cream city ribbon tour

I recently went on a tour of Milwaukee's very own Cream City Ribbon and I am more than anxious to share my experience!

Broadway Paper and Cream City Ribbon have a very intimate connection. The owner of Cream City Ribbon, Lorette Russenberger, bought her business in 1988 and was located at 181 N. Broadway, just a few doors down the street from Broadway Paper's current location.

Lorette decided to open Broadway Paper as an outlet to sell her ribbon in a retail environment. Her original intention was to open as a seasonal store during Christmas of 1988, but the response was so great, she kept it open year-round. It was only the second retail store located in the Third Ward and they developed a loyal following of customers.

In 1996, Linda sold the store and moved her production facility to a larger historic cream brick building close to Milwaukee's downtown. The rest is pretty much history... onto my tour!

Spools of cotton yarn are used to make Cream City ribbon. Each ½” wide ribbon is composed of approximately 52 strands of cotton yarn running parallel to one another.

The yarn is then put into the glue tank and the glue is used to bond the yarn together. This gives it it's curling and shredding capability.

The ribbon drying.

Cream City ribbon is produced from renewable, biodegradable cotton fiber, grown and processed responsibly in the USA with water based dyes and without chlorine bleaches. All of the inks that is used are soy based and non-toxic.


Cream City Ribbon is currently the only U.S. manufacturer of this unique product. Trademarked in 1995, Cream City Ribbon is the only environmentally friendly, American made ribbon on the market today.

Broadway Paper and Cream City Ribbon have lost touch a little bit over the recent years, but believe you me... the connection has been rekindled and I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing a lot more of their ribbon around here soon.

new! avie designs

I am so happy to announce that Broadway Paper now carries Avie Designs. Avie Designs is a small stationery company out of Decatur, Georgia and I first spotted them at The National Stationery Show. They have the most beautiful sheet wrap, paper bows, and even a 2012 desk calendar.



Their beautiful products hit our shelves yesterday and soon they will be up on the webstore (we are knee deep in prepping the webstore for holiday). Soon, very soon you will be able to have some of your very own Avie Designs!

moveable type truck re-cap

What a day! We had such an amazing time hosting Kyle and her moveable type truck! The truck pulled up right outside the store on Broadway and a few of our local Milwaukee food trucks joined us. If you haven't tried Tigerbite Food Truck or the Chubby Cheese Food Truck... you're really missing out!

The afternoon went by too quickly... we hosted the truck over the lunch hour and the timing brought out students and professionals alike. So great to see so many people excited about letterpress! We had a great turn out and a great mix of people. Most importantly, everyone loved making their own print to take home for free!


Leader Paper Products graciously donated all of the paper that was used for our event. What a treat! I'm hoping we can lure Kyle to stop again in Milwaukee on her way back West! A girl can dream, right?

Moveable Type Truck

We are so excited to announce that the Moveable Type Truck is coming to Broadway Paper! On Tuesday, September 6th the truck will be pulling up right outside of the store. We'll be hosting the Truck in the afternoon and I'm pretty sure there will be some of Milwaukee's finest food trucks on hand too (trying to keep with the truck theme)!
You might be wondering what exactly is the Moveable Type Truck? The truck is a converted a 1982 Chevy van turned into a fully functional letterpress print shop. Inside of this 1982 converted van is built-in cabinets and workspace, a sign press from the mid 20th century, and an 1873 Golding Official No. 3 tabletop platen press. It's pretty serious!



The Moveable Type Truck is on a nine month tour around North America and we are lucky enough to have made the cut! Check out what the Truck has been up to right here. Please come celebrate the timeless art of letterpress with us!

The Truck will be here on Tuesday, September 6th from around noon until 3 or so. The event is free and open to the public! Check out our Facebook invitation here! See you there!