Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Holidays at Cypress...


We are very excited about the holidays at Cypress. We are super busy working on your holiday orders and they will all be arriving soon! Tiffany (above, left), or "T", as she is known here at Cypress, has been organizing and managing all of your orders. Rob (above, right), is making sure all of your orders are meticulously created and delivered. It's always a special time of the year and we want to wish all of you and your families a wonderful holiday and a very Happy New Year! From our family to yours, Cheers!!!! And thank you for another good year!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Iris Book & The DVD Folio


I love this combination of colors and images. This is one of my favorite wedding books photographed by Jose Villa. The Iris Book and The Folio were created with the light plum fabric. The Presentation Box was created with the ivory brocade fabric and dark gray ribbon. The plum, ivory and gray colors all compliment this beautiful wedding. Adding the folios make this a complete heirloom set all in one box!

If you need help choosing colors, don't hesitate to call us! We love to make suggestions. You can also send us or email a few images and we can make suggestions from the images too. As a boutique album company, we love that we get to have this personal contact and help you put your samples and orders together!

Images by Jose Villa

Friday, December 4, 2009

The C Collection 7x7 Presentation Box


This little box is perfect for 3.5x5, 4x5, & 4x6 prints. It's available in four colors or choose a custom color. You can also choose 10 museum board mats or 12 mounting boards. I love the portability of this box. It's small and lightweight so you can take it anywhere! This presentation box is great for children, families, bride getting ready, bride's favorites, best of wedding and vendors too!
Images by Gene Higa

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Cypress Album & DVD Folio



I love these images of The Cypress Album. This matted album is a timeless, sophisticated, hierloom album. There are many layout options and we can create specific layouts just for you! The pages have beautiful, naturally deckled edges and The Cypress Album comes with a Presentation Box to store and protect the album for many generations.

At Cypress we have built a reputation for customizing your products so they look exactly like you want them. So let us know if would like more (or less) options on your book that you don't see on our order form. We are always happy to create and give your album that special look that fits your images! We can also create and custom design different album styles.

Images by 6 of Four.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Song for Dena and Cypress...........

This morning I was greated with a song from A Bryan Photo that I just have to share. First, I will give you a little information before you listen. I have had the pleasure of working with the A Bryan Photo team for several years now. They are great photographers, very creative and I feel honored that we create all of their books for them. Bryan Johnson from A Bryan Photo was having one of his great workshops this week in Birmingham, AL. ( If you haven't been to his workshops, I highly recommend them.) I was set to speak at the workshop, but due to some unfortunate circumstances, I wasn't able to attend and our great Customer Care Specialist, Brian Arguijo, went in my place. Brian A. had a great time, but I was bummed that I couldn't be there as I had attended their workshop in the Spring 2009 and I knew it would be amazing. The A Bryan Photo team are not only great photographers, but well just listen................

http://iamtpain.smule.com/mysongs/uid/1/247090/?did=2515706

Thank you Bryan and Caleb!!!
You guys are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, November 13, 2009

We Love to Hear From You...

Here's a wonderful note that we recently received from Studio A Photography:

We got our first Cypress albums in the mail yesterday and they are absolutely fantastic. Thanks for taking the time to make sure that every detail was perfect. We couldn't be more impressed with the quality of your work and the friendliness of your staff. It's refreshing to work with people who care about what they do.
Sincerely,
Douglas & Amy
Studio A Photography

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A Great Gift...

Images by Yvette Roman Photography

Folios are such great gifts, especially for the holidays. They make a beautiful frame to place on a mantel and they fold into a nice little book. Last year I gave this 6x6 Tri-Folio to many of my family members as a gift for the holidays. Everyone loved it, including my kids Cy & Samara! The 6x6 is a great size that accommodates 4x6 prints vertically and horizontally. Folios are great for weddings too!



Monday, November 9, 2009

Another Great Testimonial...

We received this great testimonial and images of our presentation box and folio from Brigette at Belise Photography and thought we would share it with you...


Her note:
I just wanted to share some images I took of the beautiful Cypress Presentation Box. LOVE this product!
Sincerely,

Brigitte

Monday, October 26, 2009

Love This Testimonial...

We love to hear from you! Here's a delightful testimonial from a photographer and her wedding client!

Just got this from my client's dad. He wanted to make a scrapbook for his daughter and her new husband for an "afterglow" of the wedding present...we talked about the artisan, but he had a bit of sticker shock, so we went for the "C", custom made in hazelnut...here is his email to me...
Thanks ever so much for making me look so good...

