An Interview with Motormouthpress, LLC -- Ice Cream Greeting Card Designer Extraodinaire!

In my search for note cards with ice cream for the Sweet Notes and A Contest With Sweet Rewards entry, I hit jackpot. I had really been craving some letterpress ice cream notes and came across Motormouthpress, LLC. Such a variety of ice cream (and other food related cards)...I was in heaven!

Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to separate this from the original post, and emailed Laurie of Motormouthpress to see if she would do an interview with me. Lucky for us all, she agreed! Without further ado, I bring you Laurie!

And when I am done with this post, I am off to shop at Motormouthpress! Can't wait!

Scoopalicious: Is there anything you want to tell your lovely fans to start off?
Motormouthpress: Well, if you didn't guess it already, Motormouthpress, LLC specializes in food-themed stationery and cards that double as mementos. We call these cards our Specialty Line. Our Postercard is an example of one of these cards (see below). For those of you who already figured this out already, here's a tidbit that we haven't mentioned yet. Our website is currently undergoing a redesign. Expect a sweet new appearance with easier navigation and new cards to boot! If you want to join out email list, please submit your email on our contacts page at www.motormouthpress.com.

Scoopalicious: Are you the founder/sole creator of these cards? How do you choose the subject matter?
Motormouthpress: I am the founder and sole creator of these cards, except for the Let's get Gnawty card. This one was designed by my friend, Brittany Powell. All of my illustrations are original designs. I am influenced by sweet treats of all kinds. I love how they are displayed and how they make your taste buds dance when you eat them.

Scoopalicious: Are all your cards letterpress? If not, how do you decide which are going to be letterpress and which will be offset?
Motormouthpress: I carry both letterpress and offset lithography printed cards. As far as deciding which gets what, I usually let the design tell me as I create it. This may sound ethereal but, it is part of my creative process.

Scoopalicious: Any plans to expand to more retail stores in the future? (I can see your stuff at the Paper Source in an instant!)
Motormouthpress: Yes, my goal is to reach as many food and stationery lovers that I can through out the world. So ifyou all have any retail store suggestions, I would love to hear about them at info@motormouthpress.com

Scoopalicious: What is your favorite dessert?
Motormouthpress: I don't have one in particular, but my Grandma's blueberry cobbler with a scoop of Breyers Vanilla Bean at the top.

Scoopalicious: Do you print the cards yourself?
Motormouthpress: I am trained in all the print processes that I use, which makes working with local printers a easy and exciting.

Scoopalicious: How did you get started in the card business?
Motormouthpress: Serendipitously. A colleague invited me to design some greeting cards. I really enjoyed it, and wondered if it was possible to do it professionally.

Scoopalicious: Did you go to school for art/design?
Motormouthpress: Yes, I earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking.

Scoopalicious: I notice you sell note cards, notebooks and teeshirts in your store (I am not missing anything, am I?)
Motormouthpress: Nope.

Scoopalicious: One of the coolest things you make are your poster cards. This is a totally creative and unique idea that has so many layers and aspects to it, and practically guarantees that the recipient will not throw away your cards (though in my book any of your cards would find a place on my wall!). Anyhow, can you tell us a little about these cards and how you came up with the idea for these? Any plans to make ice cream poster cards?
Motormouthpress: The Postercards are what actually inspired me to become a Stationery and Greeting Card Designer. It encompassed everything that I hold dearly about graphic design folded into one greeting card. It is a memorable and engaging design that not only sends you a greeting but leaves you with a memento.

You have a cute image on the front that leads into a greeting or place for you to write. Unfold the a second time, and it shows a recipe to share. Unfold it all the way, and it reveals a poster of the visual instructions of the recipe and you and your friend making the recipe together. It is a double layer story. One is the greeting and sharing of the card itself, and the second is the card acting as a memento and the memories it may evoke.

The idea of the Postercard came from the desire to create a card that someone would cherish and save rather than recycle. Sometimes, it is hard to find a card that says exactly you want, and sometimes you don't know really what to say. This card resolves both these issues.

Scoopalicious: Any plans to make ice cream poster cards?
Motormouthpress: I would love to do an ice cream Postercard; but any new Postercards most likely won't appear until 2009.

Scoopalicious: Do you have a best seller?
Motormouthpress: No, I actually have several. The most popular are the Letterpress Birdies and Ice Cream Sandwiches and Bars followed by the Sweet Treats Line of Cupcakes, and Ice cream Sandwiches.

Scoopalicious: What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Motormouthpress: I don't really have a favorite; it is too hard to choose, but right now I like coconut or coconut praline.

Scoopalicious: What is your favorite ice cream treat?
Motormouthpress: I don't really have just one. I have favorites. I like hot fudge brownie sundaes, push-ups, dreamsicles, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cone sundaes, malts, and ice cream cookie sandwiches the most.

Scoopalicious: Your company is located in San Francisco, yes?...do you have a favorite ice cream spot to go when you want that perfect scoop?
Motormouthpress: I usually go to Maggie Mudd's because they offer Vegan Ice Cream. I am lactose intolerant. But if I pop a few lactose pills, Bi-Rite Creamery makes a killer peach pie sundae in the Summer.

Special thanks to Laurie for answering all of our questions!

All images © Motormouthpress, LLC.

And I'll leave you with a mouthwatering image of raspberry fudge swirl and the detail of the little girl...(and, I suppose, some poetry.)

Sweet Notes and a Contest with Sweet Rewards

Last fall I wanted to write some notes on ice cream note cards, and I had a heck of a time finding anything I was really excited about. Since then I am constantly on the look out for nice ice cream stationery to say "Thank you for the nice ice cream scoop" or "So glad you came over to chat over ice cream." Cupcake cards, as beautiful as they are, are popping up all over the place, but, my frozen treat friends, ice cream cards aren't so easy to come by.

I found a few cute cards on Etsy as well as some more commercial products, but the pickin's, though wonderful, are slim.

It was these cards on the right by Chronicle Books that I ended up using last fall in my search for ice cream notes. This box of twenty note cards (five designs repeating four times each) features ice cream signs along the highway taken by San Francisco based photographer Troy M. Litten. These cards remind me of summertime drives, pulling off the highway for a spontaneous ice cream treat.

As a lover of stickers and ice cream (I know, what am I, six?) I was thrilled to find the cards at left by Potter Style, an imprint of Random House. The blank ice cream cards work wonderfully on their own, but you can add some flare by sticking strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate chips and things of the sort all over the cards. Luckily, they don't have sprinkle stickers, so you don't have to stick teeny sprinkles one by one! [I also found these on buy.com, amazon.com, and many other places after doing a google search on "ice cream note cards".]

Seasoned Etsy member Marilyn Patrizio has some super fun ice cream cone notes in her Etsy shop. What could be more fun than a smiling ice cream cone? You can buy them singly or as part of an assorted set, or if you just want to stare at those little faces all the time and not send them away, you can also buy the cones on the cover of a notebook.

Canadian artist Rachael Herbert of Rubyfaz on Etsy also puts a smile on our faces with her smiling ice cream cones. Whether you want to write someone a short short note, or add an adorable gift tag to a package, Rachael's mini cards are just the answer. Rachael's website is also beautifully designed and features some great work, and her blog is super fun as well. I was just so enamored with today's posting of Flossie.



* C O N T E S T *
Reply to this post with a link to your own great ice cream stationery find and you will be entered in a random drawing for a coupon for a free pint of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. Send all entries by next Monday, February 4th and be sure to include an email so I can contact you if you are indeed the winner!