So this Christmas, I spent a good chunk of time making presents instead of buying for my friends and family. Here are how some of them came out!
First for decoration and some jewelry elements I went crazy with more shrinky dinks. I made frames, birdcages, banners, and other things, which later became necklaces or random charms.
Some of them I attached to presents and maybe people could think of their own things to do with them...
I also used some of my shrinky dink flowers from earlier to make my mom a necklace that she saw me wearing and fell in love with.
I also made one for my grandmother, here they are wearing their fancy new necklaces-
And here's my mom wearing hers- Here is a coupon book that I made for my boyfriend with various coupons for things that I think he will like-
Sticking with my tea towel theme lately, I made my girlfriends some silk screened towels with "our slogan" on them (yeah, we're cheesy). They each got two, one black and one gold. Who Dat.
And topped them off with a shrinky dink key chain/chip that they can show off to all their friends so they can be jealous.
And here is one third of the trifecta, Jessica showing off her tea towel.
Whew! It was hard keeping all those gifts a secret. :) Can't believe we are already a week into the new year. Hope everyone is having a great one!
For my self promotional package, I decided to screen print a cover letter on a tea towel to give out to potential employers. I started with my design and printed my transparencies; here are my screens being exposed: They came out great! Someone wants to be in the picture too.
Printing... I always get the mean face when I do art for some reason.
Checking....
Tra la!
Here are all the colors after they're all sewed: gunmetal, black, and gold.
I also added a loop to the back so they can hang...
I folded it with my business card inside, tied them with twine, all topped off with my signature logo "chip". They're all ready to be delivered!
Thanks so much to "Musicologie" for purchasing my flocked bird screen print from my Etsy shop! I am shipping it today, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.
So after months and months of researching, planning, and agonizing about what I wanted in my business card, I finally was able to decide on exactly how to do it. I knew that I had a few important criteria to start out with: 1. They had to be on the CHEAP. 2. I wanted to use a multitude of different techniques by hand, and 3. The final product would have to be so beautiful that no one would ever want to throw it away.
With those in mind, I set out to find my paper. Luckily in Austin there are so many resources and friendly people that will help you, that I actually got my paper for free! They gave me so many samples I didn't even have to buy any. Out of all the samples I got I couldn't resist the cream of the crop, the fanciest of fancy papers, Crane Lettra 220 lb. I knew I wanted paper that I could screen print on, and I knew that this cotton paper would take pretty much any ink that I threw at it like a champ, which it did.
So I started out first screen printing one side with a custom pattern that I planned:
Then it was time to letterpress. This was definitely the most laborious, intense part. I ordered polymer plates from Boxcar Press, and cannot recommend them enough. I ordered 3 plates, but unfortunately only ended up using 2, for various reasons. I got some ink, mixed up 2 colors and got out my etching press that I bought from a local artist for $100.
Someone didn't like that he wasn't getting any attention.
What followed could only be described as hours and hours of trial and error, but they turned out pretty great in the end. First pass with 1 spot color:
2nd pass with a blind plate:
Final:
If you want to see the whole process, I made a video:
At this point I had 3 out of 6 steps done. Now I had to cut them all out, by hand. This was my least favorite part, but I only cut my finger once!
I still needed to print the information side of my card, which was really nerve wrecking because they were so precious after all that letter pressing. I was not happy with how my third plate was printing, so I scrapped it all together and decided to Gocco print the last side. This part is always fun, Gocco-ing is the best!
Now on to the 6th step, painting the edges. This part was a little tricky, but I think the final pop of color really ties the whole card together. I can't be happier with the final output, and can't believe how much money I saved by doing it all myself! This project was definitely not a time saver, but the wealth of information that I learned made it more than worth it.
There you have it! Coming up, my matching self promotional package.
