We are happy to present another gorgeous wedding set designed by Invitation Solutions for Erica’s Louisianna wedding! The suite included an invitation, reception card, accommodation card, program, rsvp envelope and outer envelope all pressed with PMS 872 (gold). Once the printing was complete and the pieces were trimmed we edge painted each piece to match the soft pink envelope liner.

Simple and clean designs always press extremely well because they allow for a deep impression and beautiful ink coverage. These pieces were printed on Cranes Lettra Ecru White 220lb stock, a double-thick stock that allowed us to press very deeply.

The post Wedding invitation set for Erica appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

Presenting beautifully pressed invitations for a Hill Country wedding! Sarah created a truly remarkable package for her own wedding and we were overjoyed  to press her creations. We started with pressing her save-the-dates in Warm Gray 9 on Cranes Lettra Pearl White back in October of last year and completed the pressing of her package this spring. The above is a sneak peak of her final invitation package before she mailed them off!

The kraft envelopes complimented the letterpress so nicely! Sarah definitely had a beautiful vision for her wedding pieces.

Below are more shots of her stationery, including her invitation, details, and thank you card.

Contact us today if you would like a quote on pressed wedding invitations! 713.681.4085

The post Sarah and Ben’s Wedding appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

We tend to press a lot of wedding invitations, however occasionally we have something different come through our shop. Recently we were asked to print some book covers so we welcomed the change of pace. The design was simple and clean but required a large area of coverage on the front so we chose to print this job on our 14.5×22 C&P. The larger press did a fantastic job distributing the ink and gave a wonderful impression on the 110lb Lettra stock. Once the printing was complete we creased each cover as instructed by the client.

I you have a book cover, portfolio cover or medium format job you would like to get pressed please give us a call! 713.681.4085

The post Book Covers appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

Keri contacted us in early 2012 via Etsy because she loved our rustic wedding invitation design she had found in our online store. She was planning a destination wedding at a ski lodge in Oregon for 2103 and had fallen in love with the rustic design, but wanted to tweak it to reflect a remote ski cabin wedding.

We started with the save-the-dates, which Keri wanted to be a postcard. We were able to tweak the rustic theme to meet her needs and the design was printed on Cranes Lettra Pearl White 220lb stock.

A few months later we tackled the invitations themselves, deciding on a 2-color job of deep red/orange and brown. Keri only need an invitation and reply card so we chose the baronial size with an 4-bar RSVP card. We brought in elements of a cabin, mountains and snowflakes to give the western invitation an bit of a ski cabin “flair”. Both the invitation and RSVP card were printed on Cranes Lettra Pearl White 110lb stock.

If you are interested in having your wedding invitations letterpressed and don’t know where to begin, just give us a call, we will be happy to guide you. 713.681.4085

The post Keri’s Oregon Wedding appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

Vanessa, a graphic designer with letterpress experience, contacted us early this year to have us print her wedding invitations. It is rare for us to work with a bride that has experience with letterpress so we greatly enjoyed working with Vanessa. She understood the quirks of our printing process and embraced them. Her invitation design allowed the process to shine and her muted color choices only enhanced its beauty.

Contact us today if you would like your invitations pressed! We will be happy to speak with you about your design. 713.681.4085

The post Vanessa’s Wedding Invitations appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

Happy Sunday to you all! We are happy to unveil a wedding set we designed and printed a few months back for a high school friend of mine. Leah came to us with an idea in mind that needed a graphic designer’s touch. She had her heart set on letterpress so we were happy to help.

The invitation set includes a 6 x 9 inch invitation, 4-bar RSVP card, 3.5 x 2 inch reception card as well as inner and outer envelopes and custom envelope liner. Leah wanted to print the invitation pieces on Reich Savoy Natural White 236lb stock, but Reich did not offer a large enough envelope. We decided on the Cranes Royalty inner and outer envelopes which matched the Reich stock well. We had custom envelope liners created for the inner envelopes using Curious Lustre and printed all the pieces using PMS Warm Gray 3.

We would be happy to help with the invitation printing for your next event. Give us a call today: 832.326.6467

The post Leah’s Wedding Invitations appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

One of 2 colors printed on WILD.

