For the last four years, we've been letterpress printing our small boxed calendars and we think 2015 is our best, yet! Throughout the year, we set aside images that inspire us for our upcoming calendar and match them to the appropriate months. This new calendar features some of our favorites, such as the gray tea kettle in January, a turquoise March egg and a trio of bright April umbrellas. The set also includes a page to note your resolutions for the year. Whether you choose to display your resolutions with pride or keep them hidden (in case you fall back to your chocolate addiction) is up to you...

This year we added a second letterpress calendar to our collection. Inspired by a set of custom botanical coasters that we printed, this single sheet wall calendar features beautiful, vintage floral etchings. We kept it simple with rich, black ink on off-white butcher paper from French Paper Co. for an antique inspired design. We added a single line of gold foil type because we just couldn't resist a bit of shimmer this time of year.

Both calendars are available on our website shop. If you're looking for a sweet, last minute gift, we can wrap and send them directly to your loved ones.

We've been busy printing holiday cards these days and we figured we'd give you a peek into the process while we print our Ship Holiday card, which is one of our favorites. In case you couldn't tell, we're crazy about nautical themed goods! From whale gift tags to anchor note card sets, we've got it all. Our beloved Golding Jobber press came from a New England seaside town, so it seems fitting that it should be used for these projects.

We print the red portion of the card first (the boat and red lights), followed by the navy (you can see the plate for the navy in the photo above) and finally the green string of lights. Lining the layers of a card as precise as this one takes a keen eye and a bit of patience.

We hate to waste paper so we constantly reuse scraps for set up and registration while we perfect the prints. Sometimes the most interesting things happen by accident. The combination of the soft blue filigree and the navy ship on this piece of makeready really caught our eye.

We have lots of different letterpress holiday card sets available on our site, as well as some great nautical themed gifts for everyone on your list.

 

Are you ready for some turkey? (We're ashamed to say that was sung to the tune of the Monday night football theme.) We're not sure how it happened, but Thanksgiving is only days away. Between pouring over recipes on the internet and cooking up some truly delicious letterpress goods, we haven't had time to figure out what we're bringing to dinner this year!If you're hosting Thanksgiving this year, send your guests home with cute homemade doggy bags, filled with a leftover turkey sandwich and a piece of pumpkin pie. You'll gain some space in your fridge, and your guests will go home happy!

Provisions by Food52 is a great resource for unique products for your home. If you're heading to a friend's home for your Thanksgiving festivities, nothing says thanks for the stuffing like this handmade porcelain pitcher. Or show your appreciation with this adorable whisk necklace or a set of our letterpress holiday coasters.

Maybe you're hosting this year and are trying to put together the perfect table setting. Try having your guests write down what they're thankful for on one of our letterpress tags and share their thoughts during dessert. They also come in handy at the table as place cards. It's a lovely, personalized touch for planning your seating at dinner.

This year, we're making an effort to buy our holiday gifts from small, local businesses. It just feels better to purchase something from a business in your community than a big box store. We'll be celebrating Small Business Saturday from Thanksgiving to Sunday, the 30th. Get a 10% discount of your entire order from our website using the code SBS2014.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's hard to believe but the holidays are just around the corner! It seems like just yesterday we were brainstorming the perfect Halloween costume (do we go pop culture phenomenon or classically creepy this year?). But before we know it, the dishes from Thanksgiving feasts will be piling up in the sink.One of our favorite traditions of the holiday season is the exchange of cards and letters. The process of creating a custom holiday card involves equal parts work and fun. It may all begin on the computer but always ends up in the hands of our printers who expertly cut the paper to size, mix beautiful ink colors and print each layer.

Don't you love this card's classic color scheme and imagery? You can almost smell the pine needles in the air. This design is part of our 2014 custom holiday collection, available now. Email info@sesameletterpress.com for a quote.

Halloween is just around the corner, so we wanted to share some of our spookiest goods with you. Give your home just the right amount of fright for your festivities! Our new raven coasters will be the perfect accent to your Halloween party. Or these might be the perfect gift for a friend who likes their home to be just a little bit dark and creepy all year long.

We have bags of mystery to fill with all kinds of goods for little ghouls and gals and bats to swoop in to say hello to friends and family. We just love this time of year, when we can embrace our spooky side. Will you be tricking or treating this Halloween?

 

 

One of the best things about running a letterpress shop in Brooklyn is being a stone’s throw from so many talented people making incredibly beautiful things. Quite often, we’re lucky enough to get to work with some of them!We've been collaborating with Saipua in Red Hook for years to print a variety of things for their hand-made products. Along with their gorgeous floral work, they make olive oil based soaps and soy candles in small batches. We truly appreciate someone else who works with their hands everyday.

We recently printed these striking snake business cards for them. Their style is beautiful, wild and a little dark and matches our own aesthetic perfectly.

Sarah, the Founder & Creative Director at Saipua shared this beautiful photo with us. We just love the contrast of the golden snake among those breathtaking flowers!

One of the really wonderful aspects of running a letterpress printing studio is the variety of requests we receive. One hour, we might get an email from someone asking us to incorporate a silhouette of their favorite pet into a greeting card and then next hour we will hear from someone who wants a really traditional design. We relish all of these challenges! Here's an example of a design that is both classic and extremely charming.

The invitation is further elevated with that beautiful dotted envelope liner. We love how this picks out the dots used alongside the solid line border.

A custom monogram adds to the elegance of the design.

It's probably clear by now that we are big fans of designs that incorporate both elegance and a certain informality. Walker and Billy went for wedding invitations that perfectly melded these two approaches:

We really love these designs. The border is beautifully rendered in pale tinted ink and the different thicknesses set each separate card apart from the next. We also love how some of the pieces feature handwritten details that were provided by a family member: another great way to add some originality to your invitations. Neutra Caps font for the rest of the text adds a pleasant retro feel that complements the style of the border too.