Quick Picks Thursday : 11.3.11

November 03, 2011 // kristen // 2 replies

Retro Radio Letterpress Prints by 55His (printing by The Mandate Press)

This Week’s Picks

♥ Ooh, pretty, pretty edge painted letterpress business cards by Typoretum and Moglea.

♥ Helen Friel’s work is a-mazing. – via Design*Sponge

♥ Check out the awesome black and white typography and hand-lettering design roundup at Mint.

♥ Are you a kisser or a smacker?

♥ Helen Dardik’s latest pattern design is so much fun.

♥ The Little Print Shop of Horrors : ghoulishly great posters for a good cause. – via Benign Objects

♥ Alice in Wonderland-inspired paper pretties by Wiley Valentine.

♥ Amazing paper eggs by Julie Dodd. – via All Things Paper

♥ DIY chalkboard holiday favors by Nicole of Making It Lovely – such a fun idea!

image from 55His

2012 Calendar Designs, Part 5

November 02, 2011 // kristen // 4 replies

We’re on part five of my roundup of 2012 calendar designs, and today’s ten choices represent a wide range of styles, from the super cute to the boldly colored and lusciously letterpressed. Let’s get started!

I can’t help but smile at all of the adorable illustrations featured in milk and cookies’ 2012 mini calendar.

The 5th annual Sadly Harmless Calendar, “Grow”, features a different ink and watercolor illustration for each month of the year, featuring favorite animals, each growing unique habitats, plants, and other surprises.

Freckle Paper’s 2012 Farm Stand Finds calendar features watercolor reproductions of seasonally-inspired fruits and veggies.

Smock has a quartet of lovely letterpress printed calendars, each featuring a different, vividly colored illustration.

Snow & Graham always has great calendar designs. This year’s include a desk calendar, wall calendar, mini desk calendar, and accordion calendar.

UK shop, Found, commissioned two graduate illustration students to create letterpress calendars that celebrates something unique to 2012. Charlotte Trounce created an Olympic-themed design to celebrate London’s forthcoming Games, and Stephie Ginger gave a nod to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with her royal purple and deep ochre hued design.

Egg Press and Blue Sky have teamed up again to offer a great selection of planners, agendas, and calendars for 2012. Find them at your local Target location as of November 1.

So much wonderful color and pattern going on in Jessica Swift’s 2012 calendar designs, which include both a small, desk-friendly calendar and a larger wall calendar.

Meghan McCrary’s geometric patterned calendar includes stickers so you can mark all sorts of events throughout the year: craft shows, farmers’ markets, haircuts, tattoo appointments, vet appointments, camping trips, marathons, concerts, happy hours, book clubs, canoe trips, girl scout cookie arrival, and plenty of other special occasions.

April from Everything Little Miss was inspired by Maurice Sendak’s “Chicken Soup with Rice” for her 2012 desk calendar, which features a different illustration for each month of the year.

images from their respective owners

Holiday Cards from Hello! Lucky & Friends

November 02, 2011 // kristen // 1 replies

Hello! Lucky just launched a brand new site, and I’m positively giddy with joy over their new collection of holiday photo cards and greetings. This year, they invited 16 of their favorite illustrator/designer friends to join them for a card collaboration, and the result is a group of holiday card designs are an absolute feast for the eyes.

The festive collection includes designs by Debbie Powell, Darling Clementine, EIEIO, Esther Aarts, Hammerpress, Jacqui Lee, Jolby, Karin Soderquist, Moriss + Essex, Office of Nature, Pie Bird Press, Shannon May, Susy Jack*, Tom Frost, and Lab Partners.

Also, check out these free printable holiday tags created by Eunice Moyle from Hello! Lucky and based on holiday card designs from the collection by SusyJack*. The tags are available over at How About Orange – thanks to Jessica from How About Orange for suggesting this great idea to Hello!Lucky!

images from Hello! Lucky

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission, and you’ll receive some awesome holiday greetings from Hello! Lucky. Full disclosure policy can be read here.

Silhouette Advent Calendar + Promotion

November 01, 2011 // kristen // 3 replies

I’m so excited to be a part of the Silhouette Advent Calendar project, and this opportunity came at the perfect time because I had been searching for months for a frame that had 25 individual nooks for an advent calendar. I just could not find anything with more than a dozen or so at any of my local craft stores. Yay for 25 individual nooks!

The Silhouette SD is one of my paper crafting workhorses (I’d be lost without it), and it got a great workout while I was making my Advent calendar. The calendar frame comes with a code card that you can use to download both a set of boxes and a set of drawers that are made to fit perfectly into each niche, and you can use all boxes, all drawers, or mix and match the templates in whatever combination that suits you.

From today through November 11th, you can purchase the Advent Calendar for just $29.99, a $10 discount from the regular price. Use code CRAVE to receive your discount.

About my calendar: I decided on a red, white, and silver/gray color scheme, and I added touches of coordinating colored glitter and my new favorite craft supply, Glossy Accents, to create glittery, glossy effects on the calendar numbers.

I also broke out my embossing templates, rubber stamps, and embossing powder to add texture to some of the white boxes. Needless to say, I had a great time on this project, though it did look like a glitter fairy attacked my craft table by the time I finished, and I was leaving a trail of paper bits behind me everywhere I went. But that’s all part of the paper crafting fun!

The printable patterned papers and number die-cutting templates that I used in my project can be purchased over on k.becca, and I bundled everything together at a special discount price if you’d like to purchase the papers and numbers together.

photo by Kristen Magee

Jazzy Watercolor Letterpress Wedding Invites

November 01, 2011 // kristen // 0 replies

This lovely, unique New Orleans wedding suite was created by Lesley Pick of Omaha, Nebraska-based Inclosed Studio and just happens to be the invitation suite for her best friend, Andie, who she’s known since kindergarten. Lesley went all out for this special project, which features oodles of amazing, Jazz Age/Art Nouveau-style typography and a great, mossy green and lavender color palette.

David, the groom, created a watercolor painting of the wedding venue, Audubon Park, which was printed on the outside of the gatefold invitation for an extra special, personal touch. The wedding itself was intimate, emotional, and full of New Orleans flair, including amazing food, a gospel choir singing the bride down the aisle, and a surprise brass band at the end of the night. Pretty cool!

Pieces in the suite, in addition to the invitations,include an RSVP postcard, a reception card, an accommodations card, and a schedule of the day.

photo credit: DPMuller Photography