With the holiday season underway, we know that there’s going to be lots of gift wrapping in the near future! Add a special touch to your gifts this year with handmade bows — they’re beautiful and will add the perfect personal touch to all of your gifts. (And bonus — they’re really easy to make!)
You can visit us on Youtube to see the instructional video that we put together, which shows you the whole process step-by-step. We’ve also put together this handy set of instructions that you can print out. You’ll need some of our eco gift wrap, scissors, a ruler, and a glue stick or double-sided tape for this project. Happy wrapping!
If you haven’t gotten started on your holiday shopping yet, head over to our sale section for some great gifts for the paper lovers in your life! Sale section items are marked down to 50% off, and if that weren’t reason enough to start shopping, we’re adding a bonus: all proceeds from sale items purchased on Monday, November 28 or Tuesday, November 29 will be donated to Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project to help raise awareness about hydrofracking. Through this project, Earthworks teams up with tribal, urban and rural communities to protect their homes and the environment from the devastating impacts of oil and gas development. Your purchases can make a difference! Need some ideas? We’ve put together some great combinations for gift sets with items straight from our sale section, so check out our picks! We’ve included a wide range, so you’ll find ideas for under $15 or $30. Our sale section has also got some fantastic holiday cards & gift tags, so stock up before they’re gone!
Great Gifts under $15
Perfect for the person who loves to send little notes just because. Pair a box of our Ellie notecards with a box of coordinating petite folded notes — at just $7 per box, give these letterpress cards as a set for a pretty present at just $14.
Know a paper-crazy kid? Introduce them to letterpress with these sweet cards! Petite folds in fun colors with kid-friendly motifs come in sets of 8. At only $7 per box, these would be great little stocking stuffers! Choose from our Ellie, Horsey, Liony and Ducky notes.
Great gifts under $30
Our Thackthwaite attachment is a pretty cube full of sticky notes — 700 of them, to be exact. Attachments from Smock are made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper and they’re FSC certified, so they’re eco-friendly and cute. Snag this deal (marked down to $9!) and pair with a set of blank Thackthwaite notecards for just $21.
Pair some flat social notes with one of our notebooks for another great gift idea under $30 — we love seeing our Horsey flat notes with a Persimmon notebook, a fun combination for only $16.
At just $2 per card, we love the idea of giving a sampling of cards (paired with a lovely keepsake box, like the Veranda box pictured below). Simply choose 10-12 cards from our fabulous selection of designs, package your picks in a small keepsake box, and you’ve got a great present for less than $30. Cards for special occasions such as engagements, birthdays, a new baby or ‘just because’ will have the recipient of this thoughtful gift prepared for the year.
Holiday Cards
Don’t forget about holiday cards! Check out the beautiful holiday cards in our sale section — stock up on our Joy & Peace cards and send stylish letterpress greetings this season. Our Joy petite folds make great gift tags, and our Celebrate cards make lovely thank you notes after the gift giving is over. Looking for something more traditional?? Check out our Holly letterpress greeting cards or our festive Poinsettia gift tags – boxes sell for just $7 each!
We’ll be posting more gift ideas along with DIY projects for the holidays over the next few weeks (including tutorials for gift bows and the most beautiful holiday wreaths ever), so stay tuned!
Traditional wedding meets modern design in this wedding suite from our friends at Union Street Papery. They put together this beautiful suite using our Talmossen design, which uses a traditional feel font and pairs it with modern design accents. This suite was done on our white Bamboo paper in Taupe ink. This was a wedding that brought together two cultures with invitations done in both English and Spanish version. All the pieces were finished off with metallic silver edge painting and the inner envelope was paired with a custom offset liner (our Fleming Design in Espresso) to give it that modern look.
inks: taupe + espresso (offset) | fonts: harrison calligraphy font | paper: 2-ply white + 1-ply white | printing: letterpress + offset | envelope liner: fleming in espresso (offset) | edge paint: metallic silver
We don’t think you can get more clean cut and classic than these custom letterpressed Bar Mitzvah invitations. This simple set was submitted by our wonderful friend, Nancy at Reed Cohen Paper & Events in New York, NY. Letterpress printed in our midnight ink with the most modern border as an accent helps keep this set downright classy. Staying in the lines of tradition, the Hebrew characters in the upper right hand corner symbolize the traditional Bais Hey blessing. Our 2-ply card stock is always a popular choice for Bar and Bat Mitzvah invitations. We love how the block font brings a masculine feel to this invitation suite.
inks: midnight| font: social | paper: 2-ply white | printing: letterpress | invite size: S8
We have been printing a lot of Bat/Bar Mitzvah sets in our shop lately. Thanks go out to Amy at Monograham for sending us this hip Delano customization. This set was offset printed on our bamboo 1-ply ivory paper in Raspberry and Orchid inks. The outer and response envelopes were letterpress printed in Orchid. This set is completed with an offset printed folio; our Cayman pattern in Orchid on the interior and our Fleming pattern in Raspberry. If this special day was half as fun as this suite was, we all missed a great party.
