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!

Every summer there is an event that reminds me just why we moved to Wisconsin. It’s called the Fishoree and, as the name implies, its a fishing ‘competition’ for kids. (Competition in the sense that there are awards given for such categories as ‘cutest fish’.) It’s a favorite of ALL my boys as it involves worms, tangled line and consequent fish-tales. Oh yes, and a locally brewed beer for my husband (who needs it after dealing with the tangled lines.) Miette loves it as well. This year she spent the entire evening squealing “I wanna catch a beauty!” (As in….“what a beauty!”) And therein lies my focus of the evening – soaking up the sheer beauty of it all.

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!

I adored camp as a child. The dusty cabins, the spirited counselors, the fireside songs — I ate it ALL up. So it was with great anticipation that I went as chaperone to my oldest’s camp this past month. My main role was as witness; witness to the constant (loud!) silliness, the new found independence, the occasional scraped knee and consequent (quickly wiped away) tears.

But I also got to participate in a few of my camp-time favorites — a treasure hunt, a hike in the woods and a visit to the canteen. Next year I am hitting the rope swing.

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

We loved seeing our Rhon letterpress wedding invitation design in pewter and verbena inks pop up in this beautiful inspiration board featured here on The Inspired Bride yesterday. We think this kind of sunshine-filled inspiration is perfect for a vibrant summer affair and we extend a big thank you to Maddy of The Inspired Bride for including Smock! Also, The Inspired Bride is celebrating the launch of their beautiful new site, so be sure to pop over and visit for lots of fabulous ideas sure to inspire.

{Inspiration Board via The Inspired Bride}
Inspiration Board Credits:
Decorated Tent, The Knot
Placecards, Martha Stewart Weddings
Groom’s Tie and Boutonniere, The Knot
Bridesmaid’s Dress, Jenny Yoo
Table Card, The Knot
Planter Decor, The Knot
Cake, Cake Girls
Invitation, Smock
Honey Jar Favor, The Knot

The Miami Herald featured Smock this week and it was so exciting. We were blown away by their amazing compliments – we love when others are as excited about what we do as us! According to the Miami Herald, our bamboo “paper’s texture is soft and elegant, and the impressions made with the cast-iron presses create a quality only possible with a craft requiring the personal attention to every detail provided by Smock’s employees – successfully mixing an antique art with contemporary charm.”

BRIDES magazine blog also mentioned Smock recently, citing our suggestions for ways to trim costs while selecting letterpress wedding invitations. Looking for ideas to keep letterpress budget-friendly? Consider using 1 ink color and opting for a reply postcard instead of a traditional reply card with envelope – both are sure to save you money without sacrificing great design.

Style Me Pretty, one of our absolute favorite wedding blogs, featured our new letterpress wedding invitation designs, recently unveiled at the 2009 National Stationery Show. Style Me Pretty also hosted a giveaway featuring our latest letterpress thank you card designs, perfect for both bridal and everyday correspondence. Thank you, Abby, for sharing our new designs with your readers! It’s always a thrill to see our letterpress wedding invitations and letterpress cards pop up in fabulous places!

Other great Smock mentions: Great photos of Smock’s National Stationery Show booth on RiverDog Prints | Maria from Ritzy Bee visits Smock at NSS | New Smock Everyday cards at NSS on design*sponge | According to Hip Hostess, Smock makes lovely letterpress | Nicole of a little sussy lists Smock as one of her favorite vendors at NSS | Smock sponsors the Brooklyn Pop Up Wedding Series | Kristen of paper crave features Smock’s new letterpress Everyday cards | New Smock letterpress Everyday cards on Freshly Blended | Traditionally Modern Designs features Smock’s letterpress cards on sustainable bamboo paper | My Mom Shops features Smock at the National Stationery Show

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.

This upcoming week at the National Stationery Show, visitors to Smock’s booth {2741} will have the opportunity to check out all of the exciting new additions to our Smock Everyday collection. New designs include 9 fresh additions to our gift wrap collection, all fun double-sided patterns environmentally printed on 100% post-consumer paper as well as numerous new letterpress greeting cards and letterpress note cards, printed on beautiful bamboo paper and paired with hand-lined bamboo envelopes. Thinking about the holidays already? You’re in luck, because so are we! By popular demand, Smock will introduce several new holiday greeting cards, gift tags and gift wraps at the stationery show so you can take care of all your holiday gift-giving needs in stylish eco-friendly fashion. All of our new designs will be available for sale on our website by the end of May and at select retailers nationwide.

In keeping with our existing collection of fully customizable letterpress wedding invitations, Smock is unveiling three new beautiful wedding invitations designs at the 2009 National Stationery Show, which kicks off in just two days! Each new design is completely chic and completely adaptable by playing with colors, fonts, patterns, envelope linings, edge painting and other embellishments. Looking for a wedding invitation that is uniquely yours and at the same time the most elegant and eco-friendly of designs? Smock has the perfect invitation for the wedding of your dreams. Visit our website to find a Smock wedding dealer near you and be sure to check out some of the great customizations Smock has printed this past year!

{New Smock letterpress wedding invitation designs -Cindrel, Sabion and Dorset}

Our new letterpress designs introduce front patterning {as seen above in Sabion and Dorset}, which will allow for even further customization when selecting your wedding invitations in addition to the ever popular back patterning that make Smock’s letterpress wedding invitations so very special. Cindrel and Dorset also showcase Smock’s exclusive calligraphy fonts, Smock Clermont and Smock Spencerian, based on the beautiful calligraphy of our master calligrapher, Debi Zeinert of Blooming Quill.