Together!

Hi People! We are having a great time in New York city together.

Today was Day 1 of the National Stationery Show. We are in booths 1555 & 1557. Pop by and say "hi" if you are attending the show!

Amy & Laurie

Holiday Colors (Midwest)

A big thanks goes out to The Perfect Palette for featuring one of my cards on their blog this week. They highlighted the colors red and gingerbread. Lovely combination don't you think?

Quite Quiet (Midwest)

I've been a quiet blogger as of late. I thought I'd better post a little "me" update...

Here is the laundry list of my life's current events...
- 4 business trips since September (Oy)
- weekly freelance projects (I'm so happy to be working)
- 2 week family battle with H1N1 (all 3 kids plus Joey, I was spared)
- approaching winter and cold (we are outside as much as possible for now)
- jury duty (I was excused after one day)
- camera love (I'm back to daily photo taking and so happy about it)
- Craftactular this Saturday!

Today I print and get signage ready for this weekend's craft fair. I will take the camera so that I have some things to blog about next week. :)

DIY Best of Show! (West Coast)

DIY magazine did a special section in the winter issue of the magazine devoted to small time crafters. Lucky Bee Press was included in the mix of letterpress crafters! Thanks DIY! Congrats to all the hard working crafters who also were listed—about 50 in all! And a special praise to the other letterpress gals! Yeah letterpress!

Where is fall? (Midwest)

I know I shouldn't grumble, but sheesh it's cold out. It is in the 40s and rainy. Brrr...Brrr...and...BRRRR! Why, just a week ago it was in the 70s. What happened to fall?



I guess it's perfect time to pull out another winter themed design. This is "wee snow girl". She has her warm hat and coat on, so she's not cold. Actually, I think she quite likes winter. I have decided to follow her lead, and smile as we head into the next season. At least for today.

Yea, Bazaar Bizarre! (West Coast)

I woke up this morning to note from Bazaar Bizarre that Lucky Bee Press will be at their holiday show! We can't be more excited! It is still a few months out, but we are really excited to be going this year! Amy and I have been busy planning goodies for the shows we are doing, paper is ordered at both locations, and we can't wait to get printing.

On another note, good luck Amy at your show today!

Roll Me Over (West Coast)

This week I opened a special package containing new rollers and trucks for my Chandler and Price. It is sort of like Christmas in September, without the any needles to vacuum up. I have been running my press with two older composite rollers and I finally decided to take the plunge, and splurge on some new rollers. While I was spending anyways, I thought I would just be brave and purchase the third roller that has been missing on my press since I purchased it earlier this year. With all this came the need for the additional trucks too. I decided on composite rollers for my press. I have been using them for the past few months, and they seem to work really well in my climate out here. I had tried rubber rollers before, and they caused me a lot of grief. So I am now operating with new rollers and trucks. Pretty cool!



Some birdy treats for my shop. I have been working on keeping some sets of notecards in the shop, and decided to do a themed set of goodies. Mini notepads, cards and hangtag/bookmarks.

One more thing, thanks to Paper Crave and Paper*Cakes Finds for the nice write ups!

Banner (Midwest)

A quick post here to show off my new 2 1/2' x 4' banner for my Renegade Chicago booth. I put grommets on it today and had it hanging on my screen porch for inspection. Hopefully, it will be easy to hang in the tent. Oh, and let's keep fingers crossed that the Windy City is sans wind for the Renegade weekend.

Coasters (Midwest)

Recently, I bought a small amount of blank coaster stock to play with. I slapped some of the stock on press last week. Voila. Coasters! I have a few for sale here.

I'd like to order more stock and print up a larger inventory, but they are a bit of a space hog. I'll wait to see if they sell...

Christmas in August (Midwest)

I have loved having a regular babysitter this summer. I have been able to take on a few extra freelance design projects. I'm caught up on my invoicing. And, I've been printing!

This is the first year where I have had all my Christmas cards designed and mostly printed by the end of the summer. I have one more design to print and I'm ready for the Holiday Season. Here is a look at a card I designed last year, but never got around to printing.





I'm happy to have some more typographic designs in my card line.

