1. A02 ‘Party Lama’

Well, it might not be the most beautiful drawing I ever made, and I guess it is kind of egocentric to choose a design of myself as the first one in my personal top 10, yes, I know, but i have my reasons. This card is on of the oldest cards of our collection. It still stands strong and even after all these years is one of the bestsellers of 2019. I don’t know how many Party lama’s we sold over the years in total, but it most be around 5000 times. Lots of lama’s partying, right? This lama also symbolizes my self-esteem when it comes to drawing and designing my very own cards. As you might know: I am not a graphic designer or illustrator. I am a sociologist I did not study sketching lama’s whatsoever. No problem at all, apparently, and when I look at this Party lama I know it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you did or did not study, what your degrees are, how fancy your drawing equipment is (this one is drawn on a very basic & cheap Samsung tablet with a pen we got for free) or how much time you spend on it (10 minutes? Maybe? Even less on this one? ). You earn 1000 of euro’s with a little creator like this Lama having a party.

2. C16 ‘Jij lekker dier’

This one has to have a very high place in my top ten. I am even thinking about getting it tattooed somewhere on my arm or something. Joachim made this ‘lekker dier’ (loosely translated: sexy beast) and somehow it makes me so happy every time I look at it. Joachim might not agree but for me it is the perfect drawing of a crazy little fox, the perfect amount of awkwardness versus skills. Or something that sounds like I know what I am talking about

3. C47 ‘I love you to earth and back’

There has to be at least one card with a blue gradient in my personal top ten of Studio Flash letterpress greeting cards, right? it became one of our key features: printing gradients. I love it, because the result is so beautiful. But I also love our gradients because it is part of our history as autodidacts. I am not an illustrator or graphic designer, and so isn’t my husband Joachim. And we even had no experience whatsoever with printing, especially not with letterpress printing. It is all due to Youtube and Google, many hours online and many hours of trial and error Joachim somehow mastered the printing part of our business. And it is mainly because of our naivety and open-mindedness we came up with printing these gradients. It is our very own technique based on our very own logical thinking and trying out new things.
So why this one with the aliens in space? Its a drawing by our co-worker Esther, and first of all I like the drawing itself. Secondly I really like the reference to the more cliche version of the quote used over here “I love you to the moon and back”. I like it that we came up with a different take on it, laughing a little bit with the over use of the original quote. And I really like the way the earth is almost invisible, it gives the images more depth and makes it more exciting.

4. A53 ‘Confettigirl’

The confetti girl, oh, she steals every heart! It just works, and I love the way the red of her little dress and shoes is not outlined in black. These little details make it into one of my favorites. And since this little confetti girl sells like hell, I guess I am no the only one loving her positive attitude!

5. Z34 ‘Sexy christmas’

I designed this one myself. #proud And I still like it. It’s inspired by an old Playboy cover, if I remember it correctly. I think it’s quite sexy and empowering at the same time. #newfeminism

6. Q02 ‘Happy baby – happy parent’

Oh. This one comes with a long story of how it felt for Joachim and me to become parents for the first time. And how we struggled with it the first months. And how sometimes we still struggle. I’ll skip to the best part: somewhere along the struggles we combined all of the well-meant advice into this simple diagram. Because that’s what matters the most. Oh, and i like the colors. Oh, and I like the fact that it doesn’t say happy baby – happy mommy. I hate it when it’s only about the mommies, like there are no fathers? Let’s just use the more gender neutral word parent ;).

7. F35 ‘Bring on the choco’

It should be my life motto. It isn’t. I need a reminder now and then. This card does the trick!

8. I16 ‘Cat on a grass machine robot’

I like e-ve-ry-thing about this card.I mean, a cat always makes you smile. And one of these grass machine robots, OMG, how funny are they? I don’t know how popular they are in other countries, over here in Belgium people tend to like a well mowed little lawn. Haha. It cracks me up every time I see such a small machine strolling around a lawn. I like the grumpy expression on the cats face combined with the party hat. And I definitely like how you see a line of mowed grass where the robot must have worked its automated magic.

9. C49 ‘Ti amo’

Joachim is not going to like this choice :). I know he is not that into this card, but I am. I like the overall result and I like the fact that we made it together. I drew the spagetti, Joachim drew the horses. And I think that turned out to be very romantic

10. Z51 ‘May all your pinterest dreams come true’

I am a huge Pinterest and Instagram scroller. Never ending Pinterests feeds with dreams and hopes fill my account. I virtually created many Pinterests dream lives, with beautiful houses, several wedding parties, perfectly styled little children, and always cute newborns who never poop or cry. I love the tensions between dreaming and creating your dreams. And how it depends on the lighting, photography skills and styling of your pictures ;). I mean: who didn’t try one of those dreamy pinterest ideas and totally failed at it? And when you did not fail, you took million pictures and posted them all over the place, right? At least I did. But if all your Pinterest dreams did come true, would it make you happy? I don’t think so. So this card comes with a sting, and that’s how I like it.