Yvette Roman Photography


Thank you so much!
All I can say is WOW...WOW...and WOW!!!
Their work is absolutely amazing...and I can't believe the artistic quality...and this is only their "C Album".
Thanks for the suggestion for going with the lesser expensive album selection...It will do just fine ...to say the least. The kids will just love it!
Warmest Regards

Monday, October 19, 2009

Cypress in New York October 22-24



Come see us at PhotoPlus October 22-24. The trade show is located at the Javits Center the hours are 10-5pm on Thursday and Friday, 10-4pm on Saturday. We will be showing our new Folio Suite, our new booklet, great new samples, and more!

Also, join us for Cypress tapas night on Thursday (see current email)! Meet other photographers, bring & show your favorite Cypress product, see some great new Cypress products and eat some yummy tapas!! We hope you can join us for this fun night!
RSVP to brian@cypressalbums.com

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

2009 Holiday Deadlines


The holiday season is quickly approaching and we are gearing up for a great season! In preparation, we have set the following deadlines to ensure delivery by Christmas:

Nov. 23- The Cypress Album, The Iris Book, The Juniper Book, The Presentation Box Please note this deadline does not include printing. For printing services with any of these albums, we must receive by Nov. 9.

Dec. 4- The Artisan Book, C Albums, The Folio
Please note this deadline does not include printing. For printing services with any of these albums, we must receive by Nov. 18.

All orders will be shipped via FedEx Ground or Express Services. As the holiday approaches, we will use express services at our discretion to ensure holiday delivery. Due to the high volume of orders, we recommend ordering as soon as possible in order to avoid the high cost of express shipping. Please note that our deadlines are the last possible date that we can receive the order to guarantee delivery before Christmas.

Please write, "Must Have For Christmas," in the Remarks section of your order form. This will let us know that you need your order shipped by Dec.22nd. Rush orders will be taken based on availability after the deadlines have passed. There is a 50% surcharge for all rush orders.

Please contact us with any questions. We look forward to a great holiday season!

Dena & The Cypress Team

Monday, October 12, 2009

Cypress Mini-Folios Are Here!

We Love Mini-Folios!

We are so excited to announce that beginning today, we will start shipping Mini-Folios for two weeks or until supplies last. Place your order now, as they will go quickly! If you're not familiar with our Mini-Folios, we create these special little Folios once and sometimes twice a year. Due to the large amount of time it takes to create these special Folios, we make one big batch of them. They come in three sizes, have Black or Natural mats, and each opening size is 2x2". Mini-Folios are only available in an assortment of colors and make great gifts for clients, vendors, or as wedding favors! These special Folios are especially great for the holidays. Everyone loves them! Order today, they will sell-out quickly.

Available in three sizes:
Double (set of 5)
Quad (set of 3)
Hex (set of 2)

Please contact us for pricing and to place your order at 818.551.0023.
Please note that Mini-Folios are only available in an assortment of colors and we cannot guarantee specific color requests.

Monday, September 28, 2009

A Perfect Set...






We created this great set of Iris Books for J Wilkinson Co in Texas. They chose an 8x8 Iris Book for their engagement photos and a 12x12 Iris Book for their wedding photos. We also added custom white pages, a cover image on each album and hand-set imprinting. The two albums were simply beautiful! The couple will cherish these two handcrafted heirlooms for many generations to come!

The Folio Suite



Here's some new images of our Folio Suite! This new feature houses a 5x5 Folio or a DVD Folio on the inside cover of The Presentation Box. The DVD Folio can accomodate up to three DVD's or one matted image and one DVD. Matted images can be 3.5x5, 4x5, and 5x5. The feature can be added to any Presentation Box 10x10 or larger, the Medium and Large Cypress Album, and The Iris Book, 10x10 or larger. We love how The Folio Suite integrates the Folio and creates a complete heirloom in one Presentation Box!
Wedding Images by Di Bezi Photography

Friday, September 11, 2009

Cypress Featured...



We are so excited to be have The Iris Book and Presentation Box in this publication. A special thank you to Lisa Lefkowitz of San Francisco for talking about Cypress Albums in her interview! See her interview in the current issue. You can also enlarge the image by clicking on it.
Thank you again Lisa!









Monday, August 31, 2009

My Favorite Album...



Yes, it's my family album! I love this set so much! We created an 8x8 Iris Book, Custom 4x6 Proof Box, & a 6x6 Tri-Folio with Chocolate Brown and Ice Blue Fabric. Yvette Roman photographed our family and it was so much fun. With my daughter, 5 1/2, and my son, 2 1/2, anything can happen, and it did.