Getting Organized (Midwest)

I completely blew off celebrating the Nation's birthday this year. Why? My little people and my husband went up North and I stayed home to finish up some work and letterpress details. I spent 8 hours in my office yesterday and today, so far, I'm at 7 hours. I designed, invoiced, printed, stuffed envelopes, babysat the neighbors cat, went for a run, photographed new products, reorganized my Etsy shop and cleaned my office! It feels so good to get organized. This week all I need to do is find a big box and ship my wares to California and then I'm all ready for Renegade.

Speaking of Renegade, I believe I now have 7 new products to display there. I have scads of new mini notepads:




And, I have other goodies fresh off the press already listed in my Etsy shop.

I can't wait to travel back to my old digs and hang with Laurie.

Moo! (Midwest)

I don't know if any of you know this, but June is Dairy Month in Wisconsin. Do you care? Probably not. But, for me growing up in the country in Southern Wisconsin, it was a big deal. Ok. Not a big deal. But, an excuse to eat more ice cream, and celebrate cows. For many more years than I care to admit my dad wore a different cow t-shirt each day in June. (Just re-reading that sentence makes me groan a little bit).

It seems appropriate somehow that I participated in a photo shoot last week that involved cows. I know. Glamorous. Yet, fun. My main purpose was to do some business portraiture and a few shots of people doing what they would be doing if they were a consultant, a vet, a farmer and some cows in a barn. (I'll leave that up to your imagination.) The clients were fun and it was a good experience for me.

This week I'm going to finish up a few letterpress projects to ship to California for Renegade San Francisco. I can't wait to journey back to the Bay Area and to hang out with Laurie. Hopefully, I will have some brand new journals to debut.

Happy June, people. Drink some milk!

Blooms (Midwest)

As summer approaches I'm taking so many flower photographs for my photo a day project that I think it's transferring to my letterpress work. It seems like all the cards I'm working on have some sort of floral element to them these days. Can you see what I mean?



These cards are from my flower illustrations, but I'm still trying to find a way to incorporate elements of my photographs directly into my letterpress prints without re sketching. I must deliberate that some more and get back to you...

I hope everybody had a nice Holiday weekend!

Voila! (Midwest)

I had some time Friday to get on press and finalize a few letterpress cards. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I created these cards with my "new" vintage wood type. I really enjoy printing with wood type. The impression is smooth, yet textured. And, setting the type in the chase is so satisfying. It's like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Well. Sort of.




I'm planning on offering this design as a personalized folding note set. I pre-printed the chocolate layer that says "a note from _______ (pencil icon)". I chose the chocolate because it's such a versatile coordinating color. I ran the sample in red ink. Laurie and I have been discovering that people like red. Now my task is to finalize a quantity to offer and find some packaging.

Here's the final result!

Rounding a Corner (Midwest)

A couple weeks back Laurie and I had this long phone conversation about the disappointing news that our paper vendor was no longer offering rounded corner, flat notes in A2 size. I know. It's really a tragedy. I think we went through all the stages of grief during that phone call. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance...

I decided that in order empower myself and move on I needed to locate the perfect corner rounder. I ended up deciding that a hand punch (think scrapbooking tool) would be doable. I could punch corners while watching tv (think Desperate Housewives of Orange County) and make my own rounded corner flats. Heck, I probably have other printed things that would be cool with rounded corners (think grocery lists).

So, after a week or two traveling to various craft stores, buying what looked like workable and sturdy corner rounders I found one I liked. And, three that I didn't which were returned. Presenting the Fiskars hand-squeezy-view your paper-round your corner-and watch a paper piece flip up into the air model. I like it because it cuts easily and consistently. The blue stock below is a duplex card stock, at least 110 lb. You can see the corner is pretty clean and has about the same corner radius as the precut flat beneath it.




Who knew a craft punch would be so exciting that someone would photograph and write an entire blog post about it? Not me.

Spring Where are You? (Midwest)

I can't believe March is almost over. If you were to look outside my window you would understand why. We have a couple new inches of snow covering the grass that was beginning to turn green. The crocuses must be wishing they had waited to come up. And, I'm sure the birds are annoyed that the nests they have been building are snow covered.

I find myself mildly discouraged by the snow, yet optimistic because it feels warm and things sound like spring.

