As soon as we heard from Helene at Corneau et Filles and looked through the beautiful sarongs on her website, we were excited to work on printing hangtags and other goodies for her shop.

We've worked on notecards, hangtags and - our favorite - the "how to tie a Corneau et Filles Sarong" cards! Here's a detail of one of the pretty illustrations:

Helene sent us a photo of the sarong cards piled up ready to be attached to the product:

We love printing custom items for other small businesses: it's a pleasure to work with other creative people to design the perfect paper goods to complement their products!

We are lucky enough to work with some wonderful clients. One of the nicest elements of being a custom letterpress printshop is that there are times when we begin by printing Save the Date cards...then wedding invitations...then Thank You cards...and then baby announcements!Here are the announcements we printed for the second child of one of our most loyal customers:

She loved the banner design we have used on a few other pieces and the color palette of raspberry and orange is joyful and perfect to celebrate the arrival of a little girl.

Last summer we printed a gorgeous wedding suite in summer green and cool gray. These two colors look lovely and fresh together and the design was accentuated with blind embossed motifs printed in the palest of pale green tint.

Here's a close-up detail of the tree illustration:

And here is a photograph of a few of the other items from the suite of cards:

Here at Sesame, we love the traditional art of letter-writing and the luxury of fine stationery. With an affection for all things paper, it's hardly surprising that we are still massive fans of printed books. Even in the age of virtual books, we love turning actual pages! The bookmarks from our selection of products were designed specifically because we want to perpetuate the traditional notion of a book. And we were delighted to be asked by our good friend, Matt Singer, to print a range of book plates that he designed.

The color palette and handwritten font caught our attention and the whimsical illustrations made us smile.

We now want to stick these into all of the books on our shelves!

We've added a gorgeous new design to our line of notecards. We decided to go for something bright and bold and just plain awesome.

We love how the thick type looks in this bright red and the chevron envelope lining just adds another pop of pattern.

Here's a close up of the font and impression:

There's something really wonderful about getting married beside the sea (or a lake!). Perhaps it's the soothing sound of the water or that pleasant breeze that cools down even the warmest weather. Many of our clients want to incorporate maritime imagery into their designs, as well as colors that are reminiscent of the ocean.Stephanie - one of our lovely brides - chose a few different motifs and illustrations for us to include on her invitation, RSVP and information card. We think this stationery looks wonderful: informal yet elegant!

With Valentine's Day almost around the corner, we've been creating some really sweet gifts for all the people you love most! And don't forget: these aren't just for February 14th! Stationery makes the perfect birthday present or host/ess gift. And we're also big fans of giving gifts for no apparent reason: just because we want to show somebody how much we care.So, without further ado, here are some of our top picks...

For your dad / husband / boss - THE MARINER SET

For your boyfriend / brother / workmate - THE EXPLORER SET

For your sister / best friend / niece - THE PRETTY IN PINK SET

For your girlfriend / mom / great aunt - THE LA VIE EN ROSE SET

One of my 2014 resolutions is to carve out time each month to step out of the studio and see more art.  New York City has so much to offer and it is wonderful to spend a day (or even a few hours) being inspired.In attempt to make up for lost time, a friend and I visited two museums last week - The Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection (also one of our favorite clients!).  It would be impossible to see every work in their galleries so we focused on the Northern European still-life paintings, a favorite subject of mine.  It was delightful and I went home inspired to add another couple cards to our "Painted Still-Life" series. The Swans would be particularly nice for Valentine's Day!

- Breck