Personal Shopping for the Fuzzy Bunny...

Oh, hello you sweet and beautiful journal with perfectly peach and prim & pretty pink blooms...

How I long to write love letters...
And long to-do lists on your pages...
I could doodle for days with you, my dear...


In fact, you'd be the perfect little Easter goody for my mum, and my niece, and my neighbor.
Looks like I'm going to have to bundle you up and nestle you away in a bright and brilliant fabric bucket full of chocolate eggs and coconut nests...


Because April 8th is right around the corner... and who could have dreamt up a more lovely surprise from that big, fuzzy bunny? Just add a little note to say, "I love you"....


And we're totally in business.
Happy Weekend pals!
xo Liz

P.S. We have LOTS of new goodies that will be perfect stuffers and fill-ins for your Easter baskets and bundles, so come visit soon!!

Saturday Funnies...

Not going to lie, I think I am 100% correct in saying that Uncooked greeting cards make our customers laugh the most. I cannot tell you how many groups of adorable, middle-aged women come in and are bent over in stitches laughing at these cards. It's understandable, when you really think about it:







You're probably laughing out loud right now, still, over that hamster birthday card. You just can't beat it!!

:) Happy Saturday Pals,
xo Lizzy

pantone universe

Morning Pals,

Thought I'd take a moment to share a little product knowledge with you this morning. Truth is, because we do so much design and printing here at Gus & Ruby Letterpress, sometimes knowledge about the design process and community is taken for granted. We assume people know more than they may in fact know (or understand, for that matter) about what we do! It's always our goal to be sure that clients have a pretty great understanding when they leave the shop though... about our background, services, and the letterpress printing process in general. And it seems as though most love to learn about it, because let's be honest, letterpress printing is SUPER RAD.

When I unpacked our shipment of Pantone mugs this morning, I immediately was reminded of a customer who dropped in around the holidays and inquired as to whether "Pantone University was located nearby" :)

For those of you who know design or who have a brief understanding of what Pantone is, you'll get a little chuckle after reading this comment to yourself. But in all honesty, we have A LOT of customers who come through who ask what Pantone is when they see our bright and beautiful coffee mugs, and so I thought I'd share a pretty little picture of our newest lineup of Pantone mugs, and share a bit of background knowledge. Because knowledge is power. And so is Pantone.

It all started way back in the good ole' year of 1963 when a gent named Lawrence Herbert decided that it was officially necessary to have a system of identifying, matching, and communicating colors universally between members of the design community. This was the birth of the Pantone Matching System, a fan-shaped booklet made up of standardized color swatches that were each assigned specific numbers. Each color was and still is developed from a specific mix of other bases, and the greatest thing about Pantone is that each and every color is completely unique unto itself. PMS 172 (as can be seen in the foreground of the photograph above) is the only 172 that exists, so when looking for a hot, saturated red/orange, this would be an appropriate color choice. And, the idea is that one of you out there could call us from where ever it is that you are and say, "I want some personal stationery printed in PMS 172" and we would do it, knowing exactly what color you want (rather than trying to determine which reddish-orange color you are looking for!)

Colors can be SO tricky, and even trickier is the process of deciphering what clients are asking for when they say "I want true navy". Having a swatch book for them to peruse allows them to signify to us what navy, exactly, they want (because there are LOTS and LOTS of colors that could fall in the category of navy). Wasn't that Lawrence dude a genius?!

And so Pantone revolutionized the way that the graphic arts community was able to communicate about color, and had it not been for Lawrence we might still be breaking up arguments between bride and groom about what charcoal gray is :) The accuracy with which we are able to talk productively to fellow designers all around the country about printing projects is due in a huge way to the Pantone Matching System, and we literally don't know what we'd do if our little fan book of colors didn't exist!

And now.....

For all of you who are up-to-date on the roots from whence Pantone came, feel free to come and grab a mug at the shop so you can impress all your friends with your impeccable taste in color (and your extensive knowledge of the history of Pantone).

That's it for today pals, have an INCREDIBLE one!

xo Lizzy

happy saint patricks day!

just a little word and wish for you all today as you head out to chase those leprechauns...

may there always be thank-yous for your hands to write,
may your Sea Bag clutch always hold a coin or two,
may the sun shine warm on your wedding day,
may a hug and smile be certain to follow each gift you give,
may the hand of a calligrapher always be near you,
and may visiting Gus & Ruby Letterpress fill your heart with gladness to cheer you

now get out there and kiss that Blarney Stone!

xo Lizzy, Sam, Whit, Gus & Ruby

one canoe two

Oh, pals....
Boy do I have some great news for you today!

