Mother’s Day Cards! Get your Mother’s Day cards!

Is there a mom, gramma or baby momma in your life that deserves a little recognition? Tell her how great she is with a sweet Mother’s Day card. We think this year’s selection of cards is the best yet. You’ll find cards from Dude and Chick, a. favorite designs, Hello Lucky, Dee & Lala, Lunalux, and more. Mother’s Day is Sunday May 9, so there’s still time for you to swing by and pick up a card or three. As these photos show, we also have some swell gifts that we think your moms will love. All the cards and gifts shown are available in the Lunalux studio store – click here for store hours and directions. Top photo: wood-type card from Cheap Crap Card Company, plus Japanese Washi tape and wax paper stationery from Tinted Mint. Bottom left photo: name game buckslip card from a. favrorite designs, plus Emilie Sloan cherry blossom make-up case and Lunalux scratch pad. Bottom right photo: floral card from Dee & Lala, plus fabric-covered thumbtacks and magnets from Girl of All Work.

You need Valentines? We got Valentines!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching (this Sunday, February 14 – tick tock!). So get thee to a paperie (such as Lunalux) between now and Sunday to pick up a card or two for your nearest and dearest. Our favorite lovey-dovey cards this year are from a. favorite design, a little Chicago-based company. We’ve been eying their clever creations for quite some time, but finally pulled the trigger and placed an order when we saw all the great new love-themed cards they released just in time for Valentine’s Day. Shown here are the ones we like the best. Most are letterpress-printed, and very well printed at that. Except for the “you’re f@!%ing amazing” cards, which are individually created on an antique typewriter (we love the juxtaposition of the slightly cruddy letters with the fancy cotton deckle-edge stock) and accompanied by envelopes lined with pages from the phone book. Lunalux, Dude and Chick, Wiley Valentine, F.G. & Co. and Binth are also represented in our V-Day display. We also have packs of vintage-reproduction Valentines (the corny kind you might have passed out in grade school) and stationery sets letterpress-printed in pinks and reds, if you plan to spread the love en masse.

The Lunalux studio store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11a.m.-6p.m., for your Valentine-shopping pleasure. Visit our store page for details and directions. We hope to see you soon!

I spy Lunalux in a Target catalog

A Target catalog arrived in my mailbox recently. I have a love/hate thing for this mega-store. It’s a great source for cheap stuff, and as a Minnesotan I’m mildly proud of the local corporation’s endless expansion. But as the owner of a small, independent business, I think of Target as the Big Bad Retail Wolf, guiltlessly trying to devour everything in sight, including me. So imagine my surprise/delight/horror when I discovered a Lunalux card being used as a prop in Target’s holiday catalog! On page 45 there’s a handsome wooden charging station, its bottom drawer open just enough to expose a secret stash of stationery. See the red and white card peeking out? That’s a limited-edition Lunalux holiday card. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the picture in this blog post, from when we made the cards two years ago. We don’t get paid for this sort of thing, or even get credit anywhere in the catalog. But it’s the kind of exposure that would make my mom believe that I am Very Successful, and for that I am grateful.

(drum roll please) Introducing Morgan!

We’re happy to introduce Morgan, the newest Lunalux intern. Morgan is a recent MCAD graduate, and has a wealth of experience in print-making and paper-making (she’s been interning for a while at Cave Paper). She’s a real gal about town, perhaps you’ve seen her waiting tables down the block at Joe’s Garage, or working the coat check at First Avenue. She’s been helping out around here for a couple of months, and we are thrilled to have her on board. She has a great attitude and we appreciate her cheerful, creative energy. You can see pictures of some of her previous artwork on her blog (which she doesn’t update very often, but nobody’s perfect). Until now, we’ve kept Morgan busy with the basics like packing orders and assembling products for the shop. But yesterday we finally set her loose in the type department, and she created a couple of great cards that we’re now selling in the Lunalux studio store. Both cards shown below were printed on our Vandercook proof press, using a combination of wood and lead type. So funny! We look forward to seeing more additions to her series.

New letterpress designers

In our never-ending quest to fill our card wall with the best of the best greeting cards, we’ve added three new letterpress-printed lines to the Lunalux shop. We’re perhaps most excited about the cards from Dude and Chick, both because we love their products and because the Dude and the Chick in question have close ties to the studio (John Gurtin has been manning the presses at Lunalux for forever, and Katie Wilson was an intern here last year). The cards boast exceptional printing and witty, sometimes irreverent style. Katie’s illustrations are light-hearted and joyful, and John’s dude perspective means that many of their creations appeal to the oft-overlooked male card buyers.  All Dude and Chick cards feature very original two-color designs, rounded corners, and colorful A2 envelopes. Shown here are two of our faves; you can view the complete collection on their website at dudeandchick.com.

Looking at the snacks-come-to-life on cards from Maginating Letterpress & Design, it’s no surprise that the man behind these cards is a former animation designer. Maginating’s compositions range from the super-simple good egg, to the gleeful parade of smiling sushi printed in FIVE COLORS (for those of you who have never run a letterpress – trust me, that’s a LOT of colors). This batch of newbies is rounded out by Dee & Lala. These cards are printed on 100% cotton card stock, with a very deep impression. We’re particularly fond of the retro owls and the sea of umbrellas.  To see more of these line, visit deeandlala.com and maginating.com. All the cards shown here are available in the Lunalux retail store – you’ll find hours and directions on our store page.

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