Bespoke hand-drawn save the date coasters

October 25, 2015October 20, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 5 Comments

Well you guys, it’s official. These are my new favorite save the date coasters of all time ever.

Bride-to-be Krista came to me with some pretty fabulous inspiration pieces featuring hand-drawn nature-inspired illustrations. She also knew she wanted to avoid a super-swashy wedding script, opting instead for more modern typography.

Taking cues from her guidelines, I went to my sketchbook—always a treat—to sketch up some leafy laurels. After spending a little time vectorizing them, I created a number of options incorporating combinations of hand-drawn fonts. A few rounds of changes later, we had it!

I printed them in a custom blue-grey from her color palette and I’m so pleased with the results!

Interested in a set of custom coasters of your own? Get in touch!

Watercolor Works: Fruit & Flowers

September 16, 2015September 12, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

I find that that inspiration comes in waves—for a week or two I’m all about new letterpress projects, the next it’s sewing, and the next it’s drawing. Recently, I’ve felt inspired to work with watercolors again. I’ve got some top secret ideas for a new product line (stay tuned!) but in the mean time, new original paintings are available in my shop!

As always, these lovely vignettes were styled and shot by the incredibly talented Laurels & Stars Photography. I’ve also been super busy with design work and have had the opportunity to work some watercolor into a recent logo project! The client hasn’t picked one yet, but I’m rooting for the watercolor!

Custom business cards for a fellow Etsyan

September 14, 2015September 8, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 3 Comments

I love working with other Etsy sellers. They value the handmade nature of my work, their familiarity with the site eliminates any technical issues, and they’re usually really great about giving feedback and letting me know when the final product has arrived. So when Sharon got in touch about ordering business cards, I was all too happy to help!

She had a branding package created by another designer, but unfortunately the original designer was unreachable and Sharon only had low resolution JPGs—not good enough files for me to order printing plates. Luckily, I’m awfully handy with Illustrator, so I spent the better part of a day recreating her logo and the gorgeous illustrations from her branding package and we were ready to go!

Sometimes, it can take quite a few rounds to get the design right, but this process was fairly painless. I rush-shipped in some ecru paper, ordered her printing plates and got to work. These cards are more intricate than many I’ve done and I just love the way they turned out!

Make sure to take a moment to check out her shop—it’s filled with amazing vintage jewelry from the early 1900s. This necklace is one of my favorites—leave it to me to hone in on the diamonds!

Reprints & Revamps

April 23, 2015April 17, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 1 Comment

Last week, I sent off an order from my longest standing—and if we’re being honest, one of my favorite!—wholesale client. Driftless Studio has been carrying 622 press goodies consistently since 2009. The owner, Anne, is fabulous to work with—tactile and appreciative of the artsy imperfections of letterpress; decisive and trusting of her intuition when it comes to stocking the shop; and always offering creative ideas to collaborate on pieces she thinks will sell well.

These collaborations have resulted in a few designs that are completely exclusive to her shop as well as small tweaks on existing designs—like our Best Day Ever cards in a bunch of new colors! I printed extras for my etsy shop as well, so get a multi-pack here, or individual cards here, here and here.

Driftless Studio is located right in the heart of downtown, which is dominated by UW-Madison, so anything printed in red or Wisconsin-themed always sells well. With graduation soon approaching, they stocked up! The Wisconsin notecards are also available in my etsy shop.

The best part about having such a long-standing relationship is that Driftless still stocks a number of designs I haven’t had a chance to print recently. With more than 100 unique cards, it’s hard to keep them all in stock at once, so when the shop needed more nice wheels and magnolia thank you cards, I was all too happy to reprint some for the 622 etsy shop as well.

A Year of Letterpress

January 23, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

When I redesigned my website a few months ago, I gave my card-of-the-month club a bigger presence. I love the idea of creating a relationship with stationery lovers and sending them a little something special each month.

However, the card club does skew toward gift giving, and if you know you’ll be moving sometime throughout the year, or you just want everything all at once, it wouldn’t work for you. So, I recently created a listing for a year’s worth of cards. The collection covers major special occasions—birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc.—and a handful of holidays, plus thank you cards and greeting-free notes you can use for any occasion.

Truth time, folks: I also have an ulterior motive with this one. I’m hard at work on a new collection for spring and I’m running out of space for all my inventory! So, for one more week, a set of 40 cards will run you just $80! Once things settle down and I find space for everything, they’ll go up to $100, so get them now! Go! Go buy them!