Don't Forget Got Craft? This Weekend

First 45 people get the Got Craft? swag bags - so come early! We look forward to seeing you there!


Holiday Notice
Please note our studio will be closed Dec. 13th to 27th. Please feel free to contact us by email or voicemail during this period.

Got Craft?

What are you doing on December 5th? If you're in Vancouver you should come down to the Got Craft? show at 2205 Commercial Drive from 10 am to 5pm. We'll have a bunch of stationery for sale, including holiday cards and gift tags. You'll also be able to buy subscriptions to our Letterpress Lovers Club for your friends and family as holiday gifts - just be sure to bring their mailing address with you so you can fill out the order form. Three and six-month memberships are available.

The above notecards will be for sale, but you can also buy them from our Etsy shop here.

So what else is going on in the studio - lots of printing of business cards (custom and from our Ready-to-Wear line), wedding invitations, and a limited edition art print for a local artist. It also looks like we have a move coming up for the studio at the beginning of next year - which already has me stressed. No matter how you look at it, moving tons of cast iron from point A to point B is just never something you look forward to. Ugh.

Anyways, be sure to come see us at Got Craft! We look forward to meeting you!

Letterpress Lovers Club Update + Holiday 2010 Preview

Above is a sneak peak of October's Letterpress Lovers Club mailout – a holiday card printed with snowflakes in a tinted white on fluorescent white stock. I felt a bit weird sending holiday cards out for the October mailing – seeing as Halloween hasn't even arrived yet, let alone American Thanksgiving (!)...but nevertheless, off they went. Part of the reason I wanted to send holiday cards so early was that a few of our members' subscriptions are expiring this month, and I wanted to make sure they received a seasonal item as part of their subscriptions.

If your membership expires this month, please look inside your last mailout package for a renewal coupon. I really do hope that you enjoyed your subscription and sign up again, or consider giving a subscription as a gift to someone for the holidays. If you would like to use your renewal coupon towards a gift for someone else, you are more than welcome to do so.

I have released more membership subscriptions for sign-up in our Etsy shop:

3-Month Membership:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58899558/letterpress-lovers-club-membership-3

6-Month Membership:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50949069/letterpress-lovers-club-membership-6


We have a limited number of subscriptions available, so if you are planning to purchase a subscription for the holidays, please buy early to avoid disappointment! (We can hold the subscription until January if you would like it to start after the holidays.)

We also have a limited number of the above snowflake cards available for purchase in the Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58900239/holiday-2010-set-of-4-snowflake

More holiday designs will be on their way to the Etsy shop soon. Wholesale inquiries welcome - please contact us for more information.

You can also pick up holiday cards and other stationery gifts at the Got Craft? Holiday Show taking place in Vancouver on December 5th. Check out this year's vendors here. And yes, there will be the usual swag bags for the first 45 people in line...at the last show I heard the line started forming at some ungodly hour like 6 am...and that there was even a *gasp!* "fight" last year over the bags...Oh the things you miss when you are on maternity leave!

Letterpress Business Cards for Landscape Designer

Above is a photo of custom letterpress business cards we designed and printed for local landscape designer Dana Magee. Dana and her husband do beautiful work, and when I first met Dana for her design consultation, I had the chance to look through her portfolio of landscape projects around the Greater Vancouver area - the photos were stunning!

I really enjoy meeting with other professionals in the creative field - even it it is a completely different industry from our own - we have similar issues and difficulties, as well as similar rewards from working with our hands. At the end of the day, we are all just trying to make beautiful things for people to enjoy.

Dana wanted a business card that would really stand out and appeal to her high-end clients. This card was printed with earthy tones on Crane's 110 lb. Pearl Lettra.

We also designed coordinated pieces for digital/offset and desktop printing including matching letterhead, envelopes, and templates for project blueprints and custom graph paper. Even though we are a letterpress studio, we also design pieces for non-letterpress printing and other media such as websites. If you'd like to know more about how we can create an identity package for your company, we'd love to hear from you.

We have a lot going on in the studio right now - orders to complete, holiday items to prepare, redoing our wholesale catalog and offerings, planning for holiday and wedding shows, promotional materials for the wedding industry, etc. Throw a near ten-month-old into the mix, and it's wild times in these parts. Our daughter is free-ranging (our term for crawling) and is getting ready for walking, so having her in the studio is a bit of a challenge. She LOVES to get into the paper samples and swatchbooks - and has taken to tasting some of them. Keeping her out of trouble in the studio was much easier before she was able to move about!

