it's been
a good week for us. a new kitten joined our family, i spent some time in the
letterpress studio, and the rain finally stopped. here are some of my favorite
things right now.
letterpress.
i printed holiday cards and
personalized stationery on a sunny day in the studio. it made my week.
handmade
soap from union street soapworks. picked up at the clarendon farmers market on wednesday.
toasted coconut + lavender oatmeal.
happy weekend!
Have you ever gone on a really amazing trip? You had high expectations and they were exceeded? That was our recent trip to France. And it is so difficult to adjust to real life after a trip that takes you so far from reality. Making this mini-book helped the recovery a bit, but we're definitely still adjusting.
We spent the first part of the week in Aix-en-Provence. What a beautiful, charming city! The pace was relaxed, but not slow. Everyone was gorgeous and I loved how well they wore even the simplest clothes. The shopping in Aix was an indie girl's dream. So many of the shops and market vendors sold beautiful handmade hats, dresses, and tops in which you couldn't miss the marriage between fashion and art. And I found beautiful handmade books in several shops, too. The food was ridiculous. We took advantage of the food markets and Provencal restaurants, and on a day trip to Marseille we hit up a bouillabaisse joint. Provence does rose wine really well and we drank lots of it at every meal and sometimes while we sat and watched the beautiful crowds stroll by our cafe table.
Next we ventured up to Paris to spend some time with my college roommate. She and her husband were such gracious hosts and introduced us to many of their friends. I think part of the reason it's been so hard to adjust to real life again is because it was so wonderful to reconnect with such a dear friend. That, and the macarons at Laduree.
This mini-book is a beast. I used a bunch of photo postcards we picked up along the way, and had included some soft paper in muted colors before the trip. I added wine labels, business cards, train tickets, the map we carried around every day, our printed itinerary, and lots of other random paper pieces, even the wrapper from the duck sausage we picked up from the market. For the photos I took, I printed them out in 4x6 blocks, three blocks to an 8.5x11 sheet of photo paper. I started out with tiny book rings, but had to upgrade to giant rings, of course. I've never used the big ones before - I'm glad I still had them lying around! Lots of photos of the "mini"-book below:
After a few days in NYC, we headed directly to Northern Maine. We spent the rest of the week at my parents' house, all the way at the tippy top of the state. One morning I got up to pack a picnic lunch for the whole family and we canoed all day long. Until it was time for ice cream. We spent a few hours on the lake with my aunt and uncle - they even let Mr. Moggie captain the boat for a while. And we always seem to be in town for the annual Muskie Derby and Ploye Festival. Seriously. We ended our time in the north by attending a 55th wedding anniversary party for my dad's aunt and uncle. So. Ridiculously. Cute.
The rest of our stay in Maine we were in Bar Harbor. We had a few relaxing days, dining out with my parents, reading on the lawn while the waves crashed below, and devouring lobsters. It was wonderful!
Here's the mini-book that captures it all:
A friend from school is getting married in Chicago later this year. She's having lots of fun planning most parts of the wedding, but she was having trouble when she had to make decisions about her invitations. A mutual friend told her I might be able to help, and she gave me the opportunity to put together a wedding paper suite for her.
I was beyond thrilled just to have box upon box of Arturo delivered to my door for this project. Add to that the joy of spending a day in the studio printing these lovelies and it might make up for the fact that I can't get back to the studio until August because of the bar exam study schedule.
The bride wanted something clean and simple and the wedding colors are burgundy and cream. After I got a feel for what she was after, I designed and letterpress printed invitations, RSVP cards, reception cards, and printed some envelopes. I have to thank Mr. Moggie who helped me to tie ribbons around the invitations.
If you're coveting some blank CD cases like the ones I used in those Memphis wedding invitations, you can order them from Stumptown Printers. If you want to make your own simple case, here's a quick little guide to making the CD cases from my last post.
