A few thoughts

Some may think that I am pushing the Letterpress tool because it benefits in some way. Well, it does not. I do not work for Quickutz -the manufacturer-, nor DOcrafts -the UK distributor- nor QVC -the retailer.

I do, however, work for Dawn Bibby on a freelance basis, assisting her behind the scenes at QVC and teaching and demonstrating at her shop. Since she knew of my love for all thing Die cutting related and Letterpress effect, she suggested for me to have a go with the tool and check it out. I did, loved it so much, and raved so much about it to dawn that she suggested I go on air with it. And I did, for the first time ever I demonstrated on live TV. It may seem easy to do, well let me tell you, it is not, no matter how much prep work you have done, how many successful demonstrations you have done before, live TV is a completely different thing.

I am not saying I did not enjoy it, because I did. It is fun, it is exciting, its many things and certainly, easy is not. My respect for what Dawn does week in week out, craft days and TSV days has grown immeasurably since I started to work alongside her on QVC, even more so after I did those demos.

I am not sure if it is because I am a bit of a perfectionist, I am always left that I could have done so much better, that i could have done this and that, basically improved my demo. However, I do realized I could have explained things better, had gone into more detail on how the Letterpress tool from Quickutz works on air. Well, I can only say I will try to improve with time.

However, there are certain critiques of the tool that are objective -cracking plates- and some others that are not, but overall, even with some faults, is a great addition to the crafting world.

The cleaning issue is still a big one for most crafters. Personally I have settled for cleaning the printing plates and roller with UNDU or Herma's Label off -remove liquid with a regular baby wipe-, and the inking block and my hands with olive oil, top tip from Sharon Betts.

Like any elaborate craft product, it does require certain level of commitment, i.e. is not like a paper punch that just works effortlessly from day one. Niche product? Maybe, but not more so than the Bind it all, or the Melt pot -all machines I adore, but I do understand they are not for every single crafter out there.

This is the last one of the Letterpress cards for a little while!

More Letterpress?

Well, yes, It may be a new year but I still have a few more cards made with the letterpress that i put together for the show. What can I say? I am loving this tool.

Embossing folder: Quickutz

Butterflies and Edge punch: Martha Stewart.

All available from Crafts U Love.

Hello

Another card shown on QVC using the printing plates that come in the starter kit.

By the way, the links I have posted bellow do not necessarily reflect my views on the Letterpress kit.

Also, I have seen proper letterpress experts complaining that this tool is not real letterpress, duh! Of course it is not, as anything in Crafting it is designed and adapted for people who want to get results without spending thousands of pounds and hours of training, of course the results are not going to be the real thing, but in my opinion they come pretty close and for me, as a crafter, they are good enough.

We are crafters, and although I can understand certain reservations about the name of the kit, I don't think no one is going to think that because of this tool they are bona fide Letterpressers, if that word even exists. If we went down that route, we better pack in all our crafting techniques as Picassos we are not, Manga colorists we are not, proper embossers we are not. We are just crafters that enjoy recreating beautiful effects on paper to our best abilities.

Letterpress reviews

Some of my crafting friends have directed me to blogs and websites containing other reviews on the Letterpress tool kit and various other info. So I thought I would better share them here, and if you have found any more reviews and tutorials feel free to add them in the comments, and I will upload them into the main post.

Reviews

Boxcarpress, Letterpress pros USA based that can make your own designs into printing plates that will work on the Quickutz Letterpress tool.

PaperCrave, review.

CraftCritique, CHA review.

The Scrap Review.

Ukscrappers, Forum thread.

Videos

Official video L by Quickutz

Memory Making Crafts

Other Youtube videos.

Questions about the Letterpress tool kit

As some of you know QVC is a shopping channel that is live, no pre-recordings. Everything is timed so it's not like a Youtube video or a tutorial when you can edit and explain in detail all aspects of the machine or tool.

At the 7pm show, Dawn saw that I was really nervous so she guided me through, something that I really welcomed as I was literally shaking. We only had a few minutes with that product, it was at 11 when we had more time to actually talk about the letterpress tool. But it is nerve wracking, I am so used to talk and talk at a demo without any time constrains that I found a bit hard to just have a few minutes to actually tell how it all work. I wish I had a full hour just to talk about it as I think the Letterpress tool from Quickutz is an absolutely brilliant tool.

So, I am sorry I didnt get to address certain issues or questions about the machine, I only got them this morning through some forums! If someone had pass them on to me I would have tried to answer them in a more clear way on air. There were so many things I wanted to mention on air but being the first time ever on live on QVC demonstrating, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to mention certain things.

But I can address some of them now:

Inks, if you are doing a short run, Brilliance pads and Black versafine work brilliantly, much easier to clean afterwards, a simple baby wipe works really well. For a long run (ie, loads of prints exactly the same, which incidentally is the main purpose of the tool) the letterpress ink with the roller is better as it's very good value for money and the ink stays wet a very, very long time. One obvious tip, whatever ink you use (brilliance ink pads or versafine) you can dab it directly onto the printing plates, however you will get the best results using a brayer.

