December Holiday Giveaway No. 3

Our third December '09 giveaway this month from 9SpotMonk Letterpress is all about skulls. You guys know who you are, you got skull shower curtains, skull socks, skull panties... Now you can add skull coasters and skull notebooks to your collection.


9SpotMonk Letterpress Skull Coasters and 100% Recycled Skull Notebooks

What you will win:
- 2 sets of letterpress printed skull coasters, each set comes in a box of 12 assorted colours
- 3 100% recycled letterpress printed notebooks. Two lined (yes, the lines are letterpress printed) and one blank
- total retail value US$50, we pick up the continental USA ground shipping

How to enter:
1. Become a follower on the 9SpotMonk blog
2. Comment on the post with an answer to this:
Q: What is the most interesting/quirkiest thing you own that has skulls on it? (You must leave a valid email address in the comment form for your entry to qualify.)
3. Double your chances to win by following us on Facebook.com/9SpotMonk

When does the contest end?
- Skulls contest ends, December 23, 2009 at 12:00 am EST

I'm the winner, what's next?
- One winner will be randomly selected and notified via email.

Good luck!

December Holiday Giveaway No. 2

9SpotMonk Letterpress 100% Recycled Mini Notebooks

The #2 series in our December '09 Giveaway!

What you will win:
- 2 each of our super popular and convenient Mini Notebooks in styles "Meet", "Research", "Grocery" and "Cash Log". One set to keep and one set to give!
- total retail value US$30, we pick up the continental USA ground shipping

How to enter:
1. Become a follower on the 9SpotMonk blog
2. Comment on the post with an answer to this:
Q: Do you think writing everything down would make your daily life more efficient? (You must leave a valid email address in the comment form for your entry to qualify.)
3. Double your chances to win by following us on Facebook.com/9SpotMonk

When does the contest end?
- Mini notebooks contest ends, December 18, 2009 at 11:59 am EST

I'm the winner, what's next?
- One winner will be randomly selected and notified via email.

Good luck!

[Custom Design] Hand Drawn + Letterpress

One of the few times where I am my own client. Birthday party invite for our daughter, theme was magic, show was complete with magician and the fattest bunny I have ever seen.

I only had a day to come up with the design, so I ended up doing hand lettering which was faster than laying out type or so I thought. Did the initial drawing on regular paper and then cleaned up areas that need more or less space or bigger or smaller letters. Final version before I whipped out the Sharpie to trace it was 7 separate pieces of tracing paper all taped to the light box.

Printed the invite letterpress on the Windmill with ink I had on the press from a previous job, PMS 200U red. Was a very easy job to print, no issues really. Got a nice deep impression without going through the back, which is key for me. I'm a fan of a deep impression but not a fan of it showing through the back.

[photo credit: 9SpotMonk]

Holiday Giveaway Part 1 - adding more!

We're doing a 4 part series of giveaways of 9SpotMonk product this month!

This week, we're giving away a half dozen holiday cards to each new follower of our blog!

What you'll get:
2 cards each of the designs you see in the photo, all snow flakes to celebrate the little snow fall we just had

The rules:
1. Subscribe to become a 9SpotMonk blog follower
2. Tweet: Hello @9SpotMonk I'm following your blog #giveaway

First 20 people who sign up for the blog and sends a tweet will win.
**We're adding 30 more for a total of 50 giveaways!!**

Giveaway ends Saturday night at midnight EST.

Good luck!

Santa's Early Christmas Gift

Our press mechanic John called one late afternoon last week said he had a gift for us, a Chandler and Price 10 by 15, complete with motor. I've been wanting a press like this for a while. Thought it would be nice to have a semi automated press in the studio for when jobs come in that demand less than what the Windmills have to give.

I'll be honest, we're not excited to clean this bad boy up - gloves, naval jelly, Simple Green, steel wool, etc. It'll need a major cleaning, it's got inches of dust and grime on it. Hopefully, after the holidays it will be clean and wired to electricity and then we can start testing the press.

Thank you John for the wonderful gift.

[photo credit: 9SpotMonk]
[tags: Chandler and Price, C&P, letterpress, press clean up]