made with love paperie and design studio

Jacqueline + Jason

Jacqui and Jason came to me earlier this year for their May 16, 2009 wedding. They wanted something modern for their invitation and Jacqui absolutely love letterpress! At the time, I was looking into printing on fabric bags and have been researching on various fabric bags. I casually mentioned the idea of possibly having a fabric bag to enclose the multiple wedding pieces they have and Jason loved that idea! The entire design process was very inspiring and in the end, I decided to use some of the designs I came up with for their invitation set for my wedding line!

The invitation, reception/rsvp card, wedding entourage, and accommodations+direction set were bound together by a pink sheer fabric sashe and brown ribbon. Everything was put into the printed fabric bag. Initially, we were going to mail it out in transparent envelope but because of postal regulations where with the addition of the visible fabric bag, the post office said they would have to count the envelope as parcel instead of envelopes. The postage rate difference would have been $.50 more per envelope! We decided to put the fabric bag inside a white envelope instead. It's a nice surprise for the guests to open up the envelope :)

The entire wedding set includes the invitation set, thank you cards, place cards, table no. cards, favor belly band, circular enclosure sticker, menu, cocktail menu, candy buffet menu, and of course, the program! Besides the wedding invitation set, everything else were flat or digitally printed.

Congratulations Jacqueline and Jason!

Noelle + Yosef

Noelle and Yosef came to me early last year for their May 23, 2009 wedding. They were very prepared in terms of what they were looking for: pattern (damask), brown, and Tiffany blue. Because they had envisioned layers in their invitation set, they decided to start early because of all the assembling that will need to go into each piece of the invitation. The opal invitation paper is glued onto the Tiffany Blue card stock and all of that is glued onto the brown enclosure--that's just the invitation! Imagine doing that for the rsvp, directions+accommodations, reception, and wedding entourage cards! In the end, we loved the turn out for the invitation set. Noelle later came back to me to complete their wedding look with: rehearsal dinner cards, stamp design that goes onto the invitation envelopes, thank you cards, menu, and program! I don't have pictures for all the pieces (again, very slow in my documentation process...) but I absolutely love how everything turned out!

Congratulations Noelle + Yosef!

Cynthia + Stavros

Cynthia came to me a week before Christmas asking me to custom design her February 2009 wedding invitation. At first, I thought she meant 2010, but quickly, I realized she was not wrong and her wedding was indeed in two months! It was a rush job especially with Christmas and New Years, it was very hard to figure out which printer is open during the holidays. Luckily, my trusted letterpress printer was open over the holidays and we were able to get all her invitation materials printed! The place cards, thank you note, menu and program were flat printed since we had a little more time on those pieces. I just got around to taking pictures for this project (very behind on documentation...)

The reception was at the Adler Planetarium so we were inspired by the cityscape.

I Like You

While looking at ceremony vows and readings for the wedding, I came across a children's book that captures the essence of our relationship. Even though I did not use it for our wedding, this cute playful book is definitely a source of inspiration for me when I go to the drawing board.

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

I Like You

               

Sandol Stoddard

                         

           

   

I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, Remember when you told me something special
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!
I like you because you know where I'm ticklish
And you don't tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
You know how to be silly
That's why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it's time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it's a quarter past silly
Sometimes we don't say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY

That's because you really like me
You really like me, don't you
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that's the way we keep on going every day

If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don't just say Well see you around sometime, bye
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too
And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don't always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time

I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It's awful when the other person isn't
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don't

If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it's fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too

I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then

I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do
So many reasons
On the 4th of July I like you because it's the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE
See what I mean?

Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.

Happy Love Month!

It's been awhile since we've blogged. We've been busy! In January, MWL was part of a bridal show hosted by Dettagli Weddings at The James Hotel in Chicago. We released our wedding line at the show and since then, we've been very busy responding to an outpour of inquiries for our wedding line and custom wedding jobs as well as taking on quite a few brides for 2009 weddings!

Meanwhile, MWL is still working on printing up samples from the wedding line to make it available for brides nationwide. The website and PDF is still under construction -- we are shooting for a May/June release of the new site complete with the line available for viewing online!

