Thank you!

Recently I made the mistake of saying "stationary" when I really meant to say "stationery" in a famous letterpress community. I have to say that a mistake like that could have crushed me! Especially because it was the first time I ventured out to say something about my project to anyone besides friends and family, but the feedback I've gotten has been fantastic!

Thank you for all your feedback and for visiting my blog. This is the first month of this blog and I have gotten over 500 visitors from all over the world... which is a lot more than I ever thought I would get!

Some of you had several questions and here are some answers:

• My name is Sara Tejada
• I am originally from the Dominican Republic and I've been in the States for 10 years
• English is not my native language (though I now dream in it)
• I live in Manchester, New Hampshire with an awesome roommate that allowed me to take over our dining room and convert it into a studio
• I have a boyfriend who is a perfectionist and even though he had no idea what letterpress was... he helps me with technical problems, nailing things, lifting heavy items and lining things up
• I took classes with Kelly from May Day Studio to learn how to print
• Most of my questions were answered by Shelley from Albertine Press
• I am immensely fortunate to have Letterpress Things just two hours away where I get most of my materials
• I have a Canon Powershot which I take my pictures with, but I promise I will get something better so you can enjoy my work much better
• If you have questions or suggestions please, PLEASE, feel free to e-mail me at info@inkprintletterpress.com - I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you to all of you who have visited this blog this month. My friends, professors, family and everyone from everywhere. I am truly grateful to have started this :-)

Breaking the rules already!

So, in order to keep my schedule somewhat under control I told myself I would only post Tuesdays and Thursdays, but by Sunday I am itching to show you what I've been up to or what I have seen. This is a post solely to show you my new business cards!

 

Printed by moi, of course... and I have to thank Adam on this one. If it wasn't for his obsession with perfection some things would never look right! I also have to thank him for helping me out with the set up of the studio. Without him things would've been nailed everywhere, even if there weren't any studs... and obviously by now I would have pieces of wall falling on my head. Thank you babe, couldn't have done it without you!

Your Wedding Stationery

Oh summer. How much I miss you. The warmth, the blue sky, the Sun (I have not seen you for almost a full week), and again, the warmth!

If you live anywhere else other than the Northeast of the US you should know it has been below 0 Fahrenheit (you calculate that into Celsius!) and it has not stopped snowing in a few days. Needless to say, all I want to do is sit next to a fire sipping on hot cocoa and reading a good book. But live goes and there is a long road ahead.

In a good note: today I met with my first bride and groom, Jess and Rob, to design their wedding stationery. Now, I can't give you any details just yet, but I can tell you I am very excited to design this package. They were both very helpful and their wedding site is just lovely! I cannot wait to help the upcoming months to their wedding even more special with Save the Dates and their invitations.

This has got me thinking though, what have you done for your invitations? Yes, you. If you are married, or about to get married, I want to know where you have been looking for your invitations.

• Did you make them yourselves?
• If not, where did you buy them?
• How much did you pay for them?
• How far in advance did you send the Save the Dates?
• What drove you crazy?
• Where did you get your inspiration from?
• What do you wish you could have done differently?
• Did you know about letterpress at the time?
• If you had the choice, would you choose letterpress invitations?

If you would prefer to answer directly instead of posting your answers you can always e-mail me at info@inkprintletterpress.com. I would really love to hear your thoughts!

Most unexpected news

Dear readers. I am proud (and terrified) to announce that I have quit my day job!

No, I am not naive enough to believe that I can sustain myself with blogging and with a company I have barely started, especially because I am Inkprint's only investor at the moment. This is something I should've done a long time ago and it was inevitable at this point. Sure, I am a little hesitant, this is definitely a big step, but I am not worried. I have a few options to choose from already and I have to think hard of what is going to be best for myself and Inkprint.

Ever since I made the choice to give my resignation I have been working even harder on Inkprint. Remember how I dragged Adam with me last weekend to Ikea? Well, this weekend was all about setting up the studio, and here are some before and after :-)

 

 

It is still not all finished but it is getting there! I even had some time to do some work! Here's a sneak peek of what my business card is going to look like:

 

Now, you have to be a little patient with the quality of the photographs. I have already chosen my camera and I have been reading a lot, so hopefully once I get it I can start getting you the quality photos you deserve.

By the way, I have noticed some of you coming from really far away, like Australia, Israel and Trinidad and Tobago, among other countries... please, feel free to leave a message telling me about yourself and what you like about this blog! I am looking for any feedback I can get to always improve!

One small step for a woman...

Today was a big day! lots of things happened... First thing I met with a business advisor - did you know that advisor always comes up as misspelled? am I spelling it wrong?! - then I opened a business checking account. Apparently I'm supposed to write myself loans on how much I'm spending on it so I can pay myself later. I had no idea!

Also, I sold my couch today! I put it on Craig's list and this guy Brian, who recently moved up from Georgia decided to buy it. I gotta tell ya, Southern people are a lot nicer than Northeastern people! he even sent me a picture of the couch!

 

{Picture taken by Brian... couch guy}

I absolutely love his decor! and my couch definitely looks like it belongs with him. So I am happy about that. Meanwhile, I am now rich enough to buy the camera I've been looking at and Adam got my e-mail set up. I am proud to announce that info@inkprintletterpress.com is now working! 

Now you can send me some love :-)

Definitely a learning experience!

So today I finally received the envelopes I have been anxiously waiting for the whole week. One thing is for sure: Timing is a bitch!

