busy busy

With only two more sleeps until Brisbane Finders Keepers we sure have been busy busy bees here in the studio. We have lots of new stationery and letterpress goodies and we are super excited to show for the very first time this weekend!

The markets are on from 10am to 5pm both Saturday and Sunday at the beautiful Old Museum. You can find out all the details here. If you attend please do make sure you pop by and say hello!

morgan & iain :: wedding stationery

It has been a very pretty wedding season here in the studio of late. Lots of gorgeous wedding suites featuring florals in soft and pretty tones, we love getting all pretty!

And of one these weddings was the super lovely Morgan and Iain who we worked through via Victoria at The Little White Wedding Co. With a beautiful wedding planned here in Brisbane of simple elegance, the brief for their invitation was for something classical with the introduction of a botanical floral illustration.

Using our gorgeous peony flower, their invitation featured a blind impressed background coupled with classic and elegant typography printed in a grey ink (oh so popular this year!). This pattern was repeated into the reply card and also made a stunning envelope liner - just gorgeous!

weekend plans

My goodness, it is Friday afternoon already, how can that be?

We have had a very busy week here in the studio, we are in full swing wedding production mode with lots of weddings being delivered for late winter and spring weddings. There have been some really beautiful ones, we must make sure we show you soon.

This weekend we will be busy printing, but of the non wedding kind. We have our new print we will be printing - have you entered our giveaway for the very first print off the press? We will also be extending our greeting card range and preparing lots of our lovely swing tags, hello notecards and other stationery bits and pieces for next weekends Finders Keepers.

Today we also took delivery of some new stationery which will hit our online store soon - it isn't letterpressed, but it sure is lovely and is going to make a lovely little edition to our store of stationery goodies.

The above card is one which we have had in the online shop for a little while but haven't had a chance to show you - it is a tiny tad cheeky, but perfect for the musical kind, and that tuba sure has got a beautiful impression into the cotton paper.

See you again next week friends!

xox

giveaway!

Its been quite a while since we have done a giveaway around here - so I think it is about time to do one! We have a new limited edition letterpress print planned to make its way onto the press sometime in the next week - and sweet blog readers we would love to give you the chance to win the very first print which is pulled off the press! We can't let you know just yet what it looks like... but we do promise that it will be very lovely indeed!

Nothing fancy required to enter, just leave a comment below and we will randomly choose a winner. Entries will close two weeks from today - Midnight Tuesday the 6th of July.

Good luck!!

sheryn & michael :: wedding stationery

Today we have images to share with you from a recent wedding stationery suite we completed for Sheryn and Michael. Sheryn works in the wedding industry at a gorgeous couture bridal studio in Melbourne, however when you live and breath weddings we know all too well how overwhelming it all can become to design and plan your own day!

Sheryn and Michael have chosen to have their reception at the stunning wine bar Comme in Melbourne, and with a classic, elegant and a touch of opulence theme we think they have made an amazing choice.

When it came to the stationery they were a little unsure as to which direction to head so we designed a series of invitations to suit their classic yet opulent theme. With a love of peonie flowers, Sheryn and Michel's favourite design was the above featuring a beautiful hand drawn floral illustration with classic, yet opulent typography.

Their stationery suite include a 2 colour invitation, reply card, gift card and envelopes to suit. The illustration received an amazing printed impression which really highlighted the valleys and mountains produced by our old letterpress beasts.

It was such a joy to work with Sheryn and Michael, we adored their design and when we received a gushing email to say that they had arrived, we were super pleased to hear that they were in love with them too!

words of advice

Hi Friends, it is crazy manic here at the moment with way too many things on the go at once, and far too many things going wrong - Letterpress sure can be one big frustrating adventure. But taking words of advice from the press are keeping calm and keeping our blower holes clean. It is after all, very important.

Also I have been meaning to tell you, we officially named our new press Helga. Such a beast of a lady, it seems such a fitting name. Strong, bulky and quite the brute of a girl. In her heyday I reckon she would have worn breeches and been the strong lady at the circus. What do you think?

Many thanks to The House of Dust and Fur for the naming suggestion!

brisbane finders keepers 2/3 july

Brisbane folks, Did you know that it is almost Finders Keepers time again? Are you super excited? We sure are! We will be there with all our letterpress goodies as well as some brand new stationery we are super excited to share with you guys first before it hits our online shop and retail stores, yay!!

You can check out the amazing line up of designers who will be attending here and find more info here. Oh we have shivers of excitement already!

Have a great weekend friends!
xox

p.s how cute is the above flyer - designed by the super fabulous Brisbane illustrator Mel Stringer, too cute!

karina & iman :: wedding stationery

Are you a doily lover? I will not deny it, we certainly are, so much so in fact that we have a whole cupboard just full of doily wonder. So were were a little giddy with excitement when Karina & Iman briefed us on their wedding stationery and they too mentioned that they also love doilys. Oh my, it was doily heaven!

