Given that we’ve just launched all of our greeting cards on our online store, we thought it would be fun to ask our team to name a favorite Smudge Ink birthday card.  Read on to see our favorites and learn how to enter a contest to win your top five favorite birthday cards.

Co-owner Kate’s vote goes to TTB07.  This fun birthday card, in shades of coral and gray, depicts a camera and the greeting, “Smile, it’s your birthday!”  Kate likes the card’s overall composition, including the colors, and its clever “smile” wordplay is sure to make any recipient say, “Cheese!”.

Our designer Stephanie and office manager April both chose TTB766 depicting a sweet little snail toting a balloon.  This charming card is printed in their favorite color scheme of yellow and gray, and “it’s funny,” says April.  Stephanie adds, “The thought of a teeny-tiny balloon small enough to tie around a snail makes me smile. I also enjoy the fact that sending this card to someone would be a pun in itself…good old-fashion snail mail!”

Co-owner Deb is another TTB766 fan. “It’s cute, clean, and I like the typeface,” says Deb, adding, “I also tend to move at a snail’s pace.”

Emily, our print shop manager, prefers one of our most popular birthday cards…TTB514′s  “Have a Wild Birthday!” An adorable zebra, in graphic black & white and wearing a jaunty red party hat, is “eye catching,” says Emily.  “He’s cute and out of the ordinary, compared to the other cards.”

Lis, our fulfillment assistant, has two favorites:  TTB115′s fireflies in a jar design recaptures that joyful childhood pastime of catching lightening bugs and the wonder of summer nights.  Likewise, TTB806′s image of a purple, swirly, soft-serve ice cream cone brings to mind that cold, delectable summer treat.  “These have memories attached to them,” says Lis.

Custom wedding manager Sabrina likes the comedic touch of TTB809′s scuba diver and his bubbly underwater birthday greeting. “I get a chuckle out of it,” says Sabrina.  She also admires the blue graphic design, particularly the lattice-like rendering of the ocean.

Meghan, our printing assistant, likes our FTB425 birthday card displaying a cute, balloon-adorned bicycle. She appreciates the smaller 4 bar size, the mix of red and purple colors, and the fact that “it’s festive and can be for any age.”

Speaking of bikes, I’m drawn to TTB246.  I love vintage things, and the antique bicycle design on this card…known as a high wheeler or a “penny-farthing…” gets my vote for favorite card.  I also like the affectionate jab at aging with its “Happy Birthday, old timer,” greeting.  Whenever I come across this card when filling an order, I always think, “Good choice!”  And then I wonder, “How the heck did they ever ride those things?”

Which smudge ink birthday card is your favorite? Browse our collection and then leave a comment below. We’ll randomly choose a lucky winner by April 18, 2012. The winner will receive one of each of their top five favorite smudge ink birthday cards. And the winners are: Megan and Susie! Thanks for your participation!

Given that we are a working studio, we thought it would be fun to share with you the process of how we make our greeting cards. Our fondness for letterpress printing is part of why we started this business, so it’s only appropriate that we share some letterpress love.

Once we’ve determined a card must be printed, there are a series of steps we go through to produce it, not to mention package and send it off to our retailers. In this first post, we’ll show you how we set up the press in preparation for printing and how we run the first color.

After we’ve determined how many cards to print of a specific design, we cut the parent sheets (large format paper) to smaller run size sheets (smaller format paper fit to run through the press but not the final size). Next, we use a measuring guide to determine where the first color should land on the run sheet.

We then take the polymer plate for the first color and adhere it to the base. Now it’s time to add the ink — we’re using warm grey for this particular card. The ink is applied through the ink fountain at the back of the press, a heidelberg windmill that we affectionately call Heidi. Once the ink is ready to go, the base is locked into the chase and set into the press. The pins that guide the paper during the run must be adjusted so they don’t get crushed by the base. Be sure to say hello to Christopher, Emily’s feline friend.

Now it’s time to take the first pull to see if the image is landing where we want it to. We do this several times and make many small adjustments so the card is printing perfectly in regard to color, impression and registration. Once it’s good to go, we prepare the stack of paper for the run. Adding air to the stack makes it easier for the press to suction the paper into the press.

We begin the run and monitor it carefully to make sure the color, impression and registration remain consistent. After the run is over, the stack is set side until it’s time to print the second color.

In the next post, we’ll cover the second color, trimming and scoring. Stay tuned!…and thanks for reading.

This past weekend, we took a trip to the Cape to photograph our new letterpress-printed wedding invitations we’re releasing at the end of February. Although we were intimidated by how many pieces we had to shoot (we had limited time), it turned out to be a great success. Thanks to the sun and clouds for perfect lighting, and to my mom for supplying us with a wide variety of props, protein packed meals and two days of free babysitting.

A pre-8am trip to the flower market…

Once we arrived in Orleans, we spent day one outside mostly. It was a gorgeous day, so we hit the beach and used the sand, lobster traps, sea grass and water to our advantage.

It snowed on day two–all day long.  After a poached egg and half a grapefruit, we set up in various rooms around the house.

After we finished our work, we headed outside to enjoy the snow. It ended up snowing about 5-6 inches on the Cape, a coastal storm. It was a long drive home, but kale soup and a turkey sandwich from the Land Ho helped.

We can’t wait to show you our new wedding invitations! Stay tuned…