I found myself on the couch enjoying some rare “down-time” recently so I grabbed the laptop to peruse the internet and landed on letterpresspaper.com where I discovered Legion had picked up a new line of cotton stock: WILD.

Of course the name had me intrigued so I clicked on the link to learn more. This new stock is FSC Certified, and engineered from a blend of 35% cotton fibers and 65% virgin pulp. Legion described WILD as a natural fibered, creamy white sheet with the characteristics of both high bulk and excellent printability. This clearly meant TEXTURE in my mind, something that many of our clients want!

Comparing the thickness of Cranes Lettra 600gsm to WILD 850gsm

WILD comes in 150gsm, 300gsm, 450gsm and 850gsm weights, so there is a weight offering even thicker than Cranes 220lb! Naturally I ordered the 850gsm right away.

The stock is indeed thick, and looked as if it would compress nicely, but the real test was to see how it performed on press. Unfortunately, WILD’s printability did not prove to be as great as Legion had described.

We chose to print a design that had a good amount of coverage so we could gauge WILD’s ability to handled a deep impression as well as ink coverage. The stock failed both of our tests.

Deeper Impression – Severe cracking

We noticed right away that the stock began to crack around text both large and small with a heavy impression. This is due to the stock’s high pulp content, as it acted very similar to pulp board coasters. Most of our clients want a deep impression, especially if they are spending more money on a thicker stock, so this is a problem. We began lightening up the impression but no matter how lightly we pressed, the stock managed to crack a bit. We also noticed that this porous stock absorbed the ink quickly, which means this isn’t a good stock for high ink coverage pieces unless you are going for that worn antique look.

Lighter Impression – Still some cracking

We have yet to test the other thicknesses of WILD, so I cannot say how their performance differs from the 850gsm version, but my bet is that they will all perform similarly due to the stock’s high pulp content.

Although we would not recommend this stock for high coverage designs or any designs having much text, I could see this stock working well for custom coasters as it will most definitely soak up condensation and should stand up to a few uses.

Side-by-side comparison (WILD on the right, Cranes Lettra Ecru on the left)

Being disappointed with WILD’s performance we pressed the same design on Cranes Ecru 220lb stock as a comparison and the difference is quite noticeable. Cranes has a much smoother finish and is not as porous so the ink coverage is considerably better. We can also achieve a relatively deep impression without any buckling of the stock. All in all it looks like Cranes wins again as being one of the best performing letterpress stocks available!

To sum things up, Legion was correct in its description of WILD as a natural fibered, creamy white sheet with the characteristics of high bulk, but the excellent printability claim was a bit off the mark! You could say WILD isn’t all it is “cracked up” to be!

The post Paper Review: WILD appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

We were honored to print these exquisite invitations designed by Invitation Solutions in November of last year. This wedding set was a 2-color job (PMS 872 & Cool Gray 10) on Cranes Lettra Pearl White 220lb cotton stock.

The client picked out a light pink envelope liner, so Invitation Solutions asked that the edge painting of the invitation and reception card match the envelope liner color. They provided us with a sample and we were pleased to match the color perfectly.

Invitation Solutions designs beautiful wedding packages and we highly recommend them for full-service invitation design needs. If you are interested in having something letterpressed please contact us! 713.681.4085

The post Erin’s Wedding Set appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

There are a lot of wedding bloggers out there with DIY sites that will tell you how to get letterpress on the cheap. The truth is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In this posting I will address many of these cost-savings myths and explain why they are not only a bad idea but could easily cause you trouble.

I will begin by admitting letterpress isn’t cheap and it never will be. It is a time-consuming craft manipulated by hand and the materials can be quite expensive. Cotton paper isn’t  cheap and polymer plates can be quite pricey. Despite the added expense there is really nothing more beautiful than a well-pressed invitation. The feel of the paper and and the charm of a beautiful impression cannot be matched by any other process. This is why brides pay a little extra for this beautiful printing technique, and in my opinion it is worth every penny.

