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Springtime brings with it budding trees, birdsongs, and a sense of new beginnings. It’s no wonder why we’ve also got babies on our brains this time of year. (Full disclosure: I’m 6 months pregnant and it's nearly impossible for me not to think about babies.) For this round up, Sarah and I sought out our favorite cards for welcoming the newest chubby, rosy-cheeked little ones on the block!

1. This darling Our Heiday card proves that every mama should rock the bump in sweet patterns and colors.

2. Pretty soon there won’t be any containing the baby toys and chaos as this messy but snuggly baby card points out.

3. Thanks to Detroit Card Co. for recognizing your heroic feats of friendship and supplying a card that makes sure everyone is on the same page.

4. Whatever happened to predictability? Oh yeah, you had a kid! Say congrats on the new arrival with Greenwich Letterpress’ flashback to our favorite 90s sitcom.

5. Egg Press' adorable peanut card makes our letterpress loving hearts melt!

6. Send the perfect words to the new mom and dad with this congratulations card by Print Therapy.

7. Babies love being swaddled, and we love printing swaddled babies on cards! You’ll gush over this E.B. Goodale card that was inspired by Emily’s own newborn son, Auggie.

8. Every soon-to-be parent in nesting mode will appreciate this heartwarming scene by Red Cap Cards.

9. Stop, collaborate, and listen! Rap hello to the newest baby/penguin in your life with this humorous card from Sanctuary Spring,

10. Celebrate your friends’ adoption journey and share your excitement and love with this artful card by Moglea.

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Spot color printing is a method of printing that only lays down one color of ink at a time and does so using solid fields of color. The color of the ink on the press is the color of the ink on the final printed piece. Any adjustment to that color is made by directly adjusting the ink mix or increasing/decreasing the amount of ink on the press.

In contrast, the majority of printed materials are produced via four-color-process or “process” printing (think: desktop printer to the massive printing presses that spit out the Sunday newspaper). This is often referred to as CMYK due to the four colors used: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (black is referred to as “key” in CMYK printing because the other three colors are carefully aligned/registered according to the placement of the black plate). These four base or “process” colors are used to portray the full range of color via optical mixing. In pre-press, a photograph is split into halftones of each of the four channels of color and on press each of the process colors is printed in a dot-pattern. The size and proximity of the dots of all four colors together allows the viewer’s eye to do the rest in order to perceive a full range of color. If you magnify the images in a newspaper you’ll be able to see the actual dots of ink on the paper.

Spot color printing offers the most solid ink coverage and the most accurate color match to specified colors. However, running each color one at a time is more labor intensive and can get pricey quick. Each color, unless it is a pure Pantone process or base color, must be mixed according to specifications. Each surface that a specific color is printed on for a specific job—whether it’s multiple pieces or multiple sides—requires its own printing plate and its own press setup. Simply put, the expense of multi-color jobs is the biggest reason that most letterpress jobs don’t often go beyond two or three colors at most, but that’s not to say that they never do. 

At Smudge Ink, we use the Pantone Matching System (PMS) formula guide for uncoated papers. The PMS system allows for the consistent matching of colors across a variety of printing methods and surfaces. When a client asks for “burnt-orange” or “Carolina blue” that can be a very subjective thing. On the other hand, Pantone’s system contains 1,867 colors and their specific formulas for mixing. This allows client, designer, and printer to all communicate very clearly about the desired color(s) for a project which is why we request that all of our clients refer to PMS swatches when specifying colors.

The Pantone Formula Guide is a worthwhile investment for every designer and their Color Bridge provides a visual comparison of spot colors and their closest CMYK process printing match. If you need the Pantone guide infrequently enough to justify the expense of buying your own, and you are not close enough to visit us in person, Pantone does offer a Starter Guide for $60 or you could check with your local FedEx/Kinkos to see if they have a guide you could reference.

Thanks to Pantone, if a client specifies "PMS 374 U" in their project brief, I know to find the formula for Pantone color number 374 for an uncoated stock. There is a separate formula (374 C) for mixing that same color to be printed on a coated stock, but we typically only print on uncoated papers. The swatch for Pantone 374 U lists the mixing formula in percentages so that depending on the amount of mixed ink I want, I know how much of each base color to use. Older Pantone books also list the formulas broken down into “parts.” 

Of course, because our inks use a transparent base the final printed color does mix optically with the color of the paper. In addition to that, uncoated papers tend to absorb the ink like a sponge which often leads to a salt and pepper or “mottled” appearance. Both of these things must be considered in the process of mixing and printing the inks, but we will address these issues in future posts.

Do you have any letterpress-related questions for George? Please email him at info[AT]smudgeink.mom! 

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We're very excited to start a new blog series featuring the many fantastic shops that carry our cards and stationery! These are the businesses and people that keep the practice of snail mailing alive and growing, and nothing makes us happier than helping them stock their pretty displays and shelves. 

