New cards for people who are not me

June 11, 2015May 24, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

Growing up in a homogeneous small town in a fairly homogeneous state, I wasn’t exposed to much in the way of diversity. Sure, I had a few (and I mean few) classmates whose skin was a different color than mine, but real differences—religion, culture, sexual orientation—were few and far between. Let’s just say it was easy to forget that not everyone celebrates Christmas.

I grew up, met new people, made efforts to broaden my horizons. I strive to be more conscientious about being inclusive in life, and in my little corner of the letterpress world. You’ve seen my same-sex marriage cards for years now—those were easy to come up with—but it’s still hard to write and design greetings for occasions you personally don’t have the cultural context for. Lucky for me, I have friends who can fill in the gaps.

So this year, keep an eye out for a more inclusive card collection! The cards pictured are all now available in my etsy shop, and please feel free to leave me a comment with a sentiment you’d like to see!

#RealTalk: Love Edition

May 28, 2015May 26, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

You guys, my boyfriend of two and a half years, the one I moved to a foreign country to be with, has never written me a love note. I’m not talking Byron and Keats here, all I want is a Valentine’s or birthday or just because card that I can look back at when the road gets rocky or when he’s traveling or when I’m feeling sad. (Full disclosure: When we were long distance he used to occasionally send very sweet, long, loving texts… but it’s just not the same!)

In fairness to him, there’s a lot of cheesy crap out there when it comes to lovey-dovey card shopping. While brainstorming straightforward sentiments, I started thinking about the love cards I’d really want to send. I started here:

And then I came up with a brilliant idea… funny and honest, and a reflection of the sender, which is really all you want in a card, right? Here’s the first batch, all of which are now available in my etsy shop. I’ve already come up with a bunch more to print, feel free to leave your ideas below!

Words with Friends

May 18, 2015May 13, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

As you may remember, just a few weeks before I moved to Bermuda, I bought a bunch of vintage wood type from a college classmate who was closing her shop. I never even got a chance to print with it in Wisconsin, it went straight from the back of my car to the containers I was loading into my crate.

Within the first few months, I had proofed all the type and was offering custom stationery sets in a variety of styles along with a handful of type-based note cards, but after that I focused on my attention on my spring collection and let my wood type gather dust.

I’m happy to report that I’m rather word-focused at the moment and my collection of vintage type is getting inked up regularly. Check out the stop-motion video I made of locking up type before printing!

The “hell yeah” card and others are now available in my etsy shop. Here are a few of my faves—check them all out here!

Oh hi! You made it all the way to the end of the post! For that you get a little sneak peek of something else I’ve been working on… more to come :) Thanks for reading!

Love is Love

May 7, 2015April 21, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

Before I moved to Bermuda, I got in touch with all my wholesale clients to see if they wanted to stock up. Not only did this save them on shipping costs for future orders, but it also meant I had less stuff to move.

One of the designs that completely sold out were my “congrats” icons. I had tried reprinting them during one my first press days here, but they’re a fairly temperamental design and things just weren’t working out. Since then I’ve been too busy to get to them!

But a few weeks ago during my printing frenzy for Driftless Studio, I also finally got all three designs on press. They’re available in the shop—hetero couple here, and same-sex couples here and here!

May Snail Mail

May 2, 2015April 27, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

I’ve done Card of the Month clubs in the past, and they were always kind of a pain, going to the post office that much. In my new life, it turns out it’s kind of great! I’m at the post office all the time anyway (plus it’s super close to our house), and sending a package every month makes me realize how quickly time is flying by.

One year ago, I was getting ready to tell the owners of my company that I was moving to Bermuda, hoping they would keep me on in some capacity, but not having any idea how that would go. Two years ago, I was on a whirlwind trip to Costa Rica with one of my dearest friends, both of us doing a little soul searching. Three years ago I was finally feeling settled in a new place, in love and happy… the year before that I was in the midst of an ugly, draining divorce. Life is crazy huh?

Anyway, the point of this post was really just to share the fun stuff I sent out in May’s Card Club! I went with a bit of a floral theme because, you know, April showers bring May flowers…. Remember, you can sign up here, or just send me an email.