hearts galore

in case you don't know, i love hearts. it's my shape of choice. when i was growing up, my best friend & i signed notes with a heart (me) or a sun (her). we collected things with our "signs". she even got a sun tattoo (don't worry mom, i'm still tattoo free.)

to this day, i still love hearts. (and hello kitty, but that's for another post.) i was perusing etsy and found a few cute cards & prints by letterpress printers. enjoy:

#1 jack russell puppy valentine's card by drenculture

#2 heart strings art print by sweetharvey

#3 robot heart card by twinravenspress

#4 heart of wheels card by tellapress

#5 robot love letter card by sweetharvey

#6 love notes by aripress

custom heart cards

i had a customer approach me about some small (4 Bar) cards with a heart design during the fall shows and in january, she contacted me about getting some printed.

i had to resize the design she wanted, transfer the design...

and carve a new linoleum block.

i printed a bunch of cards in red. this was the first time i tried printing a linoleum block and letterpress at the same time. i thought it worked out well!

heres an up close pic of the final card:

i'm so glad it's february...it's my favorite month!

museum show 2010

wow i didn't realize this until just now, but yesterday's post was number 300! and i bet about half of the posts have to do with my pups :)

here's some pics from the museum show over thanksgiving weekend. every year i've been chosen to participate in this show, my space & products line has increased. (and every year i also freak out and worry like crazy that i didn't make enough stuff - ask hubby, he will confirm it.)

this year, i was lucky enough to have a 6' table & 8' table to display my work:

i had books on the left....

and cards & boxes on the right.

i made a couple of photo album box sets....i really love how this one came out.

the black & red piece is a box set as well...on the bottom left are post photo albums, bottom right are secret belgian binding books.

i also introduced new letterpress note cards & recipe cards, as well as some hand built jewelry boxes & recipe card boxes.

like every past year (this is my 4th year!), this show was a pleasure and honor to participate in.

now i just need to get my etsy store up and running....

recipe cards

i'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of the recipe cards i printed for the museum show - i apologize for the quality of the photos. there really isn't any time i can take pictures in daylight, since we are only getting a few hours of sun right now.

i created two designs: baking & utensils, and printed on four colors (per set) of french paper. the results were wonderful & quite popular at the show!

i also custom made the boxes and sold the cards & box as a set.

printing the cards ended up being great timing on my part since i ended up using extras for some recipes i came across for the holidays.

so much to do...

last weekend before the museum show and have a ton to do!

i printed the first round of recipe cards & will print the backs of the cards tomorrow (since they have to dry in between runs) - they look SO great!

also made a couple of photo album box sets that turned out quite beautifully!

i have many more boxes & books to make before the big show next weekend...wish me luck!

postcards

so my friend annie of annie's arts & follies mentioned this cool postcard site called postcrossing. if you decide to participate, you send out some cards & receive cards from all over the world. basically, its way better than getting a ton of bills in your mailbox.

since i read about this project, annie inspired me to work on my first postcard design:

i haven't decided what color paper to print on or what color ink to use yet...i am LOVING designing for letterpress!

baking recipe cards

i finished up the files for the next recipe cards! i would love to get one more thing done before i send the files off to the polymer plate makers. here's the french paper colors i ordered:

the recipe cards will come in packs of 8, with 2 cards in each color.

here's the front:

and here's the back:

and once again, the blue border is not part of the design, just to make the card stand out :) what do you think?

Bad Girls of the North show!

what a crazy busy weekend! the bad girls of the north show was a major success :) it was a lot of fun. i had the chance to see many familiar faces, artists & customers. friday night was packed - it looked like everyone really enjoyed themselves. one of the coolest things about this particular show is that on friday night, drinks & appetizers are offered to customers.

and here's what you've been waiting for - pics of the show!

my table

linoleum block printed cards

new pamphlet books - featuring vito :)

letterpress printed kitchen cards

letterpress kitchen & snowman cards

address books & japanese stab binding books

i always learn so much from every show and this one was no exception. i have a lot of new ideas for projects in addition to some things i'm planning to debut at the museum show in a few weeks. i took sunday off to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep, but i'll be hitting the ground running to have everything ready for the next show.

kitchen cards!

there was a bit of a setback last week - i ordered paper to print this new set of cards & ups accidentally sent my order to canada. once the error was figured out, it had to clear customs to get back into the US. i contacted french paper and received an immediate response - they sent out a new box to me next day air. i am SO impressed with their customer service. and because they responded so quickly, i was able to print my cards for the show this weekend!

here's some pics of the printing:

there are five different designs on five different colors of paper

i used a mixture of silver & black ink - so there is a bit of sheen in the prints. the darkness of the ink really shows off the detail of the drawings.

