Category: paper goods

Krista & Chris’ Hand Drawn Wedding Invites

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

For those of you who’ve been following along, the big day is finally here! No, not my big day, but the day I get to reveal Krista and Chris’ wedding invites, because they got married today!

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Since Krista absolutely loved them, I drew heavily from the Save the Dates I designed and printed for them last year. As you’ll recall, I hand-drew all the leaf and laurel elements, then vectorized them so they would print cleanly. I kept the handwriting-inspired typography, and switched out the script typeface from her save the dates for a more formal calligraphy inspired font. I’m absolutely in love with it—especially in white ink on her envelopes! So gorgeous. krista_chris_0749

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We then tied the whole thing up with a wrap in her soft rose accent color. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the custom-mixed slate gray ink I printed the rest of the suite in!  krista_chris_1760 krista_chris_0747

I always encourage my brides to order their thank you notes along with their invites. One less thing to think about after the honeymoon—plus I offer a discount when they’re printed at the same time! I love Krista’s thank you notes… they really let the laurel design shine!

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After we were finished with the more formal parts of her wedding stationery, Krista reached out for one last ingenious project: In lieu of a guestbook, she distributed sheets of custom mad libs around the tables for guests to complete. I just love the thought of all her friends and family giggling as they played this classic childrens’ game, and her and her new husband enjoying what I’m sure will contain hilarious jokes and great advice.

Want to work with 622 Press for your wedding day? Get in touch here!

 

April & May Card Club

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

As I was putting together May’s Card Club a few weeks ago, I realized with all the new retailers, new projects and birthday fun, I forgot to post April’s edition! So get ready for a double feature, folks.

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April is National Letter Writing month, so I wanted to make sure to include a handful of my letterpress postcards—which are now sold out by the way!—as well as Mother’s Day and graduation cards so my subscribers are stocked up for early May.COTM_516_2428

For May’s bundle, I actually had a special request from a subscriber for more baby cards. So I added my awesome Holy Crap cards to the collection I had planned, and even more cards perfect for new parents will head out the door next month, so stay tuned! Want in on the action? Join the club here!

New Retailer: Apartment 528

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 1 Comment

April has really been one for the record books on the wholesale front—I have another new retailer to announce! I don’t mean to be all #blessed, but I totally am!

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Chicago’s Apartment 528 was opened in 2009 with one goal in mind: To rescue boring apartments (and homes!) with a unique mix of colorful handmade product and vintage furniture. Owner India Shannon has such an amazing eye for curating products that make a big impact and could change your space all on their own, but play nice with everything in the shop, so you could also do a full redesign!

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Naturally, she gravitated toward my brightly colored cards featuring large scale vintage wood type! She also got the last of a few designs, like “YOU’RE AWESOME” below!

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The most exciting part about her order is that Apartment 528 is the first retailer to also carry my embroidery hoops! Chicagoans can check out a good selection of my abstract pieces and the original cactus hoop, along with a few new ones! The online shop is now looking a little sparse in the embroidery department (I’m working on it!), but get in touch and I’ll make something just for you!

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Pink Starfish Personal Stationery

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

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A few months ago, a friend got in touch about a birthday present for his wife. She’s a list-maker like me, so he thought it would be cool to create personalized list-sized paper as well as stationery. She adores pink and starfish, so I immediately knew one of the vintage cuts Diane sent to me years ago would be perfect in a custom pink ink! We decided to add her initials in a brighter fuchsia and create two different designs that worked perfectly together.  I love how the set turned out, and so did she!

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Tinder Love Stories

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

I love the small glimpses my work gives me into my customers’ lives—whether they’re the guy who opened an etsy account just to buy a handmade “I’m sorry” card, stocking up on congratulations cards because this is the summer all their friends are getting married, or creating custom invitations for one of the biggest days of their lives, every order reminds me of the small acts of kindness that are so prevalent, yet often overlooked, in this world.

tinder_7905My “So glad you swiped right” cards have definitely yielded the best stories. Recently I had the most moving order from a man in Brazil, who asked if I could write his message (which was in Portuguese) in the card and send it halfway around the world. Naturally I obliged… and then snooped to see what he had written (thank you Google Translate!). Turns out, I had just transcribed one of the sweetest love notes I’ve ever read!

Another customer shared the way she and her boyfriend met after purchasing the card. In her own words:
“Robert and I met on Tinder almost 2 years ago! I had been on Tinder for a couple of months before matching with him, and had never actually had anything come out of it besides a few almost date-worthy conversations. When we matched, I almost didn’t believe he was real because of how inconsistent his pictures were (some with a beard, some with a mustache, short hair, long hair, etc.)…but decided to still swipe right, because what are the odds I was actually going to date one of these people?

“After a day of talking, I immediately realized he was different than any of the other guys I was talking to, mainly because he didn’t ask me right away to get drinks or meet up. So, about a week after we started talking, I took a risk asked him out on a date! I wanted to meet at a super public space for our first date because I was terrified to meet someone off the internet, let alone Tinder (hello catfish!), so we met at a bar in Chicago for dinner. After a 6 hour dinner, we finally decided our first date should end…only to have our second date the next day. Two years and endless amounts of dates later, we both couldn’t be happier that we made the somewhat shallow decision to be on Tinder way back when :)”

And here’s a photo of the couple because they’re adorable. Share your Tinder love story below!

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