New Personal Stationery

March 25, 2015March 8, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

I have an uncle that’s really into antiques—when they built their house, they incorporated display space for a well-curated collection of old signage, vintage machines, furniture and more. So it was no surprise when he sent me a link to an awesome Craigslist find: a complete 18-point lead font for $40.

Needless to say, I scooped it up right away and it has become an essential component in my studio as it mixes in so well with my larger type. It’s also the perfect size for stationery featuring a full name instead of just a few initials. And because it’s lead type, it can be printed with a very deep impression into the paper—it’s really incredible in person! You can order the new stationery here, or just send me a message! Enjoy!

Somebody get me a cocktail

March 21, 2015March 13, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 1 Comment

Today is one I’ve been waiting for—in a few hours, a dear friend and her husband (and first Bermuda visitors) arrive and tonight we’re celebrating her 30th birthday. So it seems an appropriate day to blog about cocktails!

This month I’ve been painting a lot—reviving a love for watercolor I’ve had since childhood. A few weeks back, I started a series of classic cocktails sketched with pencil and illuminated with watercolor. I love the opportunity for both wet work—where the colors mix into each other—as well as layering transparent color on top of an area that has already dried, to create the illusion of glass.

The original paintings are now available in my etsy shop and I think they’d make the absolute perfect art for a home bar or even your kitchen! I’ll probably keep adding to this collection—do you have a favorite cocktail I should paint? Leave a comment below!

Colette Allen Business Stationery

March 18, 2015March 6, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

This project one of my favorites from last year. Colette Allen was founded by Meighan Newhouse in 2012 out of a passion for job satisfaction. She believes if you are going to spend the majority of your time working, you should love what you do. Or at least like it a lot.

When she went looking for someone to collaborate with for her business stationery, she found someone who loves what they do—me! She already had a fabulous logo designed by Red Meets Yellow, so we put together a clean and simple design that would show off the impression of letterpress and applied it to two-sided business cards and a flat two-color notecard. Add matching bright green envelopes and voila! Business stationery any entrepreneur would be proud of.

Warm Gold Wedding Invites

March 15, 2015February 26, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been reshooting and pitching letterpress projects to various blogs lately, and it made me think about all the projects you missed while I wasn’t blogging last year! So, I’m going to start reminiscing and featuring a few of my favorites over the next couple weeks. Remember: if you see something you like, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

First up: One of the other wedding invitations I had on my plate last year. This one was a little simpler than Amy’s wedding stationery extravaganza, but no less beautiful.

When the bride, Melissa, contacted me, she already had a design for her invitations worked up—and it featured a crest that the groom had drawn himself. I love that the couple worked together to create their invites! I helped Melissa with some of the technical aspects of the files while she had a trial version of InDesign, and converted the leaves to vectors myself.

Since I have two different gold inks (one that prints like shit but is very sparkly, and one that is not so sparkly, but more more reliable when it comes to print quality), I sent Melissa a few test samples with different proportions of each ink to choose from. Then, I spent a couple hours chopping up some lovely Pearl white Lettra paper and got to work!

The invitations turned out beautifully, with the simple design really showing off the impression one can achieve with letterpress.

It’s Business Time!

March 11, 2015February 25, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

Ok, first of all, let’s go watch this hilarious video that inspired the name of this post. Go! What? You’re at work and you don’t have headphones? First of all, that’s just silly. Second, save the link so you can watch it tonight! Totally worth it.

Now that we’ve got the important stuff out of the way, I wanted to share a project I printed about a month ago for a Wisconsin photographer. Erin had seen the flat notecards that I printed for 622 press posted on our facebook page and wanted a set for her business: Don’t Blink Photography!

Her logo was perfect for the job and I love how the silver ink sits on the kraft paper—it’s slightly coated, so the ink is much more metallic than on my standard white cotton paper. And the best part: This project was super seamless, she just sent me her logo and I ordered plates and got to work, no muss, no fuss. I enjoyed it so much I’ve decided to offer flat business stationery in my etsy shop! Find it here. Enjoy!