Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this latest post finds you well and relaxed after the holidays. I recently returned from a lovely trip to Barbados with my husband and family. The two weeks away was great and I highly recommend this island nation as a great place to get away from it all. I've returned a few pounds heavier from the lack of stress and a few too many helpings of flying fish, cou cou and macaroni pie. The sun has also returned me to a normal skin tone (instead of translucent white) - thus making my husband's term of endearment - "Casper" (a.k.a. the Friendly Ghost) - no longer applicable.

For Christmas, I was given some very useful gifts related to letterpress and design. My parents bought me a Wacom tablet so I can finally do my illustrations directly on the computer (rather than scan and trace etc. using Illustrator). I can't wait to get it installed and working. They also bought me a great book that I recommend to anyone in the fine art/craft field that wants to sell their work - the book is called Craft Inc: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business.

My friend Nikki, who always comes to help me at art and craft markets, got me a proper money box, money rolls, a handy calculator, and other gadgets that are useful for me at sales (even hand sanitizer!).

My in-laws also bought me a very thoughtful gift - a cover-all type of smock to wear while printing, complete with "Sunlit Media" and some cherry blossoms screenprinted on the front. Very cool! I will get my husband to take a photo of me in the smock soon.

While I was away, I had time to sit and think about where I want to take Sunlit Letterpress this year. As the Craft Inc. book discusses, once a trend catches on (like letterpress, or Gocco, or bird motifs, or crochet donuts...), it becomes really important to differentiate yourself. In letterpress, with so many people trying to get started, I want to keep high quality standards, and maybe try to stay away from the more common items people are producing these days (like letterpress coasters, calendars, and so on). Not that there is anything wrong with these items (who doesn't love Sesame Letterpress' coasters, or Ilee's calendars???) - I just want to push myself to do something different. I'd also love to get more involved in the wedding industry, and try focusing my efforts there a bit more this year.

Anyways, enough of that...here are some photos of some calling cards I recently completed for a client. I loved designing them, and I'm head over heels for the way they turned out. Thank you Kristen for being such an awesome client!








Until next time...Happy letterpressing!