friends, family, customers & collaborators,
as we wrap up the holiday season, i want to thank you so much for supporting my letterpress dream this year! i’m thankful for each and every purchase, kind word, like and share. you are the reason i can keep creating and selling my letterpress goods. this year has been a roller coaster but you stepped up to let me know, you too believe in the magic of snail mail.

thank you, my heart is full.

i hope you have some time to reflect on this year and take pride in how you showed up for all the small businesses and your community. we’re here because of you, every purchase you make is a vote for what businesses you want in your neighborhood, city and state. thanks for keeping us around.

warmest holiday wishes to you all! i hope you have a very healthy and happy 2022, here's hoping this is the year we all get it right.

-xo, a.

p.s. please note the brick & mortar will be closed friday, december 24th 2021 thru january 6th 2022. see you after the 6th!

Holiday Show of Hands show is back this year! Once again, it's virtual. That means you can shop from the comfort of your home or work or your friends home, we don't care, just come shop!

Unlike in person events, there is no time limit. You can literally shop for 31 hours straight. That's right! The show runs from Saturday, Novemebr 20th 10am to Sunday, November 21st 5pm. That gives you 31 total hours to peruse all the amazing makers and goods. Plus, many vendors, like me, keep their show coupon code going until 11:59pm, giving you and additional 6:59 minutes to shop. If you're keeping track that's 37:59 minutes to take advantage of our SOH promo! This year there are 90 vendors. So head over to the Show of Hands vendor page and start making your shopping list.

Almost 60 vendors are offering exclusive products. That means you can only buy these goodies on their online shop during the show. Keep in mind these are limited edition, you need to shop early to get the best selection and secure your exclusive goodies.

This year we're offering THREE exclusives just for the show. We're bringing back our Chicago notebook paired with two Le Pens, in Chicago colors, of course.

We're also offering an exclusive Chicago penpal set which includes Chicago flag notecards and a Chicago bic clic pen.

Our third exclusive is our 2022 wall calendar and clip with our blank paper inspired set of 5 foldover cards. Again, these are all limited quantities and only available while supplies last or until Sunday, November 21st, whichever comes first.

For local residents, we'll be offering order pickup. This saves you the added cost of postage and stress that goes along with shipping. No need to keep refreshing that tracking number over and over. Instead, select pickup under the shipping options, we'll send you a note when your items are ready and you can stop by during our regular store hours. Easy peasy!

You may have noticed I mentioned a SOH promo. Yep! We're offering an exclusive discount code for SOH shoppers. You have to check out the SOH website at 10am Saturday to get our code and all the the other vendor's promo codes too.

As part of the virtual market, Emily, the creator of Show of Hands and Orange Beautiful will be hosting six Instagram live interviews with makers throughout the weekend. Be sure to follow @showofhandschicago and tune in Saturday at 11am and Sunday at 10am to hear from makers. We'll be live with Emily at 10:30 Sunday, see you there!

Mark your calendars! Set your alarms! 10am Saturday, November 20th to shop 90 makers and kick off your holiday season.

holy cow!

what a year 2020 has been. i don't think any of us were prepared for this year. everything looks and feels difficult this year. that includes small business saturday, historically our biggest sales day of the year. in compliance with the cdc guidelines to allow social distancing, we have limited capacity, which makes hosting a small business saturday event challenging, to say the least. our number one priority is for everyone to remain safe and healthy. we've been brainstorming ideas of how to make sure anyone who wants to, can shop with us on small business saturday. 

so we thought, instead of focusing on just the one saturday after thanksgiving, let's open it up to the entire month of november. yay! to help you shop small during a pandemic holiday season, we're taking the idea of small business saturday and expanding it to last all November! we didn't want our customers to have to wait 'til after thanksgiving to start shopping and supporting your local card shop. after all, we turned 16 this year and can't think of a better way to celebrate than to share some love with our customers. so stay tuned because every week in november we'll be offering 16% off in-store promotions. it's gonna be amazing, and we'll highlight a specific category each week. you guys deserve an entire month of specials and we're happy to help. 

below is a sneak peek of what will be on sale this month, follow us on Instagram @afavoritedesign to see when!

- calendars & planners
- pens 
- greeting cards 
- journals 
- ornaments 
- gift wrap 

shop early! shop local! shop often!

Small Business Saturday is November 30th and we're excited to share our Holiday Goodies with you! Mark your calendars. It's our first official Small Business Saturday with a retail space and we're gonna do it up just for you - our customers!

In the past we've ran specials on our website, which is fine but it's so much more fun to come see the product in person, touch the impression of letterpress printing and see our space. As always we'll have all our Handmade Letterpress Greeting Cards available. Plus we have lots of goodies from other companies we sell that aren't on our website; Journals, Planners, Calendars, Ornaments, Office Supplies and Specialty Pens, perfect for gift giving or recieving.

This year, I'm sharing my Vintage Holiday Collection. I believe sharing is caring and it's time to share some of my many vintage holiday treasures. You can purchase amazing vintage ephemera, gift wrap, greeting cards, stickers, decorations and more collected through many years. All are vintage which means once they're sold out, you may never see another again. 

We just released our exclusive Chicago themed gift wrap. It's adorable and already a hit, we won't be reordering for the season so come get it while you can. To compliment our gift wrap we're selling ribbon by the yard, we want to help make your packages perfect! As always we're offering our vintage gift wrap by the yard, some of the wrap we have was used at the iconic State Street Marshall Fields. That's right, a little piece of Chicago History could be on your gifts this season.

Join us on Small Business Saturday from 10am to 6pm
We'll have lots of exclusives plus:
• Holiday Cookies & Refreshments
• First Look at our Holiday Shop
• Free Gift Wrapping on Purchases
• Print your own sheet of gift wrap on an antique press

The more you buy, the more you save!
10% off $20-49
15% off $50-$99
20% off $100+

Plus a Free Gift with every purchase (while supplies last)
Discounts valid on 11/30/19 only
May not be combined with any other offer
One gift per person

Stop by Small Business Saturday and all season long!
Open Thursdays 11am - 6pm   Fridays & Saturdays 11am - 5pm