Hello Kitty Party: Letterpress Invitations

I mentioned in my previous Hello Kitty birthday party post that I would share the invitations that I made. Back in April I won the Lifestyle Crafts Epic Letterpress giveaway on Craftaholics Anonymous (thanks again, Linda :)! I was in complete shock. I was so excited to receive my package in the mail and try it out. I adore letterpress, and I really wanted to use it to make my daughter's birthday party invitations, but I had to come up with a way to incorporate the Hello Kitty theme with the letterpress. I purchased some additional printing plates and some red ink and got to work.

The first thing I did was run the letterpress paper through my inkjet printer to print the pink wording on the bottom half of the invitation. I downloaded a free font called CAC Pinafore from Dafont because I read that this was the closest font to what Sanrio uses on its Hello Kitty products. I have to agree that it's pretty close. I then ran each sheet of paper through the letterpress to add the polka dots and my daughter's name. Luckily I only had to make seven invitations because you have to re-ink the letterpress each time you run a piece of paper through. Finally, I used my inkjet printer to print out some cute Hello Kitty faces and used a scallop punch to cut them out. I then used double-sided tape to attach the Hello Kitty faces in the center of the letterpressed polka dots on the invitations. (Unfortunately, it's hard to show a birthday party invitation with a letterpressed name on it when I don't share my daughters' names on my blog. I covered up my daughter's name and added "Jane" in its place below... Use your imagination :)

The invitations turned out better than I ever expected them to. My practice runs with inking the letterpress were less than stellar, so I didn't have high hopes, but every single invitation turned out great. Honestly, they were a lot of work, but I was so darn proud of them, and my daughter really liked them, too.

Products Used: Scholastic Printing Plates, Wintertide Printing Plates,

Letterpress Ink - Red, Letterpress Paper - A7 Flat (White)

If you are considering purchasing a letterpress, know that there is definitely a learning curve associated with it and that it does take patience (something that I am severely lacking). I do love the finished product, though, so I won't let my lack of patience deter me from using the letterpress again soon :)

On a side note, I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but it's time for Point of View again... where did June go?!? This month's theme is "shelves", so get ready for the collage reveal and link party this Friday, June 24th.




I'm linking up...