Long-time best-selling birthday card, now printed in a new color. This blue greeting is now being printed in festive orange on bright white vellum-finish 80# cover stock, and paired with a matching orange envelope.

Happy F***ing Birthday is the card that inspired our Irreverant Series of greeting cards – foul-mouthed salutations elegantly letterpress-printed on stark bright white cards. Congratulations followed, then Fan-Frigging-tasstic, and the holiday variations (Merry F***ing Christmas, Crappy Holidays, Happy F***ing New Year and Happy F***ing Valentine’s Day). Most recently, we added “Holy Shit!” appropriately printed in sepia ink and paired with a lovely brown envelope.

Retailers can purchase these cheeky greetings in loose dozens (individual cards are paired with colored envelopes, in a cello sleeve), the cards retail for $3.50 each. The Irreverant Assortment combines four everyday greetings (2 each of Birthday, Congrats, Fan-Frigging-Tastic and Holy Shit) in a vinyl folder, and retails for $16. The Irreverant Series is always available in our studio store as well!

When I came into work this morning, I discovered that our store had been robbed over night! Luckily we don’t keep much cash on hand, so the dirty rotten thieves got less than $100. But it’s costing me twice that amout to fix the window! Good bye lovely vintage wavey glass, hello boring modern laminated safety glass.

For years, I have been promoting the Lunalux store with postcards featuring compelling quotations from authors, artists and political figures. We receive much enthusiastic feedback regarding these mailings – many friends of the studio have told me that they save the postcards, displaying them on their refrigerator or cork board or window sill. Since everyone enjoys them so much, we always print extras to sell in the store, and customers love them!

Because they are so popular, I’ve long wanted to convert these postcard designs into folded greeting cards for our wholesale line. Finally, it’s happening! The cards aren’t quite done yet, but I’m so excited, I trimmed a few down by hand for a quick little photo shoot.

We’re making 10 quote cards, each to be paired with an appropriate colored envelope. John helped me figure out great colors for the cards, and I think he’s printed seven of them so far. We still have to trim them down, and score them, and print our logo on the back. Then there’s adding them to our catalog, sampling our reps, and promoting the new cards to all of our wholesale buyers. But we’re off to a good start!

It’s a lovely pre-spring day here in Minneapolis. The snowbanks that accumulated over the last few weeks are melting, and as I type it’s a balmy 48 degrees outside! We’ve had the front door propped open all day, and a steady stream of customers have been shopping and inquiring about custom wedding invitations and business cards.

The afternoon was punctuated by this exchange with two young women who spent some time browsing in the shop. They each amassed a tidy stack of merchandise from all around the store (including greeting cards, a mechanical pencil, postcards, Japanese stationery, a leather-bound “Little Black Book,” nostalgic candy, etc.) and we chatted as I totaled up their purchases. They told me that they had been at a popular near-by gift shop earlier in the day, and as they spun the racks of cards there, one looked at the other and said, “We really should be shopping at Lunalux.” I was so pleased to hear that our small, out-of-the-say shop popped into their mind, and that they went out of their way to visit.

We’re working on a new batch of Fortune Folios. Lunlux founder Tim Gartman created this product way bak in May of 2000, and it’s been a big seller for us ever since. It’s a 25-page staple-bound booklet to hold your favorite fortune cookie fortunes. Each page has die-cut slots to hold a fortune, and a space for notes about where the tiny paper prediction came from. This item has been out-pf-stock for a while, so it’s great to have them back on the shelves. Fortune Folios are available in our studio store for $9.50 each.