Start with a good thick cover sheet. I used French Paper's Muscletone in Kraft. This paper is superbly versatile. I've read that it's great for letterpress printing (I haven't tried it yet) and I love it for mini-book covers. It's a bit like chipboard, thinner but still sturdy, and I like the color better than that of plain chipboard. Trim 2.5 inches off the long end so that the paper is now 6x11.
Next, you'll want to score a few lines into the paper. Score a line one-half inch along the long edge on both sides of the paper. Then, score a line 5 inches from one of the short edges, and a line 1 inch from the other short edge. Then, you'll have to trim some of the paper off to create tabs that will fold to close up the case. In the photo below, I scored along the dotted lines and cut out the sections striped in orange.
I rounded some of the corners before folding the paper (those with dots in the photo below). You can do the same if you'd like. Then, you just have to fold along the scored edges and use your favorite adhesive to stick the tabs down to hold the case in place. You can use a kolo tape gun, Zots, a glue stick, scotch tape, or any other adhesive, depending on the thickness of your paper. You may also have to trim a bit more off of an edge or two if your paper is particularly thick (I did) so that the case folds up properly.
I printed the title and the playlist, cut them to size, and then stuck them to the outside of the case with some happy tape. Go out, find some happy tunes, put them on a CD, and stick them in your homemade case!!
Front of the case. (C) 2009 Stu Griffith
Clients of mine are having a Memphis wedding in September. A friend of the family created a Memphis-themed mix CD for the occasion and offered to make a copy for all of the wedding invitees. The groom, a graphic designer, whipped up a design for a few faces of a ready-to-print chipboard CD case, and they asked me to letterpress print them.
Inside with invitation details. (C) 2009 Stu Griffith.
Every step of this project had an unexpected twist. The design was saved as grayscale and the people at Owosso had trouble making the printing plates (LOVE the people at Owosso, by the way). And the CD cases were backordered at Stumptown (LOVE the people at Stumptown, too). I used a beautiful silver ink from NA Graphics (you guessed, LOVE them, too), but it was much more difficult to work with than the basic blue, black, and red I'd used in the past.
The playlist (back outside cover). (C) 2009 Stu Griffith
I was encouraged along the way by the talented Moira, who told me that these challenging projects will make one a better printer. I thought it was a wonderful attitude with which to approach the remainder of this unwieldy project, and I'm so glad I took her advice and stuck with it. At the studio last week, I ran into issue after issue with the press. But I found a solution to overcome each obstacle. When I left the studio that day with exactly the right number of printed CD cases and a whole mess of errors, I had one of those moments when I felt like an artist - or at least a skilled craftswoman. It was beautiful. So thanks to Dorris and Stu for being great clients and giving me the opportunity to jump into this challenge! All the best for a beautiful wedding and long happy life together.
Check out these simple save the dates from my studio visit last week. I was so lucky to work with a great couple! They had come up with the design and just needed someone to put it into reality and onto paper. I love the personal touch of the couple having designed it themselves and was thrilled to help them spread the word about their special day.
Yay for letterpress projects!!
(save-the-date design: copyright 2009 stu griffith)
Tomorrow I'm heading to the studio to work on a few projects that have piled up in the last few weeks. One of the projects is personal stationery for one of my very best friends. I gave her a stack of 30 personalized letterpressed cards for her 30th birthday; it seems she's already used most of the cards so I'm printing more of them tomorrow. I realized that I hadn't posted a photo from the original run. Here they are:
And just for fun, here I am with Steph the night I gave her the cards when we were actually out celebrating Mr. Moggie's birthday.
Dec. 6, 2008::rock n roll hotel::washington dc
I also printed some letterpress stationery for another friend who wanted a sweet holiday gift for her little sister, who loves birds and navy blue. Voila:
Now that we have fun family stationery I'm hoping to have a few minutes in the studio tomorrow to print some of my very own personalized cards.
Remember these?
I finally got a chance to put them to work. As excited as I was to have this beautiful wood type I was even more excited to see what the wood type could do when joined with ink and paper. The Moggies have new stationery!
