things are better with a parrott

Get Jolly with a Giveaway!

Now I have been designing & printing holiday goods for months, yet I have resisted all temptation to play holiday music or decorate my studio & house.  However...the time has come to finally celebrate!  Since I always enjoy giving gifts as much as receiving them, I thought I would kick-off the season with TWO giveaways to you!  Plus, last year's giveaway was so much fun!

First up:

5 Peace letterpress cards + assorted vintage holiday postage stamps {enough to send each card first class} :: 3 Peace letterpress gift tags :: 1 Cheers letterpress ornament

Second:

5 Peace letterpress cards + assorted vintage holiday postage stamps {enough to send each card first class} :: 3 Cheers letterpress gift tags :: 1 Mistletoe letterpress ornament 

AND...

Each giveaway will include 1 2010 letterpress calendar!

So, each giveaway includes 1 set of cards + vintage postage stamps, 3 gift tags, 1 ornmanet, & 1 2010 calendar.  Exciting!

Please leave a comment & I will randomly choose two names this Friday, December 6 sorry, meant 4, but I am pretty sure you all got that {please note, to keep it fair, I will delete duplicate comments}.  Thanks so much for visiting me in this little space.  I truly appreciate it, as always! 

p.s. Did any of you venture out on Black Friday?  Buy anything today, Cyber Monday?  I bought a couple prints for our wedding next year.  Love them!

Holiday Goodness in the Shop!

 
I have three new Holiday cards in my shop!  You may click on each of the photos to be taken to my shop, or you may visit here. 



Each card is letterpress by hand, by me {as always!} with two different ink colors including chartreuse green, turquoise blue, chocolate brown, & translucent silver shimmer. I also have a new coaster set in my shop - buttons!  I updated the packaging on my record coaster set to reflect the season as well.  


These are the perfect little gift for any crafty person in your life!  

 
These coasters are a great host/hostess gift to bring to your holiday parties this season, or for any music lover! 

My 2009 Holiday Shop is pretty much complete!  I have a few other little gift tags that will be in the shop this week & possibly some other fun gift wrapping goods.  We shall see...As always, thanks for checking out my work & for your support.   

Stationery for the Newly Wed

For the newly, & nearly, wed, it is always important to have stationery on hand for the ever-important thank you notes.  A hand-written thank you note is not only appreciated when it comes to engagement, shower, & wedding gifts, it is necessary.  Etiquette on when to send thank you notes is a little scattered.  The popular belief is the bride & groom have one year to send thank you notes, because guests have the same amount of time to send a gift.  According to Emily Post, all thank you notes should be written within three months of the receipt of the gift.  If it were up to Ms. Post, you would write a thank you note on the same day {this may sound like crazy talk, but Rich & I went to his Aunt & Uncle's 50th Anniversary on Saturday night & we received a thank you note on Tuesday.  Just saying...}.
If you are getting married, stay on top of your thank you notes & try to send one when you receive this gift.  Stay organized by keeping a list of guests at each event where you may receive gifts {an engagement party, shower, the wedding...} & have someone record what you received as you open the gifts {as my sister's maid-of-honor, I did this at her shower}.  Once you send the thank you note, check them off.  I think it is also nice to write a note to guests you did not receive gifts from, but attended & helped celebrate.
Other people who should receive a thank you note includes your attendants, anyone who hosted a party or shower for you, people who help to entertain out-of-town guests, others who lent a helping hand before, during, or after your wedding, & any of your suppliers or vendors that went above & beyond. 

Be sure to personalize your note, writing their names & the gift they gave you & how you plan to use it.  If it is before the wedding, be sure to add how excited you are to celebrate with them or if it is after the wedding, tell them how much it meant to have them there. 

As you can see from all the examples above, thank you notes do not have to match your wedding invitation suite {though that is very nice!}.  Customized notes can say anything from "Thank you", your new last name {if that may be the case}, or initials, or something more creative.  The bottom custom set happens to be for Rich & myself.  The letters of our first names are next to each other in the alphabet, so I did a blind deboss of the letters before "R" & part of "T" after "S" & I printed "RS" in sage green to coordinate with one of our wedding colors.  We have only received one gift from my aunts & uncles, but we stand ready to write!  I am determined to stay on top of our thank yous.  As more gifts come in & I get a little behind, I am going to set a goal of writing them each Sunday night. 

