Holiday cards featured!

Would you believe when I stopped in to Target the day after Halloween they already had Merry Christmas decorations all over the store? True Story. I am not ready for everything Christmas on November 1st. After Thanksgiving, then I'm all for it.

So...our holiday cards are available for purchase and we're so excited to have them featured in today's House and Home section of the Kansas City Star Newspaper (page E5.) It's like we're famous(ish)! Everything is available for purchase through our etsy store and our Cyber Monday discount applies through midnight on 12/30. Happy Shopping!!

Black Friday - Cyber Monday Specials!!

Oh my goodness-how is it already Thanksgiving week? The past few months have really flown and I'm hoping that holiday shopping panic mode doesn't set in for a few more weeks! While I've never braved the crowds on Black Friday, I am a huge fan of Cyber Monday! So, we're very excited to participate in a Black Friday through Cyber Monday promotion with lots of other great retailers, especially other Kansas City etsy businesses!

We're offering 15% off all orders placed Friday through Monday, including personalized items. Our suitcases are already a big hit and great for holding doll clothes, craft items, new baby gifts or anything else and it's always great to keep stationery sets on hand for hostess gifts and emergency presents! Take a look here for other KC Etsy businesses's specials and great ideas for everyone on your shopping list. Some of my favorites are this coin pouch from ni-chern designs and of course this adorable button from shawnanonna. That's right, redheads rock! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I hope everyone finds great shopping deals over the next few days!

New products at Haute Market!

We've been super busy the past few weeks getting our merchandise ready for the Haute Market event this Sunday, 12pm - 4pm at the Ritz Charles in Overland Park. Their website says it best: "Purchase the latest trends in women's clothing, fashionable handbags, gorgeous handcrafted jewelry, home decor, girlfriend gifts - and do it all while sipping tasty cocktails and enjoying a day out with your best girlfriends. Enjoy fashion, pampering, beauty and fun!"

We're super excited about our new mini suitcases and can't wait to see everything else that's going to be there from all of the other vendors like LOVER Cosmetics. I have been using their foundation for the past two years and LOVE it (pun intended. Sorry!) I'm also excited to check out the stuff Two Chick Blvd. will have there. Are you going? Stop by our booth to say hi!

Tickets are available $10 in advance or $15 at the door. We hope to see you there!

tea for two?

Look at these lovely single cupcake stands I saw on Bakerella's blog. (have you been over there?  swoon!)   Puts me in the mood to throw a wonderful tea party!  For one of my wedding showers we had afternoon-tea at the Fairmont Hotel Oak Room (now the InterContinental).  There were a variety of teas and multiple petit-fours and my mom and her friends all got to wear big fancy hats.  (Not a good look for me.)  

Anyway, for my next tea party I would order these fantastic tissue flowers from PartyPom's etsy shop and some of these fancy little cupcakes from Cake Girl (here in KC!)  My sister Abigail booked them for her upcoming wedding and the samples were delicious!  She also has a peanut butter buttercream frosted cupcake that we're dying to try!  

Featured at Emmaline Bride today!

Thanks to Emmaline Bride for featuring our "Eat, Drink and be Married" letterpress coasters on their Nine New Handmade Finds today. Check out their website for great handmade products to personalize your wedding from companies across the country! Check out the beautiful facinator hairpiece from Belles & Crystals! Makes me want to get married all over again!

Such a lucky pup!

I stumbled across this blog yesterday and am excited to not only add something new to my reader, but to have this picture of the darling pup (from another blog!) to brighten my day. I love playing detective and checking out all the links between all the fabulous blogs out there and discovering some new places to keep me busy!

September Celebration

We're doing a giveaway for some stationery for Laurel's blog anniversary--check it out! How cute are those cupcake flags! Go check it out a A Good Build for a chance to win some stationery and $25 gift certificates to restaurant.com!

uploads galore!

I'm still working through the updates to our website but in the meantime I'm uploading our pending product shots to flickr and some to our facebook page too for everyone to see. If you don't see your project listed I'm still working through all the proofs and will be adding more shortly!

Real Weddings: Megan and Brian

For Megan and Brian's wedding last June, we incorporated a deep purple and chocolate brown into the design of their stationery suite. That color scheme continued for their 06.07.08 (hard to forget that anniversary!) elegant outdoor wedding. Hosted at a private residence outside of Lawrence, Kansas, Megan and Brian's big day was a great celebration of the start of their lives together.

