We Moved!!

That's right - if you've been wondering about the sudden, prolonged lack of blogging activity on this site, worry and wonder no longer! The reason it's been so quiet around here for (Eep!) over a month is that while we've been designing, letterpress printing, going to a trade show in New York City, and creating awesome stuff, we've also been in the middle of moving our blog to a brand new host. Ladies and gents, I present to you the new online home of Twin Ravens Press: www.twinravenspress.com. Here you will find not only a much cooler blog, but contact forms, archives, pages about our studio and what we do, and eventually there will be a portfolio of our favorite designs over there as well! The new site is still a work-in-progress, but I'm sure you're going to love it! So, what are you waiting for?!?! Update your bookmarks and your RSS feeds, and come check out our new digs. Cheers!

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year everyone! I hope all of you out there had a wonderful New Year's Eve last night and are looking forward to the year to come!

Twin Ravens Press has quite a few new and exciting things in store for you this coming year and I can't wait to tell you all about them! However, as good things come to those who wait, I'm not going to tell you about all of them in full detail this morning, but I will give you a smidgeon of a sneak-peek into what I have in store for you for 2010! Here it goes:

• First off, there are going to be some brand new greeting card designs for Valentine's Day coming out in the next few weeks. They will be available in our Etsy Shop. I already have a few very sweet V-Day designs listed up there already, so if you're planning ahead for Valentine's, go check them out!

• Over the last few months I've been working with an awesome web programmer in Tucson, Arizona. Said programmer is creating an awesome and much more bona fide website for us, and I'm really excited about it! Version 1.0 of this site should be up and running this month. Don't worry - you'll still be able to access this blog and our etsy shop from the new site, this will just be a great way of getting everything all in one place.

• For my lovely retailers out there, Twin Ravens Press will be releasing our first ever (!) printed greeting card and stationery catalog this spring. Normally I've sent out catalogs in .pdf form only in the past, but this spring we will actually have our first ever printed one. It's pretty exciting! If you are already a Twin Ravens retailer, you will be sent one of our catalogs automatically once they are out. If you have been following this blog and are a retailer who is considering carrying my products, send me an e-mail if you'd like to receive a wholesale catalog!

• Speaking of the catalog, it's going to be showing off a couple of expansions to two of our lines that have been pretty tiny until now. For 2010, our baby & child stationery and greeting card line, as well as our small gift tag/gift card line will be growing! Both lines will be featuring both some brand new products and brand new designs! The new stuff will be in the catalog and will also be up on this blog when they come out. If you are giving a gift in the near future or are having, or know someone who has a new baby on the way, check back to see the new, cute, letterpress printed goodness that is coming!

• All of this expansion and newness has recently got me thinking about trade shows. TRP hasn't attending a large wholesale show yet, but I'm thinking that 2010 might be the year for it. Research is currently under way into all that this would entail. I will keep you posted on which show(s) we decide to attend, if we attend them this year!

• Last, but certainly not least, I'm very excited to announce that we will be offering a new technique to custom clients very soon to add a little extra-special touch to your letterpress printed pieces. I won't reveal what this new technique is yet, but I can tell you that I am doing it for a current business card client and the results are looking awesome!

So, there you have it! All of this and more is what I have in store for you for 2010. If you have any questions about any of the above, or about working with us, please don't hesitate to contact me! Have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy New Year!

Coasters and Meet Your Maker at PRI!

I have two exciting announcements today for all Twin Ravens Press lovers out there!  First, if you're in the Eugene/Springfield, Oregon area today and are looking for something fun to do on Friday night, you should come down to the Last Friday Artwalk in the Whiteaker neighborhood and stop by The Pizza Research Institute (otherwise known as PRI), on 5th and Blair!  PRI  is hosting its first ever Last Friday Artwalk/Meet Your Maker Indie Arts and Crafts Show and Sale this evening from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.  The admission to the show/sale is free and you can enjoy awesome beer, wine and pizza at PRI!  You can see the poster for the show at the top of this post.  Twin Ravens Press will have a booth there and you can also shop with other fabulous local/Oregon artists and small businesses including: La Petite Vie, Loop'd, Bellybaloo, Esther Lee Jewelry, Knotty Girl Designs and several others!  Come down, see some cool art, drink some beer or wine, eat some pizza, and check it out!  

