I finally finished binding my first batch of journals. (It took a loooong time.) Pix are up on FLICKR and FACEBOOK.
Also check out my new Journal section on this website with descriptions of the Mini journals and the Coptic bound journals. Woohooo, now it’s time for a MUCH needed break!
On a side note: Chad and I have officially lived in our Chicago apartment for 2 years starting now – Sept 1st. Making Chciago longest I’ve consecutively lived anywhere in my adult life (since I left my parent’s house in ‘98). AND the longest I’ve ever been in any one apartment.
When looking through some of my older boxes of art projects and supplies I stumbled across some of the first greeting cards I ever printed!
I made these “Greetings from SF” cards with metal and wood set type as a part of a letterpress workshop I had taken while living in San Francisco. I think these cards were originally printed in 2007. I still love them. They will be available on Etsy!
I finally finished letterpress printing a large order yesterday. — Just in time for the long weekend! I am packaging it up now and it will be in the mail before I head out to a friend’s lake house in Indiana for the 4th of July. I’m really looking forward to a much needed few days to relax.
I already documented everything and I will hopefully be posting those pix soon.
It’s been gorgeous and sunny in Chicago too! I’ve been biking everywhere which is definitely adding to my good moods. 
In honor of summer I added a “Summer 6 pack” of letterpress greeting cards on Etsy. You can find the listing by clicking here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/50527750/summer-6-pack-6-letterpress-printed
It includes 2 bike cards, a flower card, a carrot card for gardening, the chicken card for farmer’s markets and a shell card for all that lovely beach time we’ve all been craving.
I hope everyone out there is outside and enjoying this gorgeous weather as much as I am!
Lots of updates from the Steel Petal Press headquarters. (ie – my apartment)
First- Letterpress Baby Cards are printed, posted and up for sale on Etsy! My favorite is the “Baby Mama” card based on a picture I took of one of my best friends in the hospital with her new born. It’s crazy to think her daughter is already 3 years old, walking and talking! Pretty soon I’ll be one of those old ladies who always seems surprised at how much the young’uns have grown.
Next — One of my Father’s Day Letterpress cards was featured in an Etsy Father’s Day Treasury. There’s some great gift ideas for Dads in there. Check it out!
Lastly. I bound a new journal last night! It has been about a year since I’ve done any book binding. It was a little messy, since I’m out of practice, but I plan on binding many many more over the next few weeks and adding them to my inventory. I dug out some beautiful handmade paper I’d had rolled up in storage for way to long and used that to cover the boards. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and am definitely looking forward to making (and selling) more.
I finally got to spend a full day working in the studios yesterday. With summer comes less staffing and weird scheduling at the studios. Finding a full day to spend printing has been a struggle. Plus I still have my other part time job to juggle both schedules can be a challenge. But yesterday I woke up super early and spent 5 hrs printing at the studios.
I cranked out a bunch of new baby cards and father’s day cards. The Father’s Day cards have been documented and are up on ETSY! check ‘em out!
I’ll post the all the new Baby cards soon too, I promise!
Below are some pix of the new cards I printed last week. I have some carrot cards for garden season, a new congratulations card using an old boat graphic and a phone card.
I think the phone card is my favorite. I love how strong and graphic the image is. And, of course, I love how vintage old things look.
I’m also starting to put more work up on my flickr site. I’m joining groups and contributing to pools. There’s definitely a wealth of information there. And all sorts of group pools from Wedding Planners, to Crafty Girls to Handmade Cards and Etsy advice.I did get a message from the Flickr gods saying I had to take down all links to my etsy page. Apparently it’s against Flickr policy to promote any goods. I also had to take down any phrase that indicated sales of any kind. Hopefully the changes I made will suffice and they won’t cancel my membership…. So far so good.
It’s finally sunny in Chicago!! I’ll be documenting the new card designs I printed last week. We have a perfect back sunroom / kitchen nook facing east. It fills with beautiful light in the mornings perfect for documentation.
I’m also working on designing a new series of cards. A partial ‘ode to the places I’ve lived’ (which is pretty much all over the country) “Love From San Francisco” “Love from Los Angeles” “Love from New York” “Love from the Dirty South” “Love from the East Coast” “Love from the Midwest” “Love from the West Coast.”
It will take me some time before I can get them printed since I’m also working on more wedding invites at the same time, but I hope to get them out by sometime in July. I plan on selling them in packs of 5 or six. Stay tuned 
New Cards
Here’s the first picture I could post of the new inventory from last week. I only had enough time to document card before it got all gloomy. So now I’m just waiting for blue skies and better light before I take more pix.
printed logo on back
I also started adding this little printed logo on the back of all my newly printed cards. I actually started doing it in February but forgot to mention it. I think it adds a nice touch.
I’m thinking about doing a series of “Love From _____ ” cards. I’ve also had requests from Wolfbait for more baby cards and maybe fathers day cards.
With this and the wedding, I hope I have time to get it all done!
I just spent all yesterday afternoon in the studio printing more cards. I printed up some brand new inventory!! I will post pix as soon as I have time to document them. I also
reprinted some more inventory of a few designs that were sold out.
It seems my most consistent seller is the BDay Camera
I also had a quick series of sales of my “Congratulations Card” with Stars, so I restocked on them as well.
Congratulations Stars
Here are some images from some of my new line of Congratulations designs
Congratulations Stars
Congratulations Cocktail 5x7"
Comments (0) 
Themocracy