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.
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!
A while back we featured Cydney’s first birthday party and today we wanted to share a few more photos of the custom letterpress birthday party invitations we created with Debra Saba of Luxe Expressions for Cydney’s party. The invitation itself was a 2-color letterpress card printed in custom shades of fuchsia and navy with pretty fuchsia edge painting. It featured custom patterned backing paired with a matching envelope liner and came enclosed with a 1-color letterpress directions card. We love this invitation set!
Smock designer, Amy Graham Stigler, was thrilled to be whisked off to New York City this fall for a photo shoot with Better Homes and Gardens. The photo spread can be found in the December issue of the magazine, where she he talks about her design inspiration and her love for stationery. Today she’s sharing her behind the scenes take of what the experience was like in front of the camera.
The day was such a whirlwind. Since it was the first week back to school for my kids the trip was condensed – I flew out to NYC Thursday afternoon and flew back Friday evening. The shoot was all day Friday in Chelsea. The space was a beautiful loft overlooking the Hudson. As I arrived a few minutes early I snuck out on this little side porch, sipped coffee and enjoyed the spectacular view. It was heavenly. After my little moment of peace in the morning the rest of the day was a flurry of activity and commotion. Racks and racks (and racks) of clothes were rolled in. Shoes and jewelry and make up was set out and organized. The set was built from ground up; painting and all. The photographers, the art directors, the prop stylists (etc etc)…all did their thing.
My main liason’s were Jonny Lichtenstein, the fashion stylist, and Better Homes and Gardens Editor Kelly Phillips, and they were both really special talented people. And they were very encouraging…since I really had no idea what I was doing, especially when it came to “modeling.” Probably the most notable thing about my day was just that there were so many people buzzing around, attending to me. At one point I was being interviewed, make up was being applied, my clothes were being adjusted, shoes were being put on and earrings were being clipped…simultaneously. It just struck me as so unique really since, with three kids, I am usually the one attending rather than being attended to. The actual photography-taking turned out to be quite fun (and a bit silly – with a wind machine and all!)…despite the fact that I really (really) don’t love having my photograph taken.
Like my three year old daughter, I actually love to play dress up. I love clothes and shoes and I absolutely adore jewelry and accessories. I am a vintage girl so I usually play with old stuff but it was fun to see what is out there right now. I am generally not a big trend watcher but I definitely got a glimpse of what is going on in fashion right now by being a part of the shoot. Thankfully, tights are in because I am such a fan. And I live in Wisconsin where they are essential this time of year.
What was your favorite part about your experience with BHG?
Definitely the process. It was such a unique experience…so different from my usual workday – FAR more social. The people I met were sooo kind and fun. And I love NYC.
BHG asked you a little bit about your design inspiration – can you share what’s inspiring you now as we head into 2010?
I am invoking Milton Avery, one of my favorite favorite painters. Think graphic and strong and colorful.
For all of the fun, check out the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens and Happy New Year from all of your friends at Smock!
With Christmas and New Year’s Eve just around the corner, we wanted to share a few more of the lovely custom letterpress holiday cards and invitations we’ve been printing this season. The first is a custom letterpress holiday invitation, a piece we printed for our friends at Paper & Chocolate in Dallas. It is printed in festive red ink with red edge painting paired with an envelope lined in our iznik pattern in grass ink.
This letterpress holiday card, brought to us by Cotton Idea Studio in Newport Beach, California, features space to attach a photo and is printed in a unique holiday color combination of pool and spring inks. The card was then edge painted in pool.
These custom hang tags are the perfect holiday gift tags, printed for Buchanan Ink in Nashville. It is letterpress printed in spring ink then hole drilled and grommeted for the making of fabulous holiday packaging.
In celebration of the holidays and the earth, here at Smock we are officially renaming this Friday Green Friday. On Friday, November 27th, for one day only, we’ll be donating 50% of all proceeds of sales on smockpaper.com to the Amazon Conservation Association! As one of our Smock eco partners, the Amazon Conservation Association works to conserve the vitality of the Amazon – an ecosystem that is vital to keeping the planet alive and well. The Amazon is one of the world’s most important carbon banks and is home to 20% of the planet’s animal and planet species; it plays an integral part in helping slow global warming; and it’s an area threatened by deforestation.
What does that mean for you? You can nab up all of your favorite Smock goodies from our Everyday collection and in turn, we’ll do our part to help out the earth. With the holidays swiftly approaching, now is your opportunity to stock up on our festive double-sided gift wrap printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper and adorable letterpress gift tags, letterpress holiday cards and more, all sustainably printed on our bamboo paper. Help us help the planet this holiday season!