Tag Archives: tiny pine

magical monochromatics

Last year we worked on Britt and Peter’s wedding invitations with Nicole Sillapere and Rosemary Events. All the paper goods for this wedding were tactile and warm even though the color palette was shades of white and grey.

The layers of this invitation were intricate – the was hand calligraphy for print, laser cutting, letterpress, mounting, hand tearing, ribbon binding, foil stamping and die cutting. It was tedious but worth it. And the vintage stamps came together so well, though we had to use some newer stamps because of the size and weight of the handmade heavyweight envelopes.

The wedding programs were also pretty special… small booklets printed on textured translucent paper with white cotton organdy covers with a simple stitch bind. these are my very favorite programs!

The escort cards echoed the invitations – handtorn with laser cut slits for the ribbon.

When everything came together what we created as a giant collaborations was truly magical!

Thanks to Abby Ross Photography for the amazing photos on this one. Check out everything on Style Me Pretty!

Letterpress of Pray (for Japan)

About a month ago I got an inquiry from Bluemoon Letterpress – a letterpress studio in Japan. Takuma Nakagawa is organizing and exhibition of letterpress work titled “Letterpress of Pray” where she will show and sell in a few different galleries with 100% of the proceeds benefitting orphans of the tsunami.

I was unsure about what my printed prayer would look like until I went to a vintage stamp shop in New York on my vacation. There I dug through a pile of vintage Japanese postage stamps and found my inspiration. Mine would be a sort of letter, using Japanese stamps for the recipients and United States stamps for the senders (I suppose I was speaking for everyone in the good ole USA… is that weird?)

I found out from some special Japanese fluent helpers that one of the stamps portrayed Fukushima, which isn’t where the tsunami hit, but was badly injured as a result. 

I particularly loved the coloration of the two palm tree stamps. I think they really showed the similarities between that area of Japan (not sure!) and California. This was an instant match.

Then in my not very practiced handwriting, I wrote what I wanted for Japan. I chose green ink for growth, and printed away.

I sent off 17 prints today to Japan with hopes that my message will reach far more than 17 people and that the beauty of communication will be translated.

Inhale Peace. Exhale Joy.

I love and support the Joyful Heart Foundation. This year the theme for their gala is “How will you join?”

I was meditating one morning and I found inspiration. It’s an action that everyone can do, in that we breathe. We can inhale for peace, and exhale for joy. It somehow seemed so obvious in the moment to me.

This was the concept for a new Joyful Heart letterpress card. I printed a giant light pink heart and then used typewriter for the inhales and exhales, and my handwriting for the peace and joy.

The press was inked up in the same color scheme as the Gratitude cards. and I hand printed in two letterpress print runs, packaged the cards and sent them off to the foundation, all the while breathing peace and joy. This kind of work seems less like work and more like yoga, honestly….

I hope one day to have a whole line of Joyful Heart cards…. all communicating the messages that the foundation efforts to spread… peace, joy, reunion, gratitude, love….. the list goes on!

(everytime I print for the JHF, I get reminded of the heart pins on the back of the ink fountain…)

the meditating cat

I just finished a session in a Meditation Class with Tanda Tashjian. Tanda gives great meditation guidance and the energy in the room is amazing (not to sound too hippy dippy but….)

Tanda is a real cat lover and often asks about my business. One day she asked if I had any cat stationery…. possibly a meditating cat? with a golden aura perhaps? Well, I didn’t. But I have to admit, it was a great idea.

All I could think was “How in the world will i draw a meditating cat.” I do draw a little, but I am certainly not a trained illustrator. Then one day, I could just see the way the cat would sit. and i just sat down and drew that in pencil. The aura was easy – I just imagined what electric energy would look like and made some squiggly lines.

I decided to make this a little gift for my classmates. They were thrilled. I was too.

But it was the dog lovers in the room who felt a tiny bit jilted.

So next… Meditating Dogs! (how in the world am I going to draw a meditating dog…… )

Get your own meditating cat stationery at my etsy shop….

uppercase magazine



I was so excited to get my copy of Uppercase Magazine because a few months ago, Tiny Pine got a request for 100 or so actual printed samples which would be included within the pages…. I thought that was super exciting for recipients to get an actual little piece of limited edition art hiding there.

I knew that the TPP contribution would have to be special… showing off the things that I like best. The only obstacle was timing – the deadline landed right in the middle of holiday card season. Because of severe block from being creative for everyone else, I couldn’t figure out what my piece would say.

I was going on a hike one sunday afternoon when I got a text from my boyfriend. A question answered and a wish for my hike in one text message was instantly inspiring.

And yes. Salute the sunset for me.”

I took out a period and it was the perfect poetic message… I drew a sunset, wrote out the message in my handwriting, tore down sheets of somerset buff printing making paper, printed letterpress in two runs, and stitched the horizon line.

It occurred to me that this was also the perfect holiday greeting, so I made some extra for mailing.

Anyways, that’s the story. and now there are 100 or so people receiving those little pieces. I hope they enjoy looking at them as much as I did making them.

Martha and Tiny Pine officially meet.

I realize that it’s been a couple of weeks since this news broke but I have been too much flurrying around the workshop to post it here… but it’s definitely worth hollering about – betther late than never!

This has been making me smile since they inquired. Tiny Pine Press got a stationery feature on The Bride’s Guide: Martha Stewart Weddings!

Splendid!!

It’s  fun that my personality shines through in the written interview so if you just miss talking to me,  check out this feature. It tells the story of how Tiny Pine Press was started, and then goes into all the inspirations.

Here are a couple of the photos that were featured but check it out and look at all the pretty pictures! (thanks to Gia Canali!)

my favorite typewriter…

This week I finished a sweet trifold letterpress save the date cards in my favorite tyepwriter font. As I was feeding the press, mashing the letters all at once, I thought about how much easier we have it these days, that I only had to type these letters all out one time (or actually, copy and paste) and the ink up the press, just passing them through the clam shell individually.

Not to dismiss the work! these  cards were all scored, hand torn, and hand fed, scored, and the tied with two colors of thread. Still a lot more organic than just pushing print.

Plus sustainable on cotton paper, with soy ink. these cards may look charcoal and ivory, but they are really green! and look soooo vintage.

Tiny Pines + Hipstamatic = The new old fashioned

Whenever I hang out with Gia Canali, I get bitten by the photography bug. She was showing me her iphone photos using the Hipstamatic App, and I took a notion to download that myself. I was hoping that all I needed was a program to make my photos look like hers…

Well, turns out that taking good iphone photos not as easy as just paying $1.99. BUT I was able to start learning how to use my new took as I stitched this weekend.

These photos are of an invitation I am working on right now. My client wanted to have a similar look to this invitation which i designed almost 6 years ago. (I used a black and white “film” to convey the idea that this is the OLD invitation, just so you know )

This new bride is getting married near a pine forest and really loved having that visual element stitched on.

For her, we brightened up the paper a little bit, freshened up the typeface with an added script element, printed letterpress on handmade cotton paper with a slight shimmer – using a cool grey ink color and stitched in a subtle green since her wedding isn’t in the fall… (though you can’t actually tell from my old fashioned photo…… hmmm….)

Every invitation was stitched with the sewing machine but guided by my hand which definitely requires complete concentration, and lots

of tunes in the background.

Since I am quite fond of pines so the hours of stitching breezed by as I concentrated on each one and their limbs.

Obviously, some are taller than other, wider than others, etc. but together they make an elegant stitched tiny pine forest.