Apparently my husband was sometimes called blueberry (I can’t remember why). People are SO smart…or at least they think they are! After Hazel was ruled out, I defaulted to my next favorite, Evelyn, and the minute she was born she was my sweet Evelyn Marie.

In a world of perfect pregnancies, painless labors, mental stability and anti-aging bodies – I would love to have a few more babies. Wouldn’t it be so cute to have a little Frankie and Georgie (Francis and Georgia) running around the house making a wild rukus?

Usually I’m not a fan of the boy name for girl thing but I think Frankie and Georgie have got to be the cutest twist on a vintage name (and that would continue our unintended alphabet of names in the family : Adrienne, Brian, Charlie, David, Evelyn)

What are some of your favorite vintage names? Do you even like vintage names? Available with the rest of the alphabet in the Etsy shop, check out the rest of the letters. They’d be great for first names or last names!

This bride is looking for a shimmer pop but isn’t necessarily going for the foil so we are going to go the matte metallic route and utilize shimmer in the liners or envelopes. By using an antique gold ink it will give a hint of shimmer, or we can add silver ink to the pool options to get that blue a little shimmery as well. Which one would you go with?

We designed layout of Hope’s cards in conjunction with Sarah Ewell, one of our freelance designers. Upon approval of the design, these were letterpress printed on 110# Crane’s Lettra paper. Two inks, pantone match, and dressed to impress. I just love the QR code on there paired with the circuit board. Sized at 2.5×2.5″, if you are looking for branding help or have your own design files ready and just need printing, please contact us for a request for a letterpress or design estimate. We’d LOVE to work on your next project!

So to work this baby out – we had to shorten our dead area (usually there is a dead bar at the front of the press which keeps the grippers from hitting the printed form and damaging not only the grippers but the type as well). To shorten our dead area we had to be extra cautious, and a small piece of furniture was inserted in replacement of the dead bar (see that wood block on the press? that’s called furniture in printer’s speak).

Next we had to FLOOD the press with ink. Printing large image area is a totally different ball game than business cards. Business cards require the most minute amount of ink – too much and the ink will muck things up and make your type horribly ugly. However with large areas, a lot more is required – and when doing multiple prints (without an ink fountain that automatically feed the ink on the press) I had to ink up quite a few times.

In the end, there is an amazing variety that happened with these prints. Both the X and O had unique wear to them so when over-printed (the process of laying one image area over the other) those details came out in this fabulous western wood type way. Distressed and tasteful and beautiful! On some of the prints we added a third color (pink) which was under the gold and offset by about a 1/4″ to give a drop shadow effect – those we kept for valentine’s gifts but were equally cool.

I can’t believe that after all these years of my X and O sitting on the shelf that I never made time to get them on press! Finally they are ready and I’m giving one away to a lucky reader/tweeter/FBer!

The Specs: 1 (one) letterpress extra-large poster of the XO. sized 13×19″, 2 inks (red/matte antique gold). Signed and numbered of an edition of 50. unframed – and shipped in a tube for safe mailing.

TO ENTER:
You can comment for 1 entry,
tweet for another entry with hashtag #XOposter and make sure you metnion @DingbatPress and comment back here with your tweet,
and for a third entry post it in your feed on Facebook (and again come back and provide a link :)

You have until Jan. 14 midnight MST to enter. A winner will be selected at random and announced by the end of the week!

Or if you want one RIGHT NOW, just hop on over to the Etsy shop and get one. These babies are ready to ship!

Letterpress New Year’s Eve wedding invitations. Printed on 110# Ecru paper in matte metallic antique gold, and matte metallic pewter ink. A7 (5×7″) finished size for the invitation, and 3.5×5″ reply paired with printed matching envelopes.

Personal Resolution #1

I’m not buying anything for myself this year. No clothes, toys, pretty things what-so-ever. National Stationery Show is the only thing I’ll be splurging on :)

Obvious Business Resolution #1

Grow Dingbat Press!

In the coming year, the following goals will be blogged about – as we pass them off – its our biggest event yet and I can’t wait to share it with you all!

Finish 2011 Collections: Wedding, Ready-Made and Digital (yes we are venturing into the offset arena for our customizable goods!) Print New Biz Cards: and with that, master the die-cutting on the windmill. Put together THE BOOK: you know, the one that goes with the wedding collection. Design our booth for NSS: and fire-proof it, build it and ship it to NYC. Finalize our signage for NSS: and get our wholesale price-lists, order sheets, promotional material, and press kits ready. Send out our Pre-show promotions: letting everyone know where we’ll be at! Book flights: confirm hotel reservations, booth space, set-up and take-down. PRINT PRINT PRINT! all our new collections. Launch: Our wholesale catalogue…and much much more!