Those little metal clips are something we get asked about a lot. They are called #2 Petite Fasteners, made by GEM Office Products here in the USA. They have a little point that pierces the paper and holds the sheets together. You can buy them wholesale here. ($7 per box of 100 clips, 10 box minimum) They come in two sizes – the #2 is the bigger one, the #0 is smaller. And no, we do not sell the clips. But if you are in need of some top notch Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah invitations we’d love to hear from you.

If you aren’t sure what a “meat raffle” is you should really look it up to fully understand the heritage of this design. It’s good to see a fine establishment carry on this noble tradition. Our friends at Fame created this cuss-worthy design for an invitation to party in their brand new office. Sam Soulek did the design and pattern work reminiscent of vintage beer ephemera.

The two oversize cards are printed with metallic gold ink and an orange pms on 60pt blotter board, both front and back. This fantastically pulpy and coaster-like stock gives the artwork a unique texture in addition to the letterpress impression. The cards fit together and mail in a French Paper Brown Speckltone A10 size envelope, also printed with the same gold ink. Note how the envelope design wraps from the face of the envelope and covers the flap on the back side. Since we fold open the pre-converted envelopes to print them, we are able to print the face and the flap at the same time. This invite is hot off the presses and is hitting mailboxes this week.

Such a pulpy stock material is not without problems. The blotter board stock is a wood fiber stock with very little sizing during the papermaking process. That makes printing on this sheet a bit like running a shedding rabbit through the letterpress. With such a raw surface, the fibers from the stock surface build up on the ink rollers like bunches of hair. That means extra wash ups during the run to keep the ink clean and free of hickies on the artwork. This stock also sucks up the ink, so you need good heavy ink density going down, which makes it a balancing act to keep the small type from filling in on the coarse surface. The paper formation produces a very mottled and salty looking texture in the ink coverage. But we think it’s a unique and vintage look that matches this design perfectly.