Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Alternate Calendar Giveaway Winners

Well, no word from the three winners I picked last Tuesday, so I've picked three alternates:

#98 roison

#75 Megan

#30 Julia

Alternates, please send an email to: christy[at]inkello[dot]com and we'll work out the details. Thanks again, everybody!

- Christy

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Matchbook Calendar Giveaway Winners

Wow, thank you so much to everyone for entering! And especially for the kind comments. I'm pleased to announce that the winners are:

#62 Dana Marie

#99 Emily Jane

#88 Bess

Winners, please send an email to: christy[at]inkello[dot]com and we'll work out the details. If a week goes by without word from a winner, I'll choose an alternate. Thanks again, everybody!

- Christy

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

New! 2011 Matchbook Calendars + Giveaway



They're ready! New Matchbook Calendars for next year are available here in three scrumptious colors.

How about another giveaway? Again this year, I'm offering three calendars to three people (one calendar each, your choice of color). To enter, please leave a comment below before 9:00 am CST on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winners that morning, so please be sure to check back then to see if you're one of the lucky ducks. I will allow one week for the winners to contact me before I choose any alternate winners.

Thanks for entering!

---------

UPDATE (November 2, 2010)

Wow, thank you so much to everyone for entering! And especially for the kind comments. I'm pleased to announce that the winners are:

#62 Dana Marie

#99 Emily Jane

#88 Bess

Winners, please send an email to: christy[at]inkello[dot]com and we'll work out the details. If a week goes by without word from a winner, I'll choose an alternate. Thanks again, everybody!

- Christy

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Heart Recipe Cards are Back!



I've finished reprinting the Heart Personalized Recipe Cards (phew), and have plenty of sets available now. They are available here.

Monday, October 4, 2010

October Look Book from Poppytalk

The new "Indie Love" look book from Poppytalk Handmade is again chock full of wonderful handmade goods... check out the beautiful rings on page 5 from Blue Poppy, and the super cute shoe bows on page 6 from No. 144. So lovely! My new Monogram Notepads are on page 35.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

More News Today!

I'm honored to be interviewed on Mohawk Paper's awesome Felt & Wire blog today, talking about the Feedback Loop notebooks. The post is here. You can also read more fascinating interviews with the other participants here. A very talented group, to say the least!

Transformation Complete.

(Pretend that was said in a robot voice.)

The Petite Press is now Inkello Letterpress! I needed a more unique name, and one that allows for growth. Imagine "ink" and "yellow" smooshed together, and that's what you get!

So, come on in to the new shop. There are a few new things, as well as some old favorites. (Many things will have the old name on the back for awhile, but I'll begin using the new name from now on.)

Now, away from this computer and back to the printing press!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Big Changes

Big changes are coming very soon... a new name and new look for The Petite Press.

Please stay tuned!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

"Feedback Loop" Notebooks



Today is the day! As some of you know, I spent a couple of intense weeks over the summer making some special notebooks for a special cause. Well, they're being unveiled today on the Felt & Wire website as part of the Mohawk "Feedback Loop" Notebook Project. Twenty-five designer/printers were each asked to create 50 limited edition notebooks to raise funds for the Design Ignites Change program which helps high school students connect with mentors in the graphic arts industry and address social issues.

This was a dream project for me. The only constraints we had were to make the notebooks 6" x 8" with 64 pages each. Other than that, the sky was the limit. The kind folks at Mohawk sent each designer a swatchbook for their "Loop" line of papers and told us we could pick anything we wanted. Ooh, what to choose, what to choose?!

I went with a beautiful combination of mango and cypress double-thick covers for the outside of the notebooks, and a smooth, bright white text weight paper for the pages. I choose a repeating pattern of four-pointed black and silver stars (think "Catch a Falling Star"), and they sank deeply into the super thick covers with the letterpress printing technique. My final product is available here at this link.



There are so many fantastic designs in the bunch... it's fun to see what direction the other designers took, and what we had in common. I want one of each!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Look Book from Poppytalk Handmade

Busy, busy here! But I wanted to share the new look book from Jan at Poppytalk Handmade for this month's market, "Mixed Tape." There's just a lot of really cool stuff in it — so many great ideas and talented creators. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Hot Off the Press, For a Cause



I've just finished a new note card design featuring a school of silvery fish (and a little turquoise one) that go 'round and 'round on a beautiful turquoise background. I made them especially for this month's Poppytalk Handmade market, which is a fundraiser for the relief effort for the Gulf Oil Spill.



Through the month of July, I will donate 75% of the sale of each of these cards to Oxfam America's Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response Fund. If you would like to purchase one, they are available here. Thank you so much for your help.

Here's how to make the fish swim in a circle (at whatever speed you desire :) as demonstrated by my daughter:



I was inspired by the shimmering, swirling fish that I saw in the Scott Aquarium at the Henry Doorly Zoo during our family trip to Omaha, Nebraska last fall:



This is a limited edition print run of 80, and each card is numbered and initialed. They were printed on my antique hand-powered letterpress.

Again, thank you.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Who Who Likes Owls and Books?



