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!

Cup Match Party!

July 30, 2015July 14, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

It’s Cup Match weekend here in Bermuda! Though technically the holiday commemorates the day of emancipation for Bermuda slaves (surely something to celebrate!), it’s better known for the two-day cricket match between opposite ends of the island. Since everyone has Thursday and Friday off from work, that means lots of boating, drinking and parties!

Andrew has hosted a cup match party every year since he moved, and this year I helped him up his game with a fancy invitation. It’s funny how even though it was a digital project, the old school letterpress aesthetic I’ve been using for some recent 622 press projects comes through!

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.

Fill In the Blank

February 28, 2015February 25, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

While I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the years designing and producing custom invitation suites for weddings and parties, I realize not every event has the budget or timeline necessary for bespoke invites.

However, I believe more casual events deserve special stationery too, so I created the first several designs in a new line of fill-in invitations. Perfect for a dinner party, kids’ birthday, or casual shower, these flat letterpress invitations feature space to write in the details and are available in five designs—with more to come.

My two favorite designs (above) incorporate extra-special handmade elements. One features a hand-painted watercolor ombre background, while the other’s polka dots were carved by hand before being letterpress printed in baby blue ink. (And the latter has matching coasters available as well!)

These and more—bikes, daisies, lace—available in the shop!

Readymade Wedding Invitations

January 8, 2015January 9, 2015 ~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

As I’ve mentioned in a few past blog posts, I’ve been working on wedding invitation designs that couple can just pluck off the digital shelf, send me their event information, and—presto!—their invites arrive within a few weeks. Last year I had several couple get in touch with too little time before their nuptials, so I thought these would be the perfect solution for last minute brides.

I’ve also recently realized that for non-designers, starting to brainstorm a design from scratch is totally overwhelming. I’ve had a few designs bopping around my head for a while that haven’t quite suited any of my clients thus far—so my hope is that by having a design in front of them, couples will find the process easier.

Find all current designs here—I’ll be adding more all the time! Get in touch if you’re getting hitched!