That Was Then, This Is Now

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This card was one of the first I ever printed. I don’t hate it, but I think in my early days I was so concerned with the technical aspects of printing that my designs seemed to lack joy.

I recently created a new hand-lettered design and I’m, loving it! In bright pink, they’re perfect for a bachelorette or birthday party—available here.

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I also printed them on mini cards. I picked up these gorgeous seamed envelopes a while ago, but these are the first cards I’ve printed for them. Also available in my etsy shop!bubbly_3266

 

Studio Update & a Sale!

One of my favorite stockists got in touch just days after the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling a few weeks back. As we had many times before, she wanted to brainstorm some new card ideas to celebrate the wedding boom she saw in the near future, and I was all too happy to oblige!

I offered several ideas and she added a few of her own and as always, let me run away with the design. Some were simply variations on designs that already existed in the 622 press collection. Others were brand new and allowed me to show off my ever-growing collection of wood and lead type! I’m most excited about the congratulations cards below: I love the way they evoke the old-school letterpress style of shops like Hatch Show Print.

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She also needed to restock on a fair number of best-sellers, and the result is my biggest wholesale order to date! I’ve been printing almost every day for weeks, and it feels great to be so busy.

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This week is all about folding and packaging her order and photographing new designs to list in my etsy shop. Now I have to find a home for all these new designs! To help me clear some space in my stockroom, I’m offering 25% off purchases of in-stock merchandise through the end of the month! Just enter the code “622BLOGFOLLOWER” at checkout. Enjoy!

#RealTalk: Love Edition

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:

loveyoumore_6803And 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!

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#RealTalk

Avid readers of this blog have seen a progression (intentional and non-) toward more type-based designs lately. Not only does that mean ordering fewer [very expensive] printing plates for me, but people like cards with words on them, whether it says something they couldn’t quite figure out how to put into words or weren’t sure they were allowed to say.

I’m a pretty straightforward person. If you’ve met me in real life (or maybe you can even tell from my writing!), you more or less know how I feel about you, a situation or the work that you’ve made. I’m tactful, but I’m just not going to bullshit you—in fact I think it’s incredibly rude to say one thing to someone’s face and another behind their back (or even think it really).

So it makes sense that the cards I’ve been working on lately cut straight to the point. Sure, I could send you something with a quote about your journey and how everything happens for a reason… but wouldn’t you rather have this?

sorry_6815 ugh_6818The card above was actually inspired by a girlfriend’s experience with miscarriage. She said the best, most truthful sentiment anyone expressed to her was from her doctor, who simply said, “This really sucks. You don’t have to be ok right now.”

Of course that straightforward attitude works both ways—when I’m truly excited, you know it! And so, for when exciting things are on the horizon:

OMG_6812 holycrap_6809I’m at that age where most of my friends have or are thinking about, maybe working on making babies, which still just blows my mind. I know the survival of the species depends on it and all, but DO YOU KNOW ANOTHER, SEPARATE PERSON JUST GREW INSIDE YOU AND IS NOW OUT IN THE WORLD? “Holy crap” pretty much sums up how I feel about that.

These are now all available in my etsy shop, and there’s more to come in my next post! Stay tuned!

Love is Love

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!

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