New personalized letterpress bookplates with matching beaded bookmarks... perfect for that reader in your life who enjoys old-school paper books and wise, feathery friends. Available now, here. (Heck, they'd probably stick to the back of a Kindle, too!)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Big Giveaway News!



I'm so excited and honored to be part of the Bright Side Project today. They are featuring the wonderful Kathleen Ullman of Twig & Thistle, who so kindly mentioned me as one of her faves. If you visit the Bright Side Project post, you'll find a big giveaway taking place, where you could be the lucky recipient of two beautiful art prints by Alyssa Nassner, a handsome wooden sign by William Dohlman, and, yes — a set of my recipe cards! Quick, quick, get on over there! :)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Pretty, Pretty Presents



I've just added another new item to my shop: Gift Tag Sashes. These are letterpress-printed paper gift tags with adjustable silk ribbons. Use them to dress up any kind of object to give away, like:

* A bottle of pinot noir
* A treasured old book
* Homemade herbed vinegar (that's what I made in the photo above)
* A box of dairy-free dark chocolates
* A framed self-portrait for your sweetheart
* And many more ideas...



They are available in four colors, in my shop right here. Enjoy!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

{N}ice!



New personalized letterpress recipe cards! I'm calling these "Cool Friends" and they feature whimsical frozen treats in your choice of blue raspberry or strawberry ice ink. Available here!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Nerds Unite!



Anne and I are thrilled to have our "Project Nerd Power" Pocket Protector Set mentioned in the May 2010 issue of Better Homes & Gardens as a gift idea for new grads. Yippee!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Map Booklets Redux



If you missed out on the first version of the map booklets, here is version 2.0:



The pages in these are again from discarded topographic maps, mixed this time with patterned paper. The covers are printed on duplex paper, with one side cyan blue, and the other chocolate brown. You can choose which color you'd like to have on the outside.

Available here.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Custom-Made Wedding Album



Sarah and Chris asked me to create a one-of-a-kind album for the photographs from their wedding. What a dream project! I came up with several designs for them to choose from, and this was the final result.

Sarah's dress and train were covered with six-petal organza flowers, so I used similar flowers as a design element for the cover. I layered the flowers in letterpress in white ink on the dark paper. The flower petals almost look like organza themselves, brighter where the two layers of white ink overlap:



Their wedding color palette was chocolate brown and petal pink, so I used chocolate Lokta paper from Nepal for the exterior, with pink for the endpapers. The pages and spacers are bound with two screw posts, so pages can be added, removed, or reordered:



The first page has their names, and the date and location of the wedding, all letterpressed in chocolate and pink ink:



Their initials are letterpressed at the bottom of each page, along with a smaller pink version of the six-petal flower:



And the back cover is simple, but the small flower detail ties it all together:

Monday, March 22, 2010

Custom-Made Calling Cards



I recently had the pleasure of creating custom-designed letterpress calling cards for Jacqueline Marque, a photographer out of Rhode Island. She specializes in weddings, and does an amazing job of capturing the emotion of the moment. You can see her beautiful work here. She told me her very first camera was a Canon AE2, and asked me to draw one for her calling card. We tried several ways of integrating the camera icon with her name, along with several ink and paper color combinations. This was the final product.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

New Times Two!

Thank goodness, spring is just about here. We've got seedlings growing indoors, and we're itching to get outside and start planting soon. I've been working on some new spring items in the meantime, including these Bird Personalized Bookplates with matching beaded bookmarks:



And (in anticipation of the weeds that will be sprouting in our yard before long), these silvery Dandelion Matchbook Jotters:



Happy Spring to you!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Hello, Little Birdie!



My dear friend, Estelle, recently welcomed her first child into the world. I was honored to create custom birth announcements for the arrival of her sweet little boy. She and her husband settled on this design, with bold, playful birds on apple green paper accompanied by a lively turquoise vine. Because Estelle also happens to be French, we had two versions, where I could switch out the turquoise elements for each language but keep the brown plate the same. The tall, flat announcement was mailed in a clear vellum envelope, with just a hint of the exciting news showing through.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Two Sisters Jewelry Boutique



I've had an influx of custom work lately, which has been a nice change (although I'm behind on reprinting some items on my own website, but I hope to catch up soon). One of the projects recently has been jewelry cards for Two Sisters Jewelry Boutique out of Arizona. They're simple little cards for earrings and necklaces, but fun to do, and set off Gina and Jennifer's designs nicely.

Printing the orange ink on the brown paper has been a little bit of a challenge. It turns out that it takes a double hit of ink to make it pop. I put the paper in, print it once, let it dry for about 8 hours, and then come back and print it again. Luckily, the registration has been lining up fairly well, so the letters remain crisp. Anyway, check out their website here — so many beautiful, beautiful things!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

New Flip Book Colors



Thank you, everyone — the flip books have been so popular that I ended up reprinting them over the last couple of weeks, in between all the custom work I've been doing at the moment. I thought I'd try a few other paper colors for the covers besides the kraft brown while I was at it. There are now tomato red, apple green, and cotton candy blue ones, all available here. Enjoy!