The lost art of letter writing

I was tidying up our cupboard of doom yesterday when I came across a bag containing bundles and bundles of letters which I have received over the years.  A lot of these were from the time I was away traveling - 4 years in total - and many of the letters were from my Mum.  Of course I instantly got distracted and delved in and was immediately transported back to that time; it was a time I had planned for my entire life and loved every minute of (apart from the odd grim moment living and working in Hong Kong). However it also meant that I was away from home and from my family for four long years in between the ages of 22 and 26.  The letters are a wonderful reminder how my Mum and I constantly kept in touch with each other's lives; how by relaying the details of life in a letter, we kept close and comforted even whilst living on opposite sides of the world.

  Those bundles of letters have made me realise how little I write letters now and although I do send cards (obviously!) I need to write more than a quick note as the written word can be cherished, re-read and kept for years and years.






Apart from my musings on the written word, there are more lovely cards on the website for you to have a look at.  The Knitted Pea has recently joined the Cappuccino Cards team and her cards are inspired by nature and by a love of colour.  I think they are really beautiful and perfect for sending on any occasion.

 
 

All the Knitted Pea cards can be found here: http://www.cappuccinocards.com/artists/the-knitted-pea.html

Bristol Letterpress has also been busy and we have some new cards and prints from them.  The prints are proving especially popular - it can't just be us who loves Fizz and Discos!  All prints include a 10% donation to charity in the price and as always on Cappuccino Cards, you can choose the charity.
                             

                                                            
                                                                    

Here is the link to all the Bristol Letterpress goodies: http://www.cappuccinocards.com/artists/bristol-letterpress-charity-greetings-cards.html

Until next time...
Helenaxx

Small changes lead to great things

                                                        

We have made small but significant changes to Cappuccino Cards recently. We have made a little tweak to the website which gives you an easier alternative when it comes to choosing charities on the site. If you don't have a particular charity you would like to support when you buy cards, there will be one automatically chosen for you. For example, this month it is Bowel Cancer Awareness month so if you don't select another charity, this will be the charity that your donation will go to.

We've also had a spate of brilliant new artists coming onto the site. I'm just going to mention two of them here so I don't overwhelm you!  We spotted Stephanie Davies' cards in a little tourist information centre in a market town in Lancashire and were immediately drawn to her beautiful designs.







Stephanie creates her laser cut cards on a machine called Bertha and her cards are distinctive and just so elegant.  They have been flying off the shelves in their droves.




              

We also spotted these brilliant cards by Helen Williams of the company 'From Little Seeds' and just love the owl based characters.  How amazing would this be for a wedding card? And as for Batman and his batsuit - it makes us smile every time. 

 Finally I also wanted to put a shout out for the Shuffle Showroom which is a brand new shop selling beautiful prints and paintings.  It has been set up by Martyna Zoltaszek, one of the artists on our site and it is featuring her work plus she will also be featuring other up and coming artists' work.  It is based on the Cheltenham Road in Bristol and is open Friday, Saturday and Sundays. Do pop in if you can get the chance,
but you can also follow them on twitter @ShuffleShowroom or on Facebook.

Helenax

It's been a while!  So long that it has been almost too daunting to start again but I thought I'd take a deep breath and just dive in.

So much to let you know about but I thought I'd start with some images of a couple of markets we did at the end of last year.  This was our first real venture into the world of markets but we thought it would be a great way of spreading the word about Cappuccino Cards. 

We first went to Bath Artisan market which is held in Green Park Station in Bath.  It's a lovely covered venue with a wide variety of crafts people and artisans selling their wares.  There was also a huge amount of delicious food and a very welcome coffee van which we ended up making good use of....

Here is Tracy with our set up stall tucking into a cup of java!

We also went to the Bishop Road Christmas Market which is actually held in the school where our children go and went to school.  It's a hugely busy market and we were flat out all night which was lovely - although a lot of the time we were flat out chatting and drinking mulled wine.  Perfect way to work!

 Unfortunately we were so busy we forgot to take any pictures of the stall set up in action but here are a few snippets from before hand.

Tracy and I do love a boogie so we particularly love this Disco print!







It was lovely to talk direct to customers and get some feedback about the cards, presents and charities which they preferred.  It was also great to get massive encouragement about the principle of our business; that you can by beautiful artisan cards and support charity at the the same time with cards priced at the same price as high street cards.  Although we believe passionately in what we do, it was lovely to hear other people being equally enthusiastic!

We are now well into 2014 and looking forward to Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter - lots to do!  Better get on with it.
Hx

Everyone Needs A Card Drawer!

