Our Save-the-Dates and Yudu Screenprinter Review

I have been so excited to share our save the dates, but I was waiting until all of them had been sent first! It is details like these that I love about party planning.


We're going for a "modern vintage" feel for our wedding, mixing vintage details with modern design. Now, I totally think that Save the Dates are unnecessary for a budget wedding such as ours, but I just love paper goods and I couldn't help myself! I'm hoping that these little gems get our guests excited about celebrating with us!


I wanted to print on both the paper and the hankie, that way if our guests found some clever way to use the hankie (oh trust me, my aunt made us a stuffed bunny out of one...), they still had the paper to hang on the fridge!


You know what the best part is for a bargain-hunter-diy girl like myself? These babies cost us a total of 65 cents a pop! We're trying to save on postage by handing them out in person to those who live close.

Yudu Review:
There are good things and bad things about this machine. The good... It is all self contained, which is super convenient and makes it so easy to print anywhere with a large flat surface (dining room, kitchen, garage, etc). My two favorite features include the light-tight dryer, which you stick your screen in after applying emulsion or washing or whatever, and the tacky printing surface. The tacky surface makes registration so great. I chose to purchase this machine because, since I've graduated, I no longer have access to a printmaking studio. I feel like at this point, it is meeting my screenprinting needs.

The bad... If you are not an experienced screen printer, this machine might seem amazing upon first glance. However, without experience, you may have a really hard time getting it to do what you want. I had to make many modifications to my machine in order to make myself not regret this purchase. If you are an experienced screen printer, this machine might seem a little chincy at first, but with some tweaks, it works pretty well. The screen isn't the best, and it's definitely not made for more than like 5 wash outs. Also the Yudu ink, which they say to only use (of course) is completely overpriced and really dry. I tried it and got really terrible prints, very spotty. After that, I didn't even bother with it, I just went ahead and used Speedball. Also, the emulsion remover works really well and really fast, but bleach works just as well. The emulsion sheets are very convenient, but they don't work as well as good old liquid emulsion. Plus they are super pricey. The squeegee is just terrible. Do yourself a favor and go buy a good squeegee at an art supply store.

I guess it might seem like I have more bad things to say... but I really had a lot of fun using the Yudu machine. If you're thinking of buying one, my advice to you is to make sure you do your research on how to modify it.