National Stationery Show 2012

 
And.... we're back... After 10 days in New York (with an awesome side trip to Connecticut with no internet or phone) we're back in full force in the studio. The Stationery Show was great. It's so fantastic to be reunited with some amazing designers/printers/ & more importantly friends and spend 4-6 days setting up, selling, dismantling in "the same boat". I am incredibly fortunate to know such wonderful people.

So here are a few pics of our booth...... (thanks again to Rebecca Kreisler for taking my seed ideas for the pop-up and making it an AWESOME animal world reality!)

We also covered the show for Poppytalk, and you can see all the pics of 40+ other artists/designers' booths in the 5 parts linked below.

part 1     

part 2     

part 3     

part 4     

part 5    

pics above: pistachio press, seed house stationers, belle and union, bruno press, chewing the cud

NSS 2012, booth 1959, & Poppytalk!

Wow, I think this is the busiest time of year for us. But what fun. We're headed to the National Stationery Show in NY the end of this week. If you're attending, please come by and say hello, booth # 1959. We'll be the bright yellow corner and we have a paper cut surprise, so come see. The show is held at the Javit's Center May 20-23. It's a super great time where we get to meet and talk to our retailers, connect with our printing/designing peeps, and discover new friends and inspiration. I'm lucky to have 2 amazing cousins that put me up and help me with the show, set-up to sales. Yvonne and Margie, you rock! (And every night it's like I have my own personal chef-amazing)

While we're there, we are also reporting what we see, booths to people, for Poppytalk. So don't miss the coverage at poppytalk.blogspot.com. And you can see a little preview of what we're bringing here.

The Poppytalk Paper Pops market is up and looks great. Find Father's day gifts, paper loves, and bits you can't live without. Check out the Lookbook below, it's as awesome as ever! (I LOVE the astronaut pic)

Open publication - Free publishing - More affordable art

Blackbird Wedding Collection... finally!!

Finally, here it is, the Blackbird Wedding Collection!

We've been working steady to develop our newest Blackbird letterpress wedding designs, each ready for your customization. Throughout the years we have focused mainly on custom letterpress wedding design but we now offer 6 new designs from which to choose from. You can find more photos, as well as pricing list and customization info at our updated website. Take a minute to look around while you're there, we've freshened it up a bit.

 Coastal Suite. For those who love the water. We do spend a lot of time on the coast and the sea is life.

Celebration Suite. Weddings are truly celebrations of life and love. Celebrate in style.

Paper Crane Suite. Cranes are symbols of happiness, good luck, wisdom, and longevity. The Paper Crane gives loyalty and peace.

Oak Suite. The Live Oak tree is a symbol of strength. Wherever you are getting married, the oak will stand for love. Custom illustrated city maps are available for reply cards and save the date cards.

Tuscany Suite. For the love of the landscape, the vista, and the sense of place with a hint of lavender for devotion.

Vintage Lace Suite. A touch of elegance and grace for a special day to remember always.

Other pieces are available such as save the date cards and thank you cards. And for the 1st person to order a set, we'll give you a 20% discount off the invitations. Just remind us where you saw this and give us the code "newblackbirdwedding". (discount will be given for invitations only and upon when the deposit has been received).
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And since we are in a sale mood, we are offering 20% off of our stationery and other goodies at blackbirdletterpress.etsy.com, enter the code SPRING2012 in the coupon space, good through May 5, 2012.

Wrap Magazine Collaboration

Wow, I'm writing this later than I had planned, but, hey, that means I'm busy in the studio huh? :)

I had an incredible opportunity a couple months back to work with Wrap Magazine. I wrote a little in a previous post. But I wanted to share a bit more.  (Read more about our collaboration in a blog post by Wrap)



I discovered Wrap from a tweet by Grace of Design*Sponge last summer, I think. And I immediately ordered issues 1 & 2. I couldn't wait until issue 3 and it was no disappointment. Polly & Chris sent me an email as they were planning issue 4. (I am a huge fan and was completely thrilled!) The theme of the issue is inspired by North America (Wrap is out of the UK) and they had a few questions about letterpress for an article. Chris had the great idea of letterpress printing the title of the article and I can't much resist getting my hands into moveable type. Though we don't have much wood type, I do have a bunch of lead type, lots of sizes and shapes. I found some ornaments and some good typefaces and set it the type, locked up the Vandercook, printed, and then photographed.

