projects and pups

in the midst of all of this baby prep, i received a letterpress printing request! i told my client that i was due soon, and thankfully, the news didn't scare her off. after all of the logistics were figured out, i'm ready to start working on her project. i'm so excited and am looking forward to sharing the results - although it might be a little while :)

i'm also mulling around another project - some letterpress birth announcements for the kiddo. i have a general idea of the design, but haven't committed it to plates yet since we won't know the details til after the baby is born (obviously).

the pups are being cling-ons. i think mia is more clingy than normal. i wonder if she can sense what's happening. i kinda doubt it. i do think that they are going to adore the baby. especially once the kiddo starts eating solid foods. i'm sure we won't need to buy napkins - the dogs will take care of vacuuming food bits.

phone blog attempt 2

i'm trying out a new photo app & blogging from my phone... let's see if this works!

below are some pics of one of the projects i'm currently working on. i handset some type to print a name plate for a guest book:

ink! thank goodness for my pantone chart...

handset lead type in 16pt century gothic

ta - da!

* it sorta worked. i can't format the posts from my phone, but that's okay. it is a much easier way to get photos uploaded without the hassle of e-mailing, downloading, then uploading...

i'm in love....

i was perusing some letterpress sites and came across this:

the adana 8x5 platen press
photo from caslon

and fell HARD. i want, no, NEED this press. it's only 33 pounds and full of awesome.

i sent an email to the company, inquiring about price. keep your fingers crossed for me.

tiny showcase of awesome

thanks to designlovefest, i was introduced to tiny showcase - the creators wanted a venue for artists to make some money with smaller works of art & for customers to purchase affordable pieces. each week, they pick a new tiny piece of art & have a limited edition of prints made.


cool things about tiny showcase:
1) there's a letterpress section!!
2) a percentage of each sale goes towards the artist's favorite charity

check out some of the gorgeous work:

"Tiny Boat on a Tiny Bottle" by sol linero

"August Migration" by tyler stout


"Inside Trip" by the little friends of printmaking

and my favorite piece (seen on designlovefest too):
"Homage to the Stamp" by Gavin Potenza

be sure to click on each image to see the additional shots of the prints - the pics really capture the beauty & depth of letterpress printing.

and since i received my 60+ pounds of french paper & my letterpress plates yesterday, i'll be cranking out some prints myself tonight! pictures to come...

kitchen cards!

there was a bit of a setback last week - i ordered paper to print this new set of cards & ups accidentally sent my order to canada. once the error was figured out, it had to clear customs to get back into the US. i contacted french paper and received an immediate response - they sent out a new box to me next day air. i am SO impressed with their customer service. and because they responded so quickly, i was able to print my cards for the show this weekend!

here's some pics of the printing:

there are five different designs on five different colors of paper

i used a mixture of silver & black ink - so there is a bit of sheen in the prints. the darkness of the ink really shows off the detail of the drawings.

my shop puppy :)

saved the best color for last

helper puppies - they were quality assurance for the day

this was a marathon printing day - 550 cards in over 5 hours. my arm is still a little sore...but its a huge relief to have them printed. i'm thrilled with the results and will post more once they are cut down and ready to sell!

recipe cards

since i've been cooking a bit lately, i thought "i should print some recipe cards!" i put together a card design - it'll be double sided & printed on some bright fun colors (yet to be determined). i'm planning on selling them in sets of 10.

here's the front:

and the back:

(the blue border was added to make the white picture stand out - it won't be part of the print)

so what do you think?

snowman card set

the new winter card set is finally done! these snowmen started as doodles and now they are gorgeous letterpress cards. check them out:

these 2 color cards were printed on french pop-tone paper in berrylicious.

the first color is a background of white snowflakes (hard to see in the pictures)

...and the second color is a soft blue.

they are folded 4 bar (3 1/2" x 4 7/8") notecards...

