Given my little bit of printing experience over the last 6 months, certifying was a pretty quick process for me. Two weeks ago I took my first Pyramid class with Missy, then spent an evening setting type for an upcoming project. Finally, on Wednesday I ventured up  to complete my training in the art center with the instructor, Julia. Of, course, becoming certified to rent the studio space on my own is just a really great way to continue learning…and creating.

Among the things I need to learn is how to mix ink into the desired colors. I did okay this week. Both the honeysuckle pink (you know, the color of 2011?) and the turquoise (remember? from 2010?) turned out well on the mixing board, but they were slightly wimpy once printed…probably due to my experimenting with transparent white, which seems to make things, well…transparent:)

I decided to print some polymer plate Thank You postcards we had ordered for Emmy’s wedding suite, then not completed. The first piece is this little balloon in the center of the page. It had to be printed first, because the final design has a little heart in the center, which is overprinted.

The alignment went well. I printed two on each half-sheet of letter-sized paper so that when cut, they are each quarter sized flat cards. Perfect for a little thanks.

Here is the second plate. This one has the majority of the design, so it was sort of backwards to print it after…but see that little heart? It had to go right over that little balloon. We expected to do a little adjusting with the registration of the second design…it’s usually inevitable, and in my experience, one of the most time consuming parts of printing!

Would you believe that the first one came out PERFECT? Tiny heart centered, tiny balloon string straight between those bobble heads, right to little Josh’s hand? I did another on scrap paper, just to be sure. Yep. Perfect. I think although impressed with our precision, Julia was slightly disappointed that we’d miss out on the registration lesson. Don’t worry…I’m sure many registration headaches await me in the future!

I went with 50 cards. 25 to give {belatedly} to the bride, and 25 to give away, although there are many more than 25 people in my life who deserve a heart balloon!

Completely darling. I am so excited to continue with this new hobby. Who knew it would so quickly become one of my very favorite things? Right up there with food and fabric;)