Lots of Love - Turning Handwriting into a Letterpress Keepsake

If you’ve been following along with my work for any amount of time you probably know that I am a stationery collector. I love every aspect of the stationery world, and like most people who have gotten trapped here, I have a tendency to hoard most of my stationery treasures.

From notebooks to fountain pens, erasers to washi tape, cute stamps to loose leaf paper from Japan, I keep it all. Along the same stationery tangent, this also means that I also keep a hefty stash of letters and cards that have been sent to me (because the best way to use all of the above stationery items is to mail people letters, naturally).

Not only did I at one time have a long list of regular pen pals, I also had a very caring family who also had an appreciation for a good card sent via snail mail. Cards for getting well (the great marshmallow accident of ‘94), getting older, getting graduated, getting married. Whatever the occasion I have a card to go with it.

Mother’s Day was approaching and knowing that I had all of these cards squirrelled away was one reason I wanted to try something that I hadn’t before - using someone’s handwriting to make a piece of letterpress art.

I sat on my floor with my box of cards (as adults do) and took out all of the cards that had messages written from the women on my mom’s side of the family. My search turned up notes from my mom, sister, aunt, grandmother, and great aunt. I found a few writing samples of my own in letters and cards I had written to my husband, since I wouldn’t have ever had those in my own collection. I know I’m quirky but I’m not the mail-myself-letters kind of quirky.

I used Adobe Capture on an iPad which lets you take a photo in black and white and creates a vector image. It has its limitations with how clean of an image it can make, but I took those and cleaned them up in Illustrator to create the versions I would use to create the layout for the final piece of art.

The biggest challenge when I was working with the digital versions was not taking away from, or changing the character of the handwriting too much. I used the originals as a reference to keep checking what was extra ‘noise’ from the vectorizing process, and what should be captured in the writing that was true texture from the pens and authentic handwriting wobble.

All of the handwritten pieces were arranged to fit into a 5”x7” artboard, accounting for space that would be needed around the edge for a frame. It was also designed with two different colours for the final piece, meaning that the whole thing was split into two sections before it was sent off to be turned in to plates for printing.

As far as the rest of the project goes, it was a normal production job. I used some 110lb A7 Crane’s Lettra in Flourescent White that I had left from another project, and mixed two shades of blue that I knew would be complementary to each other - different enough for them to stand out, but not so different that it was overly noticeable.

Along every step of the way I was unsure about how the end product was going to work out. Trying something new to me - turning someone’s words into a tangible piece of family art - ended up being a way for me to gather all of the loving words from this part of my mom’s family, and turn it into something that can be seen regularly. Keeping these words of love as a permanent reminder out in the open (even though they will always have a spot in my box of cards) for years to come.

Do you have your own custom project that would be even more heartfelt with a handwritten greeting from a child, family member or friend? Do you have something in your own writing that should be a keepsake for generations to come? I would love to help you create something - reach out to natalia@naebr.com or use the link below to share your vision and request a quote.