Etsy Treasury Feature: Green, Copper & Red Crane String Cards

Our gorgeous green, copper and red Crane String greeting cards were featured today in a treasury on Etsy! The treasury, pictured above, created by MalcolmStudioShop, features twelve different peace themed items from a variety of etsy sellers! Click on the treasury link to view the actual page!

Our green, copper and red Crane String cards make a wonderful holiday card and are also great to send any time of the year. They are available as singles, sets of 6 or sets of 12. Get yours today!

In other etsy-related news, I was delighted to log-in to our shop this morning and find that we have over 400 (!) followers who love our shop (see below)! That's pretty awesome (and somewhat humbling). You guys are the best! Thanks for spreading the love!

Just a reminder, too, if you are a Facebook user and would like to keep up with what we're doing in our studio there, Twin Ravens Press now has a facebook page. Go become a fan today!

Elias' Bar Mitzvah

At Twin Ravens Press, I print a lot of wedding invitations, which is a lot of fun, but did you know that we also print invitations for other events as well? Besides weddings, we can design and print invitations for Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, graduation parties, bridal showers, baby showers, anniversary parties, fancy corporate parties and events, etc. You name it, we can probably do it! The stationery you are going to see in this post was created for a wonderful Eugene, Oregon family that I've done work for before. Their youngest son, Elias is having his Bar Mitzvah on January 16th, and these are the invitations they are sending out for it.

For those who don't know, a Bar or Bat Mitzvah (Bar for boys and Bat for girls) is a Jewish ceremony celebrating a boy or girl coming of age in the Jewish community. The Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony is typically an ordinary Sabbath service in which the boy or girl participates for the first time as an adult. Typically a boy becomes a Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13 and girls become Bat Mitzvahs at the age of 12. Following the service there is often a celebratory meal or other type of party with the family, friends and members of the Jewish community. If you'd like to read more about Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, you can here.

I actually did Elias' older sister Dahlia's Bat Mitzvah invitations about a year ago, and a good friend of theirs' Bar Mitzvah invitations earlier this year. You can check out Dahlia's invites here and the friend, Ari's invitations and other paper goods here. For Dahlia's invitations we did a fairly simple design involving an A7 size invitation with a perforated reply postcard and envelopes. For Elias' invitations, their mom, Cheryl, wanted us to print a design that didn't require envelopes, so this is what we came up with:

The invitations are long: about 15 inches long, to be exact, and 5.5 inches wide. They are either perforated or scored in three different places, so that when the invite is folded up it is the size of a standard A2 size card (4.25"x5.5"). The front side includes the standard invitation information on the top 2/3 and the bottom 1/3 of the front is a perforated reply postcard that the recipient can detach and mail back. The backside of the design has the back side of the postcard printed on the lower section and there is printing on a small section at the very top that has the Henderson's return address. When the whole thing is folded up, it looks like this:

Pretty cool, don't you think?!? I think that when they're folded up they almost look like an envelope, even though they are the actual invitation. These were sealed shut with 1" circular clear stickers that can be found at any office supply store. What's great about doing something like this is that you are saving money on having envelopes printed and you're saving a lot of paper! Postage for something like this is the same as a regular envelope ($0.44 if you're in the U.S.), so you aren't spending any extra on postage either!

You can see one close detail of the actual invitation portion at the top of this post and here is another:

I love the green and brown color combination that Cheryl and Elias chose and I love the tree leaves and branch pattern that they decided to use! These cards were printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton paper in Ecru. Here are the front and back sides of the reply postcard portion of the invitation:

As I mentioned above, this card is perforated at the top so that guests can easily separate it from the rest of the invitation, fill it out and mail it back. Pretty neat design, don't you think?!?

If you'd like more information about custom Bar & Bat Mitzvah invitations or any of our other custom work, feel free to contact me at twinravenspress@gmail.com.

New Dahlia Gift Cards available on Etsy!

Check out these brand new Magenta Dahlia Gift Cards that are now available in the Twin Ravens Press Etsy Shop! These cards were created on the suggestion from another etsy seller, mudpuppy, who liked our normal size Dahlia cards, but wanted a smaller size to use as small thank you cards for his customers. I thought it was a great idea!

These cards are a very small, 3.5"x2" size, letterpress printed with a magenta dahlia on the front. They are blank on the inside for your own personal greeting. These small cards come in sets of 6 for $5.00 and are accompanied by coordinating rhubarb pink envelopes! They would be great for gift giving, escort cards, as fancy place cards for a special event, or just about any occasion where you might need a beautiful and small little note.

If you need more than six, I am more than happy to give bulk discounts on larger orders! I'm also planning to offer this small card size in a few brand new holiday designs for the upcoming holiday season! Those will be available in a couple of weeks. Keep your eye out for them!

Jaimi & Scott Are Getting Married!

