After giving you a sneak peek into the studio space of our designer, Amy Graham Stigler, we wanted to share some photos of the open studio party she recently hosted for lucky Smock fans in Wisconsin. First up, no party is complete without gorgeous letterpress invitations. Amy shares, “The color of my studio logo (Monograham) determined the mango and seamist color combination. I needed to incorporate a fair amount of information so I wanted to keep things simple and sweet.  The striped liner really pulled everything together and gave it a bit of a French patisserie feel, which I love and matched the evening’s menu of small pastries, cookies and candies.”

Next, you’ve got to set the stage, in this case by lining the shelves with pretty examples of custom Smock letterpress wedding invitations and stationery and showing off our collection of letterpress holiday cards. And don’t forget the sweets and treats for all your guests! Amy says, “I love a good party and I actually really (really) enjoy all the fussing beforehand.  But the highlight is sharing an evening with friends…new and old.”

Then, invite your friends and have a ball. Amy’s favorite tip for entertaining a crowd – “Keep things simple. I always edit the menu as I would rather do a few things and do them well than fill a table with odds and ends. I also like to choose a ‘house’ (or in this case ‘studio’) cocktail and then offer a non-alcoholic alternative. Less is often more.”

Ok, so we’re officially dreaming up any excuse we can think of to throw a party. How about you?

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.

Smock’s creative director, Amy Graham Stigler, recently hosted a really fun open studio event at her studio, Monograham, in Wisconsin. We’ll be sharing the beautiful custom Smock letterpress invitations Amy designed for her event and some photos from the event itself later in the week, but first a little studio tour seems in order. This is the space where the magic happens as Amy creates designs for Smock and on occasion has the opportunity to entertain guests at one of her fabulous parties. Amy’s space is so lovely it seemed fitting to give it a blog post all its own.

Amy shares, “My studio is the second story of a 19th century home with perfectly-scaled detailing. I wanted to keep things light and clean and simple since I knew it would be filled with lots of product. The walls are my favorite color, a watery blue-green, and the furniture is a mix of IKEA and flea-market finds. Most my accessories are vintage and functional (holding samples, office supplies, etc.)”

Check back for more to come from Amy’s open studio later in the week…

We were thrilled to find out this week that we’ve been nominated for The Poppies, a fabulous collection of awards recognizing handmade artisans sponsored by one of our favorite blogs, Poppytalk. Smock is nominated in the category of Favourite Handmade Papergoods alongside some of our favorite stationers and it’s an honor to be included. Be sure to visit Poppytalk to vote in all the categories for your favorite artists, crafters, stationers and photographers. Voting is open until February 5. Thank you so much to the folks at Poppytalk for including us!

Brought to us by The Write Image in Rockville, Maryland, we love this letterpress wedding invitation set. The letterpress invitation itself is printed in 2-color letterpress in pearl and black inks and showcases a customization of our Vettore motif using a portrait orientation. The reply card and letterpress rehearsal dinner invitation are printed in 1-color letterpress in black ink, a really great way of keeping letterpress affordable without sacrificing style or elegance.

Since launching our Social Occasions album this past spring, we’ve had the opportunity to create some fabulous custom letterpress invitations for clients worldwide and it has been such a pleasure. These letterpress invitations were printed for a 40th birthday party and feature a lantern motif printed in black and gold inks. We love these elegant letterpress invitations, which were printed for an evening cocktail celebration for an international client. Talk about a fabulous way to ring in your 40th birthday!

In light of the recent tragedy in Haiti, Smock is eager to get involved to help out with the ongoing relief efforts. For two days only, January 20 – 21, we will be donating 100% of sales on our website to Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organization actively involved in bringing medical aid to the people of Haiti. All items on our website from our Everyday collection are included in the sale, including our letterpress greeting cards, eco gfit wrap, letterpress thank you cards and more. Stock up on all of your favorite Smock goodies and help us help Haiti with your purchase!

(Please note that custom printing orders are not included in this promotion.)

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!

After Harold and I put our two kids to bed, we usually have, oh, about 20 minutes to chill on the couch together before I pass out from exhaustion. Lately we’ve been watching some great movies in “installments” – the latest of which is the documentary The Cove. If you care about the environment, animals, the ocean, or simply want to see something really good, go out and rent this film now! On the movie level, it’s a fabulous film – suspenseful, beautiful filming, funny at times, inspiring, touching. A group of activists sneak into a restricted cove in Japan to film (using really cool high tech equipment) the annual slaughtering of dolphins. There are some great quotes (“There are 2 kinds of people – activists and inactivists.”) There are these hard core environmentalists of an older generation wondering who is going to take their place when they’re gone? There are convincing arguments about why you should never support or buy into swimming with dolphins in captivity. There is some tricky unspoken cultural stuff, too – look at how we Americans treat our cows and pigs and chickens…are we any better?

Along with Food Inc. and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, this seems like one more reason to go vegetarian, or at least to know who is raising your food and how they are raising your food. Some of the best scenes in The Cove are simply the underwater scenes with dolphins in the wild – and seeing them interact with humans in the open ocean. They’re beautiful, smart, playful creatures and one scientist argues maybe they’re even more intelligent than we are. At least they don’t go around slaughtering us using inhumane methods and then trying to feed our mercury poisoned meat to school children, right? I was hoping for some happy real life Hollywood ending (i.e. the dolphins are saved!), but sounds like the slaughter is still continuing. Read what you can do here.

{Photo from The Cove via A.V. Club}