Happy New Year!

2011 has been a crazy year for us! We’re so excited to see what this new year has in store for The Paper Mint Press, but we’d also like to reflect on some of 2011′s biggest moments.

- July: We officially open for business! We launched our website and proudly displayed our growing portfolio.

- Sept: We bought our 2nd press, a Chandler & Price 10×15 platen press and set up our mini studio! Our press is still in the process of being remodeled, but she will be in working condition in just a few weeks! We’re so excited!

- Oct: Attended our first Printer’s Fair at the International Print Museum. We loved seeing other printers, vendors, and artists! It was so great to see a community support paper arts! Our goal for 2012 is to be a vendor. :)

- Nov/Dec: Business really started to pick up! We got tons of inquiries about business cards and wedding invitations.We can hardly keep up (it’s a good thing).

Things to look forward to in 2012…

- Collaborations with Rooted in Love Weddings, a wedding planning company! Watch out for our styled wedding shoots… :)

- A wholesale/retail collection for our greeting cards

- DIY Invitations (digital downloads)

- Becoming a vendor at the LA Printer’s Fair

- Designing a lot more custom letterpress work for clients!

Thanks to family, friends, clients, and colleagues for all your support this year…I hope 2012 is filled with creativity all over! Cheeeeeers!

First, we positioned the wood near the press so that when the carjack lifted it up, we’d be ready to slip the wood underneath the slats. We first use a regular carjack much like this one, but we couldn’t get it to work because of the weird angles that were necessary to crank it. Luckily, our friend’s truck came with a jack (pictured below), which did the trick.

We lifted the back of the press first, just enough to slip the 2×4′s underneath the slats. This was probably the most nerve-wracking part, because we were scared of tipping the press over. Our main concern was safety, so we had to remind ourselves that if we noticed the press tipping beyond control, we’d have absolutely no leverage to save it, and that we’d have no choice but to let it go. Luckily, this didn’t happen to us, but it’s scary to think about. Four guys is still no match for this 1800 lb monster.

Once we had the back of the press lifted, we set up the carjack to lift up the front of the press.

Same procedure here…

Here’s a photo of our press lifted! Phew!

Now all we had to do was slip the pallet jack underneath and crank it up to lift the press off the 2×4′s.

Then, we were able to slide the 2×4′s out of the way and move the press via the pallet jack. Much easier on wheels, I tell ya! ..not that I did much lifting/moving personally.. hehe. ;)

Here’s a shot of the U-haul utility trailer (5×7 with ramp). We put some wooden sheets down to ease the transition from the asphalt to the ramp.

And there are the boys pushing with all their might! This was probably the second scariest moment of all – I was so worried that the press would roll down or slide off the pallet jack. I’d recommend tying it down to the pallet jack tight before pushing. And make sure that it’s also in its closed position so that it doesn’t move.

Now we just had to tie it down to the trailer and drive to our destination!

Here they are unloading the press. Same procedure as before – just rolling it down the ramp carefully.

And voila! There she is, sitting pretty in her new home. :)

Disclaimer: This is just a way for me to document how I moved my press. I am in no way suggesting that this is safe for everyone.  I was lucky enough to have a friend who had the expertise to guide and direct us since he’d moved a press before. I would not recommend moving a press like this with no experience.

Just had to post a better photo of our business card. :)

Quick update:

• We’ve been crazy busy with potential new clients + preparing estimates. Always a good sign!
• We are scheduled to print some new products/projects in the next few weeks. Some of the products will be for the online shop, and another is a wedding invitation that was designed by designer Jessica Cardelucci.
• I’ve been working on migrating our online shop from Etsy to right here! Details to follow…
• Still working hard cleaning up and restoring the new C&P – I’m hoping to get it running in a month
• Going to be selling some limited edition holiday gift tags pretty soon. They are going to be made from previous misprints.. just one of the ways we are trying to be green!

Since we’re in the business of making party invitations, I thought it would only be appropriate to feature fun party how-to’s and all things party-related!

Aqua and red. These colors are awesome when paired, aren’t they? Here are some photos that will surely inspire you for your next hoopla.

1a. Outfit / 1b. Red + Aqua Pod Necklace / 2. source unknown / 3a. Rustic Table Setting / 3b. Flowers / 3c. Sweets / 3d. Cake 4. Letterpress Birthday Card

It’s finally available in our shop!

Ok, we know that mustaches have been trending for a while now. I actually had the idea to do this about a year ago as a little birthday gift for Emil. He was trying to grow out his mustache for the entire month of November, otherwise known as Movember. Movember, according to the official site, is an event in which men..

“with their “Mo’s”, … raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.”

I mean, he really got into it. He got the iPhone app to track his daily progress and everything. It was really cute (the idea, not the mustache). ;) Anyway, Emil’s birthday is in November and we had planned to have a birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant. I decided that I wanted to surprise him in some way, so I threw together a surprise theme. I was deciding between mustaches and The Hulk (his favorite character), but I thought that the Movember theme was more appropriate for the time. So I ordered special mustache cupcakes, cut out a bunch of paper mustaches, and made him a handmade card with the original mustache guide. During dinner, I had a few friends take him outside for a few minutes and passed out the paper mustaches and the birthday card for everyone to sign. I had the restaurant arrange the cupcakes on a cupcake tree and light the candles just in time for when he got back. When they brought out the cupcakes, he was totally confused. Imagine his confusion when we all sang Happy Birthday to him …while holding paper mustaches to our faces. Mission accomplished!

Anyway, everyone really loved the card and the mustaches so I thought it would be fun to letterpress a version of it for our home. Brings back nice memories. :)

Meet our new baby….a Chandler & Price (old style) 10×15 platen press! She needs a lot of work (and possibly a name..?) before we can start printing on it, but her motor is running and she’s in great condition! Next comes the task of getting new rollers and cleaning her up. We’re so excited! Stay tuned for our journey of moving a press into a new studio..

A little history on this press:

We found it on Craigslist and it belonged to Mariano, the current owner of an old print shop. The original owner of the print shop, Lee Beard, opened his business in the 1920′s and had this press ever since.  It’s been sitting in their warehouse, unused for years, so Mariano thought it was time to let it go to make room for new print equipment. Mariano said the press hadn’t been used to print with for about 30 years, but when we plugged in the motor, it still worked!

I am pretty happy with the way our business cards came out! What do you think? It was a bit tough to register and get the brown just right (I know it looks black in this photo), but overall they are really cute. I’m happy we printed them in time for the LA Printer’s Fair in Oct.  I’m really looking forward to networking with other artists.

We’ve got some pretty cool jobs coming up.. I really can’t wait to show you guys the art deco invitations once they’re printed. I am also making a huge effort to add to our product line — we will selling an 8.5×11 art print in the Etsy store really soon!

…but I have to say that I found the coolest sweater in the little boy’s section. $14 well spent. :)

We are officially open for business! :)

Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, & check out our Etsy!  We are in the process of adding some new products to the shop in the next few weeks so stay tuned! Thanks for all your support, friends!

Here is our latest project from our studio.  We designed and printed these postcard style invitations on Lettra’s 110lb paper in Pearl White.  The bride wanted a simple and informal invitation to reflect her casual wedding reception. No RSVP card or Save-the-date necessary for this one!  She was on a tight budget and even though a destination wedding was out of the question, letterpressed invitations sure weren’t! Who says budget weddings don’t deserve letterpress invitations? Not us! We tried to capture the Aloha spirit as much as possible. What do you think?

Fun fact: A flower on the left side means the lady is married!