Louella Court

gingerbread on canvas

{ posted by Brooke, designer }

Today I came across some amazing oil paintings by Will Cotton that I'm still having a hard time believing aren't photographs. They make me want to build an exotic gingerbread house (with lots of extra icing and candy to snack on!).

{ images via Will Cotton, found via Little Willow }

thankful

{ posted by Brooke, designer }

We are so thankful this year for our wonderful clients who challenge us to create beautiful designs for them each day. We are also thankful to you, dear readers, for following along with Louella Court as we have found our voice — we truly look forward to posting here each day and receiving your comments, kind words and feedback. Thank you.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with the ones you love!

Letterpress Photo Holiday Cards

{ posted by Nicole, director of sales }

We love to design custom holiday cards for our clients here at Two Paperdolls. Bright colored layers of paper and ribbon have been working their magic already! And while it is never too late here at the dollhouse to get your custom cards out in the mail, some of our clients prefer our new boxed styles.

We mixed a little of our creative flair together with our love for letterpress and created a line of boxed photo holiday cards. There are 4 beautiful letterpress designs to choose from that will each hold a standard size 5" x 3.5" photo of your choice. Each card includes a non-religious holiday greeting on the front or the inside and can be purchased for $18.00 per box of 8 cards. Come visit us at our studio in Wayne, our Pressed55 boutique at the Piazza in Northern Liberties or at our Etsy Shop and pick up a few boxes!

 

{ children's portraits by Laura Novak }

pillow talk.

{ posted by Terry, designer + print manager } 

Love these pillows from Hazel & Hunter Upholstery Design, based in Montreal — not to mention that footstool and those Marimekko reupholstered Danish teak chairs!

to all the dolls I've loved before (and you will love them, too)

{ posted by Vanessa, owner + creative director }

Everyone knows I am a Cancer tried and true — emotions are usually stuck to my sleeve or impossible to hide. I am so grateful and so passionate about what we do here at Two Paperdolls, and despite the hard times, I am always so grateful for the amazing people I get to work with every day, both clients and partners. But for me, most of all it's the dolls. Past and present, they inspire me, they challenge me, and they make me better every single day.

In the spring of 2006, I decided I wanted to have our designs available nationwide, and had little clue how we could do that. Then one night, it just clicked: we would design a line of customizable engraved invitations, as no one had done before, and thus, Louella Press was born.

At the time, I was so fortunate and blessed to have four women on our team who will forever have a place in my heart. Catherine King, Lauren Mummé, Rachel Polizzi, Maggie Mae Moore and myself put countless hours into the development and creation of Louella Press, from product design to branding and networking; it was a truly amazing collaboration of five incredible minds working to develop a beautiful product in a very short amount of time.

During this process, and as part of our new luxury brand of engraved invitations and letterpress note cards, we designed these paperdolls (significant to our parent company Two Paperdolls) to be a signature piece in our marketing materials. We gave them out at the National Stationery Show in 2006, 2007 and 2008... we included a special doll in each order that we shipped to a store or a client, and we were always asked if we'd sell them. And the answer was always "no."

So here we are, approaching the holidays in 2009, and we've decided after sooooo many requests to finally sell our dolls, so people can enjoy them as much as we do! Check them out in black and white, teal and chocolate, and red and cream. They make super fun cards, gifts, or would look adorable tied to an invitation; we've even had people buying them as decorations. Stay tuned for more colors and patterns, coming soon!

{ you'll love the cute little surprise on the back! }

As we release these today for sale for the first time on Etsy, I would be remiss if I didn't give tremendous credit to these four women. This post goes out to those original dolls: Lauren left us to move to New Zealand with her Aussie husband, Alex; Catherine is writing her fabulous blog FRESH; Rachel is finishing school to be an art teacher; and Maggie is off spreading her design wings, doing fabulous work no doubt... these women will forever have a place in my sappy heart, and are a true testament that there is never any "I" in TEAM.

 

{ from left, Brooke Forry, Vanessa Kreckel, Lauren Mummé,
Catherine King, Rachel Polizzi, and Maggie Mae Moore }

Check out Louella Press on Etsy to buy your own paperdolls!

Deck Your Homes

{ posted by Amanda, VP }

Today I met the owner of Deckstool, a super rad local company that recycles skate boards and turns them into stools. Here are some shots of their work. Each is hand crafted and has a style all it's own. You can even get $20 off when you provide your own deck for them to do a custom piece. Learn more about how they got started here.

 

Support your local artists and buy a piece of your own!

a few new prints in the Louella Press Etsy shop!

{ posted by Brooke, designer }

Amidst the handful of fun holiday cards and tags we have added to our Etsy shop lately, we thought we'd also throw in a few new prints! Holiday gifts, anyone?

Visit the shop to learn more details about these fun new prints. More cities to come in the near future... what city would you like to see featured?

first and lasting impressions

{ posted by Emily, production assistant }

It's important to make a good first impression. Why not spruce up your business card to make it a lasting one? Here are a few "outside of the box" ideas that I love, courtesy of Dailypoetics. 

web design catching up to print

{ posted by Whitney, web designer }

Within the web you see mostly the same ten "web-safe" fonts... not because web designers are boring, but because until recently we were limited. With some new technology coming out, we are now able to embed fonts within a site. There are still some cross browser issues, but we are definitely on the right track. To learn more check out http://www.fontembedding.com/.

Here are a few cool free fonts that I look forward to being able to use in upcoming site designs.

{ Evolution }

{ Goudy Bookletter }

{ Verily Serif Moon }

Cut the Craft!

{ posted by Brooke, designer } 

 We have been invited to participate in Cut the Craft, an indie artist fair this weekend in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, and it's shaping up to look pretty fabulous. We will be selling our awesome Louella Press line of letterpress greeting cards and stationery, limited edition wall prints, letterpress earrings made with vintage beads, coasters, and holiday cards! Hand-picked artists from near and far will be there, and we're very excited to be included amongst them.

376 Shurs Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19128
Saturday November 21, 11am-7pm
Sunday, November 22, 11 am-5 pm

We hope to see you there!