Anne from Pearls & Lace provided a stunning logo. Sometimes I get projects that I just sit there and drool over because they are so beautiful. Anne’s logo was so great as a jumping off point for her business cards which will be 3/0 letterpress printed pretty darn soon!

We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with Anne and her great logo, and provide business card layouts and design that tied it all together for her. These will be going on press soon and I can hardly WAIT to see the finished piece.

What is your favorite?

Dubbed Caesar Pig

Dubbed Vintage Pig

Dubbed Zodiac Pig

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All designs ©2010 Dingbat Press

Option 1: Maple Leaf wedding suite

This concept plays off a beautiful photo of a wedding cake with the maple leaves that the client sent over. Seeing that she had mentioned wanting bright colors, we explored oranges and warm coral/red on this option. We were going for elegant with the calligraphy typeface however wanted to explore some unique layouts for this. The inner envelope would be lined with the maple leaves liner, and the outer envelope is the cream, matching the paper stock used for the invites. The inner envelope is in poppy and both envelopes would look beautiful addressed with chocolate ink for her guests.

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Option 2: Heart Thumbprint wedding invitations

We LOVED the thumbprint heart concept that the client presented and thought it would be a good design to add in the requested plum color and the orange. Because we wanted to place emphasis on the thumbprint, we wanted the remainder of the invitation to invoke a minimalist feel with beautiful large margins and flowing typography to tie it in all together. Since the thumbprint is such a personal element of a human and no two are the same, we wanted to maintain that feel in the invitation with a simple typeface reflecting classic school penmanship. There are added dingbats throughout the layout as well, reflecting back on the symbolism of the heart and tying in the typography with the emblem. The envelop liner on this design is an overprint of purple ink on purple paper, to give the envelope a really stunning pop when opened. It sort of adds the detailing in the other pieces without making it look too elaborate or over the top.

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Option 3: Modern Dahlia wedding invitations

The last option was based off some client provided photos of the dahlias in a beautiful peach color. We wanted to bring in a monochromatic feel to this invite, emphasizing the oranges and peaches that are evident in that photo. Again we wanted to explore a more unique approach to the invitation layout with the typography. The flower pattern is carried across all the invitation pieces, and will make such a beautiful impression when printed.

If you were getting hitched, what suite would you go for?

In order of appearance: (L-R).

Brian drilling a hole in our front room wall and harnessing the pulley strap around that section of wall and the kids bedroom door-frame ::: Press at the bottom of the stairs, nailed to 2x8s ::: pulley system ::: front room, looking at the stairwell ::: David checking the progress ::: hardwood 6″x12′ boards to ramp up the press ::: Getting going ::: slowly creeping it’s way up ::: Brian putting boulders from the garden under the boards so they don’t snap off when the press gets to the top ::: View from the banister looking at the stairwell.

Photographing from over the banister with rapid-fire set on my camera ::: Men sweating bullets while pulling the press up. Classic 45 degree angle shot of the press ::: Press almost to the top, starts to topple (almost snapping off our railing) ::: Thanks Brian for all the slave labor!

Right before this, Evelyn was flinging her paint brush and dancing like a maniac to Green Day.

My one and only sweetheart! He even rolled the ceiling. bleh.

Lastly, we got to move the press into it’s new spot. And to get it out of the basement, we had to anchor it to the wall and door jamb. My poor living room wall ;)

The mess before it got cleaned – unloading the boxes!

A few Christmas’ ago, Brian built me a replica of the Pottery Barn craft table, however you can get one on Target for 1/2 the price – OR have your hubby build you one for practically nothing and maybe a little bribery ;)

I added to my already growing supply of wire shelving. The main purchase was the EXPEDIT bookshelf and desk station. Time for a real desk, so that I didn’t stay up all night on the couch working on my laptop and start filling normal work hours again. This will also be the home for my ready-made goods.

While looking through the EXPEDIT collection I saw the EXPEDIT side tables and thought they’d be perfect as an ink mixing station for each press. With glass and a dark color, they fit in well with the decor and I thought they’d provide close proximity to the pressman for quick and easy usage.

Lastly, I think it was Craft, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco that was the inspiration behind a children’s station. I believe Meg was interviewing another artist about studio spaces to which the artist responded that the best studio is one where your children can have their own designated space. After reading that, I was determined to set aside a little corner for them. To compliment their work station, I couldn’t pass up the KRITTER chairs in yellow from IKEA.

Stay tuned for painting tomorrow!

Baby Charlie, knows his logos, and when he sees that red Coke can he starts screaming hysterically until he gets it in his paws. Thankfully, there was only one can of Coke available that day.

