Quickutz Letterpress Kit

I think I've made it quite clear that I luuuurrve my Cuttlebug - its true - such a great little machine! (though if anyone reading this has a communication line to the decision makers at ProvoCraft could you please put forward my request for a wider version - that would be great - thanks!)

Aaanyhoo back to the Cuttlebug - great little machine.  I didn't think it could get any better ..... AND THEN IT DID!  I treated myself to the Quickutz Letterpress kit.  Of course the Cuttlebug can't take the full glory for the Letterpress kit (obviously!) but that fact that it will work really well with another manufacturers product gets Brownie points & a big gold star from me.

Letterpress is the effect you see on quality letterheads (for example) when the design has been debossed and coloured.  Embossing with Cuttlebug embossing folders will give you that effect but its an all over pattern - the Letterpress has small motifs that you can combine to your bespoke design and repeat over and over again (because you can add blocks to define where the pieces fit and will print). It also give the embossed effect on the front and back of the piece of paper - Letterpress only affects the front (so the inside of a letterpressed card would be unaffected).

There are different sides to my crafting personality - I like the grungy distressed look but I also have quite a strong clean-simple-less-is-more side and the Letterpress ticks all the boxes for that. (must find a way to combine them - I have an idea brewing.. I'll let you know how that goes.....)

Here are the first samples I made - really simple - just getting used to it:

Plain uninked (really like the uninked version)

Inked (first generation)

Inked (second generation ie without reinking)

A few points I've noticed when using the Letterpress:

• The inks are thicker than normal stamping inks (probably more like printing inks) and stay wet longer - some people have commented that the ink can be hard to remove but I'm finding that basic baby wipes work really well (what is in those things - they get everything off everthing!! Frightening really! lol) - so I clean everything with the wipes and then wipe again with water and a cloth to remove any babywipe residue.
  
• Online people have commented that the letterpress plate doesn't go all the way through a Cuttlebug because of the extra width of the hinges but I found it went all the way through without any problem - but with anything - BE CAREFUL - IF IT WON'T GO THROUGH DON'T FORCE IT!
• You don't have to use the provided sticky tape sheets (to hold the embossing plates to the grid top panel of the block) - I found that Tombow glue works really well and washes off of everthing afterwards.  (another www user suggested double side tape - another good idea)

The four small black rectangles in the photo above (on the gridded panel) are foam and repositionable  - these are so you can place them so the paper/card can be butted up against them to ensure the same print position each time.

While I was playing around I used these to print the 2 opposite ends of the same piece of card - giving me a panel that I could then split:

Here are some of the cards I made with some further plate sets I bought and some really gentle ink colours.

I really like using kraft card stock and love how it sits against the plain card and pale blue ink.  This is whats nice about the letterpress effect - it can be elegant, or retro or really modern - really versatile. (I was really pleased with how these turned out - there may have be a slight squeal and a bit of happy clapping! lol)

Letterpress is so neat and tidy - I think I need to go and splash some ink now! lol