Happy Birthday to our dear Lizzy!

Dear darling Lizzy Loo,

Happy Birthday! We adore you. You're the best. Ever.

Have a magical, fantastical, super sweet day. Eat a cake. A whole cake.

xoxoxo,

Sam & Whit

(photo courtesy of Uncooked.)

Designer Spotlight + FABULOUS promotion: Wiley Valentine

We love working with the gals at Wiley Valentine. The fab team at California design studio, Wiley Valentine, has put together an album of super hip, ornamental, savvy designs that is such fun. The WV team always go above and beyond to help us make a suite perfect for our lovely clients. In short, they rock.

From formal, ornate flourishes, sparkly crystal details, and fabulous wrap-around envelope labels to slick, streamlined contemporary color-blocking and bold fonts and patterns, the Wiley Valentine bridal album offers something for everyone. And, while they are able to letterpress anything, the album is all flat-printed (and budget-friendly!)!

To further sweeten the WV story, the gals at Wiley Valentine just announced a super fabulous promotion! Now through the end of 2010, Wiley Valentine will be offering FREE save-the-dates and envelopes (or a free invitation insert card if save-the-dates aren't needed) to clients when they order their entire invitation suite. Pretty rad, right? That's a serious amount of savings!

Make an appointment today to come check-out this fabulous album (and all the others!). 2011 brides - it's never too early to start the design process; especially if starting early = saving some cash!

Happy weekend, loves!

xoxo

Sam

(all photos courtesy of Wiley Valentine)

Are You Ready?

It's BACK TO SCHOOL time! Yeh, I know, I can't believe it either! But at Gus & Ruby Letterpress we've been getting prepped for all your back-to-school, get-your-life-re-organized, and refresh-your-office-space needs.

What we like for the tasks you've got ahead? Colorful MomAgendas & MyAgendas that are sturdy and an organizer's dream! Tornado rollerball pens & ink refills from Retro 51. Beautifully bound fabric address books from Rag & Bone Bindery and these awesome file totes from Galison!

And what about for your kiddos? We love these blank journals from Night Owl Paper Goods that have printed birch wood jackets and brilliant lined notebooks by Pinkerton Design. I love the purple fig :)

And what about a great pencil can for their workspace at home! You certainly won't regret one of these - you'll never search for a pencil & eraser at homework time!

We know, it can be overwhelming to anticipate the beginning of a new academic year, but starting off on a good foot makes such a difference. I'll leave you with a fun idea for book covers that Gus & Ruby Letterpress can assist with too. It should help get the kids excited about their upcoming year and remind them of how easy life can be when things are organized and ready to go!

DIY : Use sheets of beautifully printed gift wrap to individually wrap up text books. You can utilize scraps of certain designs to make labels on alternate patterns so that all text books are easy to grab at a moments notice! And, these papers from Denise Lynn Studios are sure to brighten your kid's day!

And that's that - a list of all of our must-haves for back to school. Come visit us for help in getting organized for back to school, and for goodies to organize your own weekly schedule with fun post-its and calendars! You certainly won't regret it :)

Here's to you and yours, and the end of summer vacation!

XO Lizzy

2011 Linda & Harriett calendars are here!

(all photos courtesy of Linda & Harriett)

The 2011 version of the amazing, coveted, deliciously-pretty Linda & Harriett letterpress wall calendars are here!

These beauties make amazing, amazing gifts for your loved ones or for yourself! Each page is letterpress printed by hand and features the adorable, whimsical, creative patterns and illustrated that Liz (the designer behind Linda & Harriett) has become known so well for.

The best part about these sweet wall calendars? The bottom portion of each page detaches to become a postcard at the end of the month! Genius, right? I love when pieces are multi-purpose.

Because each calendar is printed by hand, Linda & Harriett only produce a limited quantity; last year they sold out by Thanksgiving (that means no re-orders for retailers, ack!)! We stocked up well, but these popular goodies won't be around forever. So, come and snag yours before it's too late. Remember, it's never too early to start knocking off items from your holiday shopping list!

You MUST watch this.

It's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I love Marcel. I want one.

Marcel the Shell with shoes on.

Genius, right?

Designer Spotlight: Spark Letterpress

Well, folks, I'm back to reality after an absolutely amazing wedding weekend. Whitney was the most beautiful bride and AK made for one heck of a handsome groom. We spent all weekend laughing, dancing and celebrating their love. It was truly spectacular. Sparks were flying.

