Although it seems we have just kicked off the summer season, it’s time to start looking ahead to fall weddings that are only around the corner! What about fall inspires you — maybe it’s the foliage or the the cool nights or the feeling of change? One of the things we have been seeing a lot of lately is lots of jewel tones paired with light vintage colors and classic themes, these are all great inspirations for a lovely autumn wedding! We love this pairing of our Eggplant and Antique Gold inks letterpress printed in the Lashar wedding invitation design, submitted by our friends at Inklinations in Manhasset, NY.

inks: eggplant + antique gold | fonts: clermont calligraphy font + cooper | paper: ivory 2-ply bamboo | printing: letterpress

by Racheal Decker, In-house Designer.

Lindsy and I are back from our whirlwind adventure to California, and we are so excited to share photos from our trip! We had the opportunity to visit with a bunch of our amazing dealers, and even had the pleasure of teaming up with Urbanic for a kickin’ summer social. Complete with DIY pinwheels (made from swatches of our favorite eco gift wrap), delicious lemonade cocktails, and the best (organic!) ice cream ever – this was one awesome celebration of summer. Here are some photos of the set-up – stay tuned for part 2!

We had such a great time at last night’s summer social at Urbanic – here’s a sneak peak of the event! Thanks to the 200+ folks who turned out to celebrate summer, letterpress, and really cool pinwheels with us.

At long last, we’re so excited to tell you about the upcoming Summer Social that we’re hosting with Urbanic on June 9th in Venice, CA. Special friends Bash, Please, Mrs. Lilien, 100 Layer Cake, and photographers The Why We Love will be there and Sweet Lucie’s is sure to steal the show with their amazing gourmet ice cream. We’ll be crafting, sipping lemonade, mingling and celebrating summer with sundresses and good company. Hope to see you there!

Long before leaving town and setting up temporary residence in the Javits Center for the 2011 National Stationery Show, our design team was hard at work creating the perfect letterpress invitation to wow would-be visitors. Printed in vibrant hot pink and papaya inks, the invitation features highlights from our new letterpress wedding album including inspired new fonts, our show-stopping letterpress sleeve, and a great die-cut invitation shape. (Yes! We now offer letterpress sleeves and die-cuts in two awesome shapes!) Our latest designs (which we’ll share more of here soon) are all about inspired typography, bold and cheerful color, perfect patterns and an abundance of embellishment options. Letterpress sleeves, new letterpress printed belly bands, die-cuts, hand bordering, custom postage stamps and more! Albums ship in just a few weeks so visit your local Smock retailer for all of the goods!

We’re so excited to show off our National Stationery Show booth now that we’re home and recovering from the excitement of the show. Conceptualizing our booth and thinking about how we can best show off all of our exciting new products is always a long process, so seeing it come together is really rewarding. Here’s a little look at setup day and the finished booth design… Here’s what the booth looked like when we showed up. Our 10′ by 30′ space is consumed by our two large shipping crates and an oversized boom lift that decided that our booth looked like a cozy place to hang out for a bit. 20 minutes later, the space is cleared out and we’re ready for set up! A little while later, our flooring is down and the walls of our booth are being constructed… …it doesn’t take long before co-owner Harold is feeling a little loopy from playing with bolts and nuts and framing. (He actually loves setup, don’t let him fool you.) A bit later, the walls go up! After our wall framing is up, it’s time for the canvas panels that form the walls of our booth. Then, the shelving goes up and we start merchandising product. (Making time for a little lunch and a little fun along the way.) And just like that (or, really, several hours later) here’s what we had… So there you have it! Stay tuned next week for more highlights from the show, including a fun tutorial on how to make the paper flowers we used all over the booth. (We made more than 100 of them from our double-sided recycled wrapping papers!) They were such a hit we promised to share the how-to so everyone can make their own. Happy weekend!

A quick sneak peek at our National Stationery Show booth this year. Stay tuned for a complete behind the scenes look later in the week!

While we’re off at the National Stationery Show this week, you can take advantage of incredible savings on Smock stationery and paper goods! Starting today, visit One Kings Lane to enjoy a fabulous discount on our letterpress cards, keepsake boxes, gift tags and more. Happy shopping!

While we travel to New York and get the final preparations for the National Stationery show underway, we couldn’t resist sharing a little sneak peek at our latest designs. We’ve got all new additions to our ever-popular gift wrap and letterpress greeting card collections, plus all new notebooks, letterpress scratch pads and more! Oh, and we’ve got a completely re-imagined and beautifully inspired new letterpress wedding album, too. If you’re walking the show, swing by booth 2241 to check out the goods or stay tuned in the coming weeks for the full collection!

And just like that, it’s show time again! We’ve designed, printed, and packed until there is nothing left to do but grab a suitcase, hop a plane and head to New York. We’ll be blogging throughout the week and tweeting, too, so stay tuned for all of the fun updates. If you’re attending the show this year, come visit us in booth 2241 – see you in New York!