Letterpress Cards for the Paper Source Catalog--PICK ME! PICK ME!!!

So, if you're a normal Hearts Blog reader, you'll notice that this post is 1. Not numbered and 2. Has nothing to do with hearts. You can read the brand new description and blog title for the whole story, but I got bored. These hormones are making me nuts and I'm not feeling motivated to create hearts everyday. I do however, feel motivated to create things that have nothing to do with hearts and so here we have it. My brand spankin new bloggerific blog...This one is about Letterpressing, which I have already blogged about once, but not in detail...

So the other day I got an email from a manager at my PS store...The company was looking for Letterpress examples for the new catalog that will be arriving in your mailbox this summer (and if you don't get the catalog you should. It's seriously fabulous. Sign up HERE if you haven't already). Since I have an obsession with my Epic Letterpress Machine and I'm not afraid to admit it, my co-workers so lovingly thought of me! So cool! It would be the highlight of my year to have something in that catalog...

I didn't realize that I would be blogging about this, so I didn't take pictures of the process, forgive me, I'll LP something later on and show you how it's done...

It took me FOUR hours to create THREE cards. I'd forgotten how stressful crafting for perfection can be, such pressure...and seriously, they really did have to be PERFECT. No smudges, measurements accurate (and you know how I feel about measuring things) and they couldn't be too "involved." They have to be something that the normal PS consumer could create on their own...So here's what I came up with and what I used to make them...

•  This letterpress plate... The kit looks like that and has some other cool plates in it. For this project and the one below, I used the big background plate. 
• ColorBox Rosebud ink pad
• Paper Source A2 Chartreuse Folded Notecard
• Martha Stewart Zinnia Stickers
• Chartreuse Cardstock
• Giant Square Punch
• Peel n' Stick Foam Squares
• A tape runner (my big Scotch ATG)

 I didn't want to just make cards, so I changed it up a bit and made a gift tag for project #2. I didn't have ribbon to match, so I'm hoping that someone added ribbon before it was sent out...For this one, I used the same letterpress plates from the same kit as above and also the same ink pad. The paper is a die cut heart that I got at PS during Valentines Day. It's pink and very fun.  The little card is THIS paper and the ink is silver ColorBox.

**A quick note on my use of ColorBox ink. I could use the regular letterpress ink and if I was doing a huge project (like invitations, announc etc.) I WOULD use it, but when I change colors so often, I prefer to use ink pad ink. For these projects, I also did not use a brayer, but preferred to ink up the plates with either the pad itself or my fingers.**

 I almost had an aneurysm trying to create this...That "Happy Birthday" WOULD. NOT. PRESS. I tried it like four times and I almost threw the Epic through the window which would have made an epic mess (bad joke).

The same materials were used except:

• The folded card color is "Pool"
• The ink is Cobalt
• The wood paper can be found HERE

Crafting for perfection is very difficult and after those three were done I went to bed.   Of course my dreams that night consisted of letterpressing and smelling ink (can you even smell in a dream?).  I woke up and had a great idea, I really really really wanted to do a two-color design, but I didn't have a back round plate that would work. I could have used several different plates that were smaller, but it wouldn't have had the same effect...So I popped on over to Hobby Lobby (and shamelessly used my 40% off coupon) to purchase THIS plate set which was perfect.  It looks like this by the way...

There are lots of other fun plates in this one too...so it wasn't a total waste of money to buy the whole kit for just one plate...

When I got home I immediately raced up to the craft room, pulled out my Ruby and Sunflower ink pads and created this masterpiece. I love it so much that it still looks like this. I don't know what to do with it yet...I'm thinking of using it to create business cards for myself. If I do, I'll blog about it...But this is super fabulous. I LOVE two color letterpress designs and to buy them from a printer is very expensive.  It is super fab that I am able to create things like this.