Cost saving myth #1: Fitting multiple pieces on one piece of paper will save money

Brides designing their own invitations are often under the assumption that if they send a file that includes their invitation and RSVP on an 8.5×11 sheet we can print both pieces at once which will save them a significant amount of money on their print job. Apparently this is a technique that wedding bloggers are putting out there that is ill-advised for two reasons.

First: If your invitation and RSVP card can fit on 1 piece of paper then when we print them separately we won’t be using any more paper than if we printed them on one sheet, so there’s no cost savings in that. Yes, we will have to charge an additional set-up fee, but that charge includes the ink and plates, which will be the same price whether we print them together or separately.

Secondly: Letterpress printing is not like modern off-set printing where you can gang up several designs together and print them at once. You are limited to the the size of your press and its inking capabilities. We choose to run small pieces on our presses when possible to keep the inking and impression across each piece very consistent. When a piece becomes too large the inking can become less consistent leaving certain areas lighter than others areas. In many cases that is not desirable to the client. It is also the nature of platen presses to have a slightly deeper impression at the bottom of the press than at the top, so we always take care to position each piece so that we can achieve the best possible even impression. The larger the piece printed the harder that becomes.

Your letterpress printer will set up each job differently depending on the size and amount of ink coverage required in a design. Its best to let them determine how they will print your package so you can be assured the best possible outcome.

Cost saving myth #2: Trim the pieces yourself

This is another suggestion many bloggers have entertained and again, it is not true. Sure you will save the printer a bit of time trimming down the pieces, but what you save in time you gain in paper cost. We have ways to save on paper if you allow us to trim down your job for you, and in many cases we can use the leftovers to print the other pieces of your package. Believe it or not, at Im-press-ive we make sure to take note of trimming in the estimating process and we try to be as fair as possible, charging you only of the paper we expect to use on your job.

In addition to the added paper used, the client should take into account the type of paper being pressed and understand that we have special equipment to cut paper (such as cotton stocks) cleanly and uniformly. Cotton stocks are especially tricky to manipulate and it would be a shame to cut down your invitations with the incorrect tools and ultimately ruin your invitations.

Cost saving myth #3: Press your invitation and have the other pieces off-set printed or digitally printed

Many brides believe they can save a good bit of money pressing the most important part of their wedding package (the invitation) and having the other pieces off-set printed or even digitally printed to save money. Before you decide to go that route you should request a print quote for all your pieces to be letterpressed. You might be surprised how little you will save on the entire package! Besides that, it would be a shame for your pieces not to look uniform. It may also be more apparent that you were trying to cut corners as digital prints really don’t look as rich and beautiful as you may think, especially when they are sitting next to a beautifully pressed invitation.

We ask that you keep these points in mind when researching options for your wedding invitations. Price is important, especially if you are trying to stay within your wedding budget and we don’t blame you. Money doesn’t grow on trees here either! At Im-press-ive we pride ourselves on not only delivering quality prints, but we try to price our services fairly so that clients will not only be wowed, but they will feel good about their decision because they know they have received good service at a fair price.

Do you have questions about your wedding package or want to discuss a job? Please give us a call, 713.681.4085.

The post Letterpress Myths Exposed: Round 1 appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.

I came across this new offering from letterpresspaper.com today. “WILD” is a new stock by Gruppo Cordenons and designed for letterpress.

According to letterpresspaper.com:

FSC Certified, it is engineered from a harmonious blend of 35% cotton fibers and 65% virgin pulp. The end-result is a natural fibered, creamy white sheet with the favorable characteristics of both high bulk and excellent printability.

The combination of the velvety softness yet impressive strength of WILD delivers a unique and highly sought after tactile sensation.

WILD is the fresh and perfect choice for letterpress printing, embossing, debossing, engraving, foil stamping, and even offset printing (except for the 850 gsm), and die cuts exceptionally well for even packaging and coaster stock applications.

We are very excited to order some of this stock and try it out for ourselves. This could be the answer for those out there that are looking for a more rustic and toothy stock that also presses well. We will let you know what we think of this stock once we get some in.

The post Wild – A new paper stock to check out! appeared first on Im-press-ive Letterpress • Houston, Texas • Letterpress Houston.