Indie Girl Fun!

We had a wonderful time at the Blissful on Saturday for the Indie Girl Trunk show! We had so much fun hanging out with the other Indie Girls artists and getting a chance to talk to customers to get a new and different perspective on our work. Make sure to check out Abby's blog to see all of the other artists' work...its really beautiful. A BIG thanks to Abby & Debbie for inviting us and all their support throughout the event. And another BIG thanks to all the customers who came out to support local artists and who made this event so successful for us. Here's a little peak at what our display looked like on Saturday.

We will be working hard over the next couple weeks to get all of our new stuff on our Etsy shop (we already started this yesterday). In the meantime, if you see anything in the pictures above that catches your eye, shoot us an email at cantonboxcompany@yahoo.com and we'll give you all the details on it.

Indie Girl Preview

With the Indie Girl Trunk Show just days away...we thought we would give you a little preview of some of the things that you'll find there from the Canton Box Company! Make sure to stop by our spot at the Blissful on Saturday, June 27th and sign up for our mailing list...we will begin to send out updates and special offers soon! If you can't make it to the sale, but would still like to be on the mailing list, email us at cantonboxcompany@yahoo.com with your name, address and email and we'll make sure to add you to the list!

Ok - not to toot my own horn...but this AMOUR print turned out seriously cool. I will definitely be making one for our home.
Love Print - A reminder of what's most important

Le Marche aux Fleurs (the flower market) My favorite item so far...and Tyson and my first joint venture project.

Utility Drawer providing some display space for our Monogrammed Cards

You can expect lots of Keep Calm & Carry On prints in brand new colors and white frames

Numbers & Symbols print - a bit of an industrial feel

We will be debuting tons of new card & invitation designs....make sure to stop by and check them all out!

Splinter Shelves!

I am so excited that we will be able to bring some splinter shelves to the Indie Girl Trunk Show at the Blissful! We had been really up in the air on whether or not we would be able to make any in time. Tyson makes these shelves by "splintering" a piece of wood. The wood has to have enough imperfections so that the board can be broken apart. He was lucky enough yesterday to find a board that was perfect for making these shelves, so we will have not one shelf to take to Indie Girl, but several! Below are the one's Tyson has made in the past.

Creating, Creating, Creating...

So for the past week or so, I have been creating our new monogrammed note cards (see previous post) that we will be debuting at the Blissful's Indie Girl Trunk Show. These will sell in sets of 5 and I want to make sure that I have atleast two sets of each initial. So what this basically amounts to is a whole lot of stamping for me. And as much as I love these new note cards...I needed a little break today from them. I decided to take a few hours this afternoon and work on some new stuff. Here's what I'm most excited about...

These are in no way finished products...but I'm excited about the direction they are taking. I'm loving this new kind of paper (new for me anyways). Its kind of wrinkley and imperfect, but I like the way that makes the ink look.

For now I'm spinning ideas on how to mount these babies - I may be digging into Tyson's wood pile.

BIG (and exciting!) Announcement

We are SO excited to announce that we will be participating in the The Blissful’s summer event – The Indie Girl Trunk Show! For those of you not familiar, The Blissful is French inspired boutique located in Canton, Ohio and is one of my absolute favorite places to shop. In fact, I was so honored that proprietor, Abby Kerr, asked the Canton Box Company to participate that I don’t think I even read her entire email before responding back with my “YES!!!” The Blissful is filled with luxe European themed home décor, accessories and artwork that you really can’t find anywhere else. I could go on for paragraphs upon paragraphs about how much I love this store, but to understand how truly fabulous it is, you must visit the website for yourself and check out Abby’s blog.

The Indie Girl Trunk show is on Saturday, June 27th from 10-5. Until then, we are working like busy little bees getting things ready. We are making tons of new, never-before-seen, items from the Canton Box Company. These will be debuted at the trunk show and then go up for sale on our Etsy site shortly after.
Here’s a little preview of some of our new creations…

Alphabet/number wood stamps in industrial box

A variety of new french-themed gift tags

Tea Light Candle Holders made from reclaimed barn timbers

Monogrammed stationary

A Brief History on a Fabulous Print

The Keep Calm and Carry On framed print that we sell at the Canton Box Company is by far one of my favorite pieces of artwork. I recreated this poster after seeing a version of it on a t-shirt when I was visiting Detroit this past winter. I instantly fell in love with the phrase because I think it is so terribly relevant right now. The t-shirt I saw did not have the original British crown on it, but had an image of the beautiful Spirit of Detoit statue. It wasn't until I came home and started doing some research on the phrase that I learned the history of the Keep Calm and Carry on print.

So here goes...

In the spring of 1939, just a few short months before they declared war on Germany in WWII, the British government's Ministry of Information commissioned a series of propoganda posters in the effort to reassure and lift the spirits of the people of Britian. All the posters featured the stark white lettering on a red background with an image of the crown of King George VI. The first two posters, which read "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory" and "Freedom is in Peril" were sent to the printer in August of 1939 and displayed for the public in September 1939 - the same month that Britain entered the war. The third poster, "Keep Calm and Carry On" was meant only to be displayed during times of extreme crisis or invasion. Although over 2 million Keep Calm posters were printed, the poster was never officially released. Some posters may have found their way up on government walls, but for the most part the poster remained unseen until a copy was found in a box of dusty books over 50 years later.

Sadly, the original artist for all 3 series of posters is still unknown. We have recreated the original artwork along with many other colors and have them for sale here. All of the prints come framed with double matting. If there is a color you would like, but don't see - let me know and I will add it for you!