DIY Block Printing: Homemade Wedding Invitations

Enlarge Image Image Gallery With so much mechanized and homogenized perfection, it’s so refreshing to give and receive items that look and feel handcrafted, like these homemade wedding invitations, made with block printing. Photo By Jack Deutsch, Copyright 2012 The Stonesong Press, LLC

While store-bought wedding invitations can be lovely, they lack a personal touch and sometimes cost a pretty penny. Give your guests a special surprise by making your own homemade wedding invitations. This simple tutorial for linoleum block printing from The DIY Bride: An Affair to Remember (Taunton Press, 2012) will get you started. Excerpted from Chapter 7, “Into the Garden.” 

I’ve become something of a print nerd. Since taking a class on screen printing, I’ve been hooked on all forms of putting ink to paper. One of my new favorites, which is akin to the first wedding craft I ever did (rubber stamping), is linoleum block printing. It’s marvelous as a gateway to other print techniques and a perfect way for beginner (and experienced) crafters to create killer invitations.

If you’re a perfectionist who must have clean, perfect lines and precise placement or color, this may not be the technique for you. Linoleum, or block, printing is messy. It’s often imperfect. It takes some time and trial and error to get right. But, for me and perhaps for you, this is part of what makes it so great.

With so much mechanized and homogenized perfection, it’s so refreshing to give and receive items that look and feel handcrafted, like real, living human beings created them with their own hands. That’s special and downright precious.

Block printing is exactly like it sounds: A block is used to put ink to paper. The block is a linoleum-faced piece of cork that’s carved with a design. A rubber brayer is used to apply ink to the design, and then the block is put to paper. Ready to give it a go? Let’s start! 

Crafty Commitment
3 hours for 25 invitations 

Solo A-Go-Go
Because you’ll have extended drying times with the ink, allow yourself a full weekend or a few weeknight evenings to complete your invitations. Turn on the radio or invite your sweetie to read from your favorite book while you work.

Supplies

• Computer with Microsoft Word
• Printer
• Watercolor paper, cut to 5 in. by 7 in.
• Pencil
• Linoleum block, 4 in. by 6 in., available from art stores
• Linoleum block cutter set
• Block printing ink
• Ink plate or a piece of glass
• Brayer
• Baren