First up is Paper Delights in Seattle! Alicia and her mom, Kathy, have just celebrated nine years since they opened up their Wallingford storefront. And they recently opened up their second location in Seahurst. Being on opposite coasts, we haven't had the chance to visit in person but we know we would feel like we stepped in paper heaven. Luckily for us, Alicia was happy to kick off our new blog series. Read on to hear what led her and her mom to start Paper Delights and what's been captivating their customers lately!  

When did Paper Delights open? What was the inspiration or motivation behind the opening of a brick and mortar store?

We opened in March of 2008 right before things got really bad! In October of 2007 me and my husband were living in California and wanted to move back home to Seattle to start a family! So one night while my Mom was visiting us in California we sat outside with a bottle of wine and dreamt up and idea where we would open a stationery store and I would have a crib in the back and the baby would come to work with me every day!

The next day we got online found a space in Wallingford that was just being built, by Halloween the lease was signed! In November I found out I was pregnant! My husband moved to Seattle and worked around the clock for a month building the store out while I finished my job in California. We opened our doors on March 8, 2008. Then on July, 8, 2008, we welcomed baby Blake into the world!

It sounds crazy but I did bring him into work most days! Some days were better than others, but I always loved having something I was passionate about and not having to leave him behind was a huge plus! Peopled loved to stop in and see the "shop baby." As he became a toddler it got harder and harder and then when Blake was 2 we welcomed his brother Drew into family! At that point I had to take a step back and stay home with the boys, while Mom did almost everything for the shop. Now nine years later both boys are finally in school full time and I can work quite a bit more.

What led to the decision to open a second location?

When we opened nine years ago traffic in Seattle was nothing compared to what it is today. As our commute to Wallingford got longer and longer we had an idea to move our office closer to our homes. When we found a spot between our two houses and across the street from the boys' school it seemed like a good idea! We love how close it is to everything and are growing the business every day!

Is there a story behind the name?

Not a really great story, my mom suggested it and we both loved it! My boys call it the "Num shop" because when they were little they would pull stools over to the candy tables and climb up and eat candy while we weren't looking!

Do you have a fun fact about your store(s) that most people wouldn’t know?

We just turned our backroom into a classroom so now we can host classes without disrupting the store as much!

What do you love about your shop’s neighborhood(s)?

I love all the people that we have grown to know so well over the past nine years in Wallingford! It is so fun to work there and see familiar faces and hear about their lives and families! In Seahurst it's fun to see friends and meet new neighbors every day!

What’s your favorite Smudge Ink product?

All the amazing birthday cards! They all sell so fast we can hardly keep them in stock!

What song or album is playing in your shop right now?

I love the James Morrison station on Pandora!

Is there a fun new stationery or gift trend that you particularly enjoy or that customers are responding well to?

I would say calligraphy classes! We can't even really keep up with the demand for classes!

Thanks, Alicia! And big congrats on nine years of spreading stationery awesomeness! If you've become a shop fan like us, keep up with Paper Delights here and here.

(image sources: Paper Delights)

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Out here in Boston we are eagerly awaiting spring. I can't get enough of everyone's cherry blossom pics from warmer parts of the country, especially given the slushy snowfall we experienced last weekend. To cheer myself up I decided to start some herbs. Hopefully by the time they are ready to be transplanted into outdoor pots warmer weather and sunshine will be in abundance!

To help you get your own seeds started this spring, Clayton designed these colorful and fun garden markers. There are ones that are pre-labeled with some of our favorite herbs or fill-in-the-blank ones to keep track of whatever you will be growing. All you need to do is simply print on regular 8.5” x 11” paper, cut out, fold, and punch through with thin garden wire. You can even write down any important care reminders on the back.

Click to download free printable garden markers!

I've been wanting to repurpose my Harney & Sons tea tins, and they make the perfect little planters. Also handy for this kind of planting: seed starter pots! 

So get planting, folks, and may your garden grow lush and green!

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THE GOOD. At the beginning of the month, we had another photo shoot with Lara over at The Studio Nouveau in Waltham. She took some gorgeous photos for our 2017 Holiday Catalog and Spring Supplement. (Yep, you heard that right … we’re already gearing up for the holidays.) Lara is so easy to work with and she’s really great at helping us get the shots we imagine. We also had fun getting everyone’s headshots taken. I’ve been itching to update our About Us page, and it’s finally happening (soon-ish)!

Our spring release has been in the making since September when we started designing calendars and holiday cards and working through some packaging ideas. We’ve also added new everyday greetings, gifts wrap and tags, and fun origami notepads to the line (stay tuned!). As I put together the final touches on the catalogs, it felt so good to see everything come together. We even had all of our samples ready to go out to our sales rep this week as planned! We set a schedule and stuck to it—go, team!!

THE BAD. Oh boy. This month was not nice to our industrial paper cutter. It was malfunctioning and spent, over the course of the month, several days out of commission. As a result, our printing schedule got backed up because we couldn't trim paper down to size. And cards that were printed started piling up when they couldn't get their final trim. After some trial and error and talking with a few experts, we're up and running again. But it was pretty stressful (and expensive). So glad that's over. Phew!

THE UGLY. It is currently snowing. Sigh.

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