The second (totally awesome) announcement I have for today is that the brand new Twin Ravens Press coasters featuring our favorite robot with a heart will be available for sale starting today at the show!  

These coasters were letterpress printed in two ink colors on 3.5" square heavy-weight coaster stock and are available in packages of one dozen for $10!  Are you not in Eugene, or are, but can't make it to the show?  These awesome coasters are also available in my etsy store!  Check out the listing here!  

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and long Valentine's Day and President's weekend this past weekend.  I've been meaning to do a little blog post for a while now to show off all of our new love-themed cards for Valentine's and this spring, but we've been so busy with custom work lately that this blog has been sadly neglected for over a week.  If you've been watching our Etsy shop, you've probably already seen these designs, but in case you haven't here they are below!  With the exception of the Valentine Checklist card, I feel that all of these designs would be a wonderful way to tell the people you care about and are thinking about that you love them throughout the year!  And really, who doesn't love getting a sweet "I love you and I'm thinking of you." message at random?  Just because it's not Valentine's Day anymore, doesn't mean you shouldn't tell 'em you love 'em.  

Our first new love-inspired design is an A2 size card that we're calling "Love Letters".  Inspired by vintage valentine's and wedding postage stamps this letterpress card features the letters L-O-V-E inside of a light pink rectangle with little grey finches perched on and flying towards them.  You can see the full card at the top of this post and there are a few detail images below.  

Check out how awesome the embossed white letters look in the above detail photo!  They are really fun and tactile and beautiful to see and touch!  Each of these cards comes with a corresponding A2 envelope in light pink and they are available for purchase as singles here.

For our next new love-inspired card, we decided to try out a brand new card size.  The size is a monarch size, which measures 7.25" x 3.75".  I've done a few save-the-date cards for weddings and a few programs that were this size in the past, and I liked the size so much that I thought I'd try it out for a greeting card.  Check it out below:

Each of these cards features an adorable baby elephant running across the front with a trail of little pink heart-shaped bubbles trailing behind him.  The bubbles continue across the front of the card and a few even float around to the backside.  It features a very simple message: "Love you.", letterpress printed on the front and it is blank on the inside for your own personal message.  Want one of your own?  You can find it here.  

Our totally Valentine's specific design for this year was a cute and somewhat humorous checklist card.  The card is a 5.5" square size that is folded and has a lovely brown, leafy vine pattern stretching around the list on the front.  The list was printed in brown also with little pink checkboxes that you can fill in yourself depending on who you plan to send it to.  It's really the perfect card for all of the Valentines on your list!  Here is a photo:  

We still have a few of these cards available in our etsy store, so if you'd like to stock up for next year, you can find them here.  

And, last but not least, is an adorable card design for the dog-lover in all of us!  My family and I had black labrador retrievers growing up and they were such wonderful family pets - and so sweet and loyal - that I decided to make a love card featuring them.  The card design is fairly simple - there is a black lab on the front with a light pink heart in his mouth.  See below: 

You can find the black lab cards here.  Do you love this design, but would rather have a chocolate or yellow lab?  We have those too!  

You can find the yellow labs here and the chocolate labs here.  

I'm going to try to get back into a regular schedule of posting here soon, and I have lots and lots of new custom stuff to share with you!  So if you're especially interested in custom wedding invitations stay tuned, more of those will be up very soon!

Happy New Year!

I hope that all of you out in blog land had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year! We have some very exciting new things in store for you for this upcoming year, so stay tuned to this blog, if you want to be the first to know about the new stuff.  

Just to give you a little sneak preview of what we have in store for you: 

• There are going to be at least half a dozen brand new Valentines Day card designs available in our etsy shop starting the week after next.  Be sure to check those out!  
• We are working with an awesome web designer and good friend on making twinravenspress.com into a fully functional, awesome, bona fide website.  I'm hoping that it will be up by March or April.  Don't worry, you will still be able to get to this blog and the etsy shop from the new site.  The new site will just make it easier to view all sorts of stuff that we're doing and stuff that we've done in the past all in one place.
• Remember those cool wedding coasters we did this past fall?  Well, we enjoyed doing them so much that we're going to be adding a whole new product line of decorative and functional letterpress coasters to our wholesale/retail line.  These coasters will be more general-purpose or holiday related than the wedding coasters, and they will all be customizable.  The first ones will be available in the Etsy store starting in early spring.
• And, speaking of new stuff: Twin Ravens Press will be offering another brand new line of stationary products that I know you'll be excited about.  I'm going to be mean though and not reveal them yet, but trust me, I know you're going to love 'em.  