Last week I finished a gorgeous set of wedding stationery for a New York City couple who are getting married in sunny Boca Raton, Florida this upcoming January. Jaimi and Scott wanted a unique, yet traditionally elegant design for their stationery suite and this is what we came up with! Jaimi and Scott's suite included an A7 size invitation, an A2 size accommodations card, a 4bar size reply card with corresponding envelope and a custom lined A7 invitation envelope! All pieces were printed in a deep eggplant purple ink on Crane Lettra 100% cotton Pearl White paper.

Here is Jaimi and Scott's invitation by itself:

To keep with the style of a very beautiful and traditional invitation suite, Jaimi chose to hire a calligrapher to calligraph each of the lines of her invitation for us to letterpress print. I work with a handful of very talented calligraphers and am happy to recommend them to any of my clients who are seeking to do something like this for their invitations, or for clients who simply want calligraphy for their envelopes. The calligrapher who did Jaimi and Scott's lettering though, is the very talented Fran Heider of Little Flower Calligraphy. Fran and I have worked together now on a handful of different projects for a few different clients and we enjoy working together so much, and her calligraphy is so stunning, that if you're looking for calligraphy I would highly recommend getting in touch with her! She is fabulous! In order to turn Fran's calligraphy into letterpress printing for Jaimi and Scott's invitations, Fran wrote out each line for each piece individually and then we scanned the images of the calligraphy in to the computer, resized and layed them out in our design program and then created printing plates from the subsequent images. To add just a little more elegance and whimsy to the design, we also came up with some beautiful scrolling flourishes for the top of each piece! Isn't it just gorgeous?!? Here is a close-up of the calligraphy so you can get a better look:

For the invitation envelope, we printed Jaimi and Scott's return address in a very simple and classic roman font on the back flap and then custom lined each envelope with a deep, eggplant purple Shizen paper with an Indian-tile-inspired pattern.

I love that Jaimi chose this paper for her envelope liners! It really just compliments her whole suite so well!

Here is Jaimi and Scott's accommodations card. Since this card has a fair bit of information on it, we chose to do just the word "Accommodations" in calligraphy and use our roman font for everything else. This card is an A2 size card, which measures 4.25"x5.5". We included a smaller version of the scrollwork from the invitation on the top of this piece.

Their reply card and envelope kept with the original invitation design: scrollwork and all calligraphy, printed in eggplant purple ink.

I love how elegant and fancy using hand-calligraphy for each piece made the suite look! I also absolutely love that we used the calligraphy for Jaimi & Scott's names on their reply envelope and the roman font for the address. Sometimes using a combination of fonts like this, for something as simple as an address, can really dress up an envelope more than just using one font does.

Jaimi and Scott were fabulous clients to work with and I love that their job allowed me to collaborate with one of my favorite calligraphers as well! The suite turned out absolutely gorgeous, and I know that their wedding this coming January will be gorgeous as well!

Congratulations Jaimi & Scott! Thanks again!

Save the Date: Theresa & Dermot Are Getting Married!

Check out these awesome Save-the-Date coasters I finished last week for a couple in New York City! Theresa & Dermot wanted to do something a little unique and different for their Save-the-Date cards for their upcoming July 2010 wedding, so rather than having us print a standard card and envelope, she chose to have us print her Save-the-Dates as coasters with matching envelopes! I think this is a stellar idea for any party, wedding or otherwise!

Theresa and Dermot's Save-the-Date coasters were letterpress printed on 4" square coaster stock with two ink colors: turquoise and a greenish-yellow "lime" hue (think the inside fruity part of the lime, not the skin). We used a playful and lovely script font for their names and their wedding date and a tall and skinny serif font for the rest of the text. The date was framed within a very decorative 1920's-ish looking flourish-y border that Theresa found, and the rest of the coaster was dotted with stars!

I have been looking for square envelopes for a while that are smaller than 5.5" and I finally found some! These coordinating cream-colored, linen envelopes from Envelloper Inc., fit our 4" coasters perfectly!

They feature a European pointed flap and were just big enough for us to letterpress print Theresa & Dermot's return address on the back.

Pretty cool, don't you think?!? Thanks again and congratulations Theresa & Dermot!

Twin Ravens Press Holiday Cards Now Available!

Happy November everybody! I hope everyone out there had a very Happy Halloween weekend! Now that the holiday season is on its way, I thought I take a moment to show off some of the Twin Ravens Press holiday cards that are available now or are going to be available over the next few days in our etsy shop! All of these cards are available as singles or come in sets of six or 12 cards. I'm going to be adding a few more designs to this collection in the next couple of weeks and will let you know more about those very soon! All of the designs in this post are either general holiday or Christmas-related, but we are also going to be adding a few Hanukkah designs in the coming weeks as well. We will also have holiday coasters and small gift cards available in late November, so keep an eye out for those too!

The following designs are available now for those who want to get an early start! If you don't see them in our etsy shop, keep an eye out over the next few days and they will be up shortly. If you just can't wait to get your hands on them, though, you can always e-mail me, and I would be glad to set up a special listing just for you! If you are a retailer and would like to carry any of our holiday designs in your store, please e-mail me and I would be glad to send you a .pdf of our wholesale catalog!

