More new additions to the wholesale line

Hot off the press: three new cards featuring illustrations by former Lunalux intern Katie Wilson. My favorite is the Magical Birthday card, featuring a cupcake-wielding bunny popping out of a magician’s top hat. This one’s letterpress-printed in black and purple inks on bright white wove-finish card stock, and paired with a purple envelope. I came up with the concept (“Everyone loves bunnies, and everyone loves cupcakes, and we need more birthday cards. So how about, like, a bunny coming out of a top hat, holding a cupcake?”) but my drawing skills are … how shall we put this delicately? … lacking. So Katie took my silly idea and created this adorable picture. We love her style, and are so pleased to be able to work with her – we hope everyone will buy lots of her cards so we can hire her to make more stuff for us!

People who know new parents should enjoy the Cool Baby card, featuring a tattooed baby – we think this is a much-needed option in a card category that’s flooded with cutesy pink and blue images. And then there’s the racy Mustache Ride card, which pairs an old-fashioned handlebar mustache with old-fashioned typefaces. We’re pretty sure this card is going to be a hit with the fellas for Valentine’s Day. You can click on the image to the right for a larger picture of these two cards.

All of Katie’s cards are already available at the Lunalux studio store, they’re just $4.00 each. We’re working on new sample decks and catalogs for our sales reps, so buyers across the country should be seeing these early in 2009. If you’re a buyer for a retail store and you’re interested in our wholesale line, you can find more information, including a link to download our wholesale catalog, on our products page. Or browse our blog archives, where you can read about other recent additions to our line.

Kiss my what?

2008 has kept us so busy with custom design and printing projects like wedding invitations and personal stationery, we haven’t had much energy to develop new products for our nationally distributed wholesale line. But it’s always on our minds, and we add new designs when we can. We recently printed a couple of fun, random new cards. Like “Kiss my grits,” shown to the left (click on the picture for a larger view). I loved the sitcom Alice in the late 1970s, especially the star’s brassy co-worker Florence “Flo” Jean Castleberry. At my request, Katie the intern (who has, very sadly, moved on – now she’s designing stuff for the Minneapolis Public Libraries, and selling cards on Etsy) created this portrait of Flo, so we could help revive her catchphrase.

Also new: this tongue-in-cheek greeting, printed on 80# bright white vellum cover (which contains 30% post-consumer waste, though we don’t brag about it on the back of the card). I love the planet as much as the next person, and at Lunalux we do our best to recycle and use environmentally friendly products. But after hearing and/or reading so many sales pitches regarding the complicated environmental practices of various paper mills, packaging suppliers and gift manufacturers, I can’t tell any of it apart anymore. Hence the exasperated whale.

These goofy cards are already for sale in the Lunalux studio store, and will be distributed to our sales reps in short order. If there’s a card store near you that should have these in stock, let us know and we’ll send them a catalog!

2-4-6-8, who do we appreicate? Katie!

Please meet Katie, the newest Lunalux intern! Katie is a senior at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and she comes to Lunalux with much experience in illustration and stationery design. Though she’s only been here a few days, we’re already learned some fun stuff about her. To wit: she’s a twin, a vegetarian, and an avid bicyclist. So far we’ve kept her busy packaging various products for wholesale orders, but she’s chomping at the bit for some hands-on action, so hopefully she’ll get her first lesson on the Vandercook very soon.