Speaking of sparks - I'm thrilled to introduce our newest line of invitations: Spark Letterpress! Based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Spark was founded in 2005 by a husband and wife team and has grown over the past few years from a small design shop to a well respected leader in the printing and design industry. We're so super excited to be carrying their 3 albums (2 wedding invitation albums and 1 social stationery/holiday/party album).

Each album is chock-full of stunning designs - from romantic and formal lace details, to fabulous themed invitations (like the super-fun destination suite that mimics a passport!) to graphic, contemporary beauties. The social stationery album offers dozens of amazing options for calling cards, note sets and adorable party and holiday announcements. Of course, like all our designers, everything is totally customizable, too!

And - let's not forget budget - Spark offers all these incredible pieces at seriously incredible prices. Straight from the Spark horse's mouth, a bit about pricing:

Our one color letterpress eco-sets start at $700 (100 qty), this includes a printed outer envelope, invite panel and reply postcard. Likewise, a two color eco-set starts at $850 (100 qty). If you prefer a 4-piece invitation set, which includes a printed outer envelope, invite panel, reply panel and reply envelope, one color letterpress sets start at $850 (100 qty) and two color letterpress sets start at $1000 (100 qty). Our beautiful pocketfolds start at $3.00/piece. One color letterpress calling cards start as low as $125 for 100 qty.

The most important thing to remember is that you can CHANGE anything. If we show an invitation panel in 2 colors, but you want it in one color - no problem. Likewise, if you want to turn a one color insert card into a two color insert card - no problem. We allow our clients to pick and choose and change to their hearts content to suit their personal style and budget, so order what you want!

Does it get any better? We think not. Now, for some eye candy. Enjoy and stop by soon to get a peek at these amazing albums for yourself!

A few invitations to tempt:

Social Stationery galore!!

Cutest birthday party invitation of all time:

(all photos courtesy of Spark Letterpress)

Wedding TIme!!!

(Photo by the lovely emilie sommer of emilie inc. photography - who will be documenting the celebrations this weekend!)

Well folks, I'm signing off for the next 4 days to join Whitney in wedding central Wolfeboro. We'll be prepping, fixing, adhering, counting, fluffing and staging for the next two days. Then, it's time for toasts and stories at the rehearsal dinner and a full day of festivities on Saturday as Whitney and AK tie the knot and officially become hubby and wifey.

I am so, so thankful and lucky to have Whitney (and AK!) in my life. I couldn't ask for a better, more creative, kind and hilarious business partner and best friend. I hope you'll join me in wishing her and AK a spectacular wedding and a lifetime of joy and laughter and love. Hooray!

Have a fabulous weekend (darling Lizzy and my rock-star Mom will be holding down the store-fort) and see you next week (with pictures, of course!)

Over and out,

Samantha

Excitement overload.

(Photo by Gia Canali found via Snippet & Ink)

It's a sunny Monday morning after a glorious, celebratory weekend and starting off a busy week of client meetings, new products arriving and lovely friends dropping by. And, yet, I can't flipping wait for Thursday.

Why, you ask? Well because on Thursday I leave Portsmouth and head up to Wolfeboro to join my Gus & Ruby better half (the Whiz) for final wedding preparations and the main event(s). I'm just so darned excited. Whitney has poured her heart and creative genius into this wedding and it's going to blow everyone's hair back, I just know it. From the perfect paper details (duh!), to the incredible decor, every last detail of this wedding has been thought-of and crafted and fussed over until it is just right.

I'm so proud of her and can't wait to watch as her incredible vision comes to life. More importantly, though, I'm so happy for her and AK. They make a perfect pair and I just can't wait to celebrate their good fortune having found each other. I love weddings!

OK -back to work for a few more days before I can really get my party on. Woo hoo!

We're celebrating our 1st Birthday!!

(Our new birthday windows - created by the ever-lovely Lizzy!)

Hello lovely friends! Happy Thursday to ya!

Guess what's happening this weekend? We're celebrating our 1st Birthday!! Can you believe it?? Neither can we. Totally nutso.

Because we couldn't have gotten to this point without you all, we'll be saying "Hooray!" and "Thank You!" all weekend long by offering a sweet Store-wide SALE (10% off!)** and we'll be giving out delicious treats from some of our favorite bakeries (Wild Orchid Baking Co., Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott, and Popover's On the Square) each day.

Truly, we are so thankful for your support and enthusiasm. It's been a wild, wonderful first year and we're so looking forward to an even bigger, brighter 2nd year in our new space!

Thank you thank you and we hope to see you this weekend to celebrate our Birthday.

Cheers,

Sam and Whit

(and Gus & Ruby)

**Excluding custom projects and special orders