If you haven't been over to Etsy lately, go and check out the showcase this morning.  One of our card designs is being featured there (today and today only).  

It's been a busy week and I have several awesome new things to post about over the next few days, so come back and visit soon!  Have a very Happy 2009!!

Espresso Colored Calling Cards

I finished up a unique little calling card job on Thursday right before I went out of town to Portland.  The client already had the design, so this was a quick, just-print-it, sort of job.  What made it unique though was that I got to try out a new paper stock.  These calling cards are printed on Crane's Palette Espresso Brown Cover Stock.  This paper is 100% cotton like a lot of the other papers I use, 134 lb. and very, very stiff... but it's brown, which is cool.  I was trying to match a very light, creamy, off-white for the ink.  The off-white ink almost looks slightly silver on the brown paper, but I really like how the color turned out.  I really like them because they're so different.  Let me know what you think!

Frogs!

It's been a while since I gave my little etsy shop any real attention on this blog - so I thought I would share one of the newest additions to it with you!  If you haven't been to my etsy shop in a while, you'll notice a couple of really cute new additions, both in the form of little green frogs.  

The first of the two is a great multi-purpose card.  It features a little green thoughtful looking frog with the words "Thinking of You" on the front.  As always, this card is blank on the inside for your own personal message.  They are sold as singles for $4 each or as a box of six for $20. 

The second frog card is a little more occasion specific.  He is jumping for joy with the message "Happy Birthday to You" on the front.  These cards are currently only sold as singles, but if someone wanted a box of six, I'd be happy to arrange that.  

Both frog card designs were printed on Crane's Lettra Bright White 100% cotton cover stock and both come with lovely, 4bar size, leaf green envelopes to match.  Both have a really awesome texture particularly because of the raised white hearts on their chests.  Because the green of the frogs gets pressed down all around the little white heart from the letterpress, the hearts came out quite a bit raised - it's kind of silly, but really pleasing to run your fingers over. The artwork for both of these cards was originally created by my good friend Ashley, if you want to check out more of her original art work, go take a peek at her etsy shop.  Happy Etsy Shopping!

  

For Babies & Birthdays

Well, I was worried that it might happen and it seems to have: it's been almost a month since my last blog post.  Granted, I don't really think of myself as a "writer" per se, and business has been really busy, but I promise, I will try to be better in the future.  Seriously...  

So to get out of this blogging dry spell, I present you with these totally cute cards in celebration of babies and birthdays!  

Aren't they cute?  I drew and made photopolymer plates for the giraffe several months ago and just never got around to printing them.  The text on all three of the cards is handset metal type, which was a lot of fun.  

If you know of anyone who is having an upcoming birthday (a cute little kid, or a kid at heart) who might enjoy a giraffe, or you know of someone who just a had a baby and would like one of these cards, they are available in my etsy shop. You can find the birthday one here, the girl here or boy here.  Also, if you or someone you know has just had a baby, I think that the "It's a Boy!" or "It's a Girl!" Giraffe cards would also make adorable letterpress baby announcements.  Therefore, they are also available in sets, here or here. 

I'll have more on what's been keeping me so busy in letterpress land lately, very soon! Promise...

New Summery Dahlia Cards are up on Etsy!

I originally printed this design for my very first Bat Mitzvah invitation, which happened to be for a girl named Dahlia, but I loved the big letterpress printed Dahlia flower so much that I thought it would make a lovely greeting card.  I just uploaded these light blue beauties to my etsy shop.  They come in packages of 6 or as singles.  I also printed them in a few other colors, including magenta, light pink and spring green.  Those other colors are not up on etsy yet, but they will be later this week.  I think that they will make great little notes for almost any occasion, and they're blank on the inside so you can write whatever you want.  

Check out the awesome detail on the fine lines that separate and give detail to the petals. The large plate made such a nice impression, that the white lines are somewhat raised and have a really nice texture to touch.  That's one of my favorite things about the letterpress process: not only do you get to print really nice, clean images and designs on beautiful paper, but the text and designs that you print have texture that you can feel as well as see.  It's pretty cool...  Let me know what you think of the new cards!