Letterpress New Years Greeting/Announcement/Eye Test

Wow, there's a whole lot we need to catch up on...

First of all, I AM alive and printing, I've just been purposefully/accidentally quiet around here. You see, I come from a long line of notoriously fertile women and right about the time I decided to really give this thing (this letterpress thing, as I like to call it) a go, Jason and I found out that we were expecting! I mean, we were trying and all, I just really thought I'd get in a few more months of 'round the clock printing and designing and general starting-a-businessing. Yeah... I should have known better. And believe it or not, my 1 or 2 posts a month was enough to gather quite a few inquiries. For fear of getting in over my head, I put any blogging/advertising on hold. As you can imagine, printing is a little tough when you're verge-of-coma tired, dealing with an ever expanding belly, and have the looming threat of early labor potentially infringing on your deadlines. But don't fret! I haven't been on the couch this whole time! I have a slew of projects (mostly small referral based projects) I've been saving from the last few months to post here, now that I'm officially "too big to print" and have a little more time on my hands. AND I hope to resume printing in early May, after Baby Hanna makes his/her appearance and we've figured out our schedules.

Soooooo, may I present to you the Hanna Family New Year/Birth Announcement Card! It also doubles (triples?) as an eye exam! When I do projects for myself I like to see how far I can push the letterpress printing process, because if shit hits the fan I have no one to disappoint but myself. Minuscule fonts and hairline knockouts put this calendar just at the cusp of legibility. I apologize to my recipients of advanced years...








Yaaaay Babies!!!!

If you want to get organized, sometimes you gotta make a mess first.

In the midst of changing the office from 70% Jason and 30% Holly to 10% Jason and 90% Holly.
Don't worry, he has 100% of an office in the city now, in addition to the server room down the hall. You read that right, we have an entire room devoted to a server in our little ranch. Although we also have an entire garage devoted to a letterpress machine, so I guess I can't complain too much.

&

Amazingly, I made it through design school without ever learning how this little bugger got its shape. Finding this tidbit of information while flipping through Polk's classic "The Practice of Printing" just reinforces my undying love for the ampersand.

Well hello there, cupcake!

Tara is THE luckiest girl in the world. Not only did she recently get engaged to a hot doctor (well... she's a hot doctor too, so he's just as lucky!) but he also proposed WITH CUPCAKES.

In preparation for coming showers/bachlorettes/and all those other things associated with weddings that require a thank you card (enfianced: take note! you will need lots and lots of thank you cards) she commissioned me to design something special to celebrate the cupcake-laced proposal. Don't you think everything should be cupcake-laced? Cupcake-laced traffic! Cupcake-laced dentist appointments! Cupcake-laced jogging! That would be awesome.

And that last photo, the one that's probably a little too busy for a product shot? Total accident. I was using that chair (yes, that crazy pattern is a chair in my house) to prop up a bounce board and I couldn't help but notice that the colors in the card matched perfectly. The fabric is from Anna Maria Horner, I found it in CO on a trip with Jason's parents. I've been an admirer of her work for a few years now, and I picked up this bolt without even knowing it was her. At least I'm consistent, right? Anyway, you should check out her site and especially her blog. She's insanely talented, her house is crazy colorful, and she has like 16 kids.

Letterpress printed on Ivory 110lb Lettra in "Red Velvet" (the cupcake du proposal) with Blossom envelopes!

Now THIS is multitasking

Cleaning roller riders AND getting a tan at the same time. This is the best job ever.

Love:Holly & Bill

Not me Holly. A different Holly. I'm already happily married. And his name is certainly not Bill.

I pretty much had free reign with this one. I had just started thinking everything I do is completely unoriginal and lame (which I tend to do, like, everyday) when this little diddy popped into my head. I am butt-crazy in love with the logo I whipped up, and how those lines feel when you rub your nail across.

Letterpress printed on 110lb Flo White Lettra in Good Ol' Black ink with Peacock envelopes

Woot!

Love: Krissy & Steve

I always like to chat with the bride (and groom! if he's willing) a bit on the phone or in person before a start a design. The internet can be so impersonal. Through our initial email exchange Krissy said the theme of the wedding was "Wine". Wine? Like, just booze? Errr... okay. BUT through further explanation over the phone I discovered that Stephen proposed at a vineyard in California, Bella Vineyards to be exact. Aaaand they are moving from boring ol' Mass to California- sunny, glorious, sunny, vineyard-filled (did I say sunny?) California- after the wedding. Okay, now I get it. I did a little internet sleuthing and surprised Krissy with a custom drawing of the famous caves at Bella Vineyards and incorporated it into a simple design reminiscent of a wine label. She loved it!

Letterpress printed on 110lb Pearl White Lettra in a custom-matched Eggplant ink with Plum envelopes.