LOCAL Houston | The City Guide December 2017 | Page 48

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE
SEASON’S GREETINGS
THIS CARD SHOP DRAWS ON HOUSTON FOR INSPIRATION
“There are about 81 designs on the shelves now,” says J.C. Woods, owner of Anvil Cards
in Rice Village, of the store’s greeting card display. Every card is designed by him and printed
locally (an antique letterpress is on its way to the store) drawing on local themes, including the
Houston Astros, Tex-Mex, Houston landmarks (the Astrodome shows up more than once) and
other ideas that strike a creative spark with him. The store also features Houston-centric T-shirts,
gifts and jewelry by local craftspeople, with different designers rotating through each month.
Woods even does custom orders if you have a design in mind. It’s a one-stop shop for local
shopping…they also offer stamps and shipping to make your life easier.
In a former life (and continuing into his current one), Woods was a marketing guy with more
than a decade of experience working with clients to produce original creative solutions that
generated real business results – think collateral and web design, event production, trade show
exhibits, etc. It’s that combination of left brain-right brain skills that has allowed him to grow
Anvil Cards from an online store and pop-up presence – complete with a tricked-out Anvil Jeep
– to a full line brick-and-mortar headquarters on busy Bissonnet St. The cards are also available
downtown at LAUNCH HTX, Phoenicia Specialty Foods and the Hilton-Americas gift shop, as well
as other stores throughout the area.
Woods and his wife, Amy, still do local markets and pop-ups around town, with their aforemen-
tioned Jeep, to reach as many people as possible. As Woods says, “We make cards because
cards make people happy. All Anvil Cards cards contain paper and love. Give cards, give love.
Give often.”
www.AnvilCards.com
11.15.2017
5:57pm
By Tim Moloney
48
L O C A L | 12 . 2017
| Photography by Collin Kelly
12 . 2017 | L O C A L
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