Erin & Andrew are Getting Married!

It always amazes me how time does fly here at Twin Ravens during the early parts of spring. It seems like almost all (not all, but almost all) of our clients this time of year are having us design and print stationery for their upcoming weddings in the early spring and summer. We do have quite a few other projects in the works this time of year, including some very sweet baby announcements, an awesome set of Bar Mitzvah invitations, and several different sets of business cards and other business-related stationery, but by and large, this time of year seems to be dominated by weddings. While I truly enjoy this time of year and getting to work with so many amazing people, I must admit, it does make things very busy, which would explain my extremely inconsistent blogging. However, I do have some absolutely lovely things to show you in the next few weeks, starting with this.

Nearly a month ago we finished a really fun, yet classic set of invitations for a couple in North Carolina who are getting married at the end of April. Erin and Andrew had seen some invitations I had designed and printed previously on this blog and chose to combine/modify a couple of them to create their own unique invitation suite! Their suite included an A7 size invite with matching envelope, a 4bar size reply card envelope and a combined A7 size reply card and accommodations card that were perforated down the middle so that the reply card could be detached and mailed back. You can see all of the pieces in this suite together at the top of this post.

Erin and Andrew's wedding colors are navy blue and a light green and we chose to incorporate these into her suite with both her ink colors and her paper choices. Here is Erin and Andrew's invitation all by itself:

This invitation is an A7 size, measuring 5"x7" and has a fun, organic frame surrounding a mix of a classic serif typeface and a fun, modern script, all printed in navy blue ink. To give the invitation some additional texture, we blind embossed a series of vertical lines in the background behind the framed portion of the invitation. I love how a little bit of blind embossing can add some wonderful texture to a design, without being too overwhelming! Below are some detail images so you can see the texture of the embossing and printing better.

We had originally planned to pair this invitation with a green envelope (Erin and Andrew's other wedding color), but due to a very long backorder of the green from our supplier, we ended up going with a matching white envelope, printed with navy ink instead. Check out the cute heart detail below their address! Isn't that adorable?!?

For their reply card envelopes, we did end up using the green. This green is a light green color called "Balsam Fir" from Green Paper Company. Not only are these envelopes a fabulous green color, because they are made from 30% post-consumer waste, they are also "green" environmentally-speaking too!

For Erin and Andrew's two insert cards, we did something that I absolutely love, but have only done a few times before: we combined them. There are, in fact, two separate cards here, but they were designed and printed to be mailed as a single card (5"x7"), but perforated down the middle so that the reply card could be detached and mailed back.

As you can see in the above photo, an accommodations card that is similar in design to Erin and Andrew's wedding invitation is the top half of the joined card, and a cute, navy-blue-on-white reply card is the bottom half.

The accommodations portion of this card also featured some blind-embossing: this time diagonal lines behind our cute frame. The interior of the frame featured information about where to stay and were to find Erin & Andrew's website. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the perforation in the card right below where the blind embossing ends. Isn't this just cool?!?

The lower portion of this card is their detachable reply card.

Erin and Andrew included a space for guests to write in their names, check-box options for the actual response and an area for guests to initial what their meal preference is for the reception. I just love this combined-card idea. It saves money for the couple on printing (by printing effectively one card instead of two) and it's a great way to keep all of the enclosure information together until the reply is ready to be sent back.

Erin and Andrew were wonderful clients and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them on this suite! Thanks so much Erin and Andrew and congratulations on your upcoming big day!

Francie & Greg are getting Married!

Check out these beauties that I printed last week for a lovely couple who are getting married in Massachusetts this spring. The bride, Francie, already had her invitation design all laid out when she hired Twin Ravens Press to do her letterpress printing, but looked to us for a way to make her invitation really stand out. Our solution: create a custom-made, absolutely beautiful, handmade paper in a unique, French Blue color and letterpress print her design on it in pewter grey ink. The paper we had made is really luscious and thick (about 220 lb. actually) and was created by the wonderful folks at Porridge Papers, and the letterpress printing was done by us. Below are a few more images so you can see the printing and the gorgeous paper a little closer.

Aren't they just lovely?!? If you're interested in learning more about custom paper or custom letterpress printing, please feel free to contact us. Congratulations Francie & Greg!!

Beckie and Seth are Getting Married!