Now of course you may not be getting married, but custom stationery makes the perfect gift for the newlyweds in your life...or yourself!

2010 Letterpress Calendar

I am really excited & super proud to present my 2010 limited edition letterpress calendar.  It has been a few months in the making & I am so pleased at the final product.  I am so happy I took the leap & decided to letterpress the entire calendar.  As I mentioned previously, it has taken a couple years to get here!  But enough chat, here are the details:

- Limited edition of 150 calendars - only 115 will be available online {25 are presents to friends & family & 10 are going to Craftland}. Each calendar is numbered on the pretty paper band.
 - 5 x 7", printed on 110lb, 100% cotton Lettra paper in flourescent white. There is a hole at the top & lovely 100% cotton ribbon for hanging.
- Ink colors include candy-colored hues of blush, citrus, chartreuse, sage, sea, slate, & silver shimmer. Includes some of my favorite vintage imagery & original illustrations.
- Each calendar was hand printed by me on my antique Golding Jobber No. 6, making each month truly unique due to texture & ink coverage. Each month passed through the press at least twice.

Fun little bit: I designed each calendar so the bottom part with the image can be cut, leaving you with a little 3.5 x 5" piece of letterpress art!  Perfect for hanging or sending in a 4bar envelope or as a postcard. 

Thus begins the holiday season at the parrott design studio shop!  December is actually a little peek at one of my holiday cards.  The birds are printed with just a hint of silver. It is almost like a blind deboss, but shimmery!

Well, believe it or not, I am off to LA!!  My very first trip to California.  We are only there for a few days, but I am excited for some fun in the sun.  See you next week...& as always, thank you so much for visiting me here in this space & for your support.  

2010 Calendar Preview

Happy Friday!  I thought I would send you on to the weekend with a peek at my 2010 calendar.  This is my third calendar!  Though much of the imagery is familiar, this calendar feels so different than 2008 & 2009.  I remember 2008 being so much work & a huge undertaking for my little studio, which only began a few months before the holidays.  Mistakes, messes, & lessons learned that year.  2009 was all about experimenting with colors, size, method for hanging, packaging.....& having many left over {that darn economy!}.  

But for 2010, I think I have found my balance.  I let go of my gocco & letterpress printed each one {both the dates & images}.  I went back to my original 5 x 7" size, used 100% cotton paper, & added some lovely cotton ribbon for hanging.  I have yet to do a cover for any of my calendars, but this year will have a pretty & descriptive paper band.  I decided to actually pick a color palette this year.  I find when I set parameters I am much more creative & free.  Last year's calendar barely had a color repeat & each month had three colors.  This year I used a warm gray ink on each calendar for the dates & five other colors for the imagery {January & December are a bit more festive with metallic inks!}.  The colors were inspired by Carta, Inc.'s lovely cotton ribbons, as well as the images themselves {blue tandem bike, as always}. 
 
Enjoy your weekend!  See you next week with more photos of my calendar & a shop update.  Until then... 

Paloma's Nest Business Cards

Hello, October!  I recently had the great privilege to work with Caroline, the talented owner & designer of Paloma’s Nest.  Caroline strives to create modern heirlooms that will be cherished for generations, most notably her ring bearer bowl.  Each piece is hand cut, free form, with no pattern, giving each piece its own variation in the size, shape, & layout of the text.  I love that you can see her hand in each piece, making each one unique.  Though she works with clay & I work with paper, I believe we have a very similar aesthetic & artistic process, which is one of the many reasons why I am so drawn to her work.  That & I just love her work!

Caroline worked with Creative Shift Design for the design of her new business cards, which came out so lovely!  Caroline wanted the impression on the cards to mimic the look of her stamped ceramic work so I letterpress printed them on super-thick 220 lb. 100% cotton paper in fluorescent white.  I hand-fed each of the 1,000 cards through my press three times – once for the nest & eggs, which is a deep blind-deboss {no ink}, second for the website in gold ink, & third for the remainder of the text in black ink.  The cards were 3 x 2.5” in size, making them a more unique, squared size than standard business cards.  Once the printing was complete & I held one of the cards in my hand, I truly felt like I was holding a mini-piece of art.  These are the kind of business cards people will keep for a long time, I have no doubt! 