...blank inside, and come with a kraft paper envelope.

soooo who wants to buy a set? :) i hope you enjoyed them! i will be busy working on books & other goods for the shows this weekend...what will you be up to?

sneak peek

sorry for the late post! today (like everyday, it seems) has been busy...

i worked on a custom letterpress order for my friend christine - she wanted some thank you notecards printed with a blind (no ink) impression. i tested this by printing one page with no ink at all - the results weren't great. her logo & thank you were difficult to see...so i mixed up some white ink with a tiny touch of silver.

printing with this ink gave the impression more definition without looking like i used any ink. cool, huh?

the notecards are currently drying...once i get them all cut down & ready to mail, i'll show you the final results!

business cards!

the new business cards are done drying & ready to cut!

what do you think? i'm really happy with how they turned out and am glad i printed on the extra cardstock i saved from previous cards. sooooo anyone out there want to order some custom letterpress cards from me? :)

i was busy printing the new holiday cards over the weekend and am SO happy with the results! once they are dry, i'll take some pictures to show you all.

i've also been working on making books and thought i had about 60 left to make...but i was wrong. it's more like 90. plus jewelry boxes & a couple of photo album box sets. i'm hoping to get all of the book covers glued this week so i can focus on printing and binding for the next two weeks...but that's a stretch. especially since i still have to go to my day job. but on the bright side, i get to drink more coffee!!

business card printing

my press (which i've decided to name chester, after years of deliberation) had his maiden press run at his new home (the garage). chester & i had a couple of trying moments...but worked through them & basically rocked printing business cards. here's some (iphone) pics..

i originally planned to print only on stardream cover in aquamarine

but found some other stardream paper in vista (top) & aqua lagoon (middle) from previous business card press runs and decided to print them all

here's the first run in blue - i chose a brighter blue than i originally planned..

i had the printing plates made by boxcar press - who have awesome support & are very helpful

the stack of paper ready to go for press run 2

oooo pretty plum purple...

sweet!

printing went very well and i really enjoyed being able to print in our garage. i'm super excited about the new business cards and will post pictures once they are cut. they will take a few days to dry. i was also happy with how the ink colors came out on the three papers i used.

today is the big day...macbook pro is coming!

'puter & stuff

my big evil plan this week was to post a bunch of wedding pictures (we just got them in the mail!!) today...but i also thought my new mac would be here too. unfortunately, it is supposed to be delivered on monday and since the wedding photos are huge files, opening them basically stops my current laptop in its tracks. literally. so i will wait until my mac gets here, since i know it can handle crazy big files.

the paper & plates for the new notecards are on their way, so should have them by next week. i've also been making lots of books and will show you some new paper i just got in!

i haven't decided on what color to print the kitchen cards on...i was thinking of doing one color per design. i also wanted to have a colored background since the designs are simple. here's the color choices i was thinking of using:

left to right: orange fizz, lemon drop, gumdrop green, blu raspberry, grape jelly
(go here to see all of french paper's pop-tone colors)

thoughts? comments?

press is home

saturday morning, i woke up in a bad mood. like oober bad. i got up late, which meant that i was going to work late, had to stay there longer, then had all this other crap to get done, which meant i wouldn't start printing my business cards until the evening, when i wanted to get them done during the day. then i would have to go to my parents house, move a ton of stuff just to get to my press, clean up, set up...etc. obviously i was very grumpy. i complained to husband then left for work.

so what did the best husband in the world do?

he jumped into action! he rented a trailer, talked to our friend & my dad, drove over to my parents house & together they loaded my 1000 pound press on to the trailer. half an hour later...


my press is in our garage, unloaded & ready to start printing. how awesome is that??

my hubby is SO thoughtful :) it's reasons like this that make me so happy we got married. he's my favorite :)

business cards

i've been in the process of changing my name during the last month or so...and let me tell you, it's a long process. most of my list is complete, however, i'm now trying to tackle all of the items i need to adjust regarding my business. i had new stickers printed for packaging (which i'm honestly not terribly pleased with) and am working on a new design for my business cards. i am going to print in two colors (light blue/green & plum) on stardream chiara cover in aquamarine - i really love the sparkly shimmer of this paper.

here's what i came up with:


thoughts? reactions? comments? let me hear them! have a wonderful long weekend!!

