As the crisp weather of fall starts to settle in, we can’t help but daydream about warm summer days and fabulous paper parties. Earlier this year, a few members of the Smock team headed out to Los Angeles for the second Urbanic Summer Social, and the event was a smashing success! Guests enjoyed sweet treats from Snow Con Amor, and freshly popped popcorn was served up in festive cones made from our double-sided gift wrap! A DIY Smock postcard station was enjoyed by all, and Danielle and Kevin from The Why We Love were there to capture some amazing photographs of the event. Big thanks to Audrey and the team at Urbanic for hosting!
Want to head to a Smock event? If you live in Texas, you’re in luck! We’ll be hosting a trunk show with Paper & Chocolate in Dallas on Friday, October 19. More details coming soon, but for now, take a look at our 2012 Summer Social recap!
Today’s guest post comes from Lisa at
Rock Paper Scissors in Ann Arbor, Michigan and features some amazing birthday party invitations that were made with our nautical
lettersheets!At Rock Paper Scissors, we get REALLY excited about celebrations. We love everything about them: from the paper, to the place settings, to the details (and even the gift wrapping!). We also have a huge obsession with all things nautical. So this month, when Rock Paper Scissors teammate and craft aficionado, Coco, turned 21 and set sail to create the PERFECT nautical 21st birthday party—we went overboard with excitement! She chose the Oxford, Ridley and Anchor patterned Smock lettersheets with beautiful blue and nautical prints on the back and rope and anchor watermark details on the front that went perfectly with the nautical theme of her 21st birthday dinner!
Here’s how she did it:
- Using a fine tip blue marker, she wrote out the details of the event in fun styles on plain computer paper.
- She then scanned her design and used Photoshop to scale it to the proper size.
- After adjusting her computer’s printer settings to accommodate the size of the stationery, she simply fed the stationery sheets into her printer to create perfectly printed, customized invitations.
- To complete the look, she dolled up the envelopes with rubber stamps in nautical designs and bedecked them with the addresses of her hopeful attendees.
- Dropped them in the {SNAIL} mail and waited for her guest’s reactions!
The party itself was decked out in Smock goodies—from the birthday present from her parents (using Smock’s double-sided Oxford gift wrap) and the cupcake liners (also using the gift wrap), Courtney’s party sent us sailing! We love this custom, hand-lettered invite and party details and can’t wait for the next opportunity to celebrate EVERYTHING with creative paper goods! 
Thanks so much to Lisa for sharing this fabulous DIY project and nautical party with us! Have a creative DIY project of your own that features Smock products? Send it to us today!
It’s time to kick off summer in style, so we’re teaming up with Urbanic Paper again this year for another fabulous Summer Social! We’ll be in Venice on Thursday, June 14th for a night of summer fun – join us to make a postcard (and send it!) and enjoy popcorn & snowcones. RSVP by June 12th to make sure you’re counted in for this year’s summer social – don’t wait, this is one shindig you don’t want to miss!
Our first Smock Design Contest for 2012 was a huge success — we were so excited to recognize the beautiful work that our amazing retailers have sent us over the past few months! Today we are thrilled to share the stunning plaques that the 10 winners of our design contest received — they were created by our talented in-house designer Lindsy Aragona and letterpress printed in Moss and Butter inks on our 2-ply white bamboo paper for a fresh look. The plaques feature elements from our ever-popular Dawson design, and Kelle McCarter hand calligraphed the names of all the winning store names onto the plaques in her Bescal style for a beautiful finishing touch.
Congratulations to all of the stores that were selected as honorees! The next Smock Design Contest will take place later this year – don’t miss it!
We are always amazed at the gorgeous letterpress invitations we get to print for Smock retailer The Wedding Company, but it’s not very often that we get to see an actual event that they put on. The Wedding Company is a full service wedding planning boutique based in Hong Kong, and recently they put on an incredible bridal showcase, complete with romantic décor, elaborate cakes, gorgeous tables and a sweet candy buffet. They even had time to put together an incredible Smock display, and created paper flowers and pinwheels with our double-sided, eco friendly gift wrap for the occasion! We were blown away by the end result — take a look!
Today we’re highlighting Urban Coast, one of our fabulous Smock retailers! Based in Belleair Bluffs, Florida, Urban Coast specializes in custom letterpress wedding invitations and event design. Owner Soosie Lazenby was kind enough to give us a behind the scenes scoop on this fabulous paperie.
Tell us about yourself & the shop. What was the inspiration behind Urban Coast?
I had a very blessed 20 year career in sports and entertainment marketing. I worked for companies such as IMG and Adidas, and served as the Sports Commissioner for the State of Massachusetts, an appointment by Governor Mitt Romney as the Chair of the Governor’s Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports, and then built my own company which I later sold. A geographical move made me ponder what was next. I decided to create a business that represented all the things I loved about my prior career and the challenges I faced in planning prestigious events. Thus, I founded URBANcoast: marrying the creative side of events and developing a model that provides a one stop shopping experience for clients. URBANcoast offers custom invitation designs, and represents the best in stationery, personalized gifts and accessories, and tabletop decor.
What do you love most about what you do?
Designing a one-of-a-kind look for clients that conveys the style and experience of their event. I also love getting to know our clients – it is such a personal process that takes place over an extended period of time. It creates a special opportunity to form a bond that goes beyond their wedding and carries over into other momentous occasions in their life.