As we all began playing, the kids decided to "dress-up" and they decided to dress-up mommy and daddy too! Within seconds mommy was dressed as a witch and daddy was a princess! The day ended with a family portrait of us piled on top of each other laughing on the sofa. Yvette really captured a normal day in our lives and my husband and I are so happy to have this set of great images! As my daughter gets ready to start school again and my son starts preschool, I can't stop looking at this album and seeing how much they have grown so quickly.

In May/June of this year we created duplicate books for both grandparents as gifts for Mother's and Father's Day and they were speechless. They are still talking about these albums today!
Thank you again Yvette!!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Another Great Color Combination...



This Presentation Box, Folio, and Artisan Book combination is elegant and sophisticated. The set is created with Platinum Fabric and Teal ribbon. The Artisan Book makes a great album or guest book. I love this complete set of products! It will certainly highlight your lifestyle images.

The images are by Yvette Roman. I love the matted image with the bride's hair flowing down. It creates these beautiful, soft lines in the image while her face gently peeks through her hair. Matting images is a great way to highlight your favorite images. We now stock the silver easels too!









The Artisan Book




Here's a great album that we recently created. The images are by Susie Q. Varin and are mounted in The Artisan Book. Although it's a self-mount album, we can also mount the images for you for a small mounting fee. The Artisan Book above shows the optional clean, crisp, vellum between the pages. I really like the look and feel of this album with the vellum pages. The vellum is a heavyweight vellum and it isn't easily creased. I also love the colors of this album. The light plum (BC10) fabric with cranberry ribbon (custom color) is simply delicious!
We do keep a few of these albums in-stock, so if you need one right away, call us!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Playfully Innocent...




These are two of my favorite images of the 5x5 Iris Book!
Images by Jose Villa
Product Images by Yvette Roman






The Cypress Album, Understated Elegance


The Cypress Album is the ultimate in elegance & style. This matted album is meticulously handcrafted with a fine attention to detail. Every bride and groom will want to relax and reminisce for many years with their Cypress Album!

Dena Speaks at a Workshop...

In July, I had the pleasure of speaking at Yvette Roman's workshop in Venice, CA. I really enjoyed talking about business, marketing, albums, and getting to know photographers and their specific businesses. It is always great to share business ideas and approaches and see how those ideas can work for each individual business.

Business is constantly evolving and every business has to continue to evolve in order to sustain itself. I think this is the exciting part. I really enjoy reinventing, trying new approaches, and designing new elements and presentations. This is often the most challenging aspect of business as well. Workshops can stimulate ideas and offer different perspectives that energize you and your business. I highly recommend going to at least 1-2 workshops every year!

Come join us at Cypress, August 17th, at 2:30pm for a one-hour Marketing Session and Ice Cream Social. More info coming soon! RSVP required.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Another Great Feature...

A special thank you to Stevi Savage, of Avery House Creative in Chicago, for sending us this wonderful feature of their studio and our albums! It's really great!
http://blog.averyhouse.net

Thank you again, we love it!

You can also view our new Cypress Video, coming to our website soon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX5k6OiPiqU

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Sharing Ideas & Experiences...

As many of you know, I spoke at a great workshop by A Bryan Photo earlier this year. I met really great people and had such a wonderful time. I also love to talk about business. One of the photographers I met was Kallie Buckmaster from Florida. Kallie has posted this great blog:

http://dkbuckmaster.blogspot.com/2009/05/cypress-albums.html

The posting also shows our company video that will soon be on our website!
Thanks Kallie! We love it!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Introducing the Folio Suite...





The Folio Suite
Beautifully Designed and Hand-Crafted




The Folio Suite is elegantly hand-crafted and designed to hold a Folio inside the Presentation Box. The Folio is created as a DVD Folio or a 5x5 Folio that can accommodate 3.5x5, 4x5 & 5x5 images. The Folio Suite can be added to any 10x10 or larger size Presentation Box. This addition will give your clients a complete set designed within one product. The Folio Suite is designed for Album Presentation Boxes and Matted Print Presentation Boxes! Everyone will love this exclusive, patent pending, Cypress design.


Please contact us for more information and pricing at info@cypressalbums.com or 818.551.0023. The Folio Suite can also accommodate larger size Folios for some of our larger boxes.

Cypress Gathering in New York!


Images by A Bryan Photo

Cypress is Coming to New York June 24th!

Visit with Dena and other photographers at the Cypress Gathering in Chelsea.
See some of our latest products, new samples, and have some great conversation.
The Gathering will be held in a loft in Chelsea.

