[inspire me] jam jar

I love freezer jam and often forget how fast and easy it is to make. Last Christmas a friend of mine gave me several jars of raspberry freezer jam. The jars were all different shapes and sizes and set on a white square platter. She had spray painted the lids of all the jars so they would coordinate. Not only did they look nice on the platter, but they looked nice in my freezer. Not that it really matters how they look in my freezer, but it's the little things that make me happy.

A few days ago, strawberries were on sale so I made a batch of jam. I used a new set of jars with standard lids. I contemplated spray painting them because I don't love the printed image on the lid, but it was freezing/snowing outside and spray painting inside the house is never a good idea (trust me...I've tried it several times - you, your kids and especially your husband won't be happy.) Since spray painted lids were out of the question and I wanted the jars to look cute so I could give a few away, I decided to add a letterpressed insert on top of the lid. It was really easy, and I love how they turned out. I definitely think it makes the jam look more appetizing!

I letterpressed the image on L Letterpress paper using the red L Letterpress ink and die cut the image using the circle nesting die included in the combo kit.

Die-cutting Tip: When I'm die cutting an image I've already letterpressed, I like to reverse the way I traditionally place the die and paper on the Epic tool. It will leave a mark on your cutting platform which doesn't affect the functionality of the platform.  For some of you messing up the nice smooth appearance of your platform will be unacceptable, which I totally understand. If I didn't like how easy it is to position the die to ensure I'm cutting exactly where I want, I'd prefer an unmarred platform too. If it doesn't bother you, try it. Instead of the traditional placement method (platform, die with cutting side up, paper, then cutting mat), place the paper on the platform then position the die cutting side down on top of the paper. Place the cutting mat on top and roll through the Epic 6.

[inspire me] gift card

I think the line border from this letterpress printing plate set is perfect for so many things! Don't let the fall/Thanksgiving theme in the set scare you away. I use this set all the time.

Here's a quick project I created this weekend. My neighbor had a baby so I wanted to drop off a small welcome gift of burp cloths and anti-bacterial gel...can you really ever have enough of these two things with a baby?? 

The letterpressed gift card was a perfect finishing touch. I love how the lines of the printing plate can look like ribbon or twine wrapped around the paper.

color of the day: grass green

Did you know that you can mix L Letterpress Inks to make your own custom colors? The palette knife in the the L Accessory Tool Kit is perfect for this. Simply take 2 or more colors of ink and mix together. When mixing colors, here are some helpful tips to remember:

• Add darker colors to light colors. It takes a lot less dark ink added to light ink to make a new color than vice versa.
• Mix enough ink to complete your project to ensure the color stays consistent for all pieces.
• Write down the "recipe" for your custom color so you can recreate it in case you run out of ink or you want to make more for a future project.

The L line currently includes a dark green and bright green ink, but I was looking for a different green...something more like grass green. So, I mixed dark green and yellow together in different combinations to create three new shades.

Here's the recipe I used to create these three new shades of green:
          1 part dark green : 1 part yellow
          1 part dark green : 3 parts yellow
          1 part dark green : 7 parts yellow

[faq] cleaning cloths

A month before we released the L Letterpress, I had baby. A question we always get is do I really have to use the L Cleaning Cloths? Can't I just use diaper wipes?

Well, of course you don't have to use L Cleaning Cloths, but they work so well. When developing the products, I went through lots of diaper wipes and paper towels to try and clean up the ink we were testing. Let's just say I wasted a lot brayers and paper because it was easier to just throw everything away than deal with the mess and time of trying to clean everything up.

This made our search for a great ink cleaner even more important, and I'm really happy with how the cleaning cloths turned out. The other night I ran out of cleaning cloths so I had to resort back to the diaper wipe option. Not fun. I almost drove to our corporate warehouse in the middle of the night to get more.

L Cleaning Cloth (left) - Diaper Wipe (right)

What do you think about selling the cleaning solution in a bottle with a scrub brush for deep cleaning your printing plates?

[how to] ink

Once you learn the basic technique of using the L Letterpress ink, printing becomes a lot easier. It just takes a little practice and always remembering that less is more. 

L ink is formulated to create a thick, tacky consistency. This is essential for achieving great letterpressed prints. I find that spending a little extra time in the beginning to prep my ink base and brayer is totally worth it. 

To start, a little ink goes a long way! I typically squeeze a small pea size amount of ink onto the ink base and then use my brayer to roll it out into a smooth, fine square. You don't want any globs of ink or spots where the ink is heavier. 

Squeeze out a dab of ink no larger than the size of pea.

Start rolling the ink out in a square pattern.

Keep rolling until the ink is spread out in a large square on the ink base. I spend a good amount of time (maybe about a minute) really rolling the ink evenly and smoothly on the ink base and roller. 

You want a really fine, even layer of ink on both the base and roller. There should be no globs of ink. It should seem like the ink has been rolled directly into the base and has simply colored the top surface of the ink base.

I then like to do a "prep" ink run with my printing plate. I roll the brayer all over the printing plate using a little more pressure to ensure the plate is completely inked. I then print on a scrap piece of L Letterpress paper. 

The first time you ink your plate make sure it is inked completely. I typically use a little more pressure and roll over the plate several times with the brayer. After a test print, try to minimize the number of time you roll over the plate with your brayer. You want a thin even covering of ink. 

Then, I'm ready to start printing actual pieces. Again, a little ink goes a long way. You want to lightly roll the brayer over your printing plate in as few times as possible until the plate design is covered. Too much ink can result in globby, uncrisp printed designs.

