
New letterpress cards are ready over at Elevated Press! You should order some right now :)
This is is Woodhaven, a new Colorbök collection I designed that will hit the shelves of JoAnn stores next month. I got my product samples a few weeks ago and I'm really pleased with how the whole collection turned out. As you can see, there are tons of birds, bicycles, and branches - I was inspired by my childhood memories of riding my banana-seat bike down country roads and vintage wallpaper and tablecloth patterns. The goal was to preserve the essence of heritage and tradition, but present it in a fresh, modern way. The images below are just a few selections of some of my favorite pieces from the line, there is much more so be sure to look for the entire collection in stores. Special thanks goes to my teammates, Janet and Maria, for their much needed help to get this collection finished during yet another insane deadline!




And these two were designed by my sister Rebecca, using art from her holiday scrapbook page kit.



Woot woot.
Yesterday morning, Michelle at Elevated Press, was kind enough to show me some of the ins and outs of the letterpress process as she worked on one of the prints I designed. It was fascinating to see all the tiny adjustments and problem solving that happens to get the print registered and the ink distributed evenly. It was also really cool to get to use this equipment that is so heavy and old and built to last forever - definately a nice change of pace from sitting in front of a monitor. I got to print a few prints myself, which was fun and also a little nervewracking and see some of the other new designs that have just been printed, like the Lucky Cat 2010 Calendar. So cute.

One of my all-time favorite artists, Phoebe Gloeckner, will be at the Michigan Theater tomorrow as part of the Penny W. Stamps Distiguished Visitor Series. You should all go! Info here. I can guarantee it will be fascinating, as Phoebe is quirky, intelligent, kind of crazy and often controversial.
We also modeled for a lot of eye and mouth photos. From the photo above it is kind of hard to tell, but the dolls have real human eyes and mouths Photoshopped onto their faces. I don't think my blue eyes and lip ring probably made it into the final images - my appearance is about as un-authentically Mexican as it gets, but I'm pretty sure Cristina is in there.
I am sure the lecture tomorrow will be awesome and I'm happy to be able to share a little about one of my favorite artists.
So every Monday interior design blog Desire to Inspire posts a feature called Pets On Furniture - I couldn't resist submitting some photos of Sol lounging against our tufted button pillow that truly resembles his tufted little face!
Be sure to click over to Desire to Inspire to see the rest of the cute animals and pretty furniture on today's post.

(From their website): "Elevated Press was founded in early 2008, by an artistic couple with a huge DIY spirit and the need for wedding invitations. Michelle Baker, an illustrator and art educator, and Peter Baker, a graphic designer and photographer, knew that they would be designing their own invitations, but it was their appreciation for the tactile quality of letterpress that compelled them to hand print the invitations on a press.
Elevated Press has since grown to become a full-service design and letterpress stationery studio, specializing in gorgeous custom wedding invitations and a charming line of greeting cards and prints. If you have a need for custom stationery such as wedding invitations, business cards, or personal stationery, please contact us, we'd love to talk to you about it!"
I will be sure to post my new designs as soon as they are ready, and in the meantime, here are some of my favorites from Elevated Press's current collection, available here.
ps - Elevated Press will also be at the 2009 Renegade Craft Holiday Sale in Chicago on December 5th + 6th - don't miss it!





Patterned papers and 3D embellishments ^
I just got home from the opening of Forth From Its Hinges 2009 - the show looks great! I am so tempted to post pics of my favorite pieces, but I'm not going to because you should all go see the show in person. It's happening all weekend, so go check it out and support your local arts community!


Lucky You 3-D Embellishments and sample pages ^
Lucky You 3-D Epoxy Page Bubbles ^

Design by Jon Vermilyea