Homemade Business Cards, Vol.2

As promised, a post on how I made our Lettersketch business cards. Once Nina and I decided what we were going to actually do, everything was really simple to execute, just extremely tedious. I'm in the process of making 500 to go in swag bags for ICE Atlanta..got about 200 totally finished, about 200 more all cut and stamped, just needing sewing, and 100 that don't exist yet. They've got to be done by the 7th, so I'm booking it.

The objective was to create the cards as cheap as possible after our investment in printing and supply purchasing for the actual product. Since our initial run got us about 1500 covers, we had plenty to spare to cut up and repurpose for business cards..not to mention they would leave great impressions (pun absolutely intended). In a way, the cards would act as mini representations of our style and product. The fronts are stamped with the same LS stamp as the cotton pouches, and we had another stamp made for about $12 with our info for the backs. After the stamping's done, I run each one through the sewing machine, putting a line of our signature red thread just below the top edge. And that's it! Time consuming, but much more affordable and worth it...and since ICE is a handmade fair, our swag definitely fits the bill. As a little something extra leading up to the show, every order from now until the show (November 19th) will get one of these gems thrown in! Thought you might like that ;)

Some pics of the process:

TypeOh! Tuesday #74

Happy Tuesday! This past weekend went by wayyy too fast. So much preparing for ICE..less than a month away! Will have a business card post coming this week, but in the meantime, some type inspiration for today :)

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

sunflowers

Happy Friday! We made it! I took this pic yesterday morning on my way to work. It's been my favorite part of my 110 mile daily commute for the last month when they all bursted their yellow, and they always look the most beautiful in the morning.. an endless sunflower field over a mile long. I hope you have happy plans for the weekend - I'm going to be hard at work preparing for the indie craft fair coming up in a few weeks for Lettersketch. Lots of books to sew and business cards to make! We've repurposed some of the covers to make the cards, and I'm pretty stoked how they look so far, so I'll be posting about them soon :) Have a lovely Friday, see you next week!

Indian Wedding Invitations

Finally got everything photographed as promised. This was actually a pretty involved invitation, but I'm so happy with how everything turned out in the end that it was really worth it. The invitation was created for my employer's daughter, and going into it, she knew she wanted her invitations to incorporate orange and blue, be modern, but still keep traditional elements. Other than that and the copy she sent, I had free reign.

The invitations themselves are 5"x7". They were letterpressed on ReichPaper Cosmo 130# Cover stock (SO beautiful), with the headings of each invite foil stamped. The separate pieces were kept together with a belly band, with foil stamped sanskrit and an embossed Ganesh, the Hindu god who is the remover of obstacles. The invites were then slid in a custom made raw silk pouch with a light blue ribbon tie, and hand stamped in silver with a custom couples mark I created for them. Pouches were placed on a bed of hardwood kraft colored strands in a 9"x7" box. All boxes got a couple drops of lavender oil in them before pouches were placed inside, and the boxes were hand stenciled by me with a custom stencil I exacto'd out of thick plastic. A silver return address was stamped in the upper left, with a dark orange address label printed below center right for each recipient. 200 boxes were sent out in the end, I hope you enjoy the pics!

Customizing Lettersketch Covers

Put up a new blog post on Lettersketch today - Nina shot some sweet vids of some *extra quick graphite on our blind impressed covers. You can see the post here, and watch the vids below!

TypeOh! Tuesday #73

Can't believe it's Tuesday already! Although, I basically slept through all of Thursday and Friday, so maybe that's why. I spent the beginning of last week packing and shipping 200 boxes of the invitations I recently completed for the family I work for. The responses so far have been amazing, so if I can get everything photographed tonight, I'll try to get a post up either tomorrow or Thursday. For today's type, I thought I'd share some sneak peeks of the details, especially on the type. The invitations were letterpressed, with the header of each piece foil stamped, then pulled together with a belly band that was foil stamped and embossed. I'll go into more detail on the full post, so just enjoy the peeks for today ;)

Birthday Invitation Bundle

It has been a really rough few days..came down with laryngitis and had a pretty bad cold on top of it. Feeling about 70% today, enough to head up to work, but still not enough to feel fully with it. Got a bundle put up on graphic river the end of last week, so thought I'd share. Hope your weeks are off to a great start!

TypeOh! Tuesday #72

Happy Tuesday! I was SO excited to get the new Blind Pilot cd, We Are The Tide, a few weeks ago. Their first album, 3 Rounds and a Sound is one of my favorites..itunes says I've listened to it around 80 times since September 2008. It was about time I made some type for them! Was also able to get my pic with them a while back, too. Loveee them :)

Chattahoochee Trail Blazing

Ok, so not really trail blazing per se, but we walked a good 2 miles of the Chattahoochee trail, about 5 mins from my place while Beth was in town. It was a beautiful but cool day, perfect for walking with my little nuna. I love that this pic got her sticking out her tongue. Hope your weekend was wonderful! I stayed super busy on side projects, but all good/creative/fun ones; should be able to share a little more in the next month or so. Have a great start to your weeks - hopefully you've got the day off unlike me!

TypeOh! Tuesday #71

Happy Tuesday! What an incredible weekend I had. I think that's the happiest I've been in a long time. Amazing what a little family can do for your spirits :) I'll try to get some pics up soon - the conference was wonderful, and we also hit up the Atlanta Botanical Gardens while Beth was here..a first for both of us, and most definitely a second in my future. If you're ever in the area, I would highly suggest it..I can't wait to see what it looks like at night..we saw all the pretty trees wrapped in lights during the day. I bet Christmas time rocks. Anyway, I'm pretty tied up with side projects this week, so this is an inspiration Tuesday. ffffound these yesterday..some kick ass vintage type posters from Sanborn maps, which you can view all here. Hope you had a beautiful fall weekend, and your weeks are off to a great start!