A dear friend from high school moved up to the Seattle area and it had been years (years!) since we last saw each other. Being the socialite and foodie that she is, she invited my family to her last minute birthday party. I needed a last minute gift, so I quickly hand set some lead type I had laying around and pressed a set of notecards for her. I hope she likes them! Happy Birthday, Miss Almie!

*If you are interested in a similar or custom letterpress set like this, get in touch!

Kelly from Paper Stories organized an awesome letterpress swap. The idea is for a bunch of letterpress printers to trade their prints with each other. I thought it would be a fun idea to participate, but unfortunately, I didn’t realize that my timeline would be cut so short because of our quick move up to Washington. We literally had less than a weeks notice to pack and get ready for the move! Aaahh! Time was of the essence and I did not have time to send out for plates. Determined to participate in the swap, I repurposed an old design concept I had created for Suburban Riot tees and proceeded to hand carve my design out of a spare linoleum block.

Sadly, the carved up block didn’t hold up too well in my Pilot. Perhaps the lines got too thin from all the pressure of each pull. I really wish I had given myself more time to design out a custom piece for the swap. I was literally dropping these off at the post office on the way to the airport. While letterpress is a rush for me, I wish I didn’t have to rush through this one. I’ll have to do another swap to redeem myself. Can’t wait to see the awesome prints from the trade!

I had some card stock laying around, and being the recycler that I am, I decided to put a few sheets to good use. My original intent was to create a simple 2-color “Hi” card composed of the standard alphabet using just my vintage SignPress, MasterP. After printing up the initial cyan layer, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what would happen if Lt. Price printed up the second color.

Actually, composing the first layer flat on the press bed was easy. Registration for the second, though, was not so easy. My trusty Pilot came to my rescue and printed up a nice bright bold yellow “HI.” Looks lime green on press, doesn’t it?

I would have liked these note cards even more if the stock was textured. These cards can now enjoy their new life as a “Hi” card, brightening up someone’s day.