This lovely New Washi Bat Mitzvah invite set is brought to us today by the letterpress ink colors Hot Pink and Black, and by the foil stamping color, Silver Shine. Bat’s tend to be some of the shiniest and most colorful invites we work on, and this one sent to us by our friends at Smudge Designs definitely doesn’t disappoint.
inks: hot pink + black | foil: silver shine | fonts: moravia + aurora | paper: 1-ply white | invite size: F8 | customization #: 16126
This amazing custom B’Nai Mitzvah invitation was sent to us by our friends at Jenny’s Paper, Ink. The main colors on this invitation are blind deboss and charcoal but it is the red shine and purple shine foils that take center stage. All in all this is an amazing suite!
Did you know that all of our letterpress wedding invitation designs can be customized for social occasions? We can print lots of pieces for your big day (like wedding announcements and save the dates, as well as engagement party, rehearsal dinner or bridal shower invitations), but we can also print the paper goods for the other special occasions in your life! Customize any of our designs to be used for baby showers or birth announcements, holiday cards, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, moving announcements, birthday party invitations, and more. You can work with us directly, or view our new Social Album at one of our custom letterpress dealers.
Today we share with you our trendy letterpress and foil design New Washi by Kamal. When Smudge Designs submitted this Bat Mitzvah order we were so excited to print it! The washi tape pattern is such a perfect design element and looks great on our envelopes!
Joanna from Smudge shares their story:
“They didn’t have a “theme” so they were just searching for a beautiful design, something that was fun but still formal and elegant. Julia fell in love with the New Washi design, but deciding to turn it landscape made it even more unique. We even noticed that it slightly resembled the Star of David, which was perfect for a Bat Mitzvah. Julia knew very early on that she needed this exact shade of purple. They had been shopping at Sephora, and noticed it on a lipstick. Her mother had sent us a picture of the lipstick shade that we then matched to a pantone swatch. We thought the silver foil would be a perfect way to jazz up the invitation, and complement the purple.”
We love seeing our wedding invitations transform into Bat Mitzvah and Bar Mitzvah invitations! This design translates effortlessly into a classy yet youthful party choice.
This design won an honorable mention in our Bella Figura design competition for 2012. This annual competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.
We are busy preparing for the 2012 National Stationery Show that’s just a few weeks away, but we wanted to stop and take a break to share the letterpress and foil stamped invitations that we printed and sent out for the show! Our modern Unique Minimes design set the tone, and we love the way our hot pink letterpress ink looks when paired with shiny gold foil stamping! As part of our mid-year release, we’ll be introducing a new book filled with invitation designs for life’s special occasions: engagements, birthdays, showers, Bar & Bat Mitzvah, baby, and more. 9 new invitation designs will also debut at the show, and those will be available in early July at a Bella Figura dealer near you! We have the incredibly talented calligrapher Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill to thank for addressing the envelopes for these invitations in a metallic gold ink. We cannot get enough of the way those envelopes look!
We get loads of questions about envelope addressing. And with good cause – after you’ve invested in some gorgeous letterpress invitations, who wants to make a glaring faux pas when it comes to the envelope? It’s the very first thing your guests will see when they receive your wedding invitations in the mail, after all.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a little crash course of frequently asked addressing questions (or FAAQ) and ran them by calligrapher Debi Zeinert for some answers. Because who’s going to know more about addressing invitation envelopes than someone who does it for a living? Meet Debi in the video below!
Q: Are there any things you find your clients are consistently confused about concerning addressing etiquette? A: The biggest confusion comes when the wife is a doctor. Mr. and Dr. John Smith is incorrect. When a woman has a title her first name should be noted, and she should be listed first. For example: Dr. Susan and Mr. John Smith. Or, if they are both doctors with the same last name, Doctors Susan and John Smith.
Q: What’s the best way to organize guests names and addresses before someone sends them to their calligrapher? A: I prefer to get guest lists in the form of an Excel spread sheet – this way I can mail merge it to my liking for addressing. Though i will accept any sort of typed list. When using Excel its best to organize it in columns as follows: Outer envelope name, Name 2, Address, Address 2, City, State, Zip, Country, Inner envelope.
