I was so excited to see these beautiful wedding invitations in my inbox, and it’s not just because they look fantastic (they definitely do!). These lovely gold and blind debossed invites were created using the L Letterpress, a do-it-yourself tool that I’m planning on revisiting very soon, and this project proves that awesome things can be done if you’re willing to put in the time and effort.

Professional designer, Sarah Kuns, the bride and designer of this key-themed wedding suite, set out to see if “a very basic and over-simplified version of a beautiful piece of ancient machinery” could produce quality results and, as you can see in the beautiful result, it can! Sarah cautions that this type of project is not for the faint of heart; it was serious work and required a lot of learning, patience, and effort on her part. She applied many tips from the L Letterpress primer at Boxcar Press, who also created the polymer plates used in the project.

The invitations were printed in two passes, one using metallic gold ink to bring out the typographic details and gorgeous hand-lettered calligraphy (also done by Sarah), and a second that was a blind impression, creating textured pattern and key details. The rest of the pieces in the suite were done on the same paper used for the letterpress piece (Crane Lettra 110 lb.), but they were printed on a home inkjet printer, which produced unexpected but lovely distressed results in places because of the cotton paper’s tooth.

I am so impressed (no pun intended) by this project, and many kudos to Sarah for showing us what can be done when you’re willing to put in the effort!

images from Sarah Kuns