I first tried the L Letterpress dies and inks back in April with no success (see my brief notes on this page here. Essentially Letterpress is debossing images with ink onto a paper. In my first try I had trouble with getting the ink on only the small die (and nowhere else), and the die kept slipping even with their adhesive sheets. What ended up was a mess!
My local Hobby Lobby had a sale this past week on all L Letterpress items (30% off), so I decided to get a different die, some Letterpress paper and more ink in other colors.
My results were much better this time around. Here is my clean and simple card – you really can’t see the debossing in this photo, but it came out very nice.
I think my results were more successful this time around for a few reasons.
First – I used the L Letterpress paper. This is heavyweight, but soft paper that takes impressions well. I selected a package of 40 A2 flat pieces and with the sale price it came to $4.90. The Letterpress die made a nice impression in the paper – I tried it first without ink and then again with ink – both results were clean and crisp. My only disappointment was the card size. Since my background die was about a 6″ square it would have been nice to have paper close to this size. I believe you can get full sheets of Letterpress paper and I may just do that instead of purchasing the cards.
Second: The background and sentiment die used in this card have a larger “footprint” than in my first try – which was a delicate and very narrow flourish die. Because the dies used today were larger, I was able to apply the ink better. I ended up with no smudges – in fact my card done on the first try! The small smudges on the sentiment came from me handling the paper before the ink was dry. (Letterpress ink takes a loooong time to dry). In the future I will stick to dies with larger footprints – I especially like the backgrounds. My card was made with the “Everyday – Blossoms” kit, which contains the background and sentiment shown here, as well as 4 floral images, 3 other sentiments and one long, narrow decorative line. I will probably never use the long decorative line because it is so narrow, but the rest of the pieces will be usable. The price, with the 30% discount came to $17.50, but you can get it cheaper if you wait until it is not on sale and use your 40% off coupon. So, for about the cost of a stamp set you can get a background image and 8 other images that can be used both with and without ink.
Third – I don’t use the adhesive sheets that come with the dies as they just don’t do the job. I use scotch double stick tape. And I did not use the little foam pieces that came with the Letterpress starter kit. The pieces of foam are supposed to be used to hold your paper in place, but there is just too much “give” in them and can cause your paper to shift. Instead, I used scotch reposition-able tape at the top and bottom of my paper, which means I lost a little bit of usable paper once the ink was applied (because the tape covered a small portion of the paper). This is another reason to get larger sheets of letterpress paper! Anyway, the reposition-able tape worked well.
So, my second time around with L Letterpress was much better and I think more dies (with a 40% coupon of course!) will be in my future!.
Notes from the Travel Journal: a rainbow of greens
From the Outer Banks, NC, we traveled north to Virginia to drive the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The 460 mile scenic road follows the Appalachian mountain ridgetops through much of its course and takes you through 4 states – Virginia, North and South Caroline and Tennessee.
The drive through the mountains is serene as well as scenic. I marveled the “rainbow of greens” here! There was every shade of green imaginable – from the deepest black green to a sage green that looked white in the sunlight, to pretty yellow greens, and every green in between. Interspersed in all this greenery were pops of bright colors from the flowers and shrubs: pink and purple rhododendrons, flaming orange and red azaleas, white hydrangeas, and small blue flowers called bluets.
If you are going to travel the parkway, get your hands on a copy of the free Blue Ridge Parkway Directory and Travel planner. It tells you, by mile marker, the sites and towns along the way. There are several visitor centers on the parkway, but no gas stations and the directory provides information on where to stop for gas and food and lodging.
One of the most picturesque places on the parkway is at mile marker 176, the site of the old Mabry Mill. This gristmill offers demonstrations during the summer months (a week after we were here), but were able to walk the grounds and into the mill and get a sense of what life was like 100 years ago.
Photos of this mill are on many of calendars and postcards – here is my scenic shot – the reflection of the mill came out great and the pink flowers on the right help to frame the shot.
Thanks for stopping by today. In my next post I’ll talk about our last stop before heading home – Asheville, the home of the Biltmore Estate and tell you why I don’t recommend it as a place to visit.
Thanks for stopping by today!! Hope all is going well with you!
SEASIDE CREATIVITY 