Shortly after my accident, and with a lot of help from some wonderful friends and volunteers, I completed this lovely set of wedding invitations for a bride and groom in Oakland, California. The bride's soon-to-be sister-in-law, Mikayle Anderson, lives here in Eugene, and is a fabulous graphic designer! She designed Beckie and Seth's wedding invitation suite and hired Twin Ravens Press to print it! Check it out!

At the top of this post you can see all four pieces in the suite together. There was a 6.75" square wedding invitation, a 5" square reply card and corresponding envelopes to go with both. All of the pieces were letterpress printed in a lovely shade of light blue on Crane Lettra 100% cotton Pearl White paper. We paired the invitation and reply card with matching Crane Lettra square flap envelopes for a gorgeous, totally coordinated suite.

Here is the invitation by itself. I love the large, square size and the gorgeous floral image that Mikayle created to frame the typography. It's such a pretty use of space, and the impression from both the type and image turned out beautifully!

As I mentioned above, this invitation was paired with a matching, 7" square, 100% cotton envelope from Crane. We letterpress printed the couple's return address in the same light blue ink on the flap.

For the reply card, Mikayle created a coordinating floral design and utilized the same typefaces as the invitation to create a card that is both whimsical and totally coordinated with the rest of the suite. This card is also a square shape, and is a bit smaller than the invitation. It also came with a matching Crane & Co. envelope that was letterpress printed with the couple's address on the front.

Aren't these just lovely?!? Working with Mikayle was an absolute joy and I look forward to working with her on other potential letterpress projects in the future. She's a fabulous designer, so if you like the style of these invitations, and would potentially like to work with Mikayle on designing something for you, please contact Twin Ravens Press and I can put you in touch with her.

Thanks so much and congratulations Beckie, Seth and Mikayle!

Custom Business Cards: Mark Aikens

One of my favorite things about owning and operating a letterpress shop is getting to work with a variety of very talented and incredible graphic designers in and around Eugene, as well as across the nation. At Twin Ravens Press, we do a vast majority of our design work in-house, but I always welcome the opportunity to work with outside designers and artists who are looking to have their designs or designs they are creating for their clients letterpress printed.

Back in October, I was contacted by one such, very talented, graphic designer, in Eugene who was working with a client to create a set of really unique business cards. The designer, Mary Susan Wheldon, had met me at a local Meet Your Maker Show, where I was selling letterpress greeting cards. Mary Susan saw my work and was interested in working with me to letterpress print design work for her clients. The cards you see above and below were our first collaboration.

Mary Susan's client, Mark Aikens, makes and installs hand-cast, original wall papers with original stone textures. I've never actually seen any of Mark's work in person, but from the photographs that Mary Susan showed me, his work seems truly beautiful and absolutely a labor of love. Mary Susan wanted the business cards she was designing for Mark to reflect his artistry, ingenuity and the awesome texture and colors that are present in his wall papers. She figured that in order to convey this texture, letterpress printing might be her best choice. I agreed.

Mark's business cards are just a smidgeon larger than a standard 3.5"x2" business card size. The design features a column on the left hand side featuring six "bars" of color, all the same width, but in different lengths. These simulate single sheets of Mark's handmade wallpaper. The cards were printed on 220 lb. Duplex Crane Lettra 100% cotton paper in Pearl White for a super thick, lush impression and a very stiff, substantial card. We printed five of the six bars on the left hand side in a sparkly metallic copper ink and printed the sixth bar, as well as all of the text in a light, crisp blue. The thick cotton paper combined with deep letterpress imprints made for an already amazing texture, but to add something even more unique and special, we ran these cards through the press a third time and blind embossed a stone-texture pattern that Mary Susan created over the top of the metallic copper bars. Click on the above image for a larger view. This was a challenging effect to create, but the results are absolutely stunning!

If you're looking for a fabulous free-lance designer to work with in the Eugene/Springfield, Oregon area for an upcoming project, and you like Mark's cards, contact Mary Susan. She's amazing, has some fabulous ideas, and has an ever expanding portfolio that includes designs for a variety of items from business cards, logos and corporate stationery to books, posters, and invitations.

And, if you are looking in to having some gorgeous, custom wallpaper made for your home or business in Eugene or Springfield, contact Mark Aikens, who's information is on the business cards in the pictures. Like I said before, the pictures I've seen of his work look amazing!

Lastly, if you're interested in having your very own set of letterpress business cards designed and/or letterpress printed, contact us for more information. We would love to work with you!

Thanks again Mark and Mary Susan!

