We introduced our newest wedding album at the National Stationery Show earlier this month, and we can’t wait for you to see the new designs! The album features 12 wedding invitation suites with styles ranging from modern to vintage to traditional. New fonts, patterns, and colors can be found throughout the new suites, which will be available in stores this summer. Take a look at some of our new favorites!
Above: our new Linden suite features bronze shine foil stamping on our white bamboo paper and a leafy vintage print pattern. The foil stamped menus are printed on our 100% recycled gray paper and complement the suite beautifully!
The new Prospect suite features another new foil color: quartz! Darker than our rose gold foil, quartz has some seriously pink shine, and pairs perfectly with our jute ink.
The vintage prints used on our modern Exeter suite are stunning – we love the classic black letterpress printing combined with the dramatic Dutch painting look of the patterns.
Last but not least, show-stopper Lennon draws on some of our favorite trends: painterly patterns, modern script fonts, and the perfect amount of foil. The suite pairs tawny matte foil with black letterpress printing on the wedding invitation and throughout the suite, which also includes a chic photo save the date.
These new designs will be available on our website soon – be sure to check out our invitation gallery for even more inspiration!
The 2016 National Stationery Show has quickly come and gone, so today we’re sharing a recap of our booth at this year’s show! Each year at NSS we introduce a variety of new products for both our everyday and custom lines, and highlights for this year include a new wedding album, lots of new cards, gift wrap, keepsake boxes, and 2017 calendars. All of these products will be available online soon, but for now here’s a peek at our displays. We decorated the booth with colorful tissue paper flowers to correspond with the new Flora collection envelope liners on display in the Bella Figura side of our booth. Take a look!
We loved having calligrapher Sarah Hanna in our booth during the show offering on the spot calligraphy – it’s mesmerizing to watch her work!
And no Stationery Show would be complete without a trip to the Paper Party hosted by Oh So Beautiful Paper. We loved being sponsors again this year – here’s our team enjoying the event in front of the amazing display that My Mind’s Eye put together. So festive and fun!
Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a seasoned Stationery Show vet, we know you’ll appreciate these 10 helpful tips from Audrey Woollen, owner of Urbanic Paper Boutique in Venice, California. Audrey travels cross-country for the show, and her shop always features an amazing mix of carefully curated paper goods.
MAP OUT A PLAN: The NSS walking map is a great tool to use prior to the show. When I start receiving booth invitations, I add the booth numbers of the lines I am interested in visiting and keep tabs on the booths per aisle as destinations. I’ve learned from experience that it’s easy to accidentally miss a booth (especially the smaller ones) if I’m not intentional about finding them. I save the lines that are more comprehensive for me to write until my last day — since they take a lot of time, I try to really hone in and focus without distractions.
PLANNING TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME SHOW ATTENDEES: When you arrive, walk the show first to take it all in — and keep track of the booths you want to make sure to visit. After you’ve done a walk-through, it’s always a good idea to start in the middle of the show and work your way to both ends. This will prevent you from getting caught up in the traffic cluster of the end aisles during those peak show hours and will help kick off your show pace at a more even level that you may need as a first timer.
GET ORGANIZED: I always come to the show with a notebook divided up by the months that I’m ordering for. That way I can mix up the product assortment, and keep track of what is coming in and when. This also helps budget out each month for our cost of goods and evens out the flow of entering and receiving.
As for show buying, I write all of my orders as I go from booth to booth and comb through all of them by month a few days after the show. This is where the real work comes in: moving around delivery dates, referencing catalogs, and editing where needed.
Since I travel across the country for the show, I try not to take too many catalogs home from the booths. I request that they be sent out to me and only take the ones I feel that I’ll need to reference right away or lines that I’m considering writing but have not committed to yet.
THINK AHEAD: I’m always on the lookout for product themes that go well together for promotional content. I’m always thinking ahead for store newsletters, features and merchandising concepts while I’m doing my buying.
FIND INSPIRATION: I let the booth displays, product trends and the pulse of the amazing NYC shops and restaurants fill my creative cup to overflowing with new inspiration for Urbanic. I take it all in and let this consolidated creative energy inspire and recharge me for store windows, line collaborations, special events and everything in between.
My phone back up charger is my #1 necessity at the show (…besides food and water, of course!). I take photos of everything, which helps me document the inspiration and the goods we have coming in. It also makes for great social media content during the show and after.
STOP FOR A SNACK: There is a little deli called Frame just up the street from the Javits on 33rd Street. This is an amazing little place to stock up on good healthy snacks for the day or even a great place to hop out if you want to get some fresh air and an amazing salad. Keep in mind it’s not open on Sundays though — I forget every time!
Whether you’re heading to show or following the action on Instagram, be sure to follow along with Audrey’s 68.4k followers on Instagram and see her snaps @urbanic! You can also see updates and new product sneak peeks on our account @smockpaper!
all photos provided by Urbanic
We’re hosting two events with our BFF Bella Figura at the Bella Figura Flagship Store! Join us on Saturday, May 14th from 2-6pm to meet calligrapher Ted Clausen, sip champagne, and enjoy sweet treats from Madison Lee’s Cakes! Ted will be offering on-the-spot calligraphy, so you’ll have the chance to have your name or favorite phrase calligraphed on a keepsake card like the ones shown below! On Wednesday, May 18th we’ll also be hosting an all-day trunk show event with in-house designer Brenda Fox and client coordinator Sarah Sadler. In addition to sips and sweets, we’re offering a trunk show special at both events: buy 75 invitation sets or more and get 25 free!