 

Wrap is now available as a subscription and so during the conversation we discussed how fun it would be to offer a free gift to the 1st 150 subscribers. And, gift tags compliment wrapping paper perfectly. Chris sent me the sweet raccoon illustration, we printed the tags, and packaged them in sets of 3. 

Issue four is brilliantly written and full of amazing illustrators as well as other interesting finds. The paper is luscious and the printing is rich. The wrapping paper side of the pages is so good you will almost want to hang it on the wall instead of using it for wrapping. I wrapped all the Christmas gifts I gave this last year in Wrap, and I have to admit, the paper made it quite special. 

It was also great to discover one of my very favorite illustrators, Julia Pott, inside the issue! (she's in the US via the UK). Check out Wrap Magazine if you haven't already. It's worth the wait of overseas shipping, it's affordable, and one of the best new magazines out there today.

Links to others in the article: ink meets paper, Inkwell Boutique (a shop I so so want to visit!), and YeeHaw Industries.

Wrap's blog post about our collaboration, is here.

And if that's not all enough, they sell single sheets of wrapping paper in "wrap packs" (also comes with a card and tape shapes), super awesome taps shapes (great alternative to boring scotch tape), and tote bags! check out their shop, here.

 Read Wrap, Wrap, Wrap

Sneakpeeq

For a couple more hours, find our goods at @sneakpeeq, special deals for fans and more.
As far as facebook goes, I'm always a bit skeptical of using it in general, but for shopping? Seemed crazy to me. But actually it's pretty cool. The first time I visited it I bought something. Maybe this is good maybe this is bad, but it was fun. You get to peeq at the price, sometimes getting a special deal, gather badges, save more $$. It's kinda like a game.

Come visit us there for just a few hours left today, until 10am Pacific.

and pick up a calendar!

Wrap Magazine Issue 4

SO excited about Wrap Magazine's issue 4. We participated a little bit in this issue, I'll write more about it soon. But take a flip through........



You can now subscribe to Wrap, go here. And if you do, you can receive a set of letterpress printed gift tags printed by us, as well as their awesome tote! I wrapped all my Christmas presents this past season with Wrap, it is so amazing, beautifully printed and the content is fantastic! Ok, ok, I'll stop gushing... (but I love it!)

beyond Atlanta

It's hard for me to believe it's now mid-February and festival season in Louisiana {though no parades for me this year (too much on my to do list) }. But it is. Atlanta and the AmericasMart seem like they were yesterday but it's now been a month. I had a blast with Rachael of Pistachio Press in our 7+ days in trade show mode. To talk shop everyday, every minute, well..... that was pure heaven for me. A good reminder how important it is to stay in touch and close to your letterpress peeps and good friends.

We learned a lot, met some amazing people (Katie-Concrete Lace, Elizabeth-Cherry Laurel, Meg, and more) and honestly had a blast. Food was great (there are incredible restaurants in Atlanta- try Cafe Sunflower (vegetarian, I could eat there everyday) & Wrecking Bar especially). Our hotel was homey and Ikea,  Whole Foods, Home Depot, and craft stores were easily accessible for all last minute trade show needs. I had heard such horror traffic stories but with Rachael as my navigator we conquered the roads!

Blackbird and Pistachio products complimented each other and we were happy how the booth came out. And more than anything, we had a blast! Now time to think about the National Stationery Show, whew, so much to prepare.......

a few other friends we met: Treat, Ancesserie, Rachel Brown Fowler. All beautiful work!