Caroline debuted the 2009 Paloma’s Nest Holiday collection today, & I have already added a few of her pieces to my holiday shopping list!

 

I will be back tomorrow with some studio updates including a peek at my 2010 letterpress calendar set to be in my shop by next week!

Set Sail Wedding Invitations

Happy Weekend!  Sometimes a week just slips right by, especially when I am trying to get projects out the door.  As a follow up to my last post, here is the final product!  John, the groom, was a friend from college {go PC!}.  He & Kelly were both on the sailing team & still love to sail so it was only natural their wedding would be inspired by the sea.  They are getting married at the chapel on PC's campus followed by a reception at the Conanicut Yacht Club. 

John & Kelly had a few elements they wanted to include in the stationery suite including a sailboat, doves, a compass rose, & a knot.  For the invitation I created a custom illustration of a sailboat along with two doves flying by.  I created a compass rose & used that on both the RSVP postcard & the two-sided direction card.  As the reception was in a different location {& about 45 minutes away} we decided to include a separate reception card.  I think it is my favorite piece!  I love that they wanted to add "flip flops optional!" which is so appropriate for a fun & casual wedding reception on the beach.  The pieces were held together by a paper band featuring a nautical knot.  Each piece was letterpress printed in blue ink, with the exception of the invitation which was printed in both blue & turquoise, on smooth, 110lb recycled stock.  We used turquoise envelopes & paper bands to add more color to the suite instead of printing each piece in two colors {another cost-saving technique!}.  I love how simple, clean, & beautiful these invitations came out.  The letterpress printing really adds another dimension to them as well.  I wish you could feel the nautical knot.  So lovely!

Enjoy your weekend!  We are off to volunteer at the Audubon Society this afternoon & then...Brimfield!!

Meet my Golding Letterpress

Hello!  I hope you had a fun, long weekend.  While I did get some relaxation in with a little camping trip, I spent a lot of the weekend printing.  The wedding invitations I am printing are for friends.  They were interested in seeing the letterpress process so I took a few photos & decided to share them with you! 

I mix of all of my inks by hand using the Pantone Matching System {PMS}.  This specific blue is PMS7459 which actually corresponds with Paper Source's Lake. 

My press is non-electric & human-powered by spinning the flywheel on the left.  This means letterpress in my studio takes a little time.  It also means my left arm is noticeably larger than my right! 

I spin the flywheel while turning the inking plate {the now blue disc under the three rollers in this photo} until all of the ink is evenly distributed on the rollers & plate.  My press is from 1898, so as you may imagine a few pieces are missing, but nothing that hinders the printing process or outcome, however I need to do many things manually, such as turning the inking plate. 

I use magnesium dies for all of my printing.  Once my ink is ready, I place my die & furniture into the chase.  The chase is a metal frame & the furniture are wood blocks of various widths & lengths that fill the chase for lock up.  Above the die you will see a quoin, which is turned with a key to tighten everything in place in the chase.  Hmm...make sense?  Take a look at the next photo.

Here I am placing the chase into my press.  As you will see the chase does not lie flat, therefore everything needs to be locked in place or it is going to move when the rollers ink it up. 

Locked & ready to go. 

Here you can see the rollers have gone over the die, inking the surface. 

Once the paper to be printed is lined up with the die, it is held in place with gauge pins on tympan, which is hard paper, inserted on the platen.   Here the blank piece of paper is ready for the ink. 

Letterpress as we know it today is highly sought-after due to the impression made on the paper.  This impression can be controlled by adjusting the packing {extra pieces of paper} behind the piece of paper to be printed or by adjusting the platen.  I like the impression to be noticeable to the eye & by touch, but I do not like it when the impression is so deep the paper cracks or when the impression is really noticeable on the backside of the paper.  Occasionally only a kiss, when the die just touches the paper & little to no impression is made, is acceptable, especially with double-sided jobs.

