On Style Me Pretty today

Thank you to Edyta & Kaella for putting this inspired photoshoot together. All the vendors did an awesome job make sure to check them out here. Thanks SMP!

Dog + Letterpress

I'm so excited to announce two of my favorite things brought together this month! My art print collab with Natalia of Design Lab Creative Studio is now up on my etsy just in time for the holidays. A portion of the sales will benefit The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Nat also has the print up on her online store, buying from either place will benefit the same cause. We're all about sharing the love :)

In more dog+letterpress news, the current issue of Bark Magazine features a great article about my two favorite topics of convo. I was lucky enough to be brought into the mix as my shop was the backdrop for the photos in the article (how cool is that?). Nat and I were serendipitously brought together as she and her husband Bill took the photos and designed the article. This small creative world keeps getting smaller. Max even makes a cameo (that's him in the center on the right page)!

More info of the process can be read on her blog post here.

This is a really special tribute to our four-legged-friends, I'm so proud to be a part of the print and the article. Thanks for your support! xo

Prints + Jewelry

Join me and Hillary Huffard next Friday Oct 7th as we show off our latest collaboration being held at Marisa Haskell's Oakland boutique. Deets here:

To Japan with Love

I donated a few special edition prints that I published here at Olive-Route to bluemoon letterpress in Japan. They are putting together an exhibit called Letterpress of Pray to help raise awareness and funds to aid tsunami and earthquake relief efforts.

The exhibit site is up, I know it's mostly in Japanese! But please take a moment to check out my artists as well as the other exhibitors in the show. Thank you Nat, Jane & Hillary for the inspiration!

On Press: Animal art prints

Hot off the presses...These are some process pics of some art collaborations I have coming up!

This 3-piece set of animal prints were illustrated by good friend Hillary Huffard who has been part of the Olive-Route team for the past couple of years. I'm producing these prints to help promote her as the amazing artist that she is :) Hillary will be watercoloring each print by hand and we're hoping to show and sell them locally soon. Details to come!

They're finally here!

After a couple of months of talking about it and another few months of slowly getting this through my production queue (held up in between wedding projects)...The Jenny Pennywood notebook collaboration project is finally ready!

We only produced a very limited edition (less than 100 sets) and we're working on getting them into some of our favorite stores. Keep checking back for more info on where to purchase these puppies!

Off the Press: Jenny Pennywood notebooks

I'm super excited about this collaboration with Jenny Pennywood!! Just looking at these notebooks makes me happy...Will keep you posted on where these can be purchased soon.

Pray for Japan

These letterpressed prints I made a couple of years ago in collaboration with artist Jane Kim will be exhibited in Japan at the at Books Kubrik Gallery and Paper Inn Gallery in Fukuoka this fall, hosed by Bluemoon Press. 100% of the proceeds from this exhibition will go directly to earthquake child support group in Iwate prefecture. 

They will host another exhibition of letterpress work in the winter at the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum and I will be submitting new artist print collaborations for it which are currently in the works. Will keep you updated. 

More info regarding these exhibitions can be found on Bluemoon Press's FB page here.

These prints entitled The Elements are currently featured on my Etsy shop.

Jenny Pennywood notebooks

One of my favorite parts of the job is collaborating with other creatives. I have a few fun projects brewing this year and am super excited about this one coming up with another good pal Jen Garrido of Jenny Pennywood! I'll make sure to post more once I have them ready (shooting for sometime in August) and expect there to be lots of bright color, fun patterns, and hand-made goodness :)

For now, here's a quick pic from her website of a custom card we made.

Chewing the Cud cards

I recently printed a set of letterpressed cards designed by my pal Viola of Chewing the Cud which she debuted at the National Stationery Show this year. She's got lots of other goodies (bags, wraps, rubber stamps...) so make sure to check out her site. I have more CTC collabo stuff coming up soon so stay tuned!

Love is a Battlefield

This print I made with Camille is now available on my Etsy.

