review & giveaway / Lifestyle Crafts Epic 6 Letterpress Tool

am catching up on product review posts due to last week's absence. this one rocked my world and is every letterpress lover's dream come true. if you can make it through this post you can enter to win one for your very own. yay.


the design team at lifestyle crafts were rad enough to offer me a product review opportunity. (i only agree to stuff that extremely interests me.) i enthusiastically said YES, PLEASE. they kindly sent me an Epic 6 Letterpress Combo Kit and a few lovely accessories to get me started. this machine is perfect for making die-cuts and letterpressing small paper items.

to be frank, i have not played with anything this crafty since my days working at pebbles in my pocket in orem, utah, nine years ago. that place was über fun, however having cute handwriting was practically part of the job requirement. i felt major pressure (self-induced) to be scrappy and crafty and creative and therefore stopped scrapbooking before the craze even got off the ground. just saying this so you know that i'm not one bit scrapper savvy here. i did take a college course in letterpress. however, following the user-friendly handbook (very short and straight-forward) is all you need to get going. when it comes to getting crafty, practice is all it takes.




the epic six is the perfect thing for any letterpress project that is 6 inches wide, no giant posters here. however you can make designer greeting cards, envelopes, business cards, cupcake wrappers, banners, place cards and much much more. believe me i have dozens of letterpressed posters from college tucked somewhere in our storage garage, so i am delighted with the small, simple and practical format anyway.

i highly recommend using the stock that lifestyle crafts offers. it is the nice cushy cotton blend of paper and it's already cut to size! my regular cardstock did not take impressions as nicely. i also would recommend getting the accessory tool kit as well. it includes all of my favorite things - the very same things my letterpress teacher made us go out and buy. my old bone folder has bookbinders glue dried to it. so be forewarned, keep your bone folder neat and pretty. that way, you will allow it to touch your precious paper projects. the palette mixing knife, bone folder, exacto knife and clear ruler (i love clear plastic printed with grids!!) are indispensable.

when ready to letterpress, prep all your paper beforehand and line it up in stacks according to project. that way you can print, mix inks, and print some more. you will get on a roll and will be happy not to go cut / find paper in the middle of your letterpress magic.


i didn't have a defined goal in mind other than creating some nice note cards. so i played around with the different printing plate sets. they all have cute elements that are easy to mix and match. i loved getting the envelopes in on all the fun. prepare for a few mistakes. i was a bit heavy handed with the ink at first but soon got the hang of it. my final prints are great quality, if i do say so myself. the ink cleans off with handy dandy wipes too. i kept them close at hand as i kept getting ink everywhere.



then i got sucked into the simple circle design and went wild. you can do lots more with this machine, i was just a bit circle happy at the moment. forgive me. every day tags are the best to have on hand.  i like how the inks on these tags vary due to my un-mixing technique. you can go wild thanks to the creative license this machine allows for. did i really just say you can go wild when all i really did was letterpress neat, perfect, pretty circles?! whatever gets you going, i guess. i did a whole letterpressing project, start to finish, in one hour. i found that drying time (especially for metallic ink) needs to be at least 48 hours for no ink to rub off on fingers. all the more time to admire them.




i used the A2 flats and my own envelopes for this set of silvery circle stationery. the other side of this set is blank, ready for addressing and delivering mini speeches of handwritten gratitude. people are good and deserve cute note cards in their mailboxes. letterpressed with love, of course. i appreciate that this machine is petite (and pretty) enough to sit on my desk when i have my craft craze on (and going strong) and still perfectly small enough to tuck into my closet while awaiting a crafty bolt of lightning to hit. i also love how easy it is to use and experiment with. am super happy that making unique letterpress prints can now be at your fingertips and your kitchen counter. three cheers for readily accessible letterpress equipment.

bonus / enter the code MARTAWRITES to receive a 20% discount off your lifestyle crafts order. this code will be valid through monday, april 25th. hooray.

grand prize giveaway / comment on this post (tell me a spring cleaning tip, a favorite song to dance to, a killer recipe, inspiring link or other interesting tidbit) by april 18th for a chance to win a Letterpress Combo Kit of your very own ($169.99 value)! one comment per person please; the winner will be picked at random. don't miss their blog full of creative ideas and facebook page too. i'll announce the winner the night of april 18th. good luck!