Things have been a little quiet around here in recent weeks as we’ve been busy preparing for the National Stationery Show. But don’t worry, there’s good reason. New at the show, we’re introducing our largest Everyday release yet! Letterpress notepads, notebooks, keepsake gift boxes, gift bags, sticky note squares, new gift wrap, new letterpress greeting cards, new offset cards, holiday, and more. And all of it eco, of course, featuring either our bamboo paper or our 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Our new FSC certified lokta paper gift bags are truly one of a kind, made by a really cool community-owned group in Nepal dedicated to sustainable forestry. We have so much to share with you in the coming weeks – stay tuned! While we’re away, you can follow along with all the fun here and on Twitter.

It’s hard to believe, but the 2010 National Stationery Show officially opens in just twelve days! We’ve been hard at work preparing for the show – there are so many fun new things to come from Smock this year! Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been mailing out invitations to our favorite retailers and media contacts to visit us at booth 2241 to check out all of the exciting new releases. While we can’t share everything just yet, we did want to give you a little sneak peek at the pretty letterpress printed envelopes that have been arriving in mailboxes nationwide. They feature beautiful hand calligraphy addressing from our dear friend Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill. For those attending the show, we’re excited to announce that Debi will once again be in the Smock booth offering hand calligraphy for visitors from 9 to 6  on Sunday, May 16th, and again from 11 to 2 on Monday, and 10 to 1 on Tuesday. We look forward to seeing you there!

Having launched at last year’s National Stationery Show, making the trip to New York City for the stationery show this year was especially fun for the Smock team! It was such an incredible opportunity to meet with the awesome stores we work with daily, to introduce ourselves to new stores and to reconnect with friends old and new in the world of paper and letterpress. Plus we were super excited to introduce all of our new designs including new Everyday letterpress cards and gift wrap, three new letterpress wedding invitation designs, and a brand new letterpress and offset Social Occasions album, full of beautifully customizable calling cards, letterhead, hang tags, correspondence cards and social occasion invitations.

Smock’s Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, did an amazing job ensuring Smock’s booth was absolutely beautiful – it was such a nice place to be during the show as we introduced our many visitors to Smock! It was a lot of hard work pulling the booth together at the Javitz Center, but luckily we had co-owner Harold on the team to make sure everything went smoothly. And, of course, we couldn’t leave Syracuse without making sure to bring along our #1 Smock team member, Jasper, who is always generous with his smiles and two year old charm.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to visit Smock at the National Stationery Show! For everyone who wasn’t able to be in New York, we have more photos and so many exciting new letterpress designs to share soon!

One of the things we are most excited about for the National Stationery Show in a couple of days is unveiling our new Social Occasions album, featuring beautiful eco-friendly letterpress and flat offset printing for all occasions. More than just stationery, our 20 social suites feature calling cards, hang tags, social occasions (parties, announcements, births, holiday), stationery, letterhead, and anything else you can dream up. {Download a sneak-peak of the 20 suites here!, 35mb} Perfect for personal or professional use, our social album contains an extensive motif and monogram library, 5 colored bamboo papers, and the ability to mix and match letterpress and offset printing, creating exquisite options for every budget. Smock’s custom social designs will be available through fine retailers across the nation and internationally following the National Stationery Show, so be sure to stay tuned! Look for more photographs coming soon on our web site too….

We’ve been talking about it all week, but we can’t believe that the National Stationery Show is just a few days away! If you’ll be attending the show, make sure to pop over to booth 2741 where the entire Smock team will be hanging out and looking forward to meeting you. Smock is proud to offer an extensive line of true environmental letterpress stationery on luxury bamboo paper and we just know you’ll love our new designs as much as we do. Stay tuned later this week for a sneak peek at some of the exciting new things on the way from Smock!

As we gear up to head to New York City this weekend for the 2009 National Stationery Show, we wanted to share a few photos of Smock’s 2008 stationery show booth – it’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since Smock first launched at the show! Our Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, did an incredible job of making our first booth absolutely beautiful and we can’t wait for everyone to visit us this year – you can find us at booth 2741.

Smock’s very first National Stationery Show booth showed off our pretty double-sided gift wraps made from 100% post consumer recycled paper – we think it would make totally pretty framed wall art, too! Our Calliope suite {top right} has become one of our best sellers, featuring a fun blue and orange color combination and the sweetest of butterflies and flowers that are oh so chic.

Displays of Smock’s pretty custom letterpress wedding invitations, informational cards, catalogs, gift wraps and greeting cards were made even prettier by great lighting in our tiny little booth. And who doesn’t love bright pink peonies in spring?

We’ve had such an exciting first year and we can’t wait to see what the 2009 show has in store. We promise to come back with lots of photos to share with those of you who can’t visit us in person and to everyone else, we can’t wait to see you next week in New York!

Stay tuned this week for lots of show-related news and special sneak peeks of our many new releases!