Off the Press: Feldman identity

The production on this was a doozy--letterpress front on white cardstock, white foil on grey chipboard on back, duplexed together! Also came with a matching notecard with the same specs. Definitely proud of how they turned out :) Designed by my pal Anjel.

Interesting shop tidbit: this was the job I was trimming that got me sent to the ER.

Who wants cake?

Doing our best to battle the gloomy weather recently so we're arming ourselves with some of our favorite goodies to bring your way! Olive-Route and The Whole Cake will be joining forces on April 7th (2 weeks from today) to host a Cake Tasting Party! Take that rain.

Kelsey will be designing 5 cakes inspired by some of my wedding invites to showcase for the evening. I'll be throwing down some letterpress giveaways. We'll have cake bites and some bubbly to get us all hype. What else can I say?

Hope you can make it! Please rsvp here so we know you're down: kelsey@thewholecake.com

Lake Michigan Rehearsal Dinner

A couple of months ago I blogged about this chalkboard project I worked on with calligrapher Nancy Hopkins. The ladies at Alison Events just posted pics of the event on their blog--thought it would be nice to share the final outcome with ya'll :)

Full post can be seen here (there are 3 parts to the post so make sure to check them all out). And just to be clear, this is just the Rehearsal Dinner--the night before the Big Day! Such an amazing display, every detail is worthy of the actual wedding dont'cha think?!

Photos by Thayer Gowdy

Holiday Ornaments at Poketo!

Anjel and I met up with Ted and Angie of Poketo about a month ago when they were in town. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Kirala (their almond crusted shrimp tempura is to die for) to celebrate Angie's birthday and to catch up on each other's busy lives over the past year or so. Lots of talk about travel, inspiration, food, and all things that make life good :)

Ted mentioned that he enjoyed receiving my valentine's card this year-- a letterpressed heart on coaster board that I made into an ornament with a hand-written note on the back. The act (or art) of receiving (and giving) a special note and sending by normal post is still not lost among us. The fact that it's tangible, purposeful and thoughtful makes that piece of ephemera that much more meaningful--a true keepsake! So with this thought in mind, we all collaborated on a special item for the holidays, Letterpressed Ornament Cards. You can use them as holiday cards, gift tags, or to decorate your tree...

Patterns by Anjel (inspired by her travels), letterpressed by yours truly and can be purchased at Poketo. There's only a very limited run so get them while you can!

On Press: Holiday patterns!

Holiday printing started yesterday at the shop :) Will keep you posted on what these are for soon!

Off the Press: AE mixer

Fun, quick project for the Alison Events team--a folded notecard for a mixer they hosted over the summer. Pattern was designed by awesome lady Jen Garrido of Jenny Pennywood who also does custom work for weddings and events...

Inspiration: Meet Ms. Jenny Pennywood

My friend Jen Garrido and I met a few years ago when we shared a booth at the NY Stationery show with a few other talented Bay Area biz ladies. We all hawked our paper goods and learned the trade show circuit for the first time together. Some continued, others decided to not do that again (me and Jen included). I went on to pursue my custom letterpress work and Jen worked as a full-time artist. Her abstract work is quite amazing--full of bold and organic textures, you should check them out here.

Toll Booth, 2009, acrylic on panel, 33 x 36":

Stitch and Pattern

Sneak peek of a wedding invite coming up...Will be integrating some of my friend Anne's stitching work (Mira Aster) into the design as well as a sleek and subtle debossed herringbone pattern on the reverse side of the card!

Will be letterpressing this set soon, can't wait to see how it all turns out...

Once was lost! But now found!

Last fall I sent some prints to the UK to be signed by artist Mark Andrew Webber. We worked on a collabo where he cut the lino-block, mailed it to me, then I printed them and mailed them back.

Well, after he mailed me back my copies, the package got lost in post office oblivion since last October!!! We waited...and waited...and waited. We almost lost all hope and were about to file a claim with the post office. Then all of a sudden, today, they arrived!

Here's what the packaging looked like! Poor thing's been through hell and back.


































Luckily the prints remained intact and in good condition and can now be purchased from my etsy on very limited quantity. Big sigh...