One of the most recent letterpress invitation projects I completed was for my dear friend and cousin’s November wedding.  I was so excited to work on this project after working with them for their Save-the-Dates.  The location and time of year gave me a lot of inspiration to draw from.  The wedding will be at a historic and old New England inn and grist mill, and in late November the autumn foliage season is long gone but winter’s snow has yet to fall.  It’s a time of year that has a particular beauty to it; the starkness of the bare trees, grey cloudy days, and faded, dried flower blossoms.  We tried to capture that feeling while maintaining the historic charm and elegance of the property which will host their early evening nuptials.

As someone who really swoons for a balanced color scheme, the right typefaces, and the perfect illustrated border, I was thrilled that Caitlin wanted to finish the suite with calligraphy and vintage stamps.  We found a mix of vintage and contemporary postage stamps to compliment the design, and the talented Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio did the calligraphy on the outer envelopes.  I have never been so excited to receive an envelope in the mail!

(*Yes, there was a full address written on this envelope, and I assure you, it is beautiful!  I just didn’t want to leave my full address.  My apologies for not being able to show you all of Li’s work!)

I’ve already told Caitlin this: I not only did I enjoy working on this particular invitation suite tremendously, but I think I love how it turned out more so than my own wedding invitations!

{for more of my letterpress work, check out my Flickr}

I really love all of these bookmarks from stationer Felix Doolittle!  I’d love to get some as gifts for the holidays, but it’s hard to pick a favorite…

{images shown belong to Felix Doolittle}

Doing some research for a project this past week, I came across the work of UK illustrator Emma Block.  I’ve been swooning over here, going through her entire website.  I like how she incorporates collage into her illustrations.  The book she illustrated about Tea looks right up my alley (hope it will be available in the States)!

{images shown belong to Emma Block}

This is a tad late (they officially opened last week) but Suann Song’s Fifteen Eleven is open for business!  Read an article about the new paper goods shop in the DC area here.  A big congrats to you, Suann!

{images shown belong to Fifteen Eleven and Simplesong Design}

I would love to put this caddy on my desk!  Such beautiful, old wood.  From Peg and Awl.

{image shown belongs to Peg and Awl}

This past week I participated in a print exchange for the 4th anniversary of the AS220 Print Shop (where I print).  Being my first print exchange, I was slightly nervous to create a piece of art; however, I really enjoyed being able to work on something that was purely for myself and my “artistic endeavors.”  I was so inspired from my August trip to Acadia, and kept looking through my photographs of lichen, moss, and forest floor close-ups.  I decided to take a quote from William Wordsworth’s “Nutting” and work with my photographs as reference to create a two color silk screen and three color letterpress print.

Of course, I forgot to take photos during the exchange party (I apologize) but it was really neat to finally see all the work that everyone has been working on (etchings, silk screens, letterpress, woodblock, and I think a few others).  Besides enjoying hanging with my printer friends at the party, the best part is that now I have 19 new pieces of art to be able to hang on my walls.  Looking forward to doing another print exchange!

Kudos to Allison for organizing everything and working so hard to pull this together!

{for more of my letterpress work, check out my Flickr}

I love cake, don’t get me wrong… but sometimes I feel like wedding cakes just start to look like one another.  Nine Cake’s work really stood out to me.  I love how some of those flowers look like crepe paper!

{images shown belong to Nine Cakes}

Found a new-to-me studio that does such original, well-designed work: Poppies for Grace (via Oh So Beautiful Paper).  These photos are also really inspiring for color palettes and photo styling.  Such thoughtful work.

{images shown belong to Poppies for Grace}

Really love the comparison of organic versus geometric from Stone & Honey’s jewelry.  Such beautiful work!

{images shown belong to Stone & Honey}

This Wednesday I finally got to do something that I’ve been wanting to do for months… learn screenprinting (or rather, refresh… last did it in high school) and finally put my logo on my shopping bags.  The workshop was taught by my friend and colleague, Allison Bianco, and it was really a lot of fun.  Who knew seeing your logo on a kraft bag could make you so incredibly happy?  It was the same sort of giddy feeling I had when I saw my name on my first set of business cards at my first job out of college.

Really excited for the 2nd class for screenprinting: I’ll be working on a print combining screenprinting (and later on) & letterpress for a print exchange at the AS220 Print Shop!

Have a great weekend everyone!  I’ll be trying to stay afloat from Hurricane Irene and not holding too much animosity towards her for ruining my 2nd SoWa Open Market event, especially after my 1st one was completely rained out.  Argggh.
- Colleen