Voilà!  The first color of the first invitation is complete.  109 left to go!  Then time for the second color.  I will have photos of the complete wedding suite to share with you later this week.  I hope you enjoyed this little letterpress "tour."  Until then...

A New York Fête

Hello!  Happy Friday!  I was without the internet for most of the day & I have been waiting to post these invitations.  As some of you may have guessed, I had the great honor of printing the lettering of the ever-talented Betsy Dunlap.  I tell you, I get quite a thrill out of printing hand-drawn artwork & hand lettering!  But let us start from the beginning of this design process.

Rae, the super creative Art Historian & bride, initially contacted me to do her save the dates {okay, so that is the only pic I took of them, but they kind of looked like these}.  Once those were complete she sent me a folder full of wonderful & inspiring photos including arrangements by Saipua, work of her favorite artists, & one image entitled "calligraphy."  I took one look & knew it was Betsy's lettering.  After viewing Rae's images I could see she was going for a very organic, flowing look, & I knew she had to work with Betsy.  And she did!  

The invitations were a true collaborative effort for all three of us.  Betsy did the lettering for Rae & her fiance, Noah's, names along with their return address, the RSVP address, & the words "RSVP", & "Directions."  Once that was complete I set the remainder of the type for the invitation, RSVP, & directions.  Before printing I hand-lined the back of the invitations & direction cards with some wonderful paper Rae sourced.  This surprise element brought color & pattern to the entire suite.  The invitation was letterpress printed on super thick 220 lb. cotton Lettra paper in Pearl.  The RSVP & direction card were screen printed on coordinating 110 lb. paper.  The envelopes were coordinating lettra paper & I had a rubber stamp made of their return address so Rae could do those herself.  Betsy hand-lettered each of the envelopes & Rae was so kind as to have Betsy do one for me! 

I loved working on this wedding invitation suite as it was quite decadent, but there were a few creative ways we minimized paper & costs.  I believe many couples feel letterpress is out of reach & while sometimes it is, there are ways to still have it by only letterpress printing the invitation.  It is the main piece of the suite & the piece most guests are likely to keep.  Printing in only one color helps keep the cost down as well.  I recommend adding color by lining the back of the invitation, the inside of the envelope, or having a colored envelope.  The RSVP & direction card were screen printed in one color which is less expensive than letterpress.  The RSVP was also a postcard, cutting out the extra cost & paper of the envelope.  Instead of me printing the return address on the main envelope, I had a rubber stamp made for Rae & she stamped away!  

Well, can you tell 1.  I am excited about these; 2.  I hope I can letterpress more like these; 3.  Would you like me to print you some like these?; 4.  Why yes, I would love to; & 5.  Yay, weekend! 

Catch you next week!

Vintage Ski Poster Coaster Invitations

Hey it's Friday!  This was a busy, but great week.  Despite having a mid-week birthday celebration I printed four wedding invitation suites, two of which were letterpress.  These invitations are off to the happy couple in Canada.  They are getting married at a ski resort this Autumn & wanted something casual & fun for their invitation.  They love vintage travel posters {me too!} especially this one designed by Gruppe Gut for the Cortina Ski Resort in Italy.  I created a new custom illustration to better reflect the silhouettes of the couple, made their gloves into hands, & gave them shoes instead of ski boots {since the wedding is in Autumn & there will be no snow}.  I loved the bride's idea behind having a chairlift on her invitation.  She believes it represents her & her fiance as they embark on a new journey in life together.  Very sweet.  These invitations were letterpress printed in two colors on coasters.  The front side featured the illustration in navy ink with a bold orange border which also features their names & wedding date.  On the backside is the text inviting people to the wedding.  They chose not to have an RSVP & asked people to email them instead.  Each coaster will be tucked inside a square envelope with their return address printed on the back flap. 

This invitation gets me excited for snowboarding...sort of.  I love Autumn! Once my birthday has come & gone I am always okay for the weather to start getting a bit cooler & for the leaves to start changing!  Enjoy your weekend!  Any plans?  I think we will take the canoe out for a bit, do a little baking, & visit with my parents. Until Monday...

p.s. My birthday surprise from Rich was tickets to Tuesday's Red Sox game.  Yay!