This was a custom When You Know heart print for Kara who is getting hitched this year! I hope she had a great Valentine’s Day. Brian surprised me and took me out (even though I had a big night in planned for us) with his dad baby-sitting the kids. A few diabetic emergencies later and the prognosis is that we seemed to have survived the weekend. Great job hubby for making me feel like one in a million despite my paranoid tendencies and crazy blood glucose readings with our little guy. In the end we got lots of snuggling Saturday night with all the kids and got to sleep in Sunday!

Happy President’s Day! I know sometimes this holiday passes us by, especially for those that are working but I just wanted to pay tribute to all our amazing presidents that have lead our wonderful country since it’s beginning. I feel so blessed to be a recipient of freedom, justice and liberty. My grandfather was a patrol plane commander in WWII and reading his journal is amazing and humbling. What a legacy he leaves for me and my posterity through that journal and his sacrifice to fight for his country. I made cards similar to these for him for Christmas one year, and then later decided to list them as a personalized note.

These Vintage Plane letterpress cards were a gift to a couple honoring their golden anniversary. Suiting since this husband also was a pilot in World War II like my grandfather. To see other variations on this card click on the link above to be directed to the Shop. Letterpress printed on Arturo mould made paper with a deckle edge. 4Bar (3.5×5″) and paired with matching envelopes.

I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to work with Laura. I thought having three kids was a lot of work, but this woman is so inspiring, with 5 adorable children of her own, it’s amazing talking to her, looking at her incredible photography work and learning from her and her great strength! Check out Laura Reaux Photography to see more of what I’m talking about!

The nest was an initial exploration to tie in the natural and organic feel to her brand but to help expand it. In the end we just really liked where the tree was going. Check back soon for the final printed piece!

Another set of Signature Dingbat letterpress A6 notes. These were super fun because the client was ordering them for a gift and decided to mix up ink and envelope. Generally people choose matching ink/envelope combos with the envelope printed in a hue darker. This lovely lady made it fun for me because she wanted a contrasting envelope and then ink color the same on both the card and envelope. Printed on 110# Lettra in an A6 size, these are perfect as a bridesmaid gift, mother-of-the-bride gift, or for anyone in your bridal party!

These letterpress notes shipped back in December and I’m just finally getting them posted. I liked designing this job because it was a note that could be used for any member of the family. I had to try to incorporate all the names, make it not too girly, and keep it simple. A lot harder than I thought, we went through a plethora of rounds before it finally came to something everyone was happy with! Enjoy :)

Letterpress printed on a 5.25″ Square card on 110# Thick paper. Copper ink and typeset in Wade Sans Light. The ornamentation was found in an old vintage illustration book I scored at an antique fair a few months back.

These letterpress calling cards were printed a few months back for Joy, but I wanted to print an option in blossom to see if there would be value issues with the lighter pink ink and the small type. I haven’t printed with light pink too much so it was a fun experiment to work on and I look forward to offering it to you from here on out!

Get yourself a set of 50 letterpressed calling cards by Dingbat Press.

Calligraphy on this card by: Kathryn of Della Carta
Other Calligraphers I also love that would do a fabulous name for your calling card:
Lisa Ridgely (Pen & Ink) | Emilie Friday | K is for Calligraphy

I don’t know if you do Valentine’s gifts for parents, but since I’m a daddy’s girl its something I’ve thought about because my dad often did cute little things for me when I was younger. He traveled a lot when I was really little, and he’d always try to bring home a tee shirt (hello neon with rainbow glitter Washington Monument) or the yummy brie cheese that they used to serve on airplanes in the early 90s. Sometimes I’d ask him what he brought me, which would be followed by “Just ME!” and a big kiss on the cheek.

Whether you need something for a significant other, spouse, dad or all the men in your life, why not go old-school and get some vintage planes with their name on it.

Yet another fabulous photographer, Jessica Morrisy had me create not just one custom business card, but two for her two sister companies. She already had her logo, so I created layouts and pulled elements from the brand to add texture and content to her designs.

The first card is for her main business, the second for her boudoir photography clients.