We are very excited about the progress we've made and can't wait to see what we will accomplish in the months to come!

Paper, Oh Paper

Made with Love works with different types of paper for announcements and is constantly searching for different types of paper to test on the letterpress.

One of Amanda's favorite paper to print on is Crane Lettra. It's 100% cotton. Some might even say it's environmentally friendly as it requires 0% trees! The feel of Crane Lettra is exquisite. So lovely that when Amanda's husband handed out his personal card, printed on Crane Lettra, to a friend, the first thing he asked was "whoa, this feels really nice, what is this?" Lettra takes the ink very well and the colors comes out crisp.

Another paper choice that Made with Love likes to work with is Stardream or Curious Metallic papers. They make the ink that sits on the paper look sparkly as well!

One of Made with Love's current experimentations is printing on wood veneer. Amanda is looking into sustainable wood and bamboo choices for her invitation lines.

MWL Printing Methods

One of the most important decisions made for your wedding invitation is the printing method. Made with Love uses the following printing methods for all their announcements: Letterpress or Offset (Flat) Printing.

Letterpress is one of the oldest methods of printing (think Gutenberg's-bible-old). Traditionally, printers produced letterpress prints by using cast metal type or plates. Now, the printers can produce polymer plates with raised images and allow the ink to touch only the raised area. The inked image is then pressed onto the paper. This creates a debossed textural feel to the page. Our letterpressed work is printed entirely by hand on an antique press; subtle variations in ink coverage, impression, and color are normal and makes each piece unique in its own right. These small variations in your wedding piece are what makes letterpress so beautiful.

Offset (Flat) Printing is one of the less expensive ways to print your wedding set. It is when the ink appears to lay flat on top of the paper. The process involves a metal plate being made from the design and the plate being put on the press. The image on the plate is then transferred onto the paper. The advantage of offset printing is the accuracy in printing PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors.

Let's get personal

One of my favorite things in terms of line development is personal cards. My husband rarely hands out his business card in a social setting because of where he works. He asked me to make a set of personal cards for him. He wanted something simple and clean. I decided to go with the classic: initials, more like initial (just a D for his last name…) I rented out a press at Evanston Print and Paper and made one beautiful mistake…

It was supposed to be two colors: blind hit (no color just the indentation of the plate onto the paper) and blue. I printed the blue first because I was printing blue previously for another job and then cleaned the rollers to make the blind hit. While cleaning the rollers, I looked over to the clear varnish base and wondered if the varnish base will add some sort of matte sheen to the piece… Highly doubt anything would happen because the cotton paper is very absorbant but figured it wouldn’t hurt, I put some varnish base onto the rollers and off I went.

Apparently, the rollers weren’t as clean as I anticipated… and this came out:

 

I like the light blue on the D (from residual blue left on the rollers + clear varnish) very much… Beautiful mistake.

Autumn Colors

I love autumn. The crisp air and all the leaves changing their color. It’s probably my favorite season. Here are some of the autumn pictures I took when I went to Iowa to visit my in-laws' family!

Love Infinity

It began with a simple wedding identity that embodied how I felt for the groom: my love for him has no end, infinity. While working on my wedding invitation set, I started to toy with the idea of starting my own studio, a studio that focuses on everything identity related. It came to me because I feel like designing the wedding set is like working on an identity for the couple, for the moment they become one. It sets the stage for how the rest of the wedding will be designed around (colors, themes, etc.) It is the first impression that guests will have before coming to your wedding…

So, back to love infinity. I decided to have the entire wedding set around the symbol heart over infinity and began renting out a studio to letterpress my wedding set: save the date, invitation, place cards, drinks menu, thank you notes, change of address cards, and of course, our favor: hangover kit! It took over a period of a week to have everything done. Labor of love, I thought….

What should I name my studio? After brainstorming while working on my invitation set, I finally decided on Made with Love. Why Made with Love? Because I like one-on-one type of services. I like getting to know my clients and design something that is special to them. I like meeting my clients in person, over coffee, and chat about what they look forward to the most on their big day!

My wedding inspired me to start my own studio. Of course, it also helps to have a very supportive husband who is good with Quickbooks and business end of things!

Here are some images of my wedding set: