While researching wedding invitations and printing, I fell in love with letterpress printing. Since our wedding is going to be small, we don’t need many invitations, so it seemed like a great opportunity to try out some techniques. We are having a destination wedding, so I also wanted to produce some Save the Date notices to send out. Normally those are a little more informal, but I decided to start there with my letterpress experiment. Yes, I know there are lots of nice kits out there for printing all of these at home, but I can’t seem to do anything the simple way!

I kept reading about the L Letterpress system, and I was intrigued. However, there seemed to be some problems and limitations with the product, including cracking plates and difficulty in getting a clean print. Still, it seemed like a promising idea. Then I found this excellent post from Boxcar Press about some helpful techniques to get better results. These people live and breathe true letterpress printing every day and they really know what they’re doing. I wasn’t sure whether or not home letterpressing would work for me, and I was hesitant to spend a lot of money on equipment just to try it out for a small bunch of Save the Dates and invitations.

A few months ago, I purchased a Big Shot machine for embossing and die cutting, and there is an L Letterpress starter kit that works with it. The starter kit is for people who already have a Big Shot or an Epic Six, so it includes everything BUT the machine. I was on the verge of buying the starter kit, but I knew from Boxcar Press’s advice that I would probably not be using their brayer or their plates. That left the press bed as the only thing I needed. Rather than drop $70 on that, I thought I might first experiment with making my own. DIY ingenuity and internet research paid off again! On The Frugal Crafter blog, I noticed that she had made a press bed by duct taping together two pieces of plexiglass. The Big Shot came with two pieces of plexiglass that would normally be used as cutting plates with die cutters. I put them side-by-side with about a 1/8″ space between them and duct taped them together like a book to make my own press bed. After that, the only things I needed to buy to complete my home letterpress* were a rubber brayer (Speedball 4″ soft rubber brayer, available at just about any art or craft store), a small piece of plexiglass to roll the ink out on, some ink and thick letterpress paper, and custom-made polymer plates from Boxcar Press. I followed the advice from the Boxcar blog and experimented a LOT. I gave up more than once, but when I finally produced some clean, beautiful prints, there was no turning back.

Here, the paper is loaded, the plate is inked, and all I need to do is remove the two long strips (roller bearers for even inking), close the press bed, and run it through the Big Shot machine.

The freshly printed brown plate!

I am printing in two colors, but I don’t have to register my colors very closely. A technique I came up with to help me position my paper and plates correctly was this: I had created my artwork in Adobe Illustrator, so I opened the file and flipped the image (so that it was mirrored, or backward-reading, and also showing border lines where the edge of the paper will be) and printed that out. I taped that printout to the outside (or bottom) of my press bed, and that allowed me to easily open the press bed and stick down my adhesive polymer plates by just lining them up with that printout. To position the paper I’ll be printing on, I laid it down on top of the polymer plate and used the borders on my printout to position the edges of the paper. Then, with the paper still in position, I just rolled a piece of Scotch tape and stuck it to the paper. Then I carefully closed the press bed, making sure the paper didn’t move, the tape stuck it into place where it will need to be for printing. I used Boxcar Press’s step #4 to make gauge pins that will hold each piece of paper in place. After those were in place, I carefully removed the tape from underneath the paper before I printed it. Then I was ready for printing!

I am still in the process of printing, so I do another post when I print the second color and when I finish assembling the whole Save the Date.

*NOTE: I do use the term “letterpress” very loosely – this can’t compare with real letterpress, a 500+ year old art form, which requires special machinery and tons of skill and knowledge.

The first color has been printed on all of these, and they'll be ready soon for the second color.