Amanda and Matthew are Married!

I've really been enjoying catching all of you up this week on a few wedding invitation suites I designed and printed this past spring/summer that I didn't get to feature right away! The suite I'm about to show you was printed last spring for a lovely couple who were married in late July in Jacksonville, Florida! Amanda and Matthew's wedding colors were blue, white and black and they desired a whimsical, yet modern invitation suite featuring hand-drawn line art of various "landmarks" near, in or around their wedding venues. Here is what we came up with!

You can see the majority of the pieces in the suite in the image at the top of this post. Amanda and Matt's suite included an inner/outer invitation envelope set, an A7 size invitation, a 4bar size reply card with corresponding envelope, a small 3.5"x2.5" reception card, and an A2 size rehearsal dinner invitation with corresponding envelope. All of the pieces were printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton pearl white paper. All of their envelopes were from Waste Not Paper Company. The reply card envelope and rehearsal dinner invitation envelope were a lovely light blue color and the main invitation envelopes were white.

First things first, though, let's take a look at their invitation!

As I mentioned above, Amanda & Matthew's invitation is a standard A7 size, measuring 5"x7". It was printed in black and light blue inks on 100% cotton pearl white paper. The inspiration for the imagery on this piece came from a photograph of a clock that is near the church where they were getting married. Amanda wanted to include lovely hand-drawn line art of landmarks or other features that were relevant to the particular venues of their wedding throughout the design of the suite. She sent me a photo of this old, outdoor clock and we thought that it would be the perfect motif for the invitation with the hands of the clock indicating the time of the wedding. I love the way that all of the pieces in this suite came out very simple looking, yet modern and elegant all at the same time. All of the designs were really clean and crisp and I love the way that fine line art and typography just sinks into the cotton paper from the letterpress impression. Check out this detail photo to see what I'm talking about:

For their invitation envelopes, Amanda chose a lovely set of inner/outer envelopes from Waste Not Paper Company in white. These envelopes feature a European pointed flap. The outer envelope was unlined and was printed with their return address in blue ink on the back flap.

The inner envelope was unprinted, but featured a beautiful custom envelope liner created from handmade Nepalese Lokta papers in a variety of light blues. Amanda and Matt had quite a few invitations to send out and because Lokta paper is handmade, no two dye-lots of it are completely the same. Because of this we used paper for their envelope liners from a few different dye-lots, which added some lovely variety to the shades of blue in the suite.

Amanda and Matt's reception card was a standard 4bar size and featured a line drawing reminiscent of the tables and chairs in old French cafés.

We utilized the same typefaces and ink colors in the design of this card and gave guests the option to indicate what meal choice (roasted chicken with champagne sauce or seared salmon with citrus buerre blanc) they preferred for the reception.

We decided to dress up the envelope for this card a bit as well, all while keeping with the theme of the other pieces in the suite.

The envelope was a 4bar size envelope in a light blue, also from Waste Not Paper Company, and it featured Amanda's address on the front, printed in black ink, and a characterful mailbox with her actual address numbers on the side. You can't see the numbers on the side of the box because they are blurred out for privacy purposes, but let me tell you - the whole thing was super-cute. Here are the reply card and envelope together:

Amanda and Matt's main invitation suite also included a small reception card. This card measured 3.5" wide by 2.5" tall. The couple chose to do a separate reception card for their suite because they were getting married in a church and holding their reception at a separate venue. For the imagery on this card, Amanda sent me some lovely photos of chandeliers that were in the room where they were having their reception. We figured this would make the perfect little drawing for their little reception card!

Aren't the little line drawings cute?!? Here is what the three main invitation pieces look like together:

Last, but certainly not least, Amanda and Matthew also had me design and print a set of rehearsal dinner invitations, which they sent out separately to certain guests.

Their rehearsal dinner invitation was a standard A2 size, measuring 5.5" x 4.25" and came with it's own light blue Waste Not Paper envelope. The envelope had Matt's parent's return address printed on the flap and the card featured another fun and whimsical line drawing: this time of a crab.

I love the way this whole suite turned out and it was so much fun coming up with the ideas for the different graphics on the different pieces with Amanda! I'm sure their Florida wedding this past July was just lovely!

Congratulations Amanda and Matthew!

Origami Crane Cards featured on Etsy!