The good thing is that I now have a sense of how long things take to get here (weather pending, of course), how much shipping and things like that cost, and I can create a time line for future custom orders. The only thing I'm still missing (which is supposed to get here this week) is ink. Once I get ink you will be able to purchase my latest creations!

One thing I have been thinking about is buying a new professional camera. I have a small Canon Powershot, which is good for pictures on the go, but it is nothing compared to a professional one. I am very torn on what to get. The one I keep getting back to is the Canon EOS Rebel XS, but there are so many good ones out there! Do you have any suggestions?

I spoke briefly with the lovely Jessica Jones from How About Orange, (which btw, if you are a crafty person and haven't gone to her blog you need to do so - now!) about which camera she recommends and she highly recomended the Canon.

And talking about How About Orange, if you want to get your fill of craft, check these out!

 

 

If you want to learn how to make these lovely flowers and heart garlands click here. She will show you step by step how to stiffen fabric and do origami with it or even heart garlands. Enjoy!

{Pictures taken by Jessica Jones}

Snow will not stop me.

This, my friends, is the view from my Adam's house AFTER they cleaned up:

 

My house is not much different, we have to get in through the garage door because there is no entrance path between the street and front door. Needless to say, it has been a challenge to get supplies in.  Thankfully I received my photopolymer plates for printing, but I am still missing inks and envelopes. I am hoping they arrive on Monday since I already have deadlines to meet :-)

In the meantime I have been doing some research and re-organizing. First, I purchased Creative, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho, and The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin. They were both recommended to me by already established printers and for what I have read seem to be very good reads.

Something that had been bothering me was the way my print shop is set up. Basically I took over our old dining room, which my roommate was kind enough to let me use entirely, since we barely ever used it before. It was set up as a dining room/spare bedroom with a sofa-bed in it. The sofa-bed is still in it, so I sat down to search for some good ideas on how to re-organize it. I found this amazing short article with lots of pictures to inspire me. So, what did I do today? I dragged Adam with me to Ikea. Oh yeah! Poor thing didn't have much of a choice but he was definitely an asset to find great deals, and (he can't complain) we got free dinner!

So I am taking the sofa-bed, that belongs to my roommate and I will be selling my awesome couch :-( It has been hard to come to that conclusion, but I also need to buy a professional camera for product photography. Sometimes you have to compromise!

Next week you will be seeing some of my creations. As soon as the ink comes in and everything is printed I will be setting up an Etsy shop where you will be able to purchase any of the cards.

Almost there!

So many firsts!

 

So many new things are happening! This is a week of "firsts" and I have learned so much so far. This week was my first baby shower invitation design (which was approved!), first designs for the new line of cards coming up, first time ordering plates and inks (yikes!), and my first shipment of 100% cotton paper is coming in tomorrow! I am very excited and I cannot wait to start printing.

There is so much to do, so much to learn, so much to look at. Sometimes I feel that my brain is so over-stimulated/over-inspired that it might explode. I have fallen asleep in front of my computer at 2am looking through sites, blogs and presses for all the beauty there is to see out there.

Not to mention I am busy with my full time job and the gym. I think it is hilarious how we have to be beautiful, skinny, smart, successful, independent (but not too much), to know how to cook, sew, have good smelling hair (and shinny) and be shaven in all the right places (God forbid there's a hair out of place!)... or else...

We would be men?

Maybe I should make a line of cards to make fun of all these silly ideas, what do you think?!

{photo courtesy of... me}

Believe it or not!

"There are other typefaces besides Times New Romans!" I found this interesting chart at The RagBag and it really caught my attention. I personally like Helvetica the best!

 

Now, if you were wondering where you have seen this font before... check this out! Pretty cool huh? 

What do you think? Do you ever notice fonts? what is your go-to font? Maybe you will see your favorite font in one of my upcoming cards :-)

Old style with a new twist.

The process of going through all my cases of type has been tough. Some of the type has gotten everywhere and I have to sort them out. There is so much dust, spider carcasses, and droppings everywhere! However, I have found some pretty neat vintage blocks, some of them might have even been home made.

 

I do love setting the type and building a form, nothing like feeling every led letter in your hand, and making sure things won't be falling out. It is a long process!  I usually make sure I know exactly what I want and what I need to do before I get into it, however I have learned that sometimes you just have to go with the flow and embrace the happy accidents.

Though rewarding, the process is very time consuming and sometimes limits you from doing the lovely designs we now see on most cards. So, it was a very big surprise to me when on Christmas day I opened the present Adam (my savior boyfriend) gave me!

 

Apparently he talked to the awesome people at Boxcar Press and got the specific base to fit my press. Today I spent my day working on my first design for a baby shower invitation. Cannot wait to show you all!

"An exciting new adventure" doesn't seem to cover it.

Hi there, my name is Sara Tejada and I am the owner of Inkprint Letterpress.

It seems that all the stars aligned themselves to guide me to what is today Inkprint Letterpress. It has been an ongoing project since college, I just didn't know back then what exactly I was working towards. My love for typography, paper and vintage work came together when I discovered letterpress printing.

Fortunately my step-grandfather had a beautiful table top Kelsey that he bought in a yard sale in the early 1960's (along with pretty much everything I needed to start my shop), and was sitting in his attic collecting dust. Today my Kelsey is the center piece of my studio.

Thanks to the help of John Barrett at Letterpress Things and a few workshops I have taken, I am now ready to start printing.

So here I am today, unable to contain my excitement and happy to share my work with the world. I hope you enjoy this blog and if there is anything you would like to see, please just e-mail me!