Cleaning the letterpress inks, the best way by far that i have found is using Herma Label Off, maybe other sticky stuff remover also work, but I haven't tried myself. It really works. I know that Quickutz, the makers of the Letterpress tool, have develop a wet wipes for the ink, as of now they are very hard to get hold of in the UK. To be honest I haven't tried them myself so I can not comment on how they compare to the Label Off.
EDITED: Un-Du also works really well, so I am kind of sure now that any liquid that removes well sticky stuff will help to clean the Letterpress inks. Thanks to Ani now we know that Crafters Companion Stick Away also works.

Card to use, as long as it is thick and soft will work, something like watercolor paper and 300gsm and above if you want a very deep impression. The one that comes in the kit is extremely thick and soft, so you get amazing results.

You can also use embossing folders to just print the pattern if you open them up and attach with the adhesive film to the top of the letterpress tool, perfect print impression, although they wont emboss at the same time.

About the cracking of the plates, I only got one set of plates and used it over and over, and they have not cracked, so I cant really comment on that.

Another tip is to use a repositionable wet glue -such as the Slice one- in the back of the printing plates, apply with a foam brush or an eye makeup tool, let it dry and you can use them time and time again, much better than the double sided sticky film supplied with the tool, which incidentally works great with the larger printing plates such as the 6" x 6".

I have a very old Cuttlebug, about three and a half years old, and I have made most of my samples shown on my Cuttlebug, even though I also have a Big Shot that it is right beside it.the letterpress tool is about 2mm to wide where the hinges are for the cuttlebug, so I feed the letterpress tool open side first forwards to the end just before where the hinges are, and then I roll it backwards. I am not sure why, but even though I had the Big Shot right beside me, I kept using the Cuttlebug for the letterpress. Obviously, the Epic Six works very well with it too, I just don't have one in my house, but I used one of them all day long at QVC and liked it a lot.

One of the listed beauties of the Letterpress effect is on the back side of the printed card there is no visible mark of the debossing effect. That is very different from the effect that you get when you emboss something with an embossing folder, as both sides -inside and outside- are clearly embossed/debossed. Bruising is what sometimes happens on the back of the front of the letterpress card. Basically, due to the thickness of the card plus the pressure of the plate, some gentle impression is visible. I have got some professionally made letterpress stationery that also has got that showing off on the back. In the printing world they call it bruising, and it is acceptable.

Also, there were some questions about what you got as extras on the QVC deal. The QVC item number for the Quickutz Letterpress with printing Plates, Inks, Cards and envelopes is 588749. The QVC deal includes the Lovely Everyday set 2 of 10 printing plates, 10 A6 envelopes, 10 square cards and 10 coordinating envelopes, 4 adhesive sheets, and the Gold and silver ink, all of which do not come with the standard off the shelf Letterpress Starter Kit.

Overall, after playing with it for long hours and demonstrating on live tv, I can honestly say that if you like using die cutting machines, this is a great addition to the craft world. I specially love the size of the 6 x6" printing plates -wider that any embossing folder- and the fact that you can emboss them without any ink. I also love the designs of the plates, they have that elegant, simple look that Quickutz are renowned for.

If you do have questions please ask them and I will try to answer them the best way I can.

Numbers

I know, this card is not appropriate for a 5th birthday card, but shows the possibilities that numbers can do.

Blind embossing

Using the Letterpress kit from Quickutz without inking the printing plates. It is just gorgeous, isn't it? By the way, blind embossing is the name that printers give to this effect that us crafters call deboss or engraved.
Tonight in the launch of Craft Day, Dawn will be showing it on QVC.

Letterpress effect

I did have a system so I could know which cards I had posted photos of and which ones I had not. However, when I had some trouble with blogger last time I decided to use online albums, Picasa to be exact, which works great. But I did that hastily without thinking about my system.
The result is that now I have got loads of photos online and in my computer and I am not sure which ones I have shared. So, from now on you may see some repeat cards. It is not you it's me!
I wish I had more time and energy to actually explain how to make cards, but the truth is I hate writing instructions so I only do when I need to, ie for an article just because that is part of my job. But I can share that the background were don with the Snowflake Impresabilities.

Do you watch Stricly Come Dancing? It wasn't until last year when I started to watch it from my computer -we don't have a tv!-. It was my friend Julie -as in Julie Hickey- who actually talked me into by passing comments here and there about how much fun it was. Last year I was home for week one so I watched it online. I soon became addicted because I LOVE to dance, not ballroom as I don't know how, but pretty much everything else. I really enjoyed series Six and was quite happy with the outcome.
This year I am watching it again online either live or on the iPlayer on the Sunday and I am enjoying it as much or even a bit more than last year just because in each couple I like either the celebrity, the pro, or actually both. Yesterday there was a bit of an upset as one of the clearly better dancers was voted off. Personally I could not warm myself to the celebrity, but I like very much James Jordan the pro dancer not as best pro dancer but because he is one of the few -with Vincent and maybe Brian- who has some masculinity dancing. The other dancers are great, I consider some of them even better, but I don't see them as males dancing just as dancers, if it makes any sense.
The funny aspect about all this Stricly thing is that once I watched about ten minutes of the Spanish version, Mira quien Baila, and it confirmed what I already suspected: UK TV rules! Spanish, unfortunately, is a thousand miles behind.

Impressabilities

This card is one we did at the Impressabilities workshop.

Supplies:
Paper & Card: Elegant Wrap and Bazzill card.

Impressabilities: Snowflake.

Ink: Brilliance - Starlite Black and then Perfect Pearls - Pearl.

Other: InCircle's Birthday - Craftwork Cards.