I absolutely love the results!
I love the idea of personalized stationery. Especially now that I'm making an effort to write letters and send cards as often as possible, I've recognized how much easier it is when you've got pretty stationery to share. A few times since I've started letterpressing, I've been able to create lovely stationery for friends.
I made pressed these flat pink cards for my friend, Courtney. We used to live just a few blocks from each other in DC, and now we're miles and miles apart (how far is it from Arlington to Fort Lauderdale?) and that's sad. So I sent her a pile of pink stationery to let her know that I was thinking about her.
I made these two sets for host(ess) gifts for our friends Joe & Jenny, and Sarah & JT, who are always such wonderful hosts when we visit nyc. And also, they are just great people and deserve custom Grey Moggie stationery!
...small type and handmade papers.
These are the beauties I felt so strongly about during Friday's letterpress session. I think it was my favorite letterpress project so far. I used a 12-point marjery type from the Pyramid Atlantic collection. It was stowed away in a smaller case of type I hadn't yet explored, despite the fact that I literally touch the case each time I use the Chandler & Price press in the studio.
The paper I used was part of the stash I got when I visited New York this summer and spent a day wandering through paper stores and bakeries with some lovely girlfriends. The paper is soft, thick, and a beautiful shade somewhere between blue and gray. It picked up the pressed ink beautifully. I asked a paper artist at Pyramid if she could tell what the paper was made of, since I'd love to find more of it. It's definitely cotton and she thought there was some abaca in it as well.
I mixed up some blue ink with a little dollop of black ink to make a dark gray. The similarity in color of the paper and the ink really helped give the finished product an organic feel.
I was only able to get 27 4-bar cards from the sheets of paper I had picked up in New York. Strangely, I needed to make exactly 27 invitations. I got some cream colored Lokta at Paper Source, however, and made a few extra. The Lokta also worked splendidly for this project, though it is much more delicate than the cotton paper.
I cannot wait to have another reason to use high quality handmade paper, and set lots and lots of type!
A friend of mine is expecting in September and she is hosting a little baby party later this summer to celebrate the baby's upcoming arrival. she and her husband want to be surprised by the sex of the baby when he or she is born. when she asked me to work on invites for the event, I thought some sweet yellow and green would be perfect.
I letterpressed "it's a baby CELEBRATE" in green along the top of some yellow flat cards. It was the first time I used a platen press, which is the kind of press I'd have for a home studio. It was a lot of fun, and I felt like I was really part of the printing process because it was the force of my own arm impressing the letters on the paper.
Then I added the invitation details to these fun sage round labels from paper source, and filled in the empty space with some baby themed stamps.
It's that time again...I'm making another mix cd! This time the mix is called Six of One, A Half Dozen of the Other. I used 12 little punched out eggs and pasted them onto dark blue cardstock. Mr. Moggie thinks the gift tag in the corner looks like a tombstone, but you can tell that its a gift tag, right? Maybe it's because of the way the text is placed...he may have a point. 
The playlist includes songs that have the same or similar names, but are not the same song. For example, Bloc Party and The Essex Green both have excellent songs titled Uniform. Making this mix involved some interesting leaps backwards into my music collection as it features U2 and Howie Day. Bono and Howie were staples in my headphones 6 or 7 years ago, but they hardly get any play on my iTunes now. And I also had to do some creative interpretation of a few song titles. I think Vampire Weekend's Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is close enough to Hallelujah the Hills' Wave Backwards to Massachusetts. You're all with me, right? 
Here's the Playlist...