Why Did We Create the L Letterpress?

In a nutshell…it was extremely difficult, expensive, messy, space-consuming, time-consuming and overwhelming for a basic crafter to letterpress at home. And as a creative person who likes to craft at home, I wanted to letterpress…

A Love of Letterpress…
I love the feel, texture and elegance of letterpress. A few years ago, the letterpress bug really hit me, and I became obsessed with making it my new hobby! I spent hours searching online for information about how to letterpress and began searching for an antique tool of my own. I knew I didn’t have the space to even consider a large letterpress tool, and I quickly found that the smaller, tabletop tools were difficult to find, especially at a reasonable price. Plus, I didn’t know enough about letterpress to be able to confidently purchase an antique tool and know that I could get it to work. At this point, I still had never actually used a letterpress machine. I narrowed my focus to finding a Chandler and Price Pilot which seemed to get the best reviews for someone who wanted to letterpress as a home hobby. After months of intensive research and searching, I eventually located a Chandler and Price Pilot in Canada that was being completely redone. I felt this was my safest option to get a tool that would work, bit the bullet and spent $2500 and another $800 to ship it. (Thousands of more dollars and a lot less space later, I've acquired 3 additional antique tools - but more on that in another post.)

Why Isn’t There A Letterpress Tool…
At the same time, I started thinking that there had to be a way to manufacture a new letterpress tool that would be easier to purchase in the marketplace. Of course working at craft company made it logical to begin this research process. I found a lot of people had this question, but no new tools had really surfaced. I knew the big challenges of creating a new letterpress tool were probably size, weight and the number of working parts. These factors would make it extremely expensive to create and manufacture a tool which in turn would make it extremely expensive for a customer to buy. As a consumer, I just wanted a small at-home tool that I could play with and create fun things.

A Simpler Way…
One weekend several months into this process, I decided there had to be an easier and faster way to create a letterpress tool. I spent the entire weekend playing with my QuicKutz Revolution tool, platform and metal dies testing different concepts and by Monday morning I knew we had a solution. We could create a letterpress tool that was easy to use, inexpensive and small enough to use at home on your kitchen table.

Next Steps…
Then came the fun (and hard!) part of designing, prototyping and redesigning again and again until we came up with what we have today. We also spent months and days working on the perfect accessories and complementary products for the tool. I knew the right paper and ink were essential to the success of this product and we worked and worked and worked until we finally created a paper with that fantastic soft texture crucial to creating a quality letterpressed project.

Today…
It’s been so exciting to see this product line released into the marketplace with such great response! We continue to work on refining the products available in the line to ensure you purchase the best quality product and can’t wait to continue releasing many more fun and exciting products we’re currently creating for this line!

Blind Emboss

One cool technique with the L Letterpress is creating what is called a blind emboss. This is simply printing with the L Letterpress tool with no ink. I used this technique on the placecards and menus for my Thanksgiving dinner. It's a fast, easy way to add stylish detail and sophistication to any project.

Thanksgiving Workshop: Holiday Printing Plate Set 2

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? This year I get to focus on the decor and leave the food to someone else (my mother-in-law is fantastic cook and well known for her skills in the kitchen!). For me that's the best of both worlds. I get to create a fun environment and then enjoy a great meal.

In the next week leading up to Thanksgiving we will be posting a project a day in what we are calling our "Thanksgiving Workshop". Some of the talented people at L will share with you a few projects and ideas you can use as inspiration for your own Thanksgiving holiday.

The image above is Holiday Printing Plate set 2 which has a fun Thanksgiving focus. Laura, one of our product designers, designed these plates with fall in mind - her favorite season!

where did L come from...

L is a brand I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. I love to make things. It’s definitely a genetic thing - my mom’s a crafter and so are each of my 4 sisters. I even consider my dad a pretty crafty and handy guy. We like to create. We’re also no respecter of crafts. We like to sew, knit, paper craft, crochet, stamp, quilt, scrapbook…the list could go on and on. It’s such a part of our lives that I’ve even seen my mom tear up at the sight of all 5 of her girls knitting together.
Through the years, we’ve collected every type of craft product and probably joined every craft trend from scrunchies in the eighties (there wasn’t a birthday party we didn’t go to that homemade scrunchies weren’t part of the gift) to our current obsession with letterpress…and fabric flowers, crocheted flowers, felt food, baby clothes, tote bags, glass etching, cupcakes…this list really could on and on if we’re being honest!

It’s that desire to live a creative life that led to L. I want to make things that add a personal handmade touch to the events in my life—from simple day-to-day activities to big celebrations like birthdays, babies and holidays. The hope is that through great craft products, L will enable me, and you, to live that handmade, creative life.

The L Letterpress is the first step at making that happen and the plan is to continue to release quality, stylish and functional products for a variety of crafting needs.

After all, it’s your life – create it.

let's get this blog going...

I love blogs. I remember bringing a Business Week magazine into the office one day (it was the May 2005 issue) where the cover read “Blogs Will Change Your Business”. At that time, I didn’t even know what a blog was but thought it might be something we should look at (it did say it could change our business!).

Little did I know that almost 5 years later blogging would become such a big part of my life. I blog and read blogs to be inspired, to collect and share ideas, to connect with friends and family, to make new friends, to journal the events of life, to relax, to indulge....

I’m so excited to contribute and be a part of this blog. Hopefully it will be a place where you can learn, find inspiration and have fun.

Welcome!