Handmade Invitations: Adam & Hana's Wedding

I was so happy to finish up and hand of the wedding invitations I designed for my dear friend Hana last week.  I feel like we were able to come up with a design that will set the mood for the festive and handmade wedding they have planned.  It was important to Adam and Hana to have their friends and family participate in the wedding, and they didn't want any part of it to have a mass-produced or cookie-cutter feel.  Because of the printing method and materials each invitation is just a little bit different.  I don't anyone could mistake these for mass-produced.  It took a lot of work, a lot more than I thought, but it was also a lot of fun and a great learning experience.  I am so glad I was able to help Adam and Hana create invitations for their special day that are as unique as they are.

Once we settled on the design and all the details, I was able to start printing.  I have done a fair amount of linocuts and block printing in my day, but I'd never done prints with three colors.  In the printing world they call these registers, and each one has to be printed separately.  I mounted my linoleum on hard board cut to the same size as the paper and whipped up a simple bench hook to keep everything in line.

I worked with one color at a time.  This allows each ink to dry and prevent colors from smudging, but it also means I can stack them up to dry and save myself some space in our little home.  I love the way all of red flowers look together, I think I may have to repurpose some of these stamps in the future.

Ultimately there are four registers because the text then had to be printed on top.  It's kind of neat to see how they all came together.  Even though I made them, I can't wait to get mine in the mail.  If you'd like information about designing your own custom invitations for any event, send me an email at megan@maxwellhandmade.com.