The Wheels on the Bus

For those of you out there with toddlers, you know how much the little ones love how the "Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round".  Inspired by Baby CP, I printed these double-decker notecards and notebooks. Yes, he gave me the thumbs up when he saw the finished product.  =)

Double Decker Notebook

Double Decker Notecards

News!

So, as some of you know, I'm moving on...I've given notice at my current job and will be starting a new position in mid-November.  I'll have additional time to spend on new designs over the next few weeks (perfect timing for the upcoming holidays) and a trip to NY to see family and friends.  Yay!

Last weekend, I realized that my herringbone thank you cards are just about out of stock.  (I only have a couple left.)  So, I decided to print a new batch in a fall colorway.  I also used the same design in a super small batch of birthday cards.

Thank You in Avocado Green and Dark Brown

The screen I had originally used to print the original yellow and turquoise thank you cards seemed to be a little clogged and I was having trouble printing a nice clean print, so I decided to test out my new thermofax with 100 mesh screen.  The print came out on linen cardstock nicely!

Happy Birthday in Avocado Green and Navy

Next up, I'll be using the thermofax to burn some 70 mesh screen and try my hand at some fabric printing!

As a side note, I'm still working on figuring out lighting for my photos...I've been trying to photograph all of my cards with the same background so that my shop has a more uniform look, but getting good lighting in our house is a little challenging.  I'd like the whites to show up a little brighter.  Mr. CP recently built a light box and bought some lamps, so experimenting with that is also a new project out there on the horizon.

New Cards in the Shop

Hi there.  As usual, long weekends seem to be when I get most of my Chunky Pineapple work done.  I spent some time over Labor Day weekend working on some new ideas.  A few of the new designs involve burning out blocks of solid screen, which is tricky on the Gocco, and requires ink of just the right consistency.  Below are the first two of our new sweet and simple designs.

I Like You

I'm Sorry

Getting Your Name Out There

Today I received a custom order request through Etsy.  This is a new feature that I just signed up for a few days ago.  The customer asked whether she could buy 5 of the same Thanks So Much card.  Of course I was excited to get my first custom order, and responded right away.  The customer's response was that she had found my card at Press Works on Paper and wanted more to thank interviewers for their time and looked on the back of the card where our logo and website are located.

While putting the logo on the back of my cards wasn't the first thing I thought of when designing cards and starting my shop, I did design a logo by the time I designed my second or third card.  I later updated my logo after I had Dingbat Press create a logo and business card for the shop.  I'm glad to get confirmation that it helps to get my name out there and that people actually do look at the back of my cards to find us.

Holy Moly - My 3M Thermofax is on it's way!

Yes, I love my Gocco, but sometimes I want a more consistent screen burn or yearn for a larger printing area.  I have invested in a 3M Thermofax machine and it could be in my hands as soon as tomorrow!!!  A Thermofax machine is an old school predecessor to the copy machine.  Copy machines were more reliable for making copies, so these machines were cast aside, often stored in closets and storage rooms for years.  They are now super popular with tattoo artists for creating stencils and for screen printers which has driven the price up on these vintage machines, but they're built like tanks and should last a long time.

The Thermofax, like the Gocco, burns carbon based images onto mesh screen, but does not use flash bulbs that much be discarded after each flash.  The per screen cost should be much lower than that of a Gocco, though eventually the Thermofax's bulb also needs to be replaced.  I believe that the image size can be as large as 8x11 or something close to that, so it's about double the size of a Gocco B6 size image which opens the door to a lot of new possibilities - larger format prints and maybe t-shirts or tote bags with larger images.  Any water based silkscreening ink, which is cheaper than Gocco inks can be used.  Finally, the screens can be cut and mounted onto frames that can be inserted into the Gocco machines or you can use the squeegee method which is sort of leaving the Gocco world behind and entering the more general screenprinting area.

I'm so excited!!  All I need is to find myself a little more time in each day and hopefully I'll be able to come up with new ideas and projects.  =)

Thanks a Million

Baby CP just turned two and celebrated with a much smaller get together this year than last.  Regardless, it was the perfect reason to design and print these new Marquee Light Thank You cards. I'm not sure if I was foiled by old batteries or bad screens, but it took a few attempts at burning the screen to get it just right.

I'm thinking a Yippee or Yay card in the same style would work really well.

Happy Birthday with Confetti

Long weekends tend to be the times when I print new designs and the 4-day July 4th weekend was no exception.  I wanted to design a new birthday card and thought confetti would add a nice touch.  It was a bit difficult to work with the designs because they were so spread out all over the screen.  The gold came out really well, and the blue has that vintage Gocco touch.

Confetti Birthday Card