Nothing! We gained! A lot!
We won the Handmade in Belgium Award for our district (East-Flandres).
We met some really nice fellow makers (you can check other Handmade in Belgium Makers over here!),
got this beautiful award and made friends with Unizo.

But I think the best of all was: we had to pitch our company to a jury.
So we had to take the time to put a few things in words: our values, our story, our goals.

The pitch went well,
and we got some good questions afterwards from the jury that made us think even more about what we want to stand for.
By now I think if we would have to pitch our company again, it would be even more clear, more vision, and even more passion (is that even possible? I don’t know )

This pitch for Unizo gave us that little push of self-esteem we needed to get us further, to make this blog, to get on more stages in real life and virtual.
So thank you Unizo for this award,
and the label.
A label for Belgian Makers ==> loving it!

(photo credits: Unizo)

1. A54 ‘Cassette Fuck you’re old’

2. D12 ‘Washing line’

3. P06 ‘Dandelion’


4. A37 ‘I wish you…’


5. A31 ‘Happy….’


6. D18 ‘Alarm clock manager’


7. C06 ‘hearts’


8. C17 ‘I heart you’


9. A02 ‘party lama’


10. A58 ‘Stay wild’

Somewhere along the the way (we blame the Hallmarks of this world), greeting cards suffered reputational damage: too cliché, too loud (or pink! or blingy!) and not nearly original or creative enough.
So maybe you are like: selling greeting cards in our shop? Really?
Well, you shouldn’t!
At a time when we’re drowning in ordinary and meaningless text messages and emails, there is a clear countermovement of people who are looking for authentic, tangible carriers for their wishes and messages. They’re called: your customers!

And as all of the other products in your store, you should carefully consider choosing the right brand of greeting cards as well.
For it is in these details of the littlest, most underestimated products like a greeting card, you proof the quality, the stylish and intelligent look & feel of your store.

So what do you need to look for in choosing the right greeting card brand in your store?
Let me take the liberty of giving you some tips

– quality – go for luxe, handmade, artisanal, special printing techniques. Stay away from cheap, low quality, mass production
– originality – find a brand that has the right fit when it comes to humor, style, and colors. Choose a small & creative brand. Check their exclusivity policy.
– novelty – check if the greeting card brand you like, keeps their collection regularly updated and on trend. A wide selection of designs might help you to keep it fresh and renew your selection of cards from time to time.

We at Studio Flash really pride ourselves in making cards that are different from all the rest, both in regard to printing techniques and design.
If you’re looking for cheap stuff, we’re not the right match. But you ARE getting original designs, made by hand on our letterpress in Belgium. You’re getting quality, novelty, originality.
Only for shop owners with great taste, who have a clear idea about what they want and what they don’t want.

1. CO2 neutral

Our biggest goal this year, something we did not dive into before, is compensating the CO2 emissions of our entire company and private life. Since we do think our emissions will not be that exuberant, it is just not that easy to calculate it :). That’s the main challenge of this goal, I suppose: calculating our CO2 emissions of 2019. And how do we want to compensate this? By planting trees! Ourselves! Here in our ‘backyard’. Well, it is not our own back yard, it is the local communities school playground located at the back of our house/HQ.

2. Waste reduction

Compensating CO2 would be all for nothing if you don’t do your best minimizing it in the first place. One of our goals for 2020 is reducing our waste. We are working on something new to achieve this goal ….

3. Launch AFTRPRTY

Our new brand: AFRTPRTY (pronounced: afterparty). This brand will unite all of our upcycled and recycled products. We already make upcycled envelops & notebooks, and they are going strong! But that’s not enough. We are currently working on making completely new products out of our own paper waste and the waste of local restaurants and bars as well. Exciting, right?
Due date: Maison & Objet, friday 17th of January!

4. Exclusivity vs international growth

It is our policy to not work with big chain companies (and yes, we had to say ‘no’ quite a few times for this one), and we will continue this policy in 2020 of course! But we do want to grow a little bit more, so we can create way more fun & beauty :). That means: going international. And therefor you will find us at Maison & Objet this January and Showup this February! #goingforit

5. At least 50 new designs

In 2020 we will of course launch a lot of new designs for our letterpress cards as well! At least 50 of them, like we do every year. We are currently working on the first launch of 2020 and it looks goooooooooooooood!

6. Social Manifesto & Environmental Manifesto

These resolutions made us reflect a little bit on our company, our way of life, and how we want to do business and change the world a little bit at the same time. You know the feeling? Well, we are working on our very own Social Manifesto & Environmental Manifesto. More about that later on…

7. Flashy creativity for life!

Last but not least: we want to make 2020 into one big flashy creative party! Creating stuff, designing, making things, that’s what we are all about. That’s why we do what we do.
Let’s go!