The store is located at 1031 Lexington Avenue (at 74th Street) in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We hope to see you at the events — RSVP on Facebook today!
Magan and Keith celebrated their November wedding at the iconic Baby Doll House in Benoit, Mississippi. Their save the dates and invitations provided a glimpse of the venue for guests through a gorgeous watercolor depiction of the Greek Revival style mansion. We combined letterpress and digital printing for the save the dates, pairing them with metallic camel envelope liners. For their Sutherlin wedding invitations, the watercolor artwork was featured again, but this time on the digitally printed inner envelope liners. Tawny matte foil stamping was used on their classic invitations, direction cards, and reception cards, which also included our Sutherlin pattern.
letterpress ink: gold | foil color: tawny matte | CMYK digital printing| fonts + design: Smock Spencerian + Carrington Stripes, Sutherlin design | paper: 1-ply + 2-ply white bamboo | sizes: #10 + S-8SQ + S-5SQ | envelope liners: metallic camel + digitally printed, supplied artwork | customization #27716 + #29146 | Lagniappe Fine Gifts
For Maura and Charlie’s monogrammed engagement party invitations, we went with a monochromatic look, letterpress printing the invitations in pewter ink and using our white rose vintage print pattern for the coordinating envelope liners. We worked with Marissa Allie Designs to create the set, which was inspired by our Finley Bat Mitzvah suite, and we loved seeing the design reimagined for an engagement party!
letterpress ink: pewter | fonts + design: worthington and cameron, Finley design | paper: 1-ply white | size: S-6 | envelope liner: white rose vintage print pattern | customization #29339 | Marissa Allie Designs
Amanda and Neal created a stylish letterpress invitation suite for their September celebration at the Barns at Wolf Trap. We collaborated with our friends at The Dandelion Patch on the suite, which featured sweet script fonts and letterpress printing in midnight ink on our white bamboo paper. The invitations, information cards, brunch invites and response cards were all tucked inside of the suite’s wow-worthy statement piece: a custom floral watercolor invitation sleeve in varying shades of pink, purple, orange and emerald.
letterpress inks: midnight | fonts + design: jules & bronte, custom design + submitted watercolor artwork | paper: 1-ply + 2-ply white | size: S-8 for sleeve + S-5 + S-6 | sleeve: digitally printed juliette sleeve | customization #28686 | The Dandelion Patch
It’s trunk show time! We’re holding special events with three of our stores next week, and we’d love for you to join us! Our invitation experts will be on hand to discuss your design ideas, and we’re offering a special promotion to trunk show attendees: buy 75 or more invitations and get 25 free. See below for the times and locations of each event, as well as details on how to RSVP!
- The Papery: 1219 Locust Street, Midtown Village, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thursday, April 21 from 4:30 – 7:30pm. RSVP to cassey@paperyofphilly.com and see more event details on their Facebook event.
- The Pleasure of Your Company: 10749 Falls Road, Suite 104 Lutherville, Maryland. Saturday, April 23 from 10am – 4pm.
- Just Paper & Tea: 3232 P Street NW, Washington DC. Sunday, April 24 from 12:00 – 4:00pm. RSVP by emailing justpaper1@aol.com, or by calling 202-333-9141.
Rocki and Doug personalized our Greely suite with copper shine foil for their November wedding in Texas Hill Country. We worked with our friends at Events to create their wedding invitation suite (complete with reply cards and website cards) along with #10 sized wedding programs, menus, and a cute folded itinerary that we assembled with neutral colored ribbons. They were after a rustic, shabby chic look, and chose a venue with both a whimsical and romantic feel for their big day. The couple chose to highlight the natural rustic beauty of the property by using a neutral color palette and infusing pops of burgundy and rust to tie into the fall season. These are just a few of our favorite photos from their big day, but head over to Style Me Pretty for even more inspiration!
Venue: Creek Haus | Photography: Jenna McElroy | Floral Design: Petal Pushers | Hair & makeup: Nina Fitzgerald with Urban Betty | Cake: Simon Lee Bakery | Band: Royal Dukes Band | Videography: Lizama Videography | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Bridal Gown Boutique: Joan Pillow Bridal | Wedding Dress: Monique Lhuillier | Catering: Crave Catering | Film Scans: Photovision
We always love spotting our products on the pages of our favorite magazines! Smock’s been getting some love from HGTV Magazine as well as Woman’s Day and Celebrate. In the April 2016 issue of Woman’s Day, our medium Chartreuse boxes were featured in an article all about getting your home organized as the perfect vessel for mail (and if company comes before you’re ready, just pop on the lid to hide the mess!).
HGTV Magazine has also featured Smock in some recent issues! They used several of our patterned gift wraps in their December 2015 holiday issue about stylish new color combos (recreate the looks with our Dots, Turk, and Shimmer gift wraps). And the September 2015 issue of HGTV featured our wraps right on the cover! They created easy little makeovers by covering magazine holders and boxes with some of our wrap to create cute new office organization tools (for this story, they used our Indigo and Keiko wraps).
Celebrate Magazine also included us in their holiday issue, with lots of cute DIY ideas featuring our cards! They created festive garland, ceramic holiday coasters, and DIY gift toppers by repurposing our Lights Cheer, Love & Joy, Peace on Earth, and Branch Crest cards. Many thanks to all three publications for featuring Smock!