Six of One; A Half Dozen of the Other
1. The Comeback...Shout Out Louds
2. The Comeback...Stars
3. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands...Band of Horses
4. Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk...Rufus Wainwright
5. Hold On, Hold On...Neko Case
6. Hold On to Yourself...Nick Cave
7. Ghost...Howie Day
8. Ghost...Neutral Milk Hotel
9. Miracle Drug...U2
10. Miracle Drug...AC Newman
11. Wave Backwards to Massachusetts...Hallelujah the Hills
12. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa...Vampire Weekend
13. Uniform...Bloc Party
14. Uniform...The Essex Green
15. Soil, Soil...Tegan and Sara
16. Dirty Eyes...The Raveonettes
We attempted a cooking club with friends of ours recently. I say "attempted" because things didn't go exactly as planned. A few weeks ago we got together to cook and eat a many course meal. Due to poor planning, we were sipping champagne and eating rhubarb creme brulee (the final course) at 2am. While our timing was less than fortunate, every dish was absolutely delicious and I hope we're able to do it again. And the main conributors to the late dining hours were (a) homemade mozzarella, (b) homemade ricotta, and (c) fresh-cured home-smoked bacon. Two words: worth it.
Since I'm gearing up for exams and swamped with other school-related activities, I let Mr. Moggie do the cookbook scouring for me. He found an excellent morel and toast recipe. There was a lot of butter, along with shallots, champagne vinegar, creme fraiche, and of course morels, all sauteed, baked and poured over crispy toasts. I also made a salad with the fresh mozzarella and ricotta, some delicious yellow tomatoes, and a roasted tomato viniagrette. However, I think my favorite contribution to the meal was this menu I whipped up before our dinner. 
Those pretty organge flowers and green brads were part of the April Mosh Posh kit and I knew they would be great with the green paper I had from Paper Source. Those little silver brads at the bottom were actually left over from when I made our wedding programs. I love it when you can use items from an existing stash that come together so beautifully!
As you can see from the photo of the menu, my morel toasts and salad were just the beginning. There was a rabbit, bacon, parsnip, and squash course, followed with pasta carbonara, and a lamb course. We topped it all off with the aforementioned creme brulee and bubbly. And each course was paired with an appropriate wine. What a night!
Who knew orange could be so pretty? I love being pleasantly surprised!
A friend asked me to design birthday cards she could send to her clients on their birthdays. I used her company's colors (orange and gray) to create the cards. The result was so pretty that I think similar cards will become part of my regular Etsy offerings.
They're 3.5" x 5" poppy colored cards with a strip of green and blue patterned paper down the side. The front features a stamped gift image and the simple greeting "happy birthday." I think I'll leave the inside blank, though for my friend's clients the inside of the cards will feature a message on a cement colored text block. Enjoy!
My logo is now stamp-able thanks to the lovely people at Impress!
I'm making progress on those shower invitations!
And I've got a new (personal) project in the works. Check out Paper Adventure 08. I'm a few weeks behind, but I plan to catch up quickly and I'll share the results here. For the covers, I'm going to use the cardboard from the box in which our most recent Callyx & Carolla bouqet arrived. 
We get flowers from C & C on the first day of every other month - a thoughtful and beautiful wedding gift from friends of ours. I fear that this bouquet might mark the end of our year of flowers, but we just signed up for a CSA share that includes flowers so the floral happiness will continue!
(so many exclamation points!!!)
Obviously, since there are only 15 dresses in this post! It's just a preview of a shower invitation I'm working on for a dear friend.
I just finished designing another CD liner! This one was so fun to do. A friend of mine is attending a weekend getaway with her brothers and all of their cousins. They have decided that they will all make a mix CD for everyone and I was honored when she asked if I could design the liner for her mix. Here it is:
I co-hosted a baby shower for some friends of ours in the fall. My co-hosting duties included whipping up some shrimp salad sandwiches, organizing a few shower games, blowing up lots of balloons, and, of course, creating the invites. I used a light blue postcard as background (our friends were expectng a son) and rubber-stamped "baby" at the top and "RSVP" on the bottom, both in light blue after printing the rest of the text on soft white A2 sized paper. I stamped some baby bottles and rattles onto light green paper, cut them out, ran them through the sticker-maker and affixed them to the bottom of the invites. Hubby got to make the cake. Invites and cake pictured below:
