I’ve been dreaming about letterpress printing ever since I saw a kit in the craft store a few years ago. I did tons of research and window shopping and drooling, and then I started dreaming about a real letterpress press. Alas, I don’t have thousands of dollars to buy a real one (or a place to put one). I went back to dreaming about the made-for-crafters-not-real-printers kit. I found a great review of it somewhere from some dude who is a real printer, and he liked parts of it but not others and suggested other non-kit parts that were better. I put the good parts on my wishlist and waited. Andy bought one part of it for me for a gift about a year and a half ago, but not the other part. (He did not fully understand the complexity of all the parts. It’s okay. His geekdom lies elsewhere.) Over the next long, long while, I sat around and sadly pondered how I only had part of the stuff, wondering if anyone would ever give it to me as a gift. (Did it ever occur to me to buy it myself? No. That would make too much sense, and then what would I sit around sadly pondering??) Finally, this Christmas my brother gave me the final part, and my dream has been realized!

The image is a bit splotchy and the colors are a bit weird and you probably can’t even tell its indented into the paper, but I don’t care. I’m excited! It’s not too difficult, it’s fun, and some day I’ll have the stuff I need to clean up the ink properly! (Hint: Not water soluble.)

The printer dude who did the review recommended a great place to get custom plates made for cheap, and so I shall now begin to ponder my 2013 Christmas card, which will arrive in homes around the world this December!