Every year I make a resolution to create a whole slew of greeting cards for the holidays, and every year I’m lucky if I can scrape together one postcard design to send to my own friends and family. Maybe it’s because I’m not really capable of getting in the mood for Christmas or Hanukkah in July, but by the time November rolls around and I finally think of it, there never seems to be enough time. Good thing I have my friend Allison to think of these things.

Allison Chapman runs Igloo Press, a lovely little letterpress shop in Worthington, Ohio. She called me up this summer and asked me if I’d like to start a line of letterpress cards with her—since neither of us had time to do both the design and the printing, it was a match made in heaven.

Collaborating when you have a couple thousand miles between you can be quite a challenge—especially when you’re trying to reinvent the wheel a bit. But Allison and I were on the same wavelength from the first moment, and it was so easy to leave the printing in her capable hands. Besides, her ideas for 3D pop-up cards turned out to be perfect for letterpress. Each of these cards is a kinetic greeting, with a unique folding structure that delivers the message in an unexpected way. And as always, the illustrations are created from hand-lettered type and hand-drawn patterns and imagery (as if you hadn’t guessed).

And for after the holiday gifts are opened, we threw a thank-you card into the mix as well. Instead of a pop-up piece, this card slides out of a die-cut sleeve to reveal the whole story.

All of these cards come with a standard A2 envelope, and are available either individually ($6.00 each) or in packs of six ($24.00 per set).

(Just FYI, we’re still waiting for the “skates” card to arrive from the die-cutter, so it’s not up in the shop yet. I’ll post it online as soon as I can get my hands on them in the next couple of weeks. If you’d like to pre-order, though, just shoot me an email.)

For more images and ordering information, visit the shop.

One last thing: many thanks to the wonderful Sarah Christianson for sweeping in with her professional lighting and photographing the cards for me! Happy holidays!