We designed a number of invitation concepts for Karina & Iman to choose from, and we were super pleased when they chose the above design as their favourite as we predicted that this design would achieve an optimum printed impression on the press. It certainly didn't disappoint with the beautiful valleys and mountains formed by the impression of the printing plate against our 100% cotton stock. Such a beautifully tactile design!

Letterpress printed on our ivory stock in dark ivory ink and grey ink, Karina & Imans stationery suite also included reply postcards, thank you cards, swing tags and lined envelopes.

Golly gosh, I did not think it was possible, but I think we might just love doilys even more now!

britt & damian :: save the dates

Today we have a lovely fresh save the date suite to show you. We designed these save the date cards for Britt and Damian who are planning a beautiful Byron Bay wedding in Spring 2012. With a fresh, modern theme, we also injected a little touch of romantic bryon feel and printed these on our white 100% cotton stock in a gorgeous vintage coral ink. We love their simple simplicity and the amazing impression that is achieved through beautifully crafted typography. Just lovely!

a most beautiful sunday

Two Golden Hours was so much more then just two golden hours, it really was whole golden day. A road trip with the most beautiful Louise, a drive through stunning scenery and bumpy laughs along dirt roads. Hellos with friends and a hearty lunch. Vintage browsing and many dreams of a future country life. Followed by an afternoon of gentle chats with cake and fruit picked fresh from the tree. It really was the most lovely sunday!

weekly wrap up

Oh my it has been a busy week here in the studio, we have been quite in a fluff with our new press - name yet still to be decided, but do particularly like Heidi or Helga. What do you think?

This weekend we will be headed out to the Lifeline Bookfest. We have attended bookfest quite a few times previously and have a jolly of a time trawling through all the millions of books on offer. I am usually the one with the green shopping bags laden down with books hanging precariously from each shoulder. Having taken more observant notice last time, I noticed that the seasoned Bookfest shoppers take a suitcase to fill and drag around behind them quite delicately, not like me with the bulging green bags and elephant walk fighting my way through the crowds.

On Sunday, my all time favourite ladies and I will be taking a little road trip up to visit Two Golden Hours - most excited about this adventure, hopefully it will involve lots more cuddles with my favourite lady above. The poor thing, I do think she only knows me as the lady behind the camera. She is terribly photographic to shoot (with all those perfect features) so most of our adventures involve me taking 600 photos. I really do love it, maybe in a next life I'll become a baby photographer.

In other news this week we have been shocked and saddened by this footage, have been excited that one of our favourite American shopping haunts has now gone global and ships to Australia, have been pining over this farmhouse and have been collecting just the right amount of old bananas to make our old favourite recipe here.

Have a wonderful long weekend my sweets, and if your overseas and don't have the Queens Birthday to celebrate, take Monday off anyway - you deserve it!

xox

the new addition

Meet our new (old) Heidelberg T platen - if you think he looks a lot like Herbie - you are spot on - Our new press is only three years younger then dear Herbie, so they are almost brothers (or sister?).

Our new (old) press has joined the ranks with our most beloved Charlie 1893 Chandler and Price Old style, Herbie our 1973 Heidelberg 10x15 T Platen, and our new (old) press a 1970 model of the same press.

We have had to have a bit of a shuffle around to fit our family of presses in the studio - poor Charlie has been moved several times over the past few years and this time he once again he was relocated to a new position within the studio. As our lightest press at a wee 800 kilos he is significantly easier to relocate then the 1.2 tonne Heidelbergs.

So now the studio is back into a state of calm order again, we do feel a little more squishier, but the family of presses for now feels complete - no doubt give me a year or two and I will itch for another (I do suppose it is like people with puppies or babies, after a period of time they forget all the hard work and decide that they want more!!).

Our new (old) press is currently nameless - when I asked the previous owner if he had a name for it he did laugh and then tell me that the only name he had called it was names which he cannot repeat. Dear sweet Heidelberg, you will be loved here in our home of presses and we need to find you a name fitting to your loveliness... Do you have any suggestions, I would love to get your ideas on a name fitting for a 41 year old beast of German cast iron print mastery?

yesterday

Yesterday 1200kilos of letterpress loveliness arrived at the studio. Blissfully happy.

a cake for violet

My favourite little lady was Christened on the weekend and it was the perfect excuse to have a lovely time baking a super special double chocolate cake with pink butter frosting - a pretty cake for a very pretty little girl!

Did you have a lovely weekend too? Hard to believe that it is Monday already, but we do have a busy week here this week - we have a new press arriving tomorrow (big squeal!!) lots of recent weddings to share with you and some gorgeous weddings suites due out this week which will be keeping us busy. We are also selling off some goods from the studio to make way for our new press - you can view our auctions here on ebay.

two golden hours

Have you heard about Two Golden Hours? It is a pop up vintage and handmade shop, popping up next long weekend on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and it has me quite giddy with excitement!

Louise my all time favourite vintage hunting friend and myself will be making the trip up from Brisbane for some delightful shopping and a beautiful girls out. Featuring some of my all time favourite Brisbane designers, combined with reclaimed wares, a cafe and live music, all set on a stunning country homestead - I don't think I will ever want to leave.

You can find out more details here and I might just see you there.