You’ll find some new cards in the online wholesale catalogue! My youngest son was the inspiration for this cute cowboy. He doesn’t have a fringe vest or a cowboy hat but he does love rocking on his wooden horse.

The new designs are letterpress printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with a subtle texture that really shows off the impression created by the vintage press. Is it time to reorder for your shop? I’d love to hear from you!

Technorati Tags: handmade cards, eco-friendly cards, letterpress, letterpress stationery, greeting cards, kids, birthday, new baby, made in Canada, recycled paper

About a year ago I heard rumblings of new biodegradable sleeves for packaging cards, but I could not find a supplier. Fast forward a year and Biodegradable Clear Bags™ debuted at the 2008 National Stationery Show and even won the Best New Product Award in the Think Green: Paper Craft/Scrapbooking category. My shipment arrived this week and I’m thrilled to be switching to these biodegradable sleeves. They are 100% compostable because they are made from corn (an annually renewable resource and therefore sustainable) rather than petrochemicals.

I had also been searching for 100% post-consumer recycled paper for the Sweetbeets envelopes. It’s surprisingly more difficult than it sounds as options are limited for 100% recycled paper, especially colored paper (most colored paper is at most 30% recycled). I’m happy to report that after a few hours reviewing all of the materials I picked up at the Supply Side at the National Stationery Show, I found the perfect paper for envelopes to accompany the A2 cards. It’s a smooth 100% post-consumer recycled paper with flecks throughout and the biscuit color will coordinate perfectly with all of the Sweetbeets designs. I tracked down the Canadian distributor for this paper, placed an order for the envelopes to be made especially for me (they are not a stock item!) and waited 3 weeks for them to ship from the manufacturer. The envelopes arrived this week and I couldn’t be happier. I never thought I’d be so excited about envelopes!

I can hardly believe that over a month has passed since my last post. An update is clearly overdue!

Several new designs are now available in the online wholesale catalogue following three consecutive Saturdays working closely with my letterpress printer. A definite advantage of overseeing the production process is that I can make last minute changes if needed. Occasionally the ink colour is a bit of a surprise when it’s on the press and for one of the designs I decided to use a bolder green than what I had originally planned. This latest set is printed using photopolymer plates on a Heidelberg Windmill and I’m delighted with the results. It’s quite mesmerizing to see the press in action. Here are a few pictures - next time I’ll have to figure out the video feature on my camera!

The new designs are inspired by the simple toys of childhood and the cards are perfect for celebrating a child’s birthday. As it turns out, the number series is even on trend. As a part of her mini-trend series, Grace of popular design blog design*sponge recently posted about other work featuring numbers and letters.

I’m thrilled that word is getting out about Sweetbeets! Just today I discovered to my surprise and absolute delight that Sweetbeets was featured on Ohdeedoh. A big thank you to Carrie for her kind words! And a few days ago I stumbled upon this photo of a Sweetbeets card that had been purchased at Ferdinand, one of several boutiques that are now carrying Sweetbeets.

Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, letterpress cards, stationery

I’m thrilled to announce that the launch collection is now in stock! Over the past couple of months I’ve been corresponding with several store owners who discovered Sweetbeets online and requested a sample. I’m happy to report that those samples are now in the mail and my first wholesale order will be on its way to California tomorrow. Then I’ll be busy taking photographs of the cards. Stay tuned for updates to the Sweetbeets website as I’ll be adding images of the launch collection in the next few days.

Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, letterpress cards, wholesale greeting cards

Letterpress is a centuries-old printing process. Ink is applied to a raised surface and then pressed into the paper. Remember cutting a shape into a potato as a child, dipping it in paint and stamping it onto paper? Instead of using potatoes, the images you’ll see on Sweetbeets cards are made into custom engraved printing plates. When put on the letterpress, the printing plate is inked and the pressure creates an impression in the paper that you can see and feel. It’s this unique texture that distinguishes letterpress from other types of printing.

High quality letterpress printing is clearly an art! It depends on knowing just the right roller pressure to get the right amount of ink so that it settles evenly into the grooves. Each color is printed separately from its own printing plate, and it takes skill to ensure that the printed images are perfectly aligned and that the depth of impression is consistent. The paper used also makes a difference.

I witnessed how labor intensive the set up is for letterpress printing when I met with my printer the other day. It took a number of adjustments to bring the impression to the depth I had envisioned and trial and error to determine how much ink to put on the rollers. I was fascinated to see how he would listen to the running press for clues. At one point he had to custom mix the ink because it turned out to be much too dark straight out of the can. This also meant cleaning the rollers again! All this work is necessary to maintain the quality of Sweetbeets cards and reinforces why letterpress stationery is so special in this age of mass-production.

Technorati Tags: letterpress, stationery, greeting cards