We can’t think of anything that shows gratitude and appreciation more than a beautiful hand written note on a lovely letterpress thank you card printed on soft bamboo paper. We’ve printed a few lately that have left us dreaming of mailboxes full of sweet sentiments on pretty letterpress cards and could not resist sharing them.

Brought to us by Perfectly Personal by Jen in Chappaqua, New York, this Rhon thank you note is printed in saffron ink on ivory. This card is sunny and bright and sure to bring smiles to the faces of loved ones.

Printed in pearl and clover, these pretty thank you cards are our Chasseral design. Created by Paper Dolls of Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, New York, these note cards are the perfect way to thank loved ones for sharing in your celebration.

Using our Cavall design in 1-color letterpress, printed in raspberry ink, these letterpress thank you cards were brought to us by No Regrets in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Sitting down to write thank you notes can only be considered delightful with cards as lovely as these.

Getting to see the latest customizations of our letterpress wedding invitations is so much fun for us and so often these days we find ourselves completely smitten by the patterns and colors couples are selecting for envelope liners. Our envelopes are made with our gorgeous bamboo paper and each one is hand-lined so that your envelope can show off your personality just as vividly as the invitation design itself. Envelopes have never looked so good! All of our envelope liners are custom printed just for you, so you get to choose from our 27 patterns and our 37 ink colors to make a liner all your own.

This envelope liner is our Seneca Stripe pattern printed in black ink. How chic!

Our Clairveaux pattern printed in black, this envelope liner is especially pretty.

This liner is the pretty Geneva pattern in verbena ink, a bright color makes a bold statement that we love.

Refined and elegant, this envelope features Rousseau in midnight ink.

This envelope liner is completely fun using our Seneca Stripe again, this time printed with verbena ink.

Printed in clover ink, this liner is our Willoughby pattern, one of our most popular.

Clairveaux printed in gold ink makes for a beautiful and traditional look.

Another lovely envelope with a Willoughby liner, this one in sea mist ink, this envelope also features a letterpressed return address on the back.

We just released 21 new letterpress greeting cards, all letterpressed sustainably on bamboo paper, and each with sweetly patterned lined envelopes. They’re the first greeting cards to be letterpressed on eco-friendly bamboo paper (hooray!), and the collection includes happy birthday cards, valentine’s day love cards, sympathy cards, congratulations cards (perfect for baby or engagements or weddings), and mother’s day cards. See the whole letterpress greeting collection – and buy your favorites! – at www.smockpaper.com. Here are a few of our favorites. Enjoy!

The Amazon Conversation Association is one amazing environmental nonprofit that we support through 1% for the Planet (we donate 1% of sales to the ACA and the Pesticide Action Network) — but we are also so excited to support the Amazon Conservation Association by printing pro bono these letterpress cards for them this year. Letterpressed on bamboo paper of course….the sweet illustration is by Susan Cousineau, a Los Amigos Researcher in 2008.

We had to hold ourselves back from posting hundreds of photographs of this Vettore letterpress wedding invitation. Since we custom make each of our pocket folios, clients can choose whatever patterns and ink colors they want on the interior and exterior. So check out this awesome, drop-dead gorgeous folio in spring and pearl inks (interior pattern is clairveaux, the exterior pattern is a custom pattern inspired by the Vettore illustrations). Oh we are totally in love! Sent to us by our friends at Salutations in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We loved seeing the Vettore design in spring green + midnight — what an elegant letterpress save the date! Sent to us by Union Street Papery in San Francisco.

We have a feeling gold is going to be the big color in the world of 2009 letterpress wedding invitations. Not a gaudy old-fashioned over the top gold of course, but an elegant, pretty, sophisticated, modern gold. We love our Lashar design letterpressed in gold + black (with the invitations, reply cards, and place cards backed in a cool flood of raspberry). Both the invitation envelopes and the reply card envelopes are lined with our Marev pattern in gold. Wow.

Wow. This stationery just made our jaws drop when it came through our print shop. The combination of envelope lining (willoughby pattern in midnight) + backing (seneca pattern in pool) + the name letterpressed in midnight ink + rounded corners + ivory bamboo paper is so perfect! This design was sent to us by our friends at Salutations in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Here are a few great ideas from Smock’s client coordinator Tiffany Field that will help keep your letterpress invitation costs down, while still giving you a really wonderful letterpress wedding invitations.

Take a 2 or 3 color design down to 1 color
Many of our 2 and 3 color designs look equally impressive when printed in one color. Fewer colors mean fewer runs through the press which equals less expense. Our designer BethAnn is amazing at this – she knows just what to add and take away so that your design looks just as inviting as its more colorful counterpart.

Splurge on a 2 or 3 color design for the invitation and opt for 1 color accessory pieces
If you absolutely cannot live without a multi-color invitation, opt for your other pieces (reply card, directions card, reception card, etc) to be printed in 1 color. You will get the same impact with your invitation while saving considerably on your additional pieces.

Downsize and use a smaller size card (i.e. a reply card size for save the date)
Some budget savvy friends of ours came up with this idea for their clients’ save the dates and birth announcements, and the idea has really taken off. This is one of my absolute favorite cost cutting options – they are such a sweet little size!

Eliminate the reply card all together and put the contact information on the invitations
This idea is becoming more popular with brides who are not just minding their budget but the environment as well. Printing your reply information in the bottom left hand corner of your invitation is an acceptable alternative that can save you money.

Use a “website card” (usually the size of a place card or reply card) instead of a direction and accommodations card
Website cards direct guests to a site that will feature information related to your event – directions, accommodations, weekend activities, etc. This is a great idea, especially for the brides who have a wealth of information on their websites. From a guest’s point of view, I think they would appreciate that one card can direct them to so much information; I know that trying to keep track of so many invitation inserts can be challenging to many people. This allows them to access information about the wedding at their convenience.

Choose a reply postcard instead of a reply card and envelope
Reply postcards are less $, less postage, less bulk (but also less formal).

Pictured below: #1. Our 2 color Chasseral wedding invitation (on right), letterpressed in one color (on left) // #2. The Cavall letterpress reply card postcard (double-sided) // #3. Sweet, small save the dates (these cards are the same size as a reply card). Engadine design on left; Lashar design on right. // #4. Rhon two color wedding invitation (on left), with 1 color reply card and 1 color direction card (on right)

So it turns out our letterpress wedding invitation designs can make perfect baby announcements too. This is a too sweet customization of Sutton — dreamed up by Paces Paper in Atlanta, Georgia. We are in love!