come see what I made with my new letterpress plate!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets giddy when I get a new toy to play with...I'm worse than my 6-year-old.

Really, I think I may have squealed (out loud) when I opened this new letterpress plate from Studio Calico...

A million ideas started swirling around in my head and I was just so excited to play!

I wanted to try a couple things and I figured this was as good a time as any...

I had seen a bunch of people in the Studio Calico Gallery using two different letterpress inks on their projects so I decided I would give that a try. It didn't turn out EXACTLY the way I was hoping it would...I thought I would get more of an ombré look...I guess I have to keep practicing. OH! And maybe I should have used 3 colors! That may have given me a better look...BUT, I do think it looks OK...I'll do it again...

I also wanted to try the letterpress on fabric, so I used one of my SC bags (the ones that little extra goodies are shipped in). It is GORGEOUS! The print is beautiful! This is definitely something I will do again...

I also decided to tape off part of the plate (the "day" part) so that I could use just the "to" on an envelope. There was a little learning curve involved with this one...it took some trial and error figuring out how to position the plate and my envelope to print where I wanted it to, without debossing any other part of the envelope or getting errant ink anywhere.

After getting warmed up with these projects, I decided to get down to work...

I had ordered an extra Office Hours 4x6 paper pack from this month's SC kits, so I grabbed that...along with some gelato, a paint brush & some coverboard (like extra-thick cardboard/cardstock stuff...SC uses it to protect the paper it ships from bending).

I cut the coverboard down to 4x6 (the same size as the paper pad) and ran it through my letterpress without any ink. Doing this debosses the design from the plate onto your paper...

Can you sort of see the design here? It's hard, I know...but it's there.

Next I cut off just a smidge of the gelato onto a plastic plate. I dipped my brush into water and swirled it around in the gelato to make a "paste." Then I simply painted in the design that had been left from the letterpress plate.

Finally, I used my Cinch binding machine to create this fantastic little mini-book with my design and the 4x6 paper pad. Sometime (hopefully soon), I will take photos of our entire day and will use this little album to document them.

I love it. Love. It.

How about you? Do you Letterpress? Is it something you've thought about doing? Have you made something super-awesome? I'd love to see it!

Supplies: Office Hours 4x6 paper pack, Today Letterpress Plate, Letterpress Bundle, Letterpress Ink - Orange, Letterpress Ink - Hot Pink, Cinch Binding Machine, Faber Castell Gelato - White