Printmaking Workshop with Zeena Shah

Since starting Thrift-ola I've been keen to create some business cards. I wanted to make them the Thrift-ola way though which meant crafting them by hand and using second hand materials. When I heard about Zeena's printmaking workshop it seemed the ideal place to make them.

The lovely bunch of gals at Studio 106 for an afternoon of printing fun.

The lovely bunch of gals at Studio 106 for an afternoon of printing fun.

Last Saturday afternoon I went on a magical mystery tour to Fulham Broadway in search of a pretty little gallery full of printmaking workshop fun.

The tools of the printmaking trade along with vintage playing cards & tea cups of lemonade.

The tools of the printmaking trade along with vintage playing cards & tea cups of lemonade.

All our materials and tools were set out for us along with tea cups of lemonade and delightful heart shaped, glitter topped, homemade brownies. Zeena had provided lots of different paper goods for folk to print onto including greetings cards, envelopes, luggage labels and all the pieces to make a notebook. I brought along some sets of children’s playing cards which I wanted to turn into Thrift-ola business cards.

The lovely Zena Shah demonstrates the techniques for us.

The lovely Zeena Shah demonstrates the techniques for us.

Zeena started the workshop by demonstrating how to make our lino stamp and then showed us various printing techniques using different inks, stamps and rollers.

Tracing out the image should have been the easy part...

Tracing out the image should have been the easy part...

I wanted to print my website address onto the reverse of my playing cards. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring a print out of my logo so had to trace it from my iPhone. Anyone tried that before? Not really a very neat idea. Once traced, I transferred it onto my slab of pink Speedy Carve and began to scoop out the parts around the logo which I didn’t want to print.

My printing experiments.

My printing experiments.

Once the stamp was created it was time to test it out! If I’m honest… I wasn’t that pleased with the results. I think trying to create text is tricky and the reverse of my playing cards already had a pattern on them which didn’t help with readability – one thing that’s kinda crucial on a business card!

Fantastic flower and cloud prints.

Fantastic flower and cloud prints.

Casting my eye around the table I could see some other much more pleasing results… Printing onto a blank piece of card seemed critical and creating a repeat pattern looked awesome.

Pink sundae stamp used to make greetings cards.

Pink sundae stamp used to make greetings cards.

This was my favourite stamp of the day –  a super pretty pink ice cream sundae!

Using the sewing machine to stitch together notebooks.

Using the sewing machine to stitch together notebooks.

Many of the girls then chose to make notebooks by gathering together some sheets of blank white A4 paper with a piece of card on the bottom and stitching up the centre. What a neat idea!

Hearts and cassettes are printed onto luggage tags & envelopes.

Hearts and cassettes are printed onto luggage tags & envelopes.

I most certainly want to do some more lino printing and will make good use of the techniques and tips I learnt from Zeena’s delightful workshop. I am however, still on the hunt for an idea to make my crafty-vintagey Thrift-ola business cards!

Take a peek at Zeena’s super pretty work here and find out about all her workshops here.


7 Responses to Printmaking Workshop with Zeena Shah

  1. katie says:

    I did a lino cutting class too and used the stamps to make wrapping paper and gift tags 🙂 Text might have been a step too far, what about getting someone else to make the stamp for you? You can upload your own artwork to http://www.englishstamp.com then use that to stamp your playing cards..

  2. Leona Thrift-ola says:

    Oooh, thanks Katie!

  3. Van says:

    I need to learn how to do this, I love the idea of making business cards the thrifty way, and giving it a little hand-crafted spirit to boot!

  4. Zeena says:

    Hello Leona,

    Thank you for such a lovely blog post! I’m pleased you had fun it was a pleasure to have you! Do keep printing!

    Zeena xx

  5. Jessica says:

    Oooh yes hello! Just discovered your blog..it’s lovely. Definitely do as Katie suggested… I had my logo made into a stamp with the English Stamp Company and they did a fab job http://bit.ly/fjj7Sq

  6. The class was brilliant, really well planned out and organised, and i am also hoping to use what i learned for my soap packaging.

  7. beaufrog says:

    Those are awesome business cards! How much more special is it to receive a hand made card over a corporate style printed card.

Leave a Reply to Van Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *