Out of Town

To all of my wonderful clients and readers: I wanted to let you know that I am going to be out of town this week, Thursday (today) through Sunday. I am traveling to Minneapolis to go to one of my younger cousin's weddings. This trip is both kind of exciting and making me a little nervous, because I haven't seen this particular part of my family for 15 years. I spent a little bit of time last weekend going through some old photos and found the photo at the top of this post. This photo was taken during the summer of 1995, which was the last time that I saw any of them in person. I'm the girl in the pink shirt on the far right, and was 11 years old at the time. My cousin Heidi who is getting married on Saturday is the one standing right behind me in the plaid shirt and overalls. She was 9 when this photo was taken, and the other three girls are also cousins who are in Minneapolis, who I will get to see at the wedding.

Aside from seeing my family that I haven't seen in a while and attending Heidi's wedding, I'm hoping to do some awesome Minneapolis work-related things while I am there, including meeting the uber-talented calligrapher/illustrator/designer, Crystal Kluge, in person. Crystal and I have been working together for a little while now on a few different collaborative projects including a few wedding invitations suites and some really cute holiday gift tags this last Christmas, but have never actually met in person, so I'm super-excited to finally meet her! (Click on the tag at the bottom of this post to see some of these projects! They are awesome!) A trip to one of the letterpress studios that I idolize, Studio On Fire, may also be in order, as they are located in Minneapolis as well.

If any of you out there are waiting to hear back from me on a print job or design work, or have recently made an inquiry about my services, I will be back to work on Monday morning (March 1st) and will answer your e-mails as soon as I can! Wish me luck and have a great weekend!

Mini Promotional Notecards for In The Now Weddings

Are you getting married in Orange County, California this coming spring, summer or fall? If the answer is yes, you really ought to contact Amanda Auer, the owner and wedding planner behind In the Now Weddings and Events. Amanda contacted me back in August of last year because she was holding a special party to promote her business and wanted some really special and unique favors to hand out to her guests. What Amanda desired was to create a set of letterpress-printed, modern, 3" square, folded notecards with envelopes in sets of 5, with different love-related quotes on them, that guests could take home. I thought it was a really sweet idea! Amanda came up with the quotes and the design and Twin Ravens Press did the letterpress printing! Here are all five, sweet, mini-notes together. Click on the picture to make it larger if you'd like to read the quotes.

I love the modern style of these sweet, little cards and I love how Amanda made them coordinate with the look and branding of her business. Each card measures 3" square, when folded, and was printed with black ink on Crane Lettra Bright White 100% cotton paper. The quotation was featured on the front and the In The Now Weddings logo was featured on the back. Each card came with a coordinating white envelope.

Isn't this an awesome idea for a promotional giveaway?!? I love it! It's way better and more memorable than ordering something generic as a promotional item, like magnets or pens. Here are a few more images so you can see the cards closer.

So cool! Working with Amanda was a real pleasure and I imagine hiring her to coordinate a wedding or event would be equally rewarding. I hope she and I get to work together again in the future!

If you are interested in having a custom promotional card or other letterpress printed favor created for your business, wedding or upcoming event, please contact us. We'd love to talk to you about your ideas!

Thank you so much Amanda! Keep up the great work!

450

Sometimes it's the little things in life that really make your day. You know, like getting to drink a nice glass of red wine and eat tasty fisherman's stew while sitting next to a lovely wood stove on a cold day in December at your favorite restaurant. Or, stomping through puddles like a child on a spring day while wearing big rubber boots with little cherries all over them. Or, having 450 (!) people call you a favorite on etsy! Yeah, I may be gloating just a bit, but we reached 450 fans today in our etsy shop, which is pretty rad. Thank you to everyone out there, who has helped to make this possible. You are the best...

October Special: Business and Calling Cards

Happy October Everyone! I've been pondering the idea of doing semi-monthly specials for a while now on certain retail products that we print or on custom printing, and I've decided that we're going to give it a shot! I know I write a lot on this blog about all of the awesome wedding-related stationery that we design and print, but you should know that we also print some wonderful business-related cards and stationery as well!

So, for the month of October, our special will be (drum roll, please): 10-20% Off on all Business or Calling Card orders!

You heard me right! If you are a current business or calling card customer of Twin Ravens Press, place an order with a deposit for reprints of your current business card design between October 1 and October 31, 2009 and receive 20% off of your printing!

If you are a new business or calling card customer, don't worry, you can get in on this deal too! If you haven't ordered business or calling cards from us before, but would like to, place your order with a signed contract and deposit between October 1 and October 31 and receive 10% off of the printing of your cards. This discount does not apply to design work or platemaking.

If you have any questions, or would like to place your order, please contact us at twinravenspress@gmail.com!

Become a Fan of Twin Ravens Press on Facebook!

Twin Ravens Press now has a Facebook page! Log-in to Facebook and become a fan to get updates on what I'm up to in the studio, and to hear about special sales on greeting cards, new card designs and potentially deals on custom printing in the near future!

Shop Twin Ravens Press at Finch!

Great news for Twin Ravens Press fans in and around Austin, Texas!  I'm currently in the process of finishing up and getting ready to ship off an order of Twin Ravens Press cards to a little retail shop in Austin called Finch!  

Finch is located in the heart of downtown Austin at 417 West 2nd Street.  Their shop offers a lovely collection of gifts, and hand-crafted furnishings for the home. Finch specializes in independent design (like us!), and carries handmade ceramics, textiles, lamps, glassware and other items from around the world.  Twin Ravens Press is very excited to have our cards at Finch, so if you're living in or close to Austin, go down and check them out!  

100 on Etsy

This month sure seems to be the month of Twin Ravens Press milestones on Etsy.  I was out in the shop printing just now and came in to my office for a second to see if I had any e-mail, and low and behold, found out that today I made my 100th card sale in my etsy shop.  Check it out: 

I sometimes feel just a little nerdy about all these little milestones, but I feel excited about announcing them to you anyway.  I promise to post more photos of awesome printing soon!  Have a great day!

Two Hundred and Fifty

I decided to randomly log on to Etsy this evening just to see what, if anything, was going on in my etsy shop and was pleasantly surprised to see that 250 people have now marked Twin Ravens Press as a favorite. Here is the screenshot to prove it:


This is a pretty substantial jump, in my opinion, because we had just reached 200 favorites right before Christmas. If you are one of the now 250+ people calling us a favorite on Etsy, thank you, it's nifty to see how many of you are out there!

Shop Twin Ravens Press in Portland, Oregon!

I have great news today for all of my Portland, Oregon readers, shoppers and aficionados!  If you live in Portland, Oregon you can now buy Twin Ravens Press products locally in a few different retail shops in your area.  The first store in Portland to ever carry Twin Ravens Press products was Broadway Books.  Broadway Books is a very nice, independent, locally-owned book-seller located in Northeast Portland at 1714 NE Broadway.  Go check them out!  

You can also purchase Twin Ravens Press products at two other locations.  The newest shop in the Portland area to carry our products is Oblation Papers and Press.  I'm very excited that Oblation started carrying our products because I have been in love with their little paper boutique since I was a college student - long before I even thought of starting Twin Ravens Press. Oblation is  an old-world letterpress print shop, urban paper mill and fine European-style paper boutique.  They specialize in custom invitations and announcements, but also have a lovely retail section, where one will find Italian correspondence stationary, fine fountain pens and distinctive paper from around the world.  The also carry an assortment of eclectic gift items, French wax seals, photo albums, journals, raw materials for bookbinding, designer office supplies and an unrivaled selection of handmade and letterpress printed greeting cards.  If you'd like to read more about Oblation's printing and retail shop you can on their website. Below is a photo of the inside of their store, it's really fun and inviting.  

Oblation has two locations.  Their original location (pictured at the top) is in downtown Portland in the Pearl District at 516 NW 12th Avenue and they also have a retail location in Bridgeport Village at 7243 Bridgeport Road in Tigard.  If you love my work, and/or letterpress printing in general and you're in Portland, Oregon, go check out Oblation.  You will love them!  

Do you own, work at or know of a retail shop in your area where you'd love to see Twin Ravens Press' products?  If you do, e-mail me at twinravenspress@gmail.com! I love working with other retailers and would be glad to send your shop or a shop that you know of a wholesale catalog and price list.  We would love to work with you!

Finch Metal

Generally speaking, the majority of the custom work that I do currently is for wedding invitations and other social stationary.  One of my favorite other types of custom work to do though is business stationary.  I often think that with all of the "get way more business cards than you would ever need for $19.95" offers out there on the internet, that most people don't really consider letterpress or custom printing when it comes to ordering paper products for their businesses.  On the one hand, I find this a little disappointing that so many people are willing to sacrifice true quality and uniqueness for super-savings, but on the other hand it makes it really exciting when you do find a business (or a business finds you) that wants to do something really special, unique and high-quality for their paper products.  

Jill Antonishak of Finch Metal Jewelry Studio in Washington D.C. recently contacted me about creating some unique, high-quality paper products for her business.  Jill creates a line of awesome, whimsical and unique sterling silver jewelry.  Those who know me know that I don't ever really wear a lot of jewelry, but despite that I really like Jill's work and may have to order a piece or two for myself.  Check out this awesome kite necklace:

She also has some other really playful and whimsical designs including a jack, pinwheels and a paper airplane!

Besides making really beautiful jewelry, I also like Jill's work because she tries to be as environmentally conscious as possible, which I feel is something we have in common.  Twin Ravens Press generally buys only 100% cotton rag (tree free!) paper or paper that has been recycled and contains at least 30% post-consumer content.  I also recycle all of my misprints and off-cuts by donating them to paper-making students at the University of Oregon (my Alma mater).  I am also proud to be taking advantage of  the new Boxcar Press Photopolymer Plate Recycling Program (BPPPPRP, for short).  When I'm not printing from antique lead type I buy all of my photopolymer from Boxcar.  They are an awesome company to work with and are really proud of their sustainable practices.  I mean they plant a tree for every order anyone makes over $100... how cool is that?!?  I'm proud to do business with them and I like to attempt to do my part sustainability-wise, because honestly, printing isn't historically the most environmentally friendly industry ever.  

Anyway, back to Jill: she uses recycled and reclaimed silver in the creation of her work, and she also strives to minimize the environmental impact of her business and promote sustainability by using recyclable recycled packaging and other materials as much as possible.   She also donates part of her proceeds to various charities that help to alleviate poverty and focus on getting resources and services to those in need.   Way to go, Jill!

When I started working on her business products, she already had her business logo from another designer, so creating designs for Jill was all about incorporating her existing logo design into a beautiful and functional business card that could be printed on the letterpress.  This is what we came up with:

Aren't they pretty?  Her logo's colors were a lighter chestnut brown and a light sky blue.  She also wanted some folding cards  to send out to customers, clients and galleries using a variation of her logo that she also uses as her avatar on her website. Both the business cards and folding cards were printed on Crane Lettra's 100% cotton Pearl Lettra letterpress paper and the folding cards come with some pretty 30% post-consumer recycled sky blue envelopes. Check them out:

Thanks so much Jill for your business and for making such awesome work!  All the best!