Now, I'm getting to work on some shower invitations to celebrate the new baby Irvine arriving in the next few months! Congrats Megan and Brian!

Fab new finds at the Bridal Fair!

We had a great time at last weekend's bridal fair and were able to chat with a ton of new people. Congrats to the winners of $100 off one of our letterpress packages. We met some new vendors as well--1154 Lill Studio down on the Country Club Plaza is a great spot to make a bag for your next special occasion or to host a shower for your bridesmaids! The bags come in all different colors and prints (check out their gorgeous display from the show!)

Envelopes by Ann is a local calligraphy studio and I loved her samples of the white ink on color envelopes. To top off your envelopes, I like these monogram stamps from Perfect Postage to coordinate with your invitation design.

so. completely. fantastic.

I stumbled across these pictures (you can click on the picture to enlarge the photo) today on C is for Charmed (a totally awesome blog) and followed the links back to the original photos on Jonas Peterson's website. I love everything about everything here--the totally cool couple, her amazing short dress, his wedding vans and the gorgeous photos documenting Paul and Cassie's wedding day. If I could do it over I'd contemplate blowing my entire wedding budget to fly Jonas in to take pictures and make us look fabulous. Well, almost the whole budget--I've got to get that short dress too! (A girl can dream, right?)

In addition to everything that's perfect about Paul and Cassie's wedding, I love this little thumbprint wedding tree guestbook alternative. It's fun and funky art and something so lovely to have framed and displayed in your home. Enjoy and check out more of both C is for Charmed and Jonas Peterson's sites.

KC Bridal Fair this Saturday!

Come visit us at another Bridal Fair this Saturday, August 22nd, from 10 AM - 5 pm at the Westin Crown Center. Free parking under the Crown Center Shops and tons of vendors to help you plan your big day!

Admission is $12 or you can pre-register at www.kcbridalfair.com

There's lots of give-aways and we'll be doing a drawing for $150 off one of our custom letterpress suites (minimum purchase required). Hope to see you there!

The newest addition to Paper Mill Designs

Thought it was about time to introduce the newest member of the Paper Mill Designs staff--Miss Avery Isabelle! (You can click on the picture to enlarge and see her "Blue Steel" look.)

She was born April 1st and is already a hard worker (child labor? shmild labor.) She especially enjoys helping her mom do design work and looking at the pretty Mac Book Pro. (Who wouldn't?)

We had great fun putting together her cherry blossom announcements and had crinkle confetti all over the house. Tying bows on all of the candy cigars kept me busy for a few hours as well! We love the chocolate brown boxes and the soft pink ink and even made custom mailing labels in a sage green. We also made letterpress baby thank you cards to match her letterpress birth announcement-we've heard they're all the rage--even if Mom does the writing.

Contact us today if you want to get started on announcements for your new little one. We are having so much fun with our previous brides coming back to work with us for their children!

Bridal show-stand out vendors

{photo credits, clockwise left to right: Brancatos's, an eclectic stem, deco catering, Brancatos}
Though we didn't participate as a vendor this time, we did attend the recent KC Bridal Showcase and had a great time sampling and checking out everyone's displays. Some of our old favorite vendors were there: Sharon at KISS Events had a fun little "Kissing Booth" photo station set up, and it was great to see my favorite dj's Danny and Lindsay Haas out there with their company Premiere Midwest DJ. The pictures above are from some of our favorite new vendors at the event--look at that gorgeous, modern arrangement from An Eclectic Stem. They have a retail location in Westpost and seem like they would be a TON of fun to work with for your event. Those bright red and orange blooms look kind of like spools of yarn. So cool! Another company I loved was Deco Catering. Their samples included bacon-wrapped dates and these ADORABLE mini ice-cream-style cones with seasoned goat chesse. I think using the little mini-cones as passed appetizers during cocktail hour would be perfect! I'm also seeing more of the chartreuse and grape color combination, as illustrated by this table design by Brancatos. I love the modern look of two bright colors together--and you can use bright colors very tastefully, as illustrated above.

Use a custom embosser to dress up your event!

