Friday, August 10, 2012

End of Summer Sale


I hope you all are having a wonderful summer!  Between now and September 1st, Odd Duck Press is offering 20% off on all orders including: letterpress wedding invitations, DIY wedding invitations and business stationery.  Stop on by before you miss the boat!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Ladies of Letterpress + Mohawk Paper

Ladies of Letterpress and Mohawk Paper have teamed up for their first ever collaborative project.  As soon as I caught wind of it, I happily jumped on board.  The project is called "What will you make today?" and all Ladies of Letterpress members were invited to join.  Participants were given a choice of Mohawk papers and envelopes. Everyone involved received 10 blank sets.  We were asked to send in 2 sets to Mohawk that would then travel to the LOL conference and the remaining sets we get to keep. Here's what I made:

linoleum block with image inked in
mixing ink

color matching


ready to print

linoleum block locked up

I couldn't stop at just 10!



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Wedding Planning Made Easy






The lovely ladies (Tracy, Marit and Julia) behind the Wedding Lovely blog and vendor directories have just launched their latest project: a complete online wedding planner.  Every major task is broken down and explained.  The truly genius part is that the whole thing is completely custom tailored to the couples specifications!  Whether you are planning a DIY wedding in the woods or a destination wedding in the Yucatan, the timeline and recommendations offered will be specific to your wedding.  There are a slew of features included, even your own wedding website.  A variety of plans are available.  As one of their featured vendors, I've been given the introductory coupon code: VENDORFRIEND33.  Use this code and receive 33% off!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Beating a Creative Slump

Earlier this year, I had what felt like an absolutely unshakable creative block.  It lasted for months.  Now that the fog has lifted, I thought I'd share some of tricks that I found helpful.

  • Free association writing.  Turn off the inner critic and just write.  Don't let the pen stop.  Maybe set a timer.
  • Find a random word in the dictionary and use it as a jumping off point.
  • Sketching: people, trees, my dog...whatever.  Geoff and I started going to Dr. Sketchy's, a fun, informal  figure drawing class.  There are branches worldwide and the classes are generally held at cool bars.
  • Learn a new technique.  For me it was encaustic.  I love working with layers, image transfers and mixed media. 
  • Choose an "assignment".  Homework...really?  Yes.  Definitely.  I find that when the perimeters are defined, even just a little bit it's much easier to get started.  Little assignments are good, like
    the sketchbook project or 6x6x2012  (the latter project really helped me to turn the corner with my own creative block.) 
  • Organize your work space.
  • Do something totally unrelated: try a new recipe, dig in the garden, go to the beach, take a hike...
  • Read
  • Take a break from the internet. 
  • Don't over commit.  Creativity needs room to breathe.  I learned this one the hard way!
  • Finish something that's been nagging.  Oh yes...this was the biggie!  I finally managed to finish this project that had been simmering on the back burner for over 2 years!  It had become a total debacle and I was doing an excellent job of beating myself up about it.  Now it's finished and I've moved on.  Hooray!
If any of these tips help, or if you have some of your own to add, I'd love to hear!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Inspiration: Folk Art Suite

                                                                         











Grandma's recipe box


Folk Art invitation suite


I thought it would be fun to share the inspiration behind one of our new invitation suites; my grandma's old recipe box.  I love the folk art motifs and the color palette.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Did you know?

uppercase-lowercase.jpg


Here are some common phrases that originated from letterpress terminology:

“Upper case” and “lower case”: Originally, when printers organized their individual pieces of lead type they put the “big” letters in the top, or upper set of cases, and the “little” letters below.

“Mind your p’s and q’s”: Setting lead type can be tricky since the letters are backwards; p’s and q”s often
get mixed up.

“Out of sorts”:
The most commonly used letters are referred to as sorts. When setting a long piece of text, it’s not uncommon to find oneself out of sorts!

“Coin a phrase":
After text has been set into a chase (metal frame) it is locked up using quiones (coins) and a key, thusly “coining the phrase”.
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