158 8th Avenue (between 17th & 18th)
1-4pm
Due to space limitations, please RSVP to
tiffany@cypressalbums.com
or call us at 818.551.0023

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

A Special Album

Image by Gene Higa

     We have put together a special offering for this great album.  The special offering of the C Album includes the choice of any of the three fabrics shown:  Hazy Blue, Light Taupe, and Black.  This self-mount album comes with 30 pages/60 sides without parchment between the pages.  The number of album pages can be customized.  The black pages are made from heavyweight fine art paper.  Images can be attached using a double-sided acid-free tape.  We recommend using the Scotch ATG tape gun for quick application of your images.  This C Album makes a great proof book, kids album, portrait album or parent album.   Contact us for more information and special pricing!  Available for a limited time only, ships in 2-3 days!

phone:  818.551.0023

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Cypress Gets Razors.....


  
     After visiting the A Bryan Photo studio in Birmingham, Alabama last month, I was convinced  to get some Razor scooters at Cypress.   All of us love them at Cypress!  
     After a great lunch meeting, Yvette Roman and I decided to take spin!  I highly recommend the scooter, they are great for a break in the middle of the day or to go pick up some lunch.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Updated Order Forms

     We have updated all of our order forms to accommodate some additional sizes and details. Cypress order forms are easy to use and download.  Simply log-in on our website and select the desired product under "Collections."  Order Forms and detailed information can be selected at the bottom of the page.  Fill-in the form and fax or email to us.
     Our newly updated forms will expedite your order.  Please contact us with any questions.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Special Projects-Cypress at the White House

 


     We enjoy working on special projects at Cypress.  We consult, design, create a prototype, and send it to you for approval.  We just finished this custom presentation box project for an international gallery.  
     
     For this project, we created 25 Presentation Boxes to hold fine art prints donated by well-known artists and sold at a fundraiser for President Obama's campaign.  We used a narrow ribbon to lift the prints and integrated a piece inside the box lid to compress the prints in the box in order to prevent movement.  We created this special set of boxes to hold a set of the prints for President Obama himself and the artists who donated the prints.  

  


Cypress On Twitter!

    We have just joined Twitter!  We hope to give everyone a little more insight into Cypress and some of my daily experiences at our creative company.  Join us at www.twitter.com and enter CypressAlbums and send us a tweet!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Jose Villa, Cypress, and Dreaming...

Take a few mimutes today and visit Jose Villa's blog. We have joined Jose in making a special offer to get you started this Spring! Dream about what your favorite photo assignment would be and send it to Jose. Be sure to visit his blog by May 11, 2009.
Go to: http://josevilla.bigfolioblog.com/

Enjoy!

Monday, May 4, 2009

A Note From Rob, Cypress Studio Manager

As many of you who have visited our bindery can attest to, we take the idea of our products being handmade very seriously. In the first of an ongoing series of blog entries centering on the creation of our products, we’re giving you a glimpse into the process of one of our most popular items: The Folio.

Creating a Folio begins with the chosen fabric and ribbon being hand-cut and inspected. Next, the panels are glued down in a double, tri, or quad formation based on your specifications. After the panels are secured to the fabric, the ribbon and fine art paper are added to each panel. The Folio is then put into one of our Oxford wooden book presses for a minimum of 24 hours.

The next day, the Folio is removed from the press, where the fabric and ribbon are checked again. If requested, custom imprinting is added. Finally, the mats are individually hand-cut and glued into the Folio.



The construction is now complete. The Folio then goes to our shipping department, where it is thoroughly inspected one last time to ensure that everything was made to the specifications provided. The ribbon is trimmed and tied into a bow. The Folio carefully wrapped in vellum and sent to you.

As with all of our products, the Folio utilizes the skills of our highly-trained Artisans. Every detail is meticulously constructed. Each mat is carefully hand-cut. Every product is carefully wrapped and delivered to you.

That wraps up this month's in-depth entry on the Folio. Next month, we'll take an in-depth look at our signature product, the Cypress Album!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Ultimate Personalized Presentation


     At Cypress we go out of our way to help you personalize your clients albums and boxes. Anytime custom imprinting is chosen for your products, we imprint a special card and place it on our vellum packaging to personalize the product for you.  This unique touch is a complimentary service at Cypress when choosing custom imprinting.  When your client receives their album or presentation box from Cypress, they will know it's something extra special.

Take a look below.....
A special thank you to Cory Ann Ellis for sending us these great images!







     You can visit Cory Ann Ellis at www.acellis.com