Oh, and it's probably a bit early to mention, but we will be participating in Got Craft? this Christmas season - December 5th at 2205 Commercial Drive. We haven't done a Christmas show for a while, so it should be fun. For more info, visit the show website. Oh, and if you want a swag bag this year, prepare yourself - I've been told that the wait in the morning for the May 2010 show swag bags started at 6 am!!!

Got Craft - A Review

(Photos courtesy of and © Lotus Events)

This is another post that is long overdue...On May 4th I participated in Got Craft, a bi-annual craft and fine arts fair hosted here in Vancouver. This was my second time at Got Craft and although this year was a much bigger show (40 artists instead of 25) and had many more visitors (double the amount from last year), I found that sales were very low. In fact, I was quite disappointed with the results and I'm not sure if I'll sign up again, or participate in any more shows period. They have a Christmas show coming up later in the year, but to be honest, I might just stick with my Etsy store.

The only thing that keeps me coming back to these kinds of shows are the networking opportunities - networking with other artists, and with potential custom clients. On occasion I am also lucky to meet a few AIL readers that stop by to say hi and introduce themselves - which I really enjoy. Sometimes I also come across a fellow printer or past student of Jim Rimmer's, and we get to geek out on letterpress-related conversation. There are so few of us out there that it's always fun to talk to someone that shares the letterpress obsession - to be honest, I think my husband just cringes inside when I blab on and on about paper and ink and impression depth and...

I met a few retailers from the Vancouver area that showed interest in wholesale - and so I sent them our catalog, order form, and some background information. We'll see what happens.

I've come to the conclusion that your success at a craft fair really depends on a variety of factors, and will be a function of:

• how well the show is promoted
• the type of visitor that attends the show (in affluent areas, visitors seem more inclined to make purchases, rather than just browse - in my experience anyways)
• where your table is located (you never want to be right near the entrance, people scoot past you for some reason and go to the 3rd or 4th table in)
• variety of goods and price points
• display
• your approachability
• etc.
  

At Got Craft, I think there were a lot more browsers than buyers, it's kind of bad timing for purchases (no big gift-giving occasions coming up - like Christmas), the economy is going down the toilet (less disposable income when you are spending $1.40 CDN/litre on gas), and I don't think I had an ideal table location. Or, maybe this market is not appropriate for what I am selling. Who knows.

This past weekend my husband and I also went to the hardware store and bought some hard plastic to go under the press (make oil drips easier to clean up). We reorganized my studio and made things more ergonomic. I haven't printed anything since, but am excited to see how it all works out. I have plates arriving tomorrow and Friday for two custom projects, so it won't be long.

Happy letterpressing!

Jingle All the Way...

Well, I figure I've ignored my blog long enough - time to post something new...

Here are some random photos...my family/friends Christmas card for this year...oops, I'm a bit late sending them this year...

Below, some shots of some of my cards at the Creative Finds show on December 1st. Although I sold a reasonable amount of product, it did snow a fair bit that day - thus keeping most shoppers indoors I think. I live in Canada - but I live in a part where snow is a rarity (Vancouver). We generally have mild temperatures and rain in the winter, not snow. So, the fact that it snows on the day of the art sale kinda irked me a bit! Grrr! Nevertheless, friends, family, and other supporters showed up to check things out and buy handmade - thank you to all!

I must say that the Creative Finds show did attract a different crowd than my previous show (Got Craft?). I noticed a definite difference in the age groups that attended, and the general purchasing behavior. At Got Craft, I don't think a single person walked by my table without looking. At Creative Finds, there were a few. The main difference? Got Craft was for the younger set, marketed to the 18-35 crowd, with disposable income, and an appreciation of the arts/handmade movement. Creative Finds, I felt, had more of the 40-60s crowd, who were perhaps not really looking for stationery items. I could be way off...but that was my general impression - and from the other artists I spoke to, I think this impression was shared. Maybe because this show was in the burbs vs. in the city - who knows.

I did hand out quite a few business cards at the show, and many requests for estimates for custom stationery, so all in all it was a good experience. Below is a photo of the hall from my spot.

This week will be my last working week of the year as I leave for my holidays soon - time for some fun in the sun. I can't wait! I still need to print and send my Sunlit Media corporate holiday cards to clients, and finish up some other studio and printing work, but then it's time for a break. Wohoo!