.

Congrats to Brenda Himmel!

inks: espresso + grass + verbena | font: tally | paper: 2- ply white | liner: payette in verbena | edge painting: | printing: letterpress | social note size: S-6

This design won an honorable mention in our Smock design competition for the first half of 2011. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.

It turns out, we’re suckers for a fabulous letterpress baby announcement around here and lately we’ve been printing a lot of really cool designs to help little ones make a grand entrance. They can be formal or quirky, designed to accommodate a photo (just adhere with double-stick tape) and look particularly awesome when paired with fun customizations like patterned backings, envelope liners and edge painting. Here are a few recent favorites…

Brought to us by Inscriptions on the Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas, this custom baby announcement features our Ellie motif printed on our seamist bamboo paper in pewter and silver inks. The envelope is lined in our Seneca pattern in pewter.

The Write Image in Salt Lake City sent us this pretty customization of our Kurai design, printed in taupe and shell inks for a soft and feminine letterpress baby announcement.

This baby announcement is a custom design that also serves as a cool letterpress holiday card, printed in pewter and spring green inks. This fun design came to us from Byrd + Bleeker in Fort Worth, Texas.

From Stationer of New Orleans, this girly baby announcement showcases our Juine design in pearl ink.

We printed these charming little letterpress escort cards for Write For You in Washington, DC. They’re a customization of our Rhon letterpress invitation design, printed in spring and pewter inks featuring our Smock Spencerian calligraphy font and corner rounding.

Continuing with the amazing customizations that were honored as winners in our Smock Design Contest, this incredible Rhon letterpress invitation with custom folio was brought to us by our friends at RSVP Studio in Toronto. Using a horizontal orientation and spring and sand inks, it’s a design that is fresh and fun, but also amazingly elegant.

While the invitation itself features spring and black inks, we printed the letterpress reply card in 1-color, making it a more budget-friendly option without sacrificing a bit of style. We love how pretty crisp spring ink looks on our ivory bamboo paper!

The folio features our Rhon motif in spring on the exterior with a really sophisticated use of our champlain pattern in sand on the interior. This chic combination of patterns and ink colors really made this customization stand out from the crowd.

As always, thank you to the folks at RSVP Studio for this amazing customization! It’s always so very exciting for us to see what our amazing clients and Smock stores dream up!