Don’t forget our Monday Morning Mismoas wholesale event today – happening now! And this evening we’re looking forward to a fabulous sample sale to benefit the Fresh Air Fund, open to the public and all friends of Smock. We hope to see you there!

Smock is thrilled to be hosting a sample sale in conjunction with the New York International Gift Show and our Monday Morning Mimosas event with Delphine, Green Paper Company, Russell+Hazel and Linnea’s Lights. All proceeds from the sample sale, featuring the finest in letterpress, paper goods, stationery, hand-poured soy candles and chic office supplies, will benefit Fresh Air Fund, an organization that works to help inner city children experience life in nature outside out of the city. If you’ll be in New York on the evening of Monday, August 17th, we would love for you to join us for an evening of fun to benefit a tremendous cause. We can’t wait to see you there!

Here at Smock, we absolutely love working with our fabulous Smock dealers. We are continually and endlessly inspired by the customizations they dream up and love printing fabulous letterpress invitations, save the dates, escort cards, programs, social notes, business cards and so much more for their clients. In order to recognize the incredible adaptations of our Smock designs that we have been printing in collaboration with our stores, we recently honored ten breathtaking customizations that captured our imaginations and made us smile with glee as we printed them, packaged them up and sent them off to happy clients around the globe.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be sharing each of the winning customizations, but we wanted to share a sneak peek of the many lovely letterpress creations that have had us oohing and ahhing for months…

A big congratulations and a heartfelt thank you to the stores we worked with to create these incredible designs…
Real Card Company in Seattle
Alphagraphics in Chicago
The Write Image in Salt Lake City
Wordshop in Denver
Arabesque in Naples, Florida
Kate’s Paperie in Manhattan
RSVP Studio in Toronto
Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan
Paper Love in Brooklyn

Having launched at last year’s National Stationery Show, making the trip to New York City for the stationery show this year was especially fun for the Smock team! It was such an incredible opportunity to meet with the awesome stores we work with daily, to introduce ourselves to new stores and to reconnect with friends old and new in the world of paper and letterpress. Plus we were super excited to introduce all of our new designs including new Everyday letterpress cards and gift wrap, three new letterpress wedding invitation designs, and a brand new letterpress and offset Social Occasions album, full of beautifully customizable calling cards, letterhead, hang tags, correspondence cards and social occasion invitations.

Smock’s Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, did an amazing job ensuring Smock’s booth was absolutely beautiful – it was such a nice place to be during the show as we introduced our many visitors to Smock! It was a lot of hard work pulling the booth together at the Javitz Center, but luckily we had co-owner Harold on the team to make sure everything went smoothly. And, of course, we couldn’t leave Syracuse without making sure to bring along our #1 Smock team member, Jasper, who is always generous with his smiles and two year old charm.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to visit Smock at the National Stationery Show! For everyone who wasn’t able to be in New York, we have more photos and so many exciting new letterpress designs to share soon!

These letterpress wedding invitations, paired with a custom folio, are truly exceptional, one of those amazing pieces we look forward to printing. The invitation is our Lashar design boasting a very regal gold and eggplant ink color combination with custom calligraphy accents in Clermont paired with our Cooper font in all caps. The folio features our Sottern pattern in gold on the exterior and our Sinclair pattern in eggplant on the interior. The envelope liner is just as pretty, showcasing our ever popular Seneca Stripe pattern in gold for a complete package that is nothing short of extraordinary. Wouldn’t you just love to have one of these beautiful creations land in your mail box?

Thank you to Inklinations in Manhasset, NY for sending us this beautiful wedding invitation customization!

At Smock we are no strangers to printing incredible customizations of our letterpress wedding invitations brought to us by the great stores we work with, but recently we’ve also been lucky enough to print some fabulous customized invitations for a wide range of other occasions. We love the idea of adpating a wedding invitation design for other events because really, letterpress is gorgeous for any celebration, isn’t it?

This version of our Kurai design, brought to us by RSVP Today in New York City, is updated in papaya and silver inks and includes Hebrew text for a result that is youthful and elegant. We love how a simple pop of bright color, along with our Beaumont serif font, changes the look of the design so dramatically and makes it so perfect for inviting loved ones to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah.

We love this take on the original Helani letterpress design customized as a perfectly adorable baby announcement, a variation on the Helani reception card for a client of Kustom Kreations in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Printed in clover and lake inks, with the addition of the very sweet Etienne script font, it’s bright and fresh and the perfect way to celebrate the birth of a beloved little one.

Printed for Luxe Expressions in Atlanta, this invitation is for a bridal showcase hosted by The Atlantan Brides, and boasts bright raspberry and pewter inks with tangerine edge painting in a custom design based on Helani. The cheerful envelope liner is our Oesa pattern in fun tangerine ink and together it makes for a truly festive invitation. We love this use of a bold and bright letterpress design for a coporate event.