inks: orchid + raspberry | fonts: submitted fonts | paper: 1-ply ivory | printing: letterpress + offset | folio exterior: fleming pattern offset in raspberry | folio interior: cayman pattern offset in orchid | invite size: S-8 folio
We’ve really fallen off the deep end for these custom, nautical-inspired letterpress wedding invitations submitted to us by our friend Annie at Hitched in Washington DC. We can’t argue that this is the perfect match to the couple’s wedding venue at South Seas Island Resort in Captiva Island, Florida. We adore the reply card printed in our hot pink for a real pop of color! The simplistic look and delicate feel of this set nearly has us overboard!
inks: taupe + hot pink | fonts: graham + smock spencerian| paper: 2-ply white | printing: letterpress | invite size: S8
What a wonderful suite we received from our friends at Landis Gifts & Stationery. This Ossa design was customized beautifully on our white bamboo paper, and letterpressed in Lime and Black inks. The invitation and reply card were edge painted in Orchid. The invitation is adhered to an awesome folio, offset printed in our Ashwell pattern in Black on the outside and in our Sherbrooke pattern in Lime on the inside. The final touch of brilliance is the envelope liner, offset printed in our Sherbrooke pattern in Lime to match. This one was a very personal suite as it was printed for the store owner’s daughter. We are so happy to be able to be included in such a special day.
inks: black + lime | fonts: carrington stripes + alice + chaplin | paper: 2-ply white + 1-ply white | printing: letterpress + offset | liner: the sherbrooke pattern in lime | folio exterior: ashford pattern offset in black | folio interior: sherbrooke pattern offset in lime | invite size: S-8 folio
It’s easy to get in the party mood when seeing these custom and vibrant offset invitations! These colorful invitations were submitted to us by our great friend Kerri at Anne Grace Designs in Dallas, Texas. We think you’ll agree that the color combination of coral and robin’s egg brings the perfect balance of bright hues. Not many people are aware that seahorses are a symbol for happiness and these invitations definitely have us feeling good vibes. Now, who’s ready for a fiesta?
inks: coral + robin’s egg | font: coombs | paper: 1-ply white | printing: offset | size: #10
How cute is this paper holiday dress!? Jessica Sanders from Salutations in Charlotte is the dress maker extraordinaire behind this beautiful Christmas cocktail dress – made with our double-sided, eco-friendly Mistletoe wrap, this dress has us so excited for the holiday season! Those presents and custom holiday cards are pretty as can be, too — be sure to stop by your local Smock retailer to take advantage of our custom letterpress holiday promotion and stock up on holiday essentials today!
Have you created a masterpiece with our eco-friendly gift wrap? Share it with us! Get in touch with details and photos today!
If you’ve toured the Smock offices recently, you probably saw the amazing bunting some of our team put together a while back (and if you haven’t been on a tour yet, look below!). Today’s DIY project will show you how to make your very own bunting in just a few quick steps – it’s easy! And you’ll only need a few items.
You will need:
- Your favorite Smock gift wraps
- Twine, rope, yarn, or ribbon (we love the way twine looks!)
- Scissors
- An adhesive of some sort — hot glue or double-sided tape
The first step of this DIY is to determine how large you want the little banners on your bunting to be. Ours are about 7.5 inches wide and about 9.5 inches high. If you want yours to be the same size, we created this handy little cutting guide for your convenience! Next, you’ll want to determine how much bunting you’ll need (for 25 feet of bunting, you’ll need around 42 little banners).
Cut your banners out with your favorite Smock gift wraps — we chose to mix it up & use a little bit of everything, but there’s tons of ways to make yours. You could use just one pattern straight across for a uniform look, or alternate the front and back patterns to switch things up while still color coordinating. You can also pick a few to varying wraps like we did for a vibrant, festive look.
Next, you’ll want to secure the bunting to the twine — there are a few ways to go about this. Before securing anything, be sure to give yourself a little extra twine (maybe a foot or two) to be able to hang the bunting. Then, start by making a small fold along the top of the triangle banner (the fold should be somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2 inch). Use your adhesive to connect the twine & paper — we used a handy tape gun (pictured above) with double-sided tape to quickly secure the twine to the paper, and this made the process really quick and easy. If you don’t have double-sided tape, a hot-glue gun would work well, too. We haven’t tried this with regular glue, but we’re sure it would work if you use something to hold down the folds while the glue dries. You’ll want to space your banners about 1-2 inches apart.
After you’ve secured your banners to the twine, you’ll notice little triangles that form from folding the paper over (pictured below) — just snip these little overlapping pieces off with your scissors for a clean, even look.
Repeat this process until you’ve created enough bunting for your decorating needs! If you didn’t pre-cut your twine, be sure to leave a little extra on the end to make hanging a breeze. The end result will be a perfectly cheerful strand of bunting!
Making your own bunting?? Share your images with us on Facebook – we’d love to see them!