We've all seen the trend to create a logo or monogram for your wedding or event and use it in a variety of places. It's a great way to tie everything together and create a cohesive look. One easy way to do this is to order a custom embosser from Wilshire Graphic Press . You can either choose one of their layouts or send in your own artwork like we did for our client Nicole on her invitations. I also love using the embossers for your return address for your invitations and thank you notes--it's something you can use again for holiday cards and all of your other correspondence.

Come find us on facebook too--we're going to have some specials coming up only available to fans. Hope to see you there!

upcoming changes to our website!

We're working on making some changes to our website to better display our options and custom projects from previous clients. A big first step in moving forward was hiring a photographer to do some product photography for us! Sarah Maxey Photography did a wonderful job of capturing the texture of our papers and the impression of our letterpress projects and we're so excited to be able to feature her work! You can check out her blog for some more of our shots and adorable family and baby shoots she's done. For those of you in the Kansas City area, she's running a great special if you book by July 31st--$75 for a session fee and you get an image release and CD with all of your pictures for printing. Contact her today--baby pics, engagement sessions, family pics, whatever. And......be on the lookout for more updates at Paper Mill Designs!

Lipstick and Flower Stems inspiration board on Inventing Weddings

{inspiration board courtesy of inventing weddings}

Many thanks to Inventing Weddings for featuring our sage green Olivia letterpress invitations in one of their latest inspiration boards. How cute is that little clutch as well? All of the items featured can be found on etsy and Inventing Weddings has the direct links for all of the items. They are posting a ton of inspiration boards so it's a great place to get ideas. Check them out!

personalized stationery gifts

We love working with previous clients on additional projects. I met Megen at the Bridal Show in 2008 and we whipped up some fun, wintery-themed invitations for her January 2009 wedding. When she got in touch with me about putting together a gift for her friend Robyn, a PhD candidate, we came up with a package of items Robyn will hopefully be able to use as she moves forward in her career!

We did custom letterpress notecards with a bird theme, and then two custom-printed, handmade spiral bound books--a notebook and an address book. We really enjoyed working on this project and hope Robyn enjoys using her new stationery items as well!

Contact us today if you're interested in other custom stationery options. We welcome your ideas and look forward to working with you!

pick up some blooms for free!

The American Institute of Floral Design (AIFD) is hosting their annual symposium in Kansas City this week. Check out some of these beautiful photos of their creative designs and gorgeous blooms. It sounds like if you're hanging out around Crown Center and the Hyatt the next few days, you might get lucky too--in addition to donating the flowers to meals on wheels, the conventioneers will take the flowers used in the exhibits and instead of throwing them away, they arrange them into bouquets that are handed out in the afternoon free! The convention goes through Thursday. It doesn't look like the event is open to the public--I'd love to sneak in and check out new floral trends from designers across the nation. :) Look at those feathers!

**all photos courtesy kansascity.com see more photos in the gallery here**

real weddings: chris and claire

{photo credits clockwise from top left: 1, 2, 3, 4}

A lot of clients aren't sure what to expect when it comes to working with a custom stationery company. What exactly does custom mean? For us, it means we want to work with our clients to make sure that not only do they love their stationery, but that it coordinates with their overall vision for an event.

A perfect example of this is the stationery package we created with Chris and his lovely fiancée Claire. Chris is a friend from high school. When he proposed to Claire, he had a ring custom-designed from Visionary Jewelers, another friend of the couple. When I began working with Claire, she floated the idea of having her stationery design inspired by her ring. After rounds of proofs, I think we found a great representation that compliments the beautiful detail from the ring. We ran their invitations and thank you stationery on our antique letterpress in beautiful navy and kelly green ink.

Enjoy these beautiful photos from Chris and Claire's wedding by the talented Leda Vander Laan of LVL Photography. Congrats again to the happy couple!

pockets full of sunshine :)

{photo credits, clockwise from top left:1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}

With my sister, Abigail, planning her wedding for June 2010, we've been busy running around and meeting with Kansas City vendors, booking locations and all kinds of fun stuff like that for the past few weeks. After a tip from Sharon at KISS Events, we headed over to Ida's Custom Veils to check out their sample sale of gowns! With discontinued styles 50 to 70% off, it's a great deal if you can find a dress.

