This fall Bella Figura, our parent company Boxcar Press and our sister company Smock got a lot larger and moved into some shiny new digs. Our expansion (17 letterpresses, 55 employees, 24,000 square feet) makes us one of the largest letterpress shops in the country. For the past few months we have been packing up, building new walls, moving presses, expanding our print shop and moving our operations from one end of an old warehouse in downtown Syracuse, New York to the other. Now we’ve cleaned up our dust and we’re inviting you to come check us out!
Come for shop tours, printing demonstrations, free giveaways, holiday shopping with Smock, refreshments, live entertainment and more. Letterpress lovers of all ages are welcome – we’ll have lots of fun activities for kids, too! We look forward to seeing you on Saturday between 10 and 4 – see you soon!
As we prepare for the holidays, we wanted to let you know about our sister company Smock’s newest holiday collection. From letterpress holiday cards to pretty and colorful offset holiday notes, from festive holiday gift wrap to letterpress photo cards and letterpress gift tags, Smock has the perfect holiday paper goods for your season’s greetings in new colors and new styles for the 2010 holiday season. Smock holiday is available now so start your holiday shopping today!
Check out 36 new eco stationery designs from our sister company Smock: New letterpress greeting cards, gorgeous new offset note cards, vibrant letter writing sheets and cool patterned hang tags! The bamboo hang tags feature colorful pattern backings with blind deboss letterpress motifs on the front – perfect for both personal and professional use. They’re ideal for wedding favor tags, for the perfectly wrapped birthday gift and more! Smock’s new bamboo lettersheets coordinate perfectly with the hang tags – they are bright, modern and uniquely Smock, an ode to our love for handwritten correspondence.
All items now available for online ordering on Smock’s website.
As an earth-loving company, we love to see couples incorporating eco-friendly elements, large and small, into their weddings — so we wanted to share some of our favorite ideas for eco-friendly wedding favors. At Bella Figura, we recognize and appreciate that every small effort counts. We love these ideas for expressing appreciation to your loved ones while helping to limit the waste that might be generated by other more traditional wedding favors.
{Potted herbs in buckets by Kelly MacPhee via Snippet & Ink; Herbs in terra cotta pots via Intimate Weddings}
We love the idea of using potted herbs in cool containers to serve as both centerpieces and guest wedding favors. Not only is the look completely pretty and the fragrance sure to be delightful, but you’re working to reduce waste all around as there is no packaging to be discarded and no centerpieces left to go to waste.
{Lovely handmade soaps from 100 Layer Cake}
We absolutely adore these beautiful handmade soaps recently featured on one of our favorite wedding blogs, 100 Layer Cake. Made with love and tied with strips of pretty scrap fabric, baker’s twine and small tags punched from paper grocery bags, they are not only beautiful but also very eco-chic. We also think these would be great favors at a bridal or baby shower or even perfect to include with bridesmaids gifts.
{Potted banana bread DIY favors via Style Me Pretty}
Baked directly in small, reusable terra cotta pots and sweetly capped off with a square of wax paper and a bit of raffia, these adorable potted banana bread favors recently featured on Style Me Pretty are nothing short of fun and delicious, a combination we love. Waste and costs are minimal and guests are sure to love their own personal pot of banana bread or whatever other sweet treat you bake for them. We can also see these being perfect as individually potted over-sized cupcakes and topped with a dollop of yummy frosting!
{Bright and festive reusable tote bags from Smudge Ink; Personalized shopping bags from the wedding of Mrs. Hydrangea on Weddingbee, photo by Perez Photography}
Perfect as wedding favors, out of town bags or as wedding party gifts, we love the idea of giving your loved ones gorgeous reusable shopping totes either in fun, festive colors or personalized to reflect your wedding aesthetic. Especially perfect for destination weddings or weekend-long events when packed with snacks, maps and ideas of what to see and do, a great tote will be used and appreciated long after your wedding day.
{Personalized SIGG water bottles from the wedding of Jordan and Juan Carlo via Sarah Pants}
Most of us in the office carry around a reusable water bottle of some kind so we fell completely in love with the personalized SIGG water bottles one of our recent Bella Figura couples, Jordan and Juan Carlo, offered their guests as wedding favors at their weekend-long eco-friendly Texas wedding celebration. Each guest received an aluminum water bottle and great care was taken to reduce and/or completely eliminate paper waste at each of their weekend events. This idea is perfect for wedding guests or to give to your bridal party and will serve as a great souvenir to remind loved ones of the fun and joy of your wedding.
{Photo near Spruce Pond along the Finger Lakes Trail by our own Debbie Urbanski}
Taking the idea of eco wedding favors to another level, Bella Figura and our sister company, Smock, are both huge fans of American Forests and we love the idea of celebrating your marriage with a donation to help protect the trees and forests that are so vital in protecting the earth. Every $1 plants a tree so you can just imagine the impact your donation can have.
{Letterpress wedding favor card by Smock for the Amazon Conservation Association}
Especially near and dear to our hearts, Smock has recently teamed up with the Amazon Conservation Association in offering pro bono design and printing of gorgeous letterpress favor cards. For a $5 donation per guest, you can thank your loved ones with a contribution to help protect the Amazon. Couples will receive one beautiful favor card per two guests, sustainably letterpressed on our bamboo paper, to display on tables at their reception explaining how your donation has helped create a better livelihood for local communities and to help conserve the biological diversity of the Amazon basin. To learn more, visit Smock’s blog.
At Bella Figura we recognize that steps large and small are necessary to protect the environment for future generations so we full-heartedly support couples opting for eco-friendly wedding favors in lieu of more traditional keepsakes that might go to waste. A good rule of thumb is to opt for items that are reusable, practical and fun or edible favors packaged in reusable containers that guests can later repurpose. And, of course, you never go wrong with a donation to an environmental or charitable cause near and dear to your hearts.
One more sweet letterpress save the date to inspire you….this is our Deveril letterpress design, which looks great in any ink color, but we are partial to this design in a rich black letterpress ink. This is a reply card size save the date as well (3 1/2″ x 4 7/8″) — a great idea which uses less paper (eco!) and also is less expensive than the larger 4.5″ x 6.25″ A-6 save the date size.