invitations!

here's the long awaited invitation post! i actually tried making a photo box to take better pictures in...but that didn't go too well. so i'll try again later. i took pics of the invites on our counter instead (so the pic quality isn't the best), since it's taken so long to get these pics done.

i hand drew the designs and then scanned the drawings and cleaning them up in photoshop. i sent the files to boxcar press and they made photopolymer plates. i letterpress printed the invites in our wedding colors, red & aqua. it was my first time printing with photopolymer plates and am SO happy with the results. printing went so well, inking was even, and colors were vivid. i'm really looking forward to doing more printing this way.

outer enclosure

insert card

reply card

invitation set

hope you enjoyed seeing our wedding invitations!

business stickers

in an attempt to improve my product packaging, i decided to get some stickers printed. i am trying out vistaprint, which i heard about on etsy and jessica jones blog how about orange. i'm trying out a 1.5" round sticker to put on the bottom right corner of packaged (in plastic) books and on the back of my 5 pack notecard sets. i messed around in illustrator and here's what came out:


i blurred out my phone number because...well, i just don't really want to post my number on the interwebs. i was going for something simple and pleasant, and something that wouldn't detract from the bright paper on the book covers. so what do you think?

wedding invites

i've been slaving away on the wedding invites. ok, maybe not slaving, but i've logged quite a few hours on them thus far. i wanted to create something fun and a bit different from a traditional invitation, since we aren't exactly a traditional couple. i'm working on the designs right now - and will send them off to have letterpress plates made as soon as i'm done. hopefully we will have our location nailed down this week so i can finish the next part of the invitations! so here's the plan:

i'm going to use an A7 half-moon enclosure:

and print this design on it (in our colors, red & aqua):

then use this flat card to print addition info - like our full names, parents names, place, time & date - and slide this flat card into the enclosure:

i'm going to print a white 4 bar rsvp card and include this little envelope:

and put everything (enclosure w/ flat card, rsvp card & envelope) into this envelope:

bada bing bada boom WEDDING INVITES!

planning planning!

sorry i've been MIA. wedding planning is suddenly my second job :) bfff & i have made a lot of progress in just a week, with family & friends helping out SO much. it's really a lot of fun!

first thing i've actually accomplished - i ordered my dress & put down the deposit. and OMG it's going to be awesome. but it's also a secret so...no pictures til after the big day! besides, bfff reads this too. i do have to say that i'm ecstatic with my choice and that it is being made just for me. from scratch. no one else on the planet will have this exact same dress.

second major thing i've been working on - the invitations. as a printer, i couldn't let someone print our invitations. i wanted to design them myself. besides, i wanted letterpress invites and DAMN it's expensive! much cheaper to do it myself. i'll have to keep that in mind as i'm cursing at my press in the middle of the night while printing. LOL! i'll post some pictures once i get a more solid idea of the invites. i do know that they will be fire engine red & aqua blue!

coming up this week:
- we went out to a nice dinner friday night (just us) to celebrate the engagement...so pictures from our dinner!
- pictures of THE MOST AWESOME RING EVER!
- puppy pictures (of course)

talk to you soon!

boxcar base

with all of the oogling i've been doing at letterpress stuff, i've started to consider (again) buying this:

the AWESOME boxcar base

this is something i put in the bed of my press in order to print letterpress stuff. old school letterpress printing consisted of little tiny pieces of lead type, one piece for each letter, that are all "type high" (.918"). the new & more versatile way of printing to have plates made with whatever design you like and then sticking them onto this base, which then makes it type high. so i'll be able to get that embossed, beautiful imprint with having to find tons of lead type on ebay.

i've been considering this purchase for the past year and am probably going to commit to it in the next day or so. while i love the ability to carve linoleum blocks, i miss the impression of letterpress printing. plus, i've been wanting to try out a few things and come up with some new business cards and notecards with the tama press logo on the back. in addition to being able to print some amazing designs, i'll also have the ability to try my hand at custom invitations down the road. sooooo, who wants to be part of my first boxcar base project? (brandi, i'm looking at you! heehee)