To share a bit of a back-story here: the truth is that we've had One Canoe Two on our radar for a while now, but they really fleshed out their line this past winter and I was finally able to pull my thoughts together and get an order together. The lovely ladies behind Canoe put down roots in Missouri in a the 3rd floor loft of a big old barn and have been letterpress printing their hearts out since! Sounds like a big-old success story to me :)

Their beautiful stationery and gifty goods arrived today and totally BRIGHTENED my day! Big thanks to Beth, Carrie & Karen - we love you and love what you do!



A few letterpress prints for ya :)



A more rustic-style recipe box for all of you out there who need to get your Mama's pot pie and Grandpappy's beef stew ingredients corralled...


How about some perfectly prim mixed letterpress printed thank-yous - all those greetings are hand-written by the lovely ladies and then printed on their C&P...



Their "Things That Are Round" letterpress printed coasters make me swoon! Sorta gets me excited for some sweaty glasses of lemonade this summer, don't you agree ;)

And yes, that's a sweet little wooden box with address cards for you to keep on your pretty little desk at home. Genius, right?! One of the lady's pops makes the boxes by hand for them - gotta love that too!!

Simple, bright and fun, don't 'cha think?!
Happy Thursday pals, it's almost Friday (which means that I'll be looking forward to seeing your handsome faces poking around town soon because the weekend is right around the corner!) and I'll be back tomorrow with another little post on some new greeting cards from Fine Day Press, and a little snippet about the new Sea Bags we just got in!
Woohoooo -


love ya to bits and pieces,
Lizzy Lou

Surprise! We're hiring!

Yup, you read that right. In honor of Samantha's 28th birthday (which is today so please send cupcakes and ponies to the shop) we are giving her the best gift ever: 2 new employees to share our ever-growing workload(s)! Woo hoo! We are really excited. Like dancing around the shop excited. Well Sam's dancing around the shop and Liz and I are watching and taking secret videos to use against her later. You get the idea. Please feel free to pass the word along to any friends or family or friends of friends or friends of family or even an enemy or two! Thank you to all of you who have supported us these last few years - we've grown up fast, huh?

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the perfect package

Hey there pals!

I know that it's Saturday and you're all probably out and about (especially now that the storms have cleared in the Seacoast), but I wanted to share a little tidbit with 'ya all the same! Spring is fast upon us, if you can believe that, and here at Gus & Ruby Letterpress I'm quickly trying to pull together a bundle of new goodies for you all to enjoy this upcoming year. It's always a bit of a crap shoot ordering new product, not knowing how things will arrive... not being certain of the quality of the lined pages inside of that spiral bound journal... or concerned about the strength of those bright and colorful magnets... but this time of year might be one of my most favorites because when we get shipments in the post, I am almost always overjoyed by what's inside the stacks of cardboard boxes that pile up out back.

People ask all the time if I love my job, and my response is always the same: I do! Very much! But, what I sometimes fail to relay in answering that question is that the real perk to my position here at G&R has very much to do with the hard work of the incredible vendors that we have the opportunity (and extreme pleasure) to communicate with daily. I get to look at, order and merchandise absolutely beautiful, hand-made product on a daily basis. It's legit - THE BEST. (This is where balloons should arrive, flowers and Flatbread pizza to Samantha & Whitney's doorsteps - because without them - I wouldn't get to do any of it!)

So when I was thinking to myself about blogging today, I figured today would be a great opportunity to rave a bit about something beautiful that arrived to the shop! We received a small shipment of custom-printed pencils from the lovely Linda of One Fine Dae and while the weather this morning was gloomy and raw, when I cut into the box from Linda, this is what I found:

Now, this iPhone photo really doesn't do the package justice... but you get the general gist. Linda with her adorable striped washi tape-on-kraft, double tagged, grommeted, little bundle of perfection with a mini pencil on top just about made my day. And oh, the contents...

These little packs of pencils come flat in a sleeve that's stitched up the sides... and that cotton twine bow to keep just every one right in it's rightful place... pure heaven!

See how lucky I am?! It's like the holidays opening up these beautiful boxes of goodies!!

Now, on a side note: I feel like it would be appropriate to share with anyone out there looking to jazz up their game in the stationery world, or just looking for good packaging and branding concepts for your business, take this hint: packaging & the quality of product are equally important when it comes right down to it. Customers respond to product that is wrapped up in beautiful, clean and informative packaging. Tell us it's made in the U. S. of A. on a wind-powered press. Or that your illustrations are hand painted and printed right in-house, where ever your house may be! Take some time to plan what your product will look like once it's on shop shelves, because those are the little details that are the truest form of eye-candy to customers :) and they make my day, every day.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend, and maybe you'll all be around the shop soon to drool over these new pencils with me? You know you wanna see 'em in person now, don't 'cha?!

Sending you lots of smiles today (and hopefully sending you home with perfect packages always!) XO

Lizzy