Letterpress

December Daily 2015: Day 23

| cristina

I certainly cannot pick a single favorite spread in my album, but I do have a few that I really love.. and today’s spread for December 23rd is certainly one of them.

This spread makes me so happy. I combined a lot of my favorite things here – letterpress, watercolors, stamping & embossing, and gold foil. 🙂
Today’s story is all about the gifts I bought for my family this year.

The card at the top left was made with an old Studio Calico letterpress plate, my Big Shot die cutting machine and the letterpress platform. I added some watercoloring on top with Peerless watercolors (currently sold out at Studio Calico but you can find them on Amazon too).
The gold foiled card was in the Jasmine Jones December Daily mini kit, and I simply added a puffy sticker from Pinkfresh Studio.
On the card in the bottom pocket (also from the Jasmine Jones December Daily mini kit) I added stamping with versamark ink and embossing with Rouge Zing embossing powder. The stamp images are from Pinkfresh Studio, while the alpha stamp is from Studio Calico.
The gold foiled label was from an old Studio Calico kit. I wish they made more of these!

The puffy stickers and acrylic presents are from Pinkfresh Studio. The paper in the top pocket is from the December Daily kit.
In the pocket at the bottom, I stamped a floral stamp from Pinkfresh Studio right on the chipboard numbers from the December Daily kit with versamark ink, and embossed it with Powder Zing embossing powder. I love how it matches the gold foiled leaves in the previous page.

This post contains some affiliate links. If you click on any of these affiliate links and make a purchase, then I happily receive a small commission. Thank you for your support! I purchased all the products you see used at full price, and am happy to share what I made with them here.
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Catch up on all my 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th

Letterpress and Scrapbooking

| cristina

Hello! I am sharing here the post I made yesterday for the write.click.scrapbook blog on letterpress. I just started letter pressing last week, and I am in love! A while back I showed you how to create a faux letterpress look using embossing folders, but today I want to show you how to do real letter pressing.
Here is what you will need:

  • Die cutting machine. I have a Big Shot.
  • Letterpress platform. I have seen people who say they can letterpress just by adding some cardstock shims and the regular cutting pads, but I didn’t want to have to guess every time so I bought the platform – and I have no regrets! Especially since letterpress paper is pretty expensive and I don’t want to waste it on trials.
  • Letterpress paper. The type of paper you use is critical to get a deep impression and get the most out of your letterpressing. I know some crafters have great results with watercolor paper, but that has not been the case with the watercolor paper I had on hand, so letterpress paper it is for me.
  • Letterpress plates. There are many designs available, I’m sure you’ll have fun picking your favorites!
  • Ink. To be honest, I have not tried letterpress ink just yet. I’ve heard horror stories about how hard it is to clean up, so I started going the easy way, and I have just used ink pads for now. 🙂 The examples on this page use distress ink pads (I love the bright colors). I also love doing blind impressions (no ink) as I think adding the ink detracts a bit from the deep impression. More recently, I tried pigment inks and also letterpress inks – the cleanup isn’t really that bad as long as you use the convenient wipes that come in the letterpress kit, and the coverage is the best!
With the idea of putting a page together, I made two letterpressed cards using plates from Studio Calico.
For the card on the left I used the picked raspberry color, and I added spiced marmalade for the card on the right to get an ombre effect.
I used the Poet Society kits by Studio Calico for my page. Using the letterpressed cards, it was very easy to build a design using my photo and some strips of patterned paper. I added some stamping with grey ink to tie to the background paper, and completed the page with some gold splatters and sewing.
Here are a couple detail shots.
I hope this has inspired you to give lettepress a try – I love how easy it is to put together a page starting from a couple of letterpressed cards. Share your creations in the comments! I’d love to hear your tips too, as I am just starting out myself.