This last week I have been in and out of frame shops trying to find the right frame for the letterpress print that I'm donating to our preschool's silent auction. I found a frame that has a weathered barn wood look to it. I liked how the texture of old wood relates to the wood type I used to create the print. I'm so pleased with how it looks I even listed a print in my Etsy shop. I haven't been listing many new items and hope to post more prints soon.

Speaking of Etsy, Laurie and I have been discussing consolidating all our cards at our joint shop. I may keep amyb13 open for fine art prints and more limited run cards. Change is a brewing.

Alright, it's time for me do a little house cleaning...

Oh Boy (Midwest)

I had another semi successful day of letterpress printing yesterday. I've decided to see if I can get both Pilot presses up and running. It would be nice to have them both "calibrated" so that I can rely on either one. I could run two colors simultaneously, one on each press.

So, I put my old rollers back on my main press (the blue & red press in the back) and my newer rollers on the other press (closest). I'm having a lot of trial and error getting my press settings set. I'm taping rails, adjusting the platen, adding packing, etc. Right now, neither press is set the way it should be. I've decided that a second set of new rollers is in order. Then, I won't have to rework each press depending on which rollers are running on it.



As I do all these test prints with various plates, (wood type, vintage blocks, linoleum, etc.) I'm creating some letterpress collage prints. Here is one print in progress. I'm liking the textural effect of the rough paper with a light hit of ink. Also, the overlapping of colors is pleasing to me. I also like the idea of creating modern art from vintage blocks. I foresee a letterpress agenda forming.

I Love my Letterpress (Midwest)

Today marked the first day in weeks that all three of my kids were at school. We have been taking consecutive turns with the stomach flu. In retrospect, it would have been way better had we all gone down at once. Instead, every fourth day somebody else got sick for 3 days. Bleck.

Anywhoo, I have been super motivated to create. I sketched last night, printed last week and printed again today. Above you see my contribution to the Paper Stories letterpress swap. I wasn't going to post about it, but figure none of the other swappers are watching this blog. And, if they are they won't mind. Right? (I admit I'm snooping all the participants blogs to see what they are working on.) I will probably have lots to post about when I receive my swap package in a week or two. I'm so excited.

Ok. I must go prod the pot roast I have in the oven. I hope to post again later this week with a peak at another print I have in progress.

Notepads (Midwest)

I forgot to post this photo from several weeks back. My friends, Joanna and Chrissy, aka the dynamic sister duo, were at Broadway Paper and saw my notepads on a shelf. A SHELF!!! Not some skibbly, spinny rack thing tucked in the back of the store. A swanky shelf. Right next to that awesome fox fabric whatchamacallit. Whoohoooooo! Thanks girls for being so stealthy and snapping me a photo.

Those notepads turned out to be a good seller for me. They are tedious to make since I hand trim and bind everything, but I'm working on streamlining that process. In fact, I banged out another batch for a special order the other morning. Check it out.



Well, it's too glorious to sit inside any longer today. I must go have a walk in the sunshine. Tomorrow the temps drop and we will have more snow.

2009 Awaits (Midwest)

Well, we have about 16 more hours of Christmas vacation. I haven't posted over break so I will line list some of the highlights...

•The rats climbed up the Christmas tree. Tree sap + rat fur = not good.
•I had two cosmos in one evening and wasn't even buzzed. This is remarkable. Trust me.
•I was on my letterpress once for a quick print job.
•Indoor soccer, bowling, and inflatable bouncing sessions were all achieved.
•I had a fun, paid (!) photography gig as a second shooter at a wedding.
•One of us caught a stomach flu and at this point we don't know how many others were exposed.
•Sam cut most of his left eyelashes off.
•We have had 3 family game nights with charades being the most popular game.
•I ate 9 pieces of chocolate fudge on Christmas Eve.
•We had at least one day were we never got out of our pjs.
•We sledded. And, sledded. And, sledded again.
•Hannah became my photo sidekick when she got a digital camera for Christmas.
•Fights happened and were sometimes resolved.

All and all we managed to end break with a trashed house, overtired occupants and an empty fridge. Well done, I must say.

Happy New Year!!!