Here is the west wall of the garage, and the north (right). Where the wall is, there used to be a garage door.

After trying to photoshop this all together, I’ve decided I need to invest in a wide-angle lens for my Canon xSi. That west window was put in when we built the house, and the north windows were ordered to match the rest of our house, wood interior/steel exterior with grids. Click on the photo to zoom if you are so inclined.

I’m lucky enough to have one sexy husband who not only is the best fly fishing guide ever, but he also is quite the handy-man. He framed it out, insulated, and set the drywall. Saving me a ton of cash on labor! My sister-in-law’s brother (that’s a run-on for sure) did the electrical, and a handsome young man Jeff who is dating one of my employees Kenz, did the drywall seaming and taping.

For the last 5 years, my studio has been in my basement. We had a designated room, which my first press and love went barely down a flight of stairs to what we thought would be it’s final resting place.

Cleopatra : Manufactured by Challenge Machinery Co., model 15MA (manual, knockoff of the Vandercook SP-15). I’m partial to this press, because it doesn’t have those stupid springs that the Vandy has. This baby locks in place ;) But then again I’m a biased mother.

Then, the business grew, and the product grew, and the raw goods that I needed on-hand grew, and then I hired employees. Interns became part of the team, suddenly I realized that I had all but outgrown my basement. It was time for a real “bigger” studio. (And I bought a Windmill, and there was NO way a 3,500 lb Heidelberg press was going to even make it into our house – let alone the basement.)

Henrietta : Heidelberg Windmill with lockouts, red-ball. This is genius German engineering. They just don’t make things like they used to. CAST IRON BABY!

So I decided that the windmill was worth more money than my crap 2000 Honda Accord that smells like child barf, so the car got kicked to the curb. And I shopped, and ordered windows and drywall, and I moved the studio in! Come join the fun in seeing the progress that was/is the garage/studio for the week and get a peek into our new and improved space!

All designs © 2010 Dingbat Press. Rights reserved.

FINALLY the winner of the giveaway! First, update: Adam has finally come home! He is learning to walk again and talk. He has a small vocabulary and gets agitated due to the brain injury when over stimulated. His feeding tube is still in and he eats between 2-3 oz. of liquid food per feeding. It will be a slow road to recovery and they are not sure the extent of the brain and injuries that will remain or if he will make a full recovery. Only time will tell. George and Susan are optimistic and we are continuing to pray for a speedy recovery. This is of Adam right before he was released from the hospital, petting Bullet the cat. Bullet helped with therapy while Adam was in the Neuro Trauma unit for post PICU recovery. After 6 long weeks, the family is finally home and all back together, but its a long road ahead. THANK YOU to everyone for your generosity, the funds raised will help pay for extensive medical bills for sweet Adam!

Onto to stats: We had a total of 190 entries, and raised $1,855 for Adam! We had contributions from all over the world – literally, it was amazing seeing the donations come in!

For each donation of $10, 1 entry was allotted. For every additional $10 made by the same contributor, they had an extra entry added in the drawing. All entries were numbered in order or receipt, and then a random integer was generated by Random.org

The winner will receive EITHER a set of 100, 2 color wedding invites/rsvp’s with printed envelopes OR a set of 100, 2 color baby announcements with matching thank you notes (printed envelopes). The pieces will obviously be letterpress printed, and turnaround is subject to our standard studio turn of 4-7 weeks* from start to ship date.

And the WINNER is: EMILIE DYKSTRA – I’ll be in contact on how to get started on your project Emilie.

Thank you again, everyone for your kindness towards baby Adam and his family. I’ll continue to update along the way!

Letterpress printed as an A6 inprintable frog baby announcement, this is paired with matching unprinted envelopes and available now for a limited time!

These were custom letterpress baby announcement based off of the little elephant gift tags for sale in the shop. Done as a 2 color print and paired with matching envelopes they were so fun and adorable, I just love doing baby announcements :)

Also included in the order were custom thank you notes with baby’s name and the elephant to the side, man I think these are so precious, my poor kids were deprived seeing that I never did announcements for any of them b/c they were all totally unexpected deliveries!

Amanda had a knock-out logo, and I had the lucky opportunity to design her business cards and letterpress print them awhile ago. Above is some business stationery we did for her as a 1/2 sheet of letterhead (5.5×8.5″) paired with a printed A6 Envelope. We split her envelopes as half navy, half chocolate. I loved how the antique gold ink turned out on these.

Get yourself a set of letterpress business letterhead, new in the shop!