The image at the top of this post is of our Holiday VW Bug card. It is a 4bar size (measuring 3.5"x4.875") and comes with coordinating red envelopes.

This is Poinsettia Mouse. It is also a 4bar size and comes with coordinating red envelopes.

Below is an image of our Crane String card in red, copper and green. You'll notice that this design is available all year round and also comes in other color combinations. I think this design makes a lovely holiday card though as well! It is an A2 size, measuring 4.25"x5.5" and comes with red envelopes.

The design you see above is one of our oldest greeting card designs. Holiday Cardinals is an A2 size card, now printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton ecru paper in red and black inks and comes with matching red envelopes.

This cute Holiday Cat with Lights card is sure to brighten anyone's holiday! The A2 card features a mischievous orange kitty and a long strand of tangled, green christmas lights that reach around from the front to the back of the card. It comes with coordinating green envelopes!

Here is another oldie-but-goodie! Our Holiday Hedgehogs card features four ink colors, and coordinating pool blue envelopes. These cards are 4bar size.

The two cards above are our Peace Dove card and our "Let it Snow!" holiday card. They are both 4bar size and come with coordinating pale blue envelopes.

As I mentioned above, all of these designs will be available in our Etsy Shop over the next few days. If you can't wait for a design to show up in the shop, please feel free to e-mail me and I would be happy to set up a special listing just for you! More designs will be available in the coming weeks as well, so keep your eyes out! Happy (early) Holidays!

The Wedding Invitations of Mr. & Miss Ramen

Let me preface this post by saying that no, I didn't print wedding invitations for a couple whose last name is actually "Ramen". As this particular couple asked me not to reveal their real names on my blog, I will be referring to them by a pseudonym they chose for themselves. You see, Miss Ramen is a blogger over on WeddingBee, and the fifth WeddingBee blogger that we've printed invitations for. If you are a follower of WeddingBee, you may have already read some blog posts she's done about her wedding there. If you aren't, but like what you're about to see of her invitations, you can read more about her wedding here. Despite having to be a little sneaky about the information I show off to you about their wedding on this blog, working with the Ramens was an absolute joy and their invitations are absolutely lovely.

The Ramens, being the talented and uber-motivated individuals that they are, designed their whole invitation suite themselves and then hired Twin Ravens Press to do their letterpress printing! I heard from Miss Ramen that she is doing her calligraphy for her envelopes all by herself, which, for a bride who isn't planning a small wedding, this is quite the undertaking. The Ramen's invitation suite included a #10 size invitation, a reply postcard, a small business card size website card, an invitation envelope and a set of small cute tags! Here is their invitation:

As I mentioned above, Mr. and Miss' Ramen's wedding invitation is a long and skinny #10 size, printed on Crane Lettra pearl white paper with metallic silver ink. I love the elegant swirls and scrolls they created for all of the pieces in their suite! It's a little difficult to tell, due to me blurring out most of their names, but the typeface they used for their names and for the line at the bottom of the invite really compliments their decorative swirls beautifully!

Here is their invitation again with its corresponding envelope. The envelope Mr. and Miss Ramen chose is a #10 size, 30% post-consumer recycled envelope in a light blue color called "Cloud" from Green Paper Company. I love how these envelopes add just a subtle hint of color to the suite without being bold and overwhelming. I also love how they continued their swirl motif from the invitation on the front of the invitation envelope. The envelopes were also printed with metallic silver ink and included a very cute, framed return address on the envelope flap.

To save on postage and envelopes, Mr. and Miss Ramen decided to do their reply card as a postcard! These were also printed in silver ink on Crane Lettra Pearl White paper.

They did a fantastic job of keeping the look of their entire suite consistent, while incorporating some unique, fun, and super-cute details into each piece. Check out the little whole and broken heart icons next to their accepts/regrets lines:

Very cute idea, don't you think?!?

Now, I'm not quite sure what Miss Ramen has in store for these little guys, but whatever it is, I'm sure it will be adorable. The Ramens had me print them a set of small letterpress tags featuring their initials, wedding date and the city where they will be wed, inside the same cute kind of frame they used for their return address on their envelopes.

Miss Ramen opted to cut these out herself, in order to save money on die-cutting. Although I'm not sure what she's planning to use them for, they are super-adorable.

This last piece in their suite, is quite possibly my favorite. As Miss Ramen is an avid blogger (hence why she blogs for WeddingBee), she wanted to include a small website card that would direct wedding invitation recipients to their website for further information. This card measures 2"x3.5", which is the same size as a standard business card, and was also printed on Crane Lettra paper in silver ink.

Isn't that absolutely adorable?!? I love the cute little caricatures that Mr. Ramen drew of himself and his bride. So sweet... and such a cute idea for a little website card!

Mr. and Miss Ramen were an absolute joy to work with and I'm so happy that I got to do their letterpress printing! If you like these designs, head on over to WeddingBee and read more about the Ramens. They really are a very sweet couple. Miss Ramen posted a very cute teaser a couple of weeks ago, which you can read here, and she just posted at length about her invites here.

Thanks so much Mr. and Miss Ramen and many congratulations!