Birth Announcements- They're Here!

I've finally recovered from the shock of losing a little piece of myself from last week, and was able to enjoy quite a lovely Mother's Day with hubby and Bryson.

By the way, I'm still patiently awaiting my Mother's Day gift from Bryson (size 39... uh hmm).

And I bet it's an extra special Mother's Day for one mom- my cousin, Irene, in Boston- not only because she gave birth to my beautiful niece, Mia, last month, but probably also coz she finally received the slightly overdue but still fabulous baby announcements I letterpressed for her! Woo hoo!

 
   

Overall, I like the way they came out. They're kinda like the invites I did for my sister's baby shower last year before taking this letterpress class.

I think these are sweet and playful without being too frou-frou. Well, fact is girls in our family just don't do frou-frou, we can't even if we try. But it does kinda coordinate with the thank you cards I gocco'd for her. OK, maybe it's just a little frou-frou.

In case you're curious, these are the steps involved in producing these announcements-

1. Sketch out the design on paper, do a mock-up (inspired by the pink chiyogami "ball" paper and lemongrass Midori ribbons to match, both from Flax, a art/craft megastore that has sucked my wallet dry over the years)
2. Scan in the chiyogami paper, extract and process the "balls" on PhotoShop, gouge eyeballs out repeatedly when I couldn't get PS to do what I want it to do
3. Lay the text and balls out on InDesign, which involves moving each ball by a few microns obsessively over and over again to get the right composition until eyeballs finally fell out
4. Send the completed InDesign file out to a vendor to produce the film (same as a photo negative)
5. When film comes back, make photopolymer plate from which the announcement will be printed off of (this process requires a lot of zen to get right. Say my Omm...)
6. Cut the paper (and some finger nail) on the guillotine, mix ink
7. Set up the Vandercook press, print (finally!), pray that the press doesn't fall apart half way
8. Admire the "naked" letterpressed announcements, cry a few tears of joy
9. Cut the chiyogami paper and ribbons
10. Select photo, process, print (but not before printing a thousand trial prints with wrong shade/ wrong size/ wrong resolution, etc)
11. Pour myself a generous glass of choya plum wine
12. Assemble the chiyogami strips, tie ribbons, affix photo, repeat 80 times or till fingers start bleeding, whichever occurs first (or, chug down the glass of plum wine and scream like a crazy woman so your husband is forced to help out)

And voila! You've got a set of lovely Japanese-themed letterpress birth announcement! Piece of cake.

Let me know if you're having a baby (or wedding, or any other momentous occasions) coming up, love to tackle it all over again! (And don't forget to send some plum wine along with your order)