I got out my sketchbook with every intention of drawing an owl for this year's Christmas card. As I was flipping through the sketchbook, looking for a blank page, I spotted this cute little tree that I had sketched several years ago. I fell in love with it and decided it needed to be this year's image.
I got out a linoleum plate, 4.5" by 6" and drew the tree on it and started carving.
I then realized I didn't have a jig for this size plate and card. So, I got out a piece of mat board and drew the registration lines and cut a hole for the plate, then covered it with clear plastic Contact paper. I learned this trick in some class I took years ago, great idea. It's inevitable that while printing I will get ink on the registration jig, and wrapping it in plastic Contact paper makes it very easy to keep clean.
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| Cut out enough Contact paper to wrap the front and the back. This makes the mat board jig wipe-able, in case you get a little ink on it. |
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| Cutting the plastic Contact paper from the plate hole. I cut it corner to corner, forming triangles. Then I fold it onto the back. |
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| Finished jig, with registration lines and notes so I don't get confused about what goes where. |
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| I noticed the linoleum plate had fuzzies around the edges from the backing. I trimmed it off as best I could with scissors. It will probably keep fraying, so I coated it with acrylic gel medium. |
I also got all the paper cut for the cards, too, but I forgot to take pictures.
I'm ready to start printing tomorrow.
