A new design coming soon...

I have been working on the details of this new design for a while now, and it is just about ready to post for sale on my Etsy shop! This is my signature invitation suite that bears the WeddingBellPrint logo as the main design, accompanied by beautifully inked invite and finished with a double-layered accent piece. Here's a sneak peek...

The signature wedding bells is first inked in silver on a pearl shimmer cardstock, then inked again with the wedding text (shown in ebony and sky blue here). The invite is mounted on a textured chocolate gatefold enclosure, then finished with a berrylicious cardstock layered on pearl shimmer cardstock and inked with a emblem of your choice (shown here with wedding bells). The emblem can be my signature rustic heart outline!

Invitation Suite and Save-the-Dates

A new deluxe gatefold invitation suite has been added to my Etsy shop! This set features the Dragon & Phoenix design, which coordinates with my placecard and tablecards. The set has all the information your guests needs to help celebrate your special day, including a customized direction/accomodations cards for those out-of-town guests. These handy little guys are printed on both sides of a heavy shimmer cardstock, so there is less paper weight to send and a smaller chance for your guest to forget the information. A matching RSVP, printed postcard style to eliminate an extra envelope, and the mounted 5x5 invite are the last pieces to this beautiful invitation suite. The chocolate gatefold enclosure, with the chinese characters for dragon and phoenix printed in gold ink on the inner flaps, has the dual inked invite mounted in the center. The dragon/phoenix image is first pressed onto the 5x5 heavy shimmer gold cardstock with gold ink and allowed to dry, then the wedding text is pressed using a dark brown ink. This results in text that is easily legible, and the gold background image reflects/absorbs light at different angles to create a changing image! The different angled photos shows how different portions of the image changes with light.

Another new item is the signature wedding bell save-the-date announcement. The main design component is my custom designed logo printed in silver ink on any colored cardstock you'd like. The text can be up to two different colors to coordinate with your event. I have several examples, created using Illustrator, to give you some ideas but the options are endless!

The advantage to using a Gocco hand-pressed screen printing method is that lighter color inks can easily be pressed onto darker cardstock, unlike laser printing where the ink is not true on darker print media. Gocco ink is screen pressed on top of the paper and the ink color does not change. The ink is true color on any type of paper.

Please feel free to check out my Etsy shop and convo me with any questions or ideas you have. I would love to help design custom wedding papers just for you!

A bit from the past...

Although this blog is new and does not have much substance to it just yet, I wanted to add some pics of previous wedding-related events I helped at. So far, I've done two separate wedding and am working with the bride-to-be on a third wedding in Spring 2009. Events include bridal showers, announcements/invites, placecards, table cards, and putting together wedding favors. I am sorting through my pictures and realized I need to be better about taking sample pictures of my work at the event! Here's a shot of a bridal shower I helped put together (including custom printed napkins, cooking the food, and labels for shower favors).

The spread for a Bridal Shower last summer (most by yours truly) and custom printed napkins in the top right corner there. I can't find any pictures of it up close but here's a clip of a print from the matching shower invitations...

here's a clip of the custom design printed on a party napkin with my Gocco screenprint machine.

I will try to find more pictures to upload...

A new beginning...

Welcome to my new blog! I started this blog as a supporting information site for my Etsy shop, also named WeddingBellPrints (see my shop widget on the right). I design / print wedding and special occasion papers using an old Japanese machine, Print Gocco. All my designs are made using Adobe Illustrator (or hand drawn, depending on the request), then created using the Gocco screen printing machine.

To create the prints, an image is "burned" onto a screen master using high intensity flash bulbs. This method of printing allows for an infinite number of ink colors and ink layers to be prints - a background image can be printed first, then a second image printed on top. This works well for text printed over an image (i.e. invitation, cards) or image printed over image (i.e. different colors within same area of print).

I have been working on new items for my Etsy shop and can not wait to have it posted! The first "Invitation" will coordinate with the "Dragon / Phoenix Table Cards and Place Cards" design already listed on the site. This design was inspired by my ethnic background, with a twist of modern style fused in.

I have two wedding invite set designs coming down the line in the next few weeks, so please keep a look out for them!