Q: When is it appropriate to use colored ink? A: I believe that if the return address is printed in color it’s okay to use colored ink. In fact, if the return address is a dark color such as blue or brown you SHOULD used colored ink. If the address is a ‘fun’ color or a pastel you may want to keep the addressing in black to hold on to formality. For a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or non-wedding calligraphy you always want the calligraphy to match the return address.
Q: Is your preference to spell out the name of the state, or to abbreviate it? A: It’s not just my preference, but I believe it is only proper to spell out the state. If it does not fit on the same line as the city, use the next line.
Q: Do you have any other tips you’d like to share with clients planning to work with a calligrapher? A: A referred calligrapher is the best calligrapher. If you find someone who does not come with a recommendation make sure you get actual samples addressed to you. Seeing work on someone’s website may not be a good representation of their usual work.
Make sure you schedule your job as soon as you know you want to use them. Don’t wait till you have your envelopes in hand. Most calligraphers book up weeks out. And be sure to pick a realistic date – remember, you are blocking out days of time on a schedule and if you are not ready you may not be able to get rescheduled.
Make sure you have extra envelopes – dip pens and ink are unpredictable! And make sure your guest list is complete as possible. There are always stragglers, bit to add a name everyday for a week is difficult on a calligrapher’s schedule. It’s not as easy as just writing another envelope – each job has set up time, drying time and packing and shipping time.
Q: Any good stories of really tricky addressing etiquette situations? A: I’ve been doing this so long I’ve seen everything and pretty much can handle any thing. One thing that is annoying to all calligraphers is the extra long first lines – for example: Mr. George and Mrs. Martha Washington or Mr. and Mrs. George and Martha Washington. Way too much to make it pretty. Or when the numbers of an address are all written out – for example: Seventeen South One Hundred and Forty Third Street. That must really annoy the post office! Numbers under 20 can be written out, but the rest should be numerals. I love it when people go ‘informal’ on the inner envelopes – it’s fun to write ‘Nana and Papa’ or nicknames. One time I even had to write ‘Anna and Shithead’ on an inner!!!!
Q: Are any other common questions you get a lot? A: One question I do get is if there is a discount for quantity. The answer is no – if one envelope takes 3 minutes, 10 take 30 minutes and 100 take 300 minutes – it does not speed up with quantity. And personally, I do not copy computer fonts, nor do I copy other calligrapher’s styles.
Well that’s about it for this little crash course, but naturally there are other questions we’ve not yet addressed here. Have any unique addressing quandaries or concerns of your own? Post them below in the comments section below and we’ll do some homework and get back to you. Class dismissed.
Want in on a little known secret? Our letterpress wedding invitation designs can be customized for any occasion! Throwing a fabulous party or planning your daughter’s bat mitzvah? Any of our designs can be designed to suit your event. Looking for great letterpress social notes or fabulous thank you notes? We do those, too! If you need moving announcements, baby announcements, ceremony programs, coasters, favor tags or great party invitations, we’re your one-stop shop for fabulous letterpress stationery. Below you’ll find a handful of our favorite thank you card and social note designs, but the possibilities are endless. See a design in our gallery that you love? Contact us and we can send you examples of that suite’s thank you notes, menu, save the dates, etc. We’d love to chat with you about customizing any design just for you and your upcoming celebration!
Printing really adorable letterpress baby announcements sure is great fun for us! These customized letterpress announcements are among our favorites of those we’ve recently printed and it’s easy to see why – they are so completely cute!
This particular letterpress baby announcement is perfect for welcoming a little boy. It’s our Airplane design printed in navy and taupe inks on our ivory cotton paper. It’s a touch masculine, but still perfectly playful and child-like.
Our Owl letterpress baby announcement is one of our most popular designs. This customized version is printed in bright daffodil paired with downy ink. Yellow and gray is such a popular color for letterpress wedding invitations, so it’s no surprise that new parents also love this combination for letterpress baby announcements!
Another customization of our Owl design, this letterpress baby announcement is printed in pumpkin and garden inks. While 1-color letterpress is always fun, we love how this 2-color letterpress adaptation makes the Owl design so special.
The great thing about letterpress is how easily we can personalize a design to perfectly suit all special occasions in your life. In addition to our letterpress wedding invitations and letterpress baby announcements, we’re also happy to print for bar and bat mitzvahs, birthday parties, anniversary parties – you name it! Any of our letterpress designs can be customized for the celebration of your choice.
