Impressabilities - Episode 2

Hi, thanks for dropping by to see if I'd solved the problem I told you about yesterday over the difficulties I 'd had with my one and only impressabilitie embossing die.  Enough for me to bin the it, but I don't like to be beaten so I preservered!

Since I couldn't get a good impression, I began to look at the sandwich I was using.   Yes, I was using the tan mat in the way that you do for brass stencils (you will find a link here of a tutorial I did last year) but that wasn't working in my Bug with this stencil.  Then I thought hey, perhaps it's the same as with some of the less sturdy dies, like Nellie Snellen and Joy Crafts, where reversing the order of the sandwich gives a better cut.  So, with fingers crossed and using the smallest of the dies that I'd cut from the whole plate, I made this sandwich......

B  /  B /  Shim / Tan Mat / card right side up / Die 

then topped the lot with the A plate.  A complete reverse of the usual sandwich.

Eureka - it worked!

Boy, was I excited, to get this far!!

and this is how my very simple butterfly die looked when embossed three times to enhance the background   to my decoupage embellishment

        This is the debossed pattern - I like this better than the embossed because it is more delicate.

One of the problems I had created for myself was that I like to emboss/deboss straight onto my card base.  I also like to use a heavyweight cardstock, with a lighter weight it is possible to do the task and get an impression, but for me, I still want to use the heavier weight. If you only want to make a decorative mat or frame, the lighter weight card works.   This card was a 240 grm.

If you have a Wizard or Big Shot you will not be having the same problems as me!  The Bug is not as sturdy and the pressure the rollers exert on the card is not as great.  Also all machines seem to differ, so what works for me may not necessarily work for you.  The above sandwich has caused me no problems despite being unconventional., and I have heard that others recipes also work, so it seems that the order of the sandwich is choice, but the right thickness is priority.  The Golden Rule being - NEVER FORCE. 

Of course, I wanted to go on with my experiments and I did and found that my new sandwich recipe helped, but if you're interested in how things turned out??????afraid you'll have to come back tomorrow.

to be continued.....