Make A Wish by Yoke

Have you ever suddenly realised it’s somebody special’s birthday the following day and you’ve nothing to send? What you need is a card drawer/box/basket/space in a cupboard! When you’ve released some space you then need some very lovely cards to put in it; to ensure that never again are you scrabbling around for a card or ending up with something from the garage (nothing says “I forgot all about it” like a garage card!), because you don’t want it to be the second year in a row Jimmy didn’t get a birthday card or Aunty Gladys went without a Thank You card. That’s where we come in, Cappuccino Cards have a fantastic range of beautiful, design led cards for all occasions from some super talented artists and you can order up to 5 cards for the same post and packing cost as a single one. There will never be a reason not to have a card to send!

 Now here’s the best (and most important) bit – when you choose your card from Cappuccino Cards you also get to pick a charity to benefit from your purchase. Every card bought from us automatically donates a massive £1 to your chosen charity We support 11 different charities with a wide range of fantastic causes from Refuge, who help women and children affected by domestic violence, to smaller charities like The Rainbow Centre working in Bristol providing free and professional support to children and their families affected by life threatening illness and bereavement.

Mr & Mrs by Bishopston Letterpress

You can hand pick your charities to reflect causes close to your heart or perhaps the person you’re sending to has a favourite charity? They’ll be a sticker on the back of your card showing which charity is benefiting; whichever way you choose, you can be sure that by sending a card from Cappuccino Cards you’ll be making a little difference. Surely that’s the perfect way to shop…

Press and new cards.

There has been a lot of excited squealing at Cappuccino Cards recently as we have been fortunate to be featured in two of our favourite publications.

The Guardian on-line, written by Kate Carter, featured us as the buy of the day and illustrated the article with Gemma Hampton's beautiful 'Beetroot' card.

Then just today we have been featured in Red Online in their Interiors section written by Anna Berrill.
In her words:  "With more and more people returning to old-fashioned letter writing, there is no better time to stock up on the charming greetings card from the new online shop Cappuccino Cards and you'll be doing your bit for charity too"  With press like that, who wouldn't be excited!

Here is the link if you want to take a look:

www.redonline.co.uk/interiors/interiors-news/cappucino-cards 

We are also extremely excited to announce that we have a new artists to our site.  We have long been coveting the talents of Mr Yoke and were incredibly pleased when he agreed to be part of Cappuccino Cards.

Here is a sneak preview of one of the cards coming soon to the site:

                             

We love his vibrant colours and designs.  The cards are on their way and will be up on the site just as soon as possible.

It has been an exciting time and we are getting new customers and great feedback all the time which is very encouraging.  Do spread the word if you know someone who loves good design and sending cards!

Hxx
 

Letterpress Love

Monday 18th March

Part of the reason we enjoy Cappuccino Cards so much is that Helena and I have a passion for print and design, which we can really indulge when it comes to Bishopston Letterpress. We work on a beautiful vintage Adana letterpress machine - here it is inked up with what I am currently calling 'Wicked Witch of the West Green', all ready for the 1st colour in a 3 colour card I'm working on.

It's the first time we've used it since my husband took it all apart (quite scary!) to clean and service it and it's now far less clunky and a dream to use. We use metal and wood type and they are beautiful things in their own right.

 

We got fairly over-excited with our first foray into 3 colours and Helena's ONE was our favourite of the day - look out for it on the site soon. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to think of 3 letter words we can use with the big wooden type as it's hard to fit more than that on a card! Probably the wrong way to go about designing... but quite a fun challenge.

 In other news -  Who loves a curry?? One of our charities is FRANK Water and to celebrate World Water Day (Friday 22nd March) they are promoting Karma-Korma. The idea being that you get together with a group of friends, enjoy a curry and donate the price of a take away to FRANK - a small Bristol based charity that work on big projects to provide clean water in India.  (http://www.frankwater.com/karma-korma/). Check them out - after all clean water should be a no brainer for everyone!
Tx

It's all about the girls

Thursday 7th March 2013
It's Mother's Day this Sunday and we have sold some beautiful cards this week. I really mustn't forget to send to send my Mum one!  I think she will like this....

We have also had our first 'write and send' order where a customer asks us to write and send a card directly to their friend/relative.  It is such an easy way to send an almost forgotten birthday card that we are going to try and promote it more and more.

In a week of women - tomorrow (Friday 8th March) is International Women's Week.  We support two charities which particularly look after women.  One25 are a Bristol charity (www.One25.org.uk) who support women trapped in street sex work, helping them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction. Refuge (www.refuge.org.uk) is a charity which empowers women to rebuild their lives, free from violence and fear through their life-saving and life-changing services and on any given day they support 2,000 women and children.  Both these brilliant charities do amazing and vital work and we couldn't be prouder to support them both.

One final bit of news - we have another fabulous new artist on board.  Kerry Day is screen printer based in Bristol and we have lots of her designs now in stock.  She has two different styles on her cards.  One features her beautiful life drawings and paintings seen here:

and she also does pretty individually screen printed cards too:

Kerry has a beautiful and distinct style which we are thrilled to have on the website.

Right - must go off and write my Mother's Day card.  I will be in serious trouble if I forget!
Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Hx