We’ve got fabulous news for New York City brides and grooms! Tomorrow we’re holding a 1-day only trunk show at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s that is not to be missed! Trunk show attendees will receive 25 free letterpress wedding invitations and reply cards in addition to their choice between our existing letterpress invitation promotions – either free envelope printing or free letterpress save the dates!

In addition to this fabulous 1-day promotion, trunk show attendees with get to meet with Smock design experts and enjoy complimentary wine and snacks. We’d love the chance to meet with you and talk about how Smock can design the perfect letterpress wedding invitations for your celebration – we look forward to seeing you there!

These letterpress social notes are a customization of our Loire design from our Social Occasions album featuring a custom calligraphy monogram printed in robin’s egg blue. They are perfect for everyday correspondence, but equally appropriate when used as beautiful, personalized letterpress thank you notes.

We’ve had the opportunity lately to print a lot of beautiful letterpress programs, tiny little books detailing order of events, wedding party members, and more. We love the personalized touch that letterpress programs bring to a celebration and can’t wait to print more.

This gorgeous letterpress program is our Lashar design with hand calligraphy accents printed in blind deboss and garden ink, printed for clients of our friends at Paper & Chocolate in Dallas. The inside pages are flat offset printed on our text weight bamboo paper.

A customization of our Vettore design, we printed this letterpress program cover in periwinkle and pewter inks for Paperwhirl in San Francisco.

This pocket-sized letterpress program was printed for Deborah of RSVP Today in Manhattan. The letterpress cover features the motif from our Rousseau pattern with flat offset printed pages. The cover and the pages are hole punched so they can be tied with ribbon.

This program was printed for the folks at Michelle’s Memos in Potomac, Maryland and features our Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. Both the covers and the insert pages are letterpress printed on our luxury bamboo paper for a beautiful stand-out program guests are sure not to leave behind.

This letterpress save the date is one of our favorites of the 2010 wedding season so far, featuring a pretty floral motif from our Social Occasions album and boasting our Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. Printed in navy ink paired with blind deboss, we printed this customization for our friends at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in New York. It’s incredibly chic and effortlessly elegant, two qualities we happen to love in letterpress save the dates.

After giving you a sneak peek into the studio space of our designer, Amy Graham Stigler, we wanted to share some photos of the open studio party she recently hosted for lucky Smock fans in Wisconsin. First up, no party is complete without gorgeous letterpress invitations. Amy shares, “The color of my studio logo (Monograham) determined the mango and seamist color combination. I needed to incorporate a fair amount of information so I wanted to keep things simple and sweet.  The striped liner really pulled everything together and gave it a bit of a French patisserie feel, which I love and matched the evening’s menu of small pastries, cookies and candies.”

Next, you’ve got to set the stage, in this case by lining the shelves with pretty examples of custom Smock letterpress wedding invitations and stationery and showing off our collection of letterpress holiday cards. And don’t forget the sweets and treats for all your guests! Amy says, “I love a good party and I actually really (really) enjoy all the fussing beforehand.  But the highlight is sharing an evening with friends…new and old.”

Then, invite your friends and have a ball. Amy’s favorite tip for entertaining a crowd – “Keep things simple. I always edit the menu as I would rather do a few things and do them well than fill a table with odds and ends. I also like to choose a ‘house’ (or in this case ‘studio’) cocktail and then offer a non-alcoholic alternative. Less is often more.”

Ok, so we’re officially dreaming up any excuse we can think of to throw a party. How about you?

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!