I hope everyone out there (in the US) had a very Happy Thanksgiving! If you haven't checked out our etsy store lately, you should, as you will find several lovely holiday cards for sale there. We are going to be listing even more holiday card designs over the next two weeks, so please check back frequently!

In other, etsy-related news, one of our letterpress printed Origami Crane cards was featured in an etsy treasury today entitled Blue Lue. Check out the treasury here. If you'd like to purchase one of these cards they are currently available as singles, sets of six, or sets of ten. These cards are also available in other colors and patterns, so go check them out! Have a great weekend!

Save the Date: Erica & Noah are Getting Married!

Check out these super-cute Save-the-Date cards that I finished earlier this week for a couple in Syracuse, New York who are getting married next June! Erica & Noah's save-the-date card is an A6 size card measuring 4.5"x6.25", printed in Navy Blue ink on a custom-made, 100% cotton, recycled, light pink paper that is embedded with wildflower seeds from Porridge Papers. The cards were printed and then affixed with a small photograph of Erica and Noah. They came with coordinating cream-colored envelopes from Waste Not Paper company that were printed with the couples' return address in navy blue ink.

I love how gorgeous and textural the papers from Porridge Papers are! They are so pretty, unique, and absolutely wonderful for letterpress printing. They take letterpress impression beautifully and are so fabulous to the touch. Check out these close-up photos for a better look:

Aren't they cute and beautiful all at the same time?!? I love that Erica had us print on a light pink paper too - it's not a color that my clients ask for too often, but I think this paper would be lovely for other wedding stationery or for some really sweet baby shower invitations or baby announcements too! Erica, Noah and I are currently working on the designs for the rest of their invitation suite which will be printed shortly after the first of the new year. If you like this design, make sure you check back to see the rest! It's going to be pretty!

Anna & Zane are Married!

One of my favorite designs that was created by another designer and printed by Twin Ravens Press this summer was for a wonderful Eugene couple, Anna and Zane. Anna and Zane were married on August 2nd in an outdoor ceremony at a Lavender Farm in Yamhill, Oregon, just outside of Portland. Their letterpress printed wedding invitation suite included a monarch size invitation with corresponding envelope, a 4bar size reply card and corresponding envelope and monarch size programs. You can see the four pieces of their invitation suite (excluding the programs) at the top of this post.

Their gorgeous invitation was designed by Anna's good friend and bridesmaid, Liz Grant. Liz works as a professional designer in Sacramento, California so if you're looking to have some design work done, give her a shout out! The invitation she designed for Anna and Zane was a horizontal monarch size, which is slightly shorter than a standard #10 card, measuring 3.75"x7.25". I love the way that this size for an invitation almost looks like a ticket to the wedding or celebration rather than a classic invite! This design featured a somewhat photo-realistic depiction of the Cascades printed in light blue ink with an evergreen tree and the typography of the invitation printed over the top of it in silver ink. Isn't the design so pretty and wonderfully unique?!? Here is a close-up so you can check out some of the detail in the mountain design, the ink colors, the tree and the wonderful letterpress impression:

We paired the invitation with a "Cloud" colored monarch size envelope from Green Paper Company and printed their return address on the flap of the envelope in silver ink. Here is the invite and envelope together:

The reply card for this suite was fairly simple. It was also printed in silver ink and utilized the same typeface that Liz had chosen for the invitation. To mix things up a bit we paired it with a grey envelope from Waste Not Paper Company.

I love how this card was kept nice and simple, while still keeping with the design of the invitation.

Not too long after they had sent out their invitations, Anna and Zane also hired me to print their wedding programs. Their programs were also designed by Liz Grant and were a vertical monarch size. For the invitations we used the standard 110 lb. weight of Crane Lettra 100% cotton paper in Pearl White. For their programs, Anna and Zane wanted the same paper, but a little bit heavier stock, so we chose the Pearl White Crane Lettra in 220 lb. for them. Since the celebration was taking place at a lavender farm, Liz incorporated some lovely, stylized lavender images into the program design.

These programs were printed on a single, monarch size sheet, double-sided. Their wedding party information was featured on one side in silver ink and their ceremony information was printed in silver ink on the other.

I love the really light shade of lavender ink that we used! I think it paired with the silver that was used throughout all of the pieces in the suite so well! Here is a close-up so you can get a better look:

Very pretty, don't you think?!? I love the way that this suite turned out and I imagine that Anna and Zane's celebration a month and a half ago was wonderful!

Congratulations Anna & Zane! Thanks again!