Pen pals

Who doesn’t love getting a hand-written note in the mail? Doesn’t it just brighten up your day to open the mailbox and see a note from a friend – and not because it’s your birthday, but just because?

I was inspired this week by a conversation with a woman at our local stationery store. She has been writing to her pen pal for 20 years! Twenty year! They’ve never met, nor does she think they ever will – her pen pal lives in the Czech Republic. They started writing when one of them saw an ad in an in-flight magazine soliciting pen pals. Wow!

This woman and her pen pal made me think of my own pen pal, whom I haven’t written to in – oh – 15 years. When I was a kid, my family moved from upstate New York to Virginia. I wrote to a friend in New York for a few years, updating her on school and life down south. But as the years went on and we each became busier, the letters sort of just trailed off. I know that my story is nowhere near as cool as the woman and her european friend, but everyone has had a pen pal story right?

We sent these two sets of personal stationery off this week. I wonder what they’ll be used for: a thank you note? a message to a far-away pen pal? If you’re as inspired by the possibilities as I am, then wherever you are, send a note to someone this week and bring a smile to their face!

Confetti Wedding Suite!

My college roommate, Emily, got married 2 weeks ago in Richmond, Virginia. We dodged Hurricane Sandy and their celebration was truly magical.

We had the honor to be a part of her paper trail from the very beginning. Remember her paint chip save the dates and Anthro Bridal Shower? If you don’t let’s recap. Emily is a beautiful, fun spirited, modern, metropolitan, smart, funny, and all together awesome woman. When we started to design her wedding suite, she loved the idea of a confetti border and wanted to use the distressed font from her save the dates. So, we came up with a few options for her–from traditional to fun and modern.

Emily and Rafael chose to go with a graphic text block and confetti border throughout their suite. We designed and printed their invitations and reply postcards in our studio. The inserts were flat printed at her local print shop on silver iridescent vellum. These were all assembled in pocket enclosure seen here and sealed with custom stickers that we designed and fabricated here.

The pocket enclosure served as the inner envelope with her guests’ first names–a great modern twist with a formal allusion. We even got a chance to practice our calligraphy skills–more on that in another post…

We had so much fun creating these for Em and Rafael and really enjoyed celebrating with them a few weeks ago. You guys are amazing and congratulations!

Modern + Minimal

Tara asked me to print a set of personalized notecards to match ones that she previously owned. When I saw these minimalist cards, I immediately fell in love–so clean, simple, and modern.

It’s an understatement to say that I love all things modern. Most of our home is furnished with modern pieces ranging from IKEA to a few special pieces (we were graciously gifted several molded ply eames chairs a few years ago). That’s not to say we don’t love a good antique or two–namely our antique printing press. And, when Tara came to pick up her new note cards, we got to talking about our shared loved for eames chairs–perfect right?

Do these cards remind you of mid century modern furniture and would you see them on an inspiration board together? What other design associations do you make throughout the day?

Mint: It’s the new black

If you’re a frequent pinterest follower like I am, you’ll notice that mint is popping up all over the place–from appliances, dresses, wallets, jewelry, and yes, even stationery. This is no surprise since soft and soothing, yet still fun and vibrant.

Sarah Jane Winter just started her own photography and graphic design business and asked us to help her produce her stationery a couple of weeks ago. Sarah Jane gave us a press ready design as well as a color sample she was hoping to match. I was elated to see that it was mint green! Maybe it’s the flood of images I see on pinterest everyday, but I have a slight obsession with MINT. I’m even trying to convince my husband to paint our front door and (future) porch swing this color. Mint is definitely the new black and I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up next year as pantone’s color of the year.

Now that we have mixed this color, we are really excited to use it on other printed work (after we finish moving into our new space…one more week to go)!

Monogram cards

We had the pleasure of working with Ivey a few weeks ago as she thought about graduation presents for friends and family. We designed a classic and minimal card featuring the monogram embedded in a dotted border offset from the edge of each card.

Ivey just told us that everyone loved the cards and her dad was jealous he didn’t get a set of his own.

Tommy, Kristin, and Olive’s new cards

Our good friends, the Solomons, just moved into their new house and threw a house warming party this weekend. For a gift, we designed and created a set of personalized cards for them.

The cards have a subtle light yellow graphic that originates on the back and trickles down the front like pearls, rain drops, rays of sun, or whatever you want imagine. We paired this subtle graphic with a bold gray blue font for their name. Blue and yellow is one of my favorite color combinations and was excited to try these two new shades out this weekend.

As we were printing these, we thought of the next iteration for Tommy, Kristin, and Olive. Since their initials are TKO, we’d love to play off the knockout acronym and create either a beautiful graphic or just use typography to create a fun play on words.

Monogram Notecards

A few weeks ago, we teamed up with Elizabeth Ryan Photography for a giveaway and Brooke was the big winner! We just finished printing her notecards with her new married monogram. 

Notecard giveaway

We teamed up with Liz from Elizabeth Ryan Photography in Baltimore for their 25 days of Christmas cheer giveaway. Her daily giveaways have offered everything from gift cards to candles – and now a set of ten monogrammed notecards from studio TEN15!

Head over to her blog to enter today’s giveaway. Thanks Liz, for allowing us to be a part of this exciting series!