One of my favorite things we saw in some of the dresses today? Pockets! I remember seeing Sandra Bullock's Angel Sanchez dress at the Academy Awards a few years ago, and how adorable she looked with the pockets in her ballgown. Are you really going to use pockets in your wedding gown on the big day? Maybe for a lipstick or something small, but I love the sweet, sort of innocent look of the pictures with the brides' hands in her pockets.

Paloma Blanca has a few styles out in their 2009 fall collection and JCrew's bridal line has some sophisticated "pocket" options as well. Geneviere from JCrew (photos 2 and 3) totally reminds me of the dress the younger sister has made in the movie 27 dresses! Abby is still deciding on her dress, but we will hopefully soon find the one! Happy Shopping!

Bridal show winner for $100 off a Letterpress Package!

Congrats to Meredith Foster who we met at the bridal show at the Cashew. She's the winner of $100 off one of our letterpress packages!

West 18th Street Fashion Show

{photo credits, clockwise from top left: www.abigailcarolina.com, inkkc.com, abigailcarolina.com, inkkc.com, abigailcarolina.com, inkkc.com}

The past few weeks I've been involved with helping my sister, a local designer (www.abigailcarolina.com) prepare for the West 18th Street Fashion Show in Kansas City. It's been so cool see the process from start to finish, with her proposals and sketches finally becoming realities!

On Saturday, we were able to work with two wonderful companies on hair and makeup for all of the models. Amanda Williams, of Dollface Aesthetics not only did all of the makeup, but applied fantastic fake lashes for all of the models. She also specializes in eyelash extensions which are really popular for brides these days. These extensions are a more permanent solution for eyelashes, lasting around 4 to 6 weeks. Thanks to Amanda for all of her help with the models. Contact her today about make up for your own wedding. I personally love that she's a redhead with fair skin like me, so I won't end up looking like a clown. (Which I did, on my wedding day. After the makeup artist left, I washed my face and started over. Lesson learned? MAKE-UP TRIALS. )

The ladies from Bangs Salon on the Country Club Plaza gave all of the models fabulous runway hair. They were very efficient and these updo's stayed up ALL NIGHT. Also a key factor when you're thinking about your wedding hair. I know at their salon they also have nail services but it's so nice to have vendors come to you when you're preparing for your big day.

2000 Grand Bridal Show

Thanks to everyone who stopped by at the 2000 Grand Bridal Show Friday night and thanks to Miranda for organizing such a great event. We had a great time chatting with everyone and meeting other vendors as well! Sharon Ivy at Kiss Events stopped by and we realized her husband is a former co-worker of mine. (Small world!) Anyway, Sharon has a fantastically informative and entertaining blog with tons of great ideas for planning your next event. Be sure to check it out! I'll be drawing tomorrow for the winner of our $100 off a letterpress package. We do one of these giveaways at each of the bridal shows so be sure to sign up next time!

Bridal Show at 2000 Grand

For anyone local here in Kansas City that's heading down to First Fridays in the Crossroads tomorrow, stop in to see us and a bunch of other local wedding vendors at the 2000 Grand Bridal open house (upstairs at The Cashew). Their new space is gorgeous-they've renovated the 3rd floor for an "urban loft" feel (so popular these days) and the garage door windows would open up for a wonderful breezy feel to your summer or early fall weddings. I love seeing all of the new venus popping up downtown. :)

If you stop in, say hi! We love to meet our blog readers.

Hand-Canceling invitations for your wedding!

One of the questions frequently asked by our brides is about the option for hand-canceling wedding invitations. I always recommend clients to go to a smaller post-office during off-peak hours and inquire about the option there--many times they are happy to accommodate your request and then your envelopes will have the "hand-stamped" look vs. the machine canceling. These days, everything runs through the machines at some point, so even with the hand-canceling that doesn't mean that your envelopes will end up perfect--but it's a good option to start with.

Anyway, I was reading yesterday about a post office in Oregon that specialized in hand-canceling for weddings: the Bridal Veil location, the second smallest post office still in operation. This website gives you all the details for working with them for this service. What a fun way to personalize your invitations! You can see an example of the stamp on the website as well.

And while we're on the topic--how cute are the new 2 oz. wedding stamps? (pictured above.) Keep in mind most wedding invitations will use at least a 2 oz. stamp, with boxes, etc. more. I also think the new king/queen of hearts stamps are adorable as well. Too bad they're only the 1 oz. price. Use them for your RSVP envelopes!