I am proud to show you the gorgeous letterpress cards that Mary (IG: @poppypress.studio, website: www.poppypressstudio.com) and I have created together! We have created one birthday card and a thank you card, for you to choose from. Carefully printed on high-quality cotton paper, these greeting cards really are fine art cards.
The cards are letterpress cards, meaning they were hand printed by Mary (@poppypress.studio) on her antique printing press from 1899.
Working with Mary has been such a joy and I am happy to have found a new pen pal in the US! I think the cards turned out so beautiful and unique. Thanks to Mary and her wonderful printing! It has been so special to see my work and illustrations come to life this way.
With these greeting cards we want to celebrate spring and therefore we chose lovely spring flowers and also pastel colours.
A pastel celebration of spring
When planning our collaboration, Mary and I decided that we wanted to celebrate spring with our greeting cards. Because of that, we chose lovely spring flowers and also beautiful pastel colours.
Mary and I created one birthday card and a thank you card, thereby giving you a perfect collection to choose from. I am always on the hunt for beautiful and thoughtful cards myself and I think Mary and I have got you covered! And although I may be biased, I think the cards turned out so beautiful and unique.
Watching my work come to life through Mary’s wonderful printing has been so special. Thank you for making all of this possible, Mary! <3
Now, more about each of the two greeting cards.
A special person calls for a special greeting card
Thank you card
Sometimes you just need to say it with flowers. Or flowers might be a must always, but either way, this card has you covered! And with the help of this greeting card, expressing your heartfelt thank you has become easy as pie. And as sweet, I might add.
Thank you card – Croci spring meadow
The outside of the card shows a wild meadow with a variety of different croci: of small woodland croci, spring croci and tuscan croci. A perfect celebration of all that blooms and saying thank you.
This card is inspired by my walks in the park during early spring time, where pops of colour start to appear. When I see the croci I know that spring is finally near. I also like to take the time to admire them for their beauty and daintiness.
If you’d like to see a reel of this thank you card, head over here. Get a glimpse at the journey from illustration to finished letterpress card.
Birthday card
In my opinion, a very special person calls for an extra special birthday card! And with this beautiful hand illustrated and hand printed birthday card, you are sure to add exactly this „je ne sais quoi“ to the celebration!
Birthday card – A floral bouquet of japanese anemones, cosmos and dahlia
On the outside of the card, you see a flower bouquet with a dahlia, cosmos and Japanese anemone illustrated by me Zainab @zamaviprints. And you might have recognized the flowers. The illustration is also my new and beloved Zamavi Prints logo design, which is hoped to bring you lots of floral joy.
The flowers within the Zamavi Prints logo were hand picked by myself and are from my favourite garden too. I mean, they could only become the perfect muses, couldn’t they? The flowers were then carefully hand drawn by me, always keeping an eye out for the unique and intricate details that make up each flower.
To get an even closer look at this birthday card, watch this reel that I’ve created here.
All the greeting card details
The cards are printed on 100% cotton paper, which is of very high quality. The high percentage of cotton makes the paper very soft, pillowy and gives it such a fine texture. The paper weight of the greeting cards is 110lb or 360g.
A closer look at the texture, paper weight and back of the greeting cards
Our greeting cards are folded and have a size of 4.5 in. x 6 in or 11.43 x 15,24 cm. And the paper of the cards is bright white, therefore enabling the illustrations and colours to really shine.
The colours were hand mixed by Mary. You can see the wonderful process of how the colours came to life in my story highlight on Instagram (/w Poppy Press Studio), head on over to Mary’s account (@poppypress.studio) to see her reel or watch her YouTube video.
The inside of the greeting cards are blank, thereby offering you the perfect space for your wonderful and personal birthday wishes or heartfelt expressions of your appreciation or gratitude.
All in all, the greeting cards are carefully illustrated and thoughtfully printed on high-quality cotton paper, truly making them fine art cards.
With birthday season always being in full swing and lots of things to say thank you for – these greeting cards are the perfect way to show your affection and gratitude! We’ve got you covered with these cards. And they are waiting to find a new home.
How this all began
So let me begin by telling you, how this wonderful collaboration came to life. This journey really has been so much fun and I am so happy to say that I now have a new pen pal in the US!
I approached Mary in the beginning of the year with the idea to collaborate. I really love Mary’s work so much! And to my absolute joy, Mary said yes!
I’ve been admiring Mary’s printing skills since I discovered her YouTube videos and vlogs last year (find Mary on YouTube here). In her videos, Mary takes you along her printing process and shares relaxing real time videos on how she works with her press. You can also see Mary’s day-to-day in her letterpress business and how she fulfils orders or creates her own card line.
The wonderful letterpress that Mary owns and with which she prints all her work is from 1899. How cool is that? And I have now also learned that Mary’s letterpress has a name. It is called Persephone, which I really love and adore!
Print with me letterpress printing video by @poppypressstudio
Mary (website: www.poppypressstudio.com, IG: @poppypressstudio) has also created a wonderful making of video of our letterpress greeting card collaboration.
In this “Print with me! 10 minutes of letterpress printing ASMR (greeting card collab)” video, you can see our thank you card with its beautiful croci come alive. Click here or below to watch the full video.
As part of the video you can see how Mary mixes up the ink, prepares the paper and the letterpress and then goes on to steadily print a whole set of cards.
You can also see what it means, when we say that the cards are hand printed in the US. It truly is magical to watch the printing process! 🙂 Plus, the sound of Marys letterpress from 1899 is so soothing, I’m sure you’ll feel really relaxed afterwards.
Looking for a new home
Please get in touch (e-mail to: zamaviprints@gmail.com), if you are interested in purchasing the greeting cards or if you would like to stock them in your shop! I would love to send them to you.
Maybe you also know exactly the place for which the greeting cards could be perfect for (recommendations worldwide appreciated! <3)?
