You make me happy...

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday with your sweetie-pies. I didn't have that much time with Justin for Valentine's Day this year... (he had a class to go to for most of the evening), but we're those lucky few that commute together on the subway (or bicycles) everyday, so I just cherished those moments, plus we had a quick dinner before he rushed off. 

In the evening I spent using Justin as my inspiration for some printing. What a great excuse to finally use some borders! I also used 2 sizes of wood type plus a bit of lead type for this print. It was the first time that I used a scale to mix my ink. It was a bit weird actually... and involved a bit of math, which was challenging to do with my right brain... but eventually I figured it out! Have you ever done that?! Mixed ink by weighing it?! It's a bit crazy, and one of these days I'll document it, so you know what I mean (in case you have no idea what I'm talking about). 

I made only a very limited 10 prints. Making them that much more special. I will have them on my etsy store (if it ever gets off the ground)

... and of course these are dedicated to the one that makes me happy when skies are grey. :)

Rough Paper test print

My little Kelsey press hasn't really gotten the attention that she deserves. She's constantly being over-shadowed by her much larger older brother (The Vandercook) and barely gets any play time these days. I decided to change that with this little test print. Since the clean up time is basically non-existent in comparison to the vandercook... it makes for some nice quick printing.

I am currently working on a wedding invite design for a pretty cool couple that love all things handmade and vintage! The thought was too use brown box board with blue, red and black ink. At first I thought that it was a great idea, but to make sure how the ink would react with such a rough paper, I thought it would be best to do a text print first. I started with the Skinny Love posters. Using wood type definitely produces more texture as it is... so when I saw the way it was turning out on the box board... I kinda freaked... and started second guessing myself... "maybe it looks a little too handmade..." or a bit too rough. This is a wedding invite, after all! But I think I forgot how cool Steph was.... I sent her this test print with a word of caution... not all the invites will be identical and the texture of the paper is proving to be difficult to work with to get consistent ink coverage...

She was like; "This is great! I like the texture! Identical!? Meh! They're handmade!"

Awesome!

In case you needed another reason...

Just in case you need another reason to love letterpress... this is a short video that I found on Fast Company.