Jessica was really great to work with, as she already had a good idea about what she was looking for so things went quick on the design end. I like how the direction from Jessica indicated that both of these be similar, yet still have their own feel to each brand. It was a little more challenging to keep them in harmony with each other. Check back soon for photos of the final printed piece!

These letterpress business cards and business gift tags were shipped over the holidays to another amazing photographer, Jessica Johnston. We went through a fair amount of proofs, and interestingly enough, round after round, more and more got eliminated from the card. I always try to consider using less in a design, as one of my professors once told me, “Take your favorite thing from your artwork/design or proof and eliminate it. It will become a better piece by doing so.”

I can’t tell you how many times that still rings true. I think part of being a designer is realizing how to humble yourself or your work. Many times when I am stuck, it’s because I think the design is perfect with that one little element. So often though when eliminating that specific element, I’ve just taken away my biggest crutch and can move on to a better and more refined design. Not all designs are subject to beautiful negative space and tasteful minimalism, however I think this piece pulls it off well.

Cards printed on 110# Lettra with 1/4″ rounded corners in tinted warm cyan with a blind impression.
Tags printed on 220# Lettra with 1/4″ rounded corners – same inks as cards. Punched with a 3/16″ hole, paired with matching 1/8″ ribbon. Get your own letterpress business cards here!

These tags are for a dress exchange start-up looking to rent/exchange couture dresses for events, weddings, galas or whatever suits your fancy. The client needed letterpress business tags to ship with dresses : here we are in the first round of design phases.

After watching Project Runway and seeing Robert Best, it was amazing to see how his work translated into the collectible Fashion Barbie over the last ten years. Since I now have a little girl old enough to want to play with Barbie I have started looking at all the fabulous fashion that she’s worn over the years. This project was great to get me back into the fashion spirit and search the archives of all the beautiful dolls out there. Because really, isn’t Barbie the epitome of couture and celebrity?

Pulled from old and new, these tags are my own interpretations of some of my favorite couture dresses over the years, some from Barbie, some from fashion designers – derived, revised and finally illustrated by yours truly.

I have this amazing book, by Clarence P Horeuning (sp?) that I love to draw from on occasion. Although I did have a heck of a time trying to track it down…it has since been a great resource for vintage letterpress/ad cuts. Published in the late 1800s, then again in the 30s and again in the 50s. I’m not sure what my edition is but it’s OLD, I think 1934. It has all these amazing illustrations/cuts that I’ve started to scan in and archive in my “to use someday” file. There’s also a sister companion with Victorian type, initial caps and letter-forms that are incredible. Like hundreds of pages.

Enter Karen. She is a lovely sister and is ordering a set of notes for someone special in her family (sibling). She wanted oak tress, and I thought “YES! finally I get to use some of these beauties!”

Now I know these might not even be oaks, but they look like it to me. Since they’re a little ambiguous I think they pass quite well for oaks.

These letterpress business card designs are from the proofing Round II for Alfred & Emma of Alfred Salom Photograpy. The first round of designs and concept was a good starting point for birds in flight, however Emma wanted to push the designs a little more and explore a few repeating pattern options in addition to what we had previously hashed out. The silver/grey got tweaked a little more this round in saturation to add a punch when letterpress printed.

All business card orders receive complementary design services that are built right into the price, something not all printers offer with their pricing packages. Of course you can submit your own files as well, but this is a great incentive to update your identity/brand at a fraction of the cost. Some of my clients start from scratch, others come to me with a logo and then we work together to establish layout, typography and design that is cohesive with the look and feel of the brand. A handful of my clients have ready-made files which I then pre-flight and edit to fit the nature of letterpress printing if necessary. What ever your needs are I would love to work it out with you!

These letterpress moving announcements shipped out recently to one of my favorite clients, Sarah. When she came to me wanting some moving announcements, she had an idea in mind and then I went to the drawing board and came up with some options.

Her main concept was to have some sparrows in flight and wanted the wording “We’ve migrated” on there. SO cute! Since she had recently had a baby and had some custom letterpress announcements printed we wanted to keep a similar feel to this piece yet still have it be a fun project. Printed in navy ink on Arturo 240GSM paper with deckle edge, interior and exterior with printed envelopes, I’m sure they’ve migrated all over Australia by now to announce their move.