Blind Debossed Flower Stationery

The old timers in letterpress would cringe if they knew how I cleaned my press. I use a more household friendly method which includes baby oil and dawn. The only downside to this method is that it takes forever to clean my press - 30 minutes to an hour sometimes. I haven't worked on my press in what feels like weeks, and with the little time I'll have this weekend, (one of my husband's friends from the Marine Corps will be staying with us!) I decided to work on my press last night, and gave blind debossing a try.

This was my first attempt at blind debossing, and I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it. It's a printing method which leaves an impression without any ink. It gives it a subtle yet delicate look, and I'm really happy on how my flower stationery cards turned out! A few of my favorite ladies will be receiving these in a few days!  I printed them with two different flowers - a Chrysanthemum and Peony - and then had to have a pop of color, so I paired them with bright, springy colored envelopes.

An Assortment of Goodies!

Remember the Blue Thank You cards I posted about last week that I made for a bride-to-be?  Well, her sweet MOH wanted to surprise the bride at the bridal shower with some more of my handmade thank you cards!  I was so honored that she wanted to purchase some of my cards. As a thank you for ordering my thank you cards, I gave her an assortment of letterpress goodies - a happy birthday card, some love/valentine day cards, and some of my favorite to and from tags in pink and orange! I accompanied each card with a coordinating color envelope and different color baker's twine for the tags!

 

More Blue Thank You Cards

Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a great start! This past weekend I was a busy bee in my little loft studio working on my biggest order yet! (By the way, it's so great saying order!) I made over 55 blue thank you cards and heart embellished envelopes.  Remember my blue thank you notes from one of my earlier posts?  Well, the same great gal needed some more! My arm seriously got tired though, haha! Each card and envelope is made one at time, and that means pulling the lever over 100 times to ink my rollers and plate to make an impression. By the last 20 or so, I was using both arms to pull down!  Weak, I know. 

To package them up, I wanted to use some recently purchased baker's twine.  I bought all these different colors, and couldn't decide which I wanted to use. I ended up packaging them in groups of 10 and tying them each with a different color of baker's twine.  Here's a couple pics from this weekend of the finished cards:

Happy Birthday Cards!

To add to my collection of letterpress card designs, I designed two different happy birthday cards. Both include handlettering by me!  For the first card, I once again attempted to mix some inks together.  I was going for a light green, but it came out more as an olive green.  It worked out though, because I ended up giving this card to my dad for his 59th birthday!

For the second card, I was going for a bright orange and it came out great!  I've found that I'm either getting the colors just right or I'm slightly off.

I really like the orange ink! Next up, I think I'm going to add something else to the design, I'm thinking confetti in different ink colors or balloons.  Wish me luck!

Blue Thank You Notes!

I can't believe it's April!! This year is flying, and I have no idea where March went. But I'm thinking that's a good thing, because spring is finally here in the Washington, DC area. And it's about time, because I am so looking forward to warmer weather and spring clothes!

I'm still playing catch up on posting all my letterpress goodies.  I made these blue letterpress thank you cards this past fall for my friend as thank you's for her engagement party.  This was my first time using a colored ink, yay!  I have nothing against black ink, but I just love the pop of color on bright white cards. I added these cute little trio of hearts on the envelope flap.  They turned out well, and I'm actually making her some more blue thank you cards for her! She is my best customer for sure!

Breakfast at Tiffany's Envelopes

These little beauties were mailed yesterday for an upcoming (fabulous!) Breakfast at Tiffany's themed bridal shower.  Going with the theme I wanted to spruce up the tiffany blue envelopes, so I drew on the white ribbons.  When I was done, my husband thought the envelopes were made like that!  Can't wait for the bridal shower, it's going to be a great event!

Valentine's Day Cards!

Happy Friday!! Good news, I'm really starting to figure out how to work my press now! In the beginning I was quite generous on the amount of ink I used (you can tell by the birthday card I made for my sister in one of my earlier posts), but lately, I've been getting it just right! 

For Valentine's Day, I made my husband a bunch of letterpress cards, and it was the first time I tried mixing my rubbber-based inks. It seems pretty simple in theory, but I tried mixing two different colors and it was a hit and a miss. The first color I was going for was a light purple (eh, it came out a little different than I imagined) and the second color I was going for was a light pink (this color came out great, loved it!)

I can't remember how many different cards I designed for him (I think 6?), but here are three I made. 

Oh, and I even printed a couple of these cute little "to and from" tags. They turned out really well too!  I printed some more of these tags in orange ink too and love them! I'm going to post pics of those in another post.

Alabama Graduation Announcements

This past December my sister graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science in Human Environmental Sciences. I'm so so so proud of her, and can't wait to see where her next chapter takes her!  I'm really hoping that she finds her dream job in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, so well, she can be closer to me and we can do all the fun sister stuff more often. 

For her graduation announcements I really wanted the design to focus on her, so her name is bold and sassy...just like her!  The announcements were digitally printed on 100% cotton paper with Alabma red ink and matching envelopes.  I incorporated Alabama's houndstooth as an envelope liner and they turned out great! I love envelope liners, they can really make the card design pop.

(At the request of the University of Alabama, these are not for sale.)

Orchid Engagement Invites!

Back in September duing a slow day at work, my friend (and coworker!) asked if I wouldn't mind designing her engagement party invitations.  I jumped at the chance, because I love all things paper.  So here they are!

I incorporated one her favorite flowers in the design, the orchid, and printed them with my new epson printer in pool blue ink on white 100% cotton paper.  I received a couple compliments on the invites at the engagement party, which was great!  My friend loved them so much, she even asked me to do her Save the Dates!! I'll be sharing those in a little bit, once everyone has received them! Even though, I'm fairly confident none of her guests read my blog, haha, just my sister!  Love you sissypants!!

Finally!

So here they are, my first couple prints with my letterpress!!  Yay! It's been quite the wait for them, huh?  I printed them right when I got back from Puerto Vallarta, but I have been so busy since then, that I'm just now finding time to get back to writing on my blog.  So without further ado, here they are!

My very first print was the birthday card for my sister.  It's far from perfect (I over inked my press ALOT) but I absolutely loved them, and so did my sister!  I printed a couple prints, and sent the best one to my sister.  Next up I printed flower stationery cards for my mom for Christmas and paired them with team envelopes.

A couple days later I printed thank you notes in black ink (this time with a much better amount of ink on my press!)  I sent two out - one to the couple I bought my press from and the second to John with Letterpress Things for all his help in getting me started.