my shop puppy :)

saved the best color for last

helper puppies - they were quality assurance for the day

this was a marathon printing day - 550 cards in over 5 hours. my arm is still a little sore...but its a huge relief to have them printed. i'm thrilled with the results and will post more once they are cut down and ready to sell!

recipe cards

since i've been cooking a bit lately, i thought "i should print some recipe cards!" i put together a card design - it'll be double sided & printed on some bright fun colors (yet to be determined). i'm planning on selling them in sets of 10.

here's the front:

and the back:

(the blue border was added to make the white picture stand out - it won't be part of the print)

so what do you think?

weekend

got a lot done this weekend - glued lots of book covers and finished cutting all the book board & paper for the rest of the books. also cut down & packaged christine's notecards and mailed her package off this morning! i have 66 books made, 26 books in progress, and another 48 to glue. and one more weekend before the show. eek! i'll get everything done....just gotta keep my nose to the grindstone.

hubby & i also did a bit of decorating for halloween! this is the first year we will be giving out candy. i love that he is so excited about decorating for holidays & starting up festive traditions :) we put up a little trick or treat banner in one window & some lights in another:


you like the sweet ripped up blinds? that was a gift from vito a while back...but it actually makes the halloween stuff look better, don't you think? haha

still haven't decided on costumes yet. we don't want to be those people that dress up their dogs...yet we almost bought a hot dog costume for mia. it was actually pretty funny...but would also last for maybe .2 seconds.

i'm on day 6 of my experiment....and so far so good! starting my day off a bit earlier is having positive results. i'm more relaxed and my attitude seems more optimistic. when i got up this morning, the pups didn't even want to get up...they actually stayed on the bed and snoozed! hopefully i can continue this momentum...

snowman card set

the new winter card set is finally done! these snowmen started as doodles and now they are gorgeous letterpress cards. check them out:

these 2 color cards were printed on french pop-tone paper in berrylicious.

the first color is a background of white snowflakes (hard to see in the pictures)

...and the second color is a soft blue.

they are folded 4 bar (3 1/2" x 4 7/8") notecards...

...blank inside, and come with a kraft paper envelope.

soooo who wants to buy a set? :) i hope you enjoyed them! i will be busy working on books & other goods for the shows this weekend...what will you be up to?

business cards!

the new business cards are done drying & ready to cut!

what do you think? i'm really happy with how they turned out and am glad i printed on the extra cardstock i saved from previous cards. sooooo anyone out there want to order some custom letterpress cards from me? :)

i was busy printing the new holiday cards over the weekend and am SO happy with the results! once they are dry, i'll take some pictures to show you all.

i've also been working on making books and thought i had about 60 left to make...but i was wrong. it's more like 90. plus jewelry boxes & a couple of photo album box sets. i'm hoping to get all of the book covers glued this week so i can focus on printing and binding for the next two weeks...but that's a stretch. especially since i still have to go to my day job. but on the bright side, i get to drink more coffee!!

office

things around here have been crazy (hence the lack of a post yesterday). i received my plates for the snowman cards & kitchen cards and they look fantastic! i also got my first order of french paper yesterday...and cannot wait to print. i love paper...*sigh*

my photographer friend christine pobke also contacted me about printing some flat cards for her, so i ordered the plates & paper for that project too.

oh, and i'm researching & preparing to restore an antique book - a collection of shakespeare, publishing in the 1890's.

and preparing for art shows. did i mention i've been busy? :)

the nice thing about all of this busyness is that the more i'd doing, the more ideas i'm having - for prints, card designs, etc. and i'm feeling like i'm accomplishing stuff. that feeling alone is totally worth the lack of sleep.

here's a couple of pics of my recently cleaned office (i cleaned in preparation of my mac arrival...i know, i'm a nerd).

the office was actually a LOT worse than the before pic shows...it turned into a cardboard pig sty/storage area for a ton of random crap.

the center print is a linocut i did for a print exchange & the other four were picked from a number of print exchanges i've participated in over the years.

okay, time to get back to work!

business card printing

my press (which i've decided to name chester, after years of deliberation) had his maiden press run at his new home (the garage). chester & i had a couple of trying moments...but worked through them & basically rocked printing business cards. here's some (iphone) pics..

i originally planned to print only on stardream cover in aquamarine

but found some other stardream paper in vista (top) & aqua lagoon (middle) from previous business card press runs and decided to print them all

here's the first run in blue - i chose a brighter blue than i originally planned..

i had the printing plates made by boxcar press - who have awesome support & are very helpful

the stack of paper ready to go for press run 2

oooo pretty plum purple...

sweet!

printing went very well and i really enjoyed being able to print in our garage. i'm super excited about the new business cards and will post pictures once they are cut. they will take a few days to dry. i was also happy with how the ink colors came out on the three papers i used.

today is the big day...macbook pro is coming!