Recently we had the pleasure of printing these really pretty letterpress bat mitzvah invitations for Dear Emily in Winnetka, Illinois. They are printed on our 1-ply bamboo paper in our Juine design, showcasing soft and elegant sea mist and papaya inks. Sophisticated script paired with Hebrew text make for a fresh and lady-like invitation.
We can hardly believe that the holidays are here, but we’re delighted to wish you a Merry Christmas from everyone here at Smock! To ring the holidays in right, we couldn’t resist sharing one last custom letterpress holiday card we printed this year. This joyful design was sent to us by our friends at Byrd & Bleecker in Fort Worth and features cute hanging ornaments left blank so the family could adhere photos. Isn’t this just adorable? Thanks to Byrd & Bleecker and merry Christmas, one and all!
It turns out, we’re suckers for a fabulous letterpress baby announcement around here and lately we’ve been printing a lot of really cool designs to help little ones make a grand entrance. They can be formal or quirky, designed to accommodate a photo (just adhere with double-stick tape) and look particularly awesome when paired with fun customizations like patterned backings, envelope liners and edge painting. Here are a few recent favorites…
Brought to us by Inscriptions on the Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas, this custom baby announcement features our Ellie motif printed on our seamist bamboo paper in pewter and silver inks. The envelope is lined in our Seneca pattern in pewter.
The Write Image in Salt Lake City sent us this pretty customization of our Kurai design, printed in taupe and shell inks for a soft and feminine letterpress baby announcement.
This baby announcement is a custom design that also serves as a cool letterpress holiday card, printed in pewter and spring green inks. This fun design came to us from Byrd + Bleeker in Fort Worth, Texas.
From Stationer of New Orleans, this girly baby announcement showcases our Juine design in pearl ink.
Check out the latest issue of 30West where Smock’s Creative Director Amy Graham Stigler is featured. (She’s also the cover girl, too!) Learn about Amy’s design inspiration, her love for letterpress and the unique art history background she brings to designing for Smock. Check it out online now!
At long last it’s time to share the winner of our latest Smock Design Contest! This stunning customization of our Kurai letterpress wedding invitation suite came to us from Salutations in Charlotte, North Carolina. The design is printed in sea mist and taupe inks, enclosed in a custom folio featuring our sinclair pattern in taupe on the interior with our signature champlain pattern in sea mist on the exterior. Our special guest judge, Kristen Magee of Paper Crave, shares, “This invitation is ultra elegant, and I love that it’s feminine without being too feminine. The soft florals and script font are delicate, romantic and balance wonderfully with the more straightforward sans serif font and pattern on the pocket fold. The understated color choices are also nicely balanced, making this a design that would appeal to both women and men.”
We can’t thank our friends at Saluations enough for working with us on this incredible design and a huge thank you to Kristen for taking on the difficult task of judging the contest. Stay tuned for our next batch of design contest winners in early 2011!
Once upon a time we shared with you a whole bunch of gorgeous letterpress designs that we recently honored in our Smock Design Contest. Today we’re back with our first runner up! This design is a custom letterpress birthday party invitation based on our Graham design brought to us by Luxe Expressions in Atlanta. They are printed in bright hues of custom deep pink and green and feature our roxen pattern on the back. Created for an 80s theme 40th birthday party, our guest judge Kristen Magee of Paper Crave says, “The vibrant colors and bold pattern make this such a fun invitation, and the “40” emblem graphic gives the invite a bit of a funky edge. The design is versatile and could be used for so many different types of occasions, but I love it as a 40th birthday party invite. The message it sends is, ‘I’m turning 40, I am completely fabulous, and you are going to have an absolute blast at my party!'” We couldn’t agree more.
This fall Smock, our parent company Boxcar Press and our sister company Bella Figura got a lot larger and took up residence in some sweet new digs. With our expansion (17 letterpresses, 55 employees, 24,000 square feet), we are now one of the largest letterpress shops in the country. For the past few months we have been packing up, building new walls, moving presses, expanding our print shop and moving our operations from one end of an old warehouse in downtown Syracuse, New York to the other. Now we’ve cleaned up our dust and we’re inviting you to come check us out!
Come for shop tours, printing demonstrations, free giveaways, a little holiday shopping featuring our Everyday collection (stocking stuffers! bags! gift boxes! eco gift wrap! gift tags! cards! more!), refreshments, live entertainment and more. Letterpress lovers of all ages are welcome – we’ll have lots of fun activities for kids, too! We look forward to seeing you on Saturday between 10 and 4 – see you soon!
We’re really excited today to share that Real Simple has featured our Xmas Tree wrap in their round up of Holiday Gift Wrap and Problem-Solving Tools. We love Real Simple’s tips for entertaining, decorating, wedding planning and more so it’s a thrill to be included. Thanks, Real Simple!
Created for our friends at Nest Paper Studio, we printed these cute custom letterpress holiday invitations for a fun Christmas Cordials party. They were printed in raspberry and grass inks and feature our cool new Harrison calligraphy font. We love the petite size and the fun color combination. Not to mention, this sounds like such a fun party – we’d love to get invited!
This pretty letterpress holiday design from Gus & Ruby Letterpress was designed for a fun holiday party. It’s a custom design printed in moss and red inks with a spray of leaves and holly that reminds us of all things merry and bright. Printed on our 1-ply bamboo paper, it’s a budget-friendly approach to custom holiday letterpress. A big thank you to Samantha and Whitney at Gus & Ruby for sending us this lovely design!
