Letterpress Love

I love letterpress. Ever since I first noticed cards printed that way at the Paper Source store in Boston I have been enamored with it. I even took a class at a local print shop. I have wanted to be able to recreate the technique without buying a huge, old, expensive printing press. Enter the new(ish) L Letterpress by Lifestyle Crafts. Mine arrived on Monday and today I finally got a chance to play with it. I am in letterpress love!!!

I watched youtube videos and read some great blog posts about the machine here, here and here. Then I jumped in...here is my first printing. I used rubber stamp daubers instead of ink for the first tries. This is the first printing I did. You can see the ink got on the edges of the designs.



Then I tried a print without any ink. It was gorgeous!!



So I dug up some notecards that I had and pressed them. Lovely.


Then I got the ink and the brayer out. The brayer that comes with the kit is terrible. The blog posts I read had prepared me for that. I will buy a new one.

My inking needs work and there is a tip from Boxcar Press that I will use. I am off to design some things and have some custom plates made at Boxcar Press. I never find the time to send out Christmas cards, but maybe this will be the year that I get my act together. I certainly have plenty of time if I start now! Stay tuned...