Sweetly printed on our Ellie note card from Smock’s social line, this baby shower invitation is truly adorable. We can think of no better way to invite guests to celebrate the upcoming birth of a new loved one.

This version of Nevis was printed in lake and midnight inks for a farewell brunch and features edge painting in gold, which we absolutely love. Printed at our Save the Date size, the invitation is perfect for inviting loved ones to celebrate good food and good cheer and was brought to us by Arabesque of Naples in Naples, Florida.

Today we’re really excited to introduce one of the fabulous new stores Smock is working with in Hong Kong in our new Smock Store Spotlight feature. Julie Sung is the proprietor of Six Chancery Lane, the exclusive location of Smock’s letterpress wedding invitations in Hong Kong, and she happily shared some incredible insight and a look into her fabulous shop. Six Chancery Lane is a unique shop devoted to Julie’s handmade soaps and her love for letterpress, a combination we find especially fun.

Julie grew up in Taiwan, but spent many years in the U.S. when she was younger, having just recently moved to Hong Kong about five years ago. Her background includes experience in the media industry, in both television and movies, but her passion has always been design and creating things that are handmade. Julie shares, “I think I have found my calling with Six Chancery Lane – wonderful, thoughtful, handmade products and great designs just make me happy. I get so much satisfaction out of creating beautiful stationery for my clients or seeing them appreciate a beautifully packaged bar of our handmade soap.”

We were so intrigued by the concept of Six Chancery Lane as a soap and letterpress boutique that we just had to know more about Julie’s inspiration behind her lovely store…

Six Chancery Lane really is a reflection of who I am and what I love, bringing together my two passions – handmade soaps and letterpress – and combining it with a desire to share products that are unique, handcrafted, not mass-produced, environmentally-friendly, and beautiful, with people who care about the same things. Originally, I started making soaps myself when I couldn’t find anything suitable for my sensitive skin in retail stores. I immediately fell in love with the craft of soapmaking, ultimately spending countless hours in my kitchen researching, testing new recipes and improving upon existing ones, until I finally had to find more space! Our soaps are all made in-house at Six Chancery Lane from the very best ingredients and then individually wrapped in beautiful paper I have personally sourced from around the world. I fell in love with letterpress when I was planning my own wedding and discovered, to my dismay, that I could not find letterpress in Hong Kong. I decided to learn all I could about letterpress, through research and taking classes in the U.S. Through Six Chancery Lane, I have finally have a venue to bring beautiful letterpress cards and stationery to discerning brides and customers in Hong Kong.

And we just had to know…
If you could describe your personality in letterpress, which Smock invitation would you be and why?
I would have to choose “Haddington” in black and raspberry ink with a raspberry Champlain liner. It is simple, clean, and subtle; classic yet contemporary at the same time. The splash of bright color on a black and white background stands out without trying too hard.

What are some fun traditions typical of Hong Kong weddings that you enjoy?
An interesting tradition for Hong Kong weddings is something known as “Door Games”. On the day of the wedding, the groom accompanied by his groomsmen, must go pick up the bride at her home. But before he can get in the door to see his bride for the first time, he must pass a series of test and tasks presented to them by the bridesmaids who are guarding the door. The “games” include quizzing the groom on facts about his future wife and other physical and embarrassing deeds. The bridesmaids can be pretty creative with what they demand the guys to do. It’s always a lot of fun and laughs. Of course, I enjoy this tradition, because I’m on the serving end and not the receiving!

What’s your top pick destination for first time travelers to Hong Kong?
Hong Kong is such a dynamic city. It really is a blend of East and West. There is so much to do, but if you could only do one thing, I would recommend taking in the breathtaking view of the city on Victoria Peak. Hong Kong has some of the best architecture in the world, and when the city is lit up at night, there really isn’t anything else in the world that really compares.

Where are your favorite places to shop?
I love to browse small, distinctive, local shops in SoHo, Hong Kong. There are a lot of great boutiques selling everything from trendy clothes to antique jewelry. I also love night markets in Taipei. You can find all sorts of wonderful things for amazingly low prices.  Not to mention there is a lot of delicious street food for you to sample. Oh, and I can spend hours on Etsy.

Why did you feel compelled to bring Smock’s signature bamboo letterpress to the people of Hong Kong?
Well, first of all, the designs are amazing. So clean and classy, yet very modern. Also, I love the fact that Smock is so eco-friendly. A lot of times people think things that are environmental means you have to sacrifice on quality or looks, but Smock proves that that’s not the case. And basically because letterpress from Smock is about the most beautiful I’ve seen and I just want to share that with people in Hong Kong.

Thank you so much, Julie, for sharing a glimpse into what Six Chancery Lane is all about! We love knowing more about the great places where Smock is featured and hope you’ll make Six Chancery Lane one of your stops if you’re ever in Hong Kong. This is just the first of several Smock Store Spotlight features to come and we can’t wait to share more of the great shops where you can find Smock across the globe!