Any predictions for 2012 weddings? What do you think will be popular this year? We are seeing a huge surge in letterpress. History always repeats itself. Additionally, fonts are taking center stage. This is why Smock and Bella Figura [Smock’s sister company] do so well for us. Having your design libraries allows our clients to create a unique look that represents their personality.
What’s the hottest color palette out there right now? Taupe — this color somehow makes its way into a majority of our designs.
What charities does your store support? We support a number of local charities, but the one we champion most is the Morton Plant Mease Foundation. Morton Plant is one of the top 50 hospitals in the country and we are fortunate to have the care they offer in our backyard. We have raised almost 100K and named a hospital suite on the new Women & Children’s floor after my father who has been on staff there for over 40 years, in addition to three other physicians who have made a profound impact on the lives of many in our community. (more…)
Nole Garey, editor and publisher of Oh So Beautiful Paper, gave this fantastic invitation set first place in our design contest! Nole loved the texture and the playful yet elegant mix of patterns for this wedding invitation set, and we couldn’t agree more – it’s simply stunning!
Danielle from Creative Touch Party Design in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida always sends us gorgeous designs, and this set is no exception. Much of the inspiration for this design was pulled from Smock’s Dawson suite, sleeve and all. Layers of dynamically designed pieces in this suite really bring it to life, and the colors of pewter and merlot give the playful patterns a little sophistication.
Danielle gave us the scoop on the inspiration behind these invitations. “The wedding colors are shades of wine and berry with silver. The wine color comes from her Lulu Kate bridesmaid dresses, which are just beautiful. These were the inspiration for the border color. The gray picks up the silver throughout the wedding decor. And the men are wearing gray tuxedos, which is reflective in the pocket she chose. The linens are a modern lace pattern which is reminiscent of the quilting in the invitation itself.”
We loved this set — congratulations, Danielle! And a huge thanks to Nole for judging the contest!
Customization = letterpress inks: merlot + pewter | fonts: carrington + smock clermont | paper color: white | paper size: s-7 for sleeve | envelope liner: ashford reversed in pewter | sleeve: custom design in pewter letterpress
This design won first place in our Smock design competition for the first half of 2012. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.
Our second place design contest winner comes to us from Shelley at /di’zain/ loft limited in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, a recent addition to the Smock family. The couple chose a dreamy color palette of dusty pinks and greys for their wedding, so invitations in pewter and shell inks on our white bamboo paper fit their theme perfectly and created a soft, sweet feel. The invitation design was modeled after a vintage, “fashionably chic” handwritten love letter, which seems perfectly fitting for Clare-Ann and Joshua as they have had to experience the challenges of an overseas relationship. Shell envelope liners and a pretty script font reminiscent of elegant cursive handwriting complete the look of the invitations.
The couple strove for a sense of romanticism with their invitations, and we definitely think they’ve achieved it! We fell in love – and so did our contest judge, Nole, at Oh So Beautiful Paper, who selected the design as the 2nd place winner. She writes, “The invitation has a clean and modern layout, and I love the use of script and serif fonts that keep the design from looking too fussy. Sweet and simple.”
Congratulations Shelley, and best wishes to the happy couple!
Congratulations again to Di’zain Loft Limited for taking 2nd place in our design contest. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.
For the last week, we’ve been posting the honorable mentions for the Smock Design Contest. Now we’re down to the final three! Our good friend Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper chose our winners for this competition, and selected Alphagraphics Lyric Opera Invitation as the 3rd place winner. Here’s what Nole had to say about the design: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a corporate invitation that was so pretty! I love the patterns, the font selections, and the fold out layout. Gorgeous.”
Nole, we couldn’t agree more! It’s not often we get to print letterpress invitations for galas, concerts, or charitable events, so when we do, we tend to get pretty excited. This espresso and gold invitation to the Lyric Opera’s Charitable Subscriber Concert and Dinner was extraordinary! It was, indeed, a ticketed concert (which explains the use of the pocketfold), and the invitation invited 100 of the Opera’s premier patrons to dinner and a concert.
To the untrained eye, this striped, monogrammed pocketfold invitation looks beautiful and classy. For those who spend a lot of time at Chicago’s Civic Opera House, they’ll notice graphic elements that remind them of the gilded gold walls and ceilings of that very building. When designing the invitation, Amy at Alphagraphics used the opera’s Art Deco elements and color scheme as her guide. She created an invitation that was reminiscent of the old stately edifice, glamorous in its timelessness.
Her work was well appreciated by all! Both the Lyric Opera and the event’s attendees thought the invitation was a fantastic bidding to a wonderful evening of music and feasting. Bravo Amy, Bravo!
Congratulations again to Alphagraphics for taking 3rd place in our design contest. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.
Cori at Social Graces in Nashville, Tennessee sent us this adorable Odin customization! These offset printed save the dates are both personalized and creative, and were printed in a very cool color palette of our sea mist + grass inks. When we asked Cori what inspired this design she told us that the bride was drawn to the fun font style and whimsical frame, and loved how these elements balanced the striped background. The wedding reception will be on her family’s horse farm, so the couple thought it would be appropriate to include a horseshoe. Here at Smock, we believe these save the dates are lucky! Common legend is that keeping the ends of a horseshoe point up keeps all of the good luck in. Congrats to the lucky bride and groom, and bravo to Social Graces for such an inspired design!
inks: sea mist + grass | fonts: mack + louise | paper: 1-ply white bamboo | printing: offset | size: s6
This design won an honorable mention in our Smock design competition for the first half of 2012. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.