Letterpress is IN THE HOUSE! (#1000)

Lookie what I just made:

I am sooooo excited about this Letterpress stuff from SU! This was so easy. Let me show you what I did.

First, I watched this video from Stampin' Up! on how to use their Letterpress plates with the Big Shot. (It's on YouTube, so it's not a super-secret Demo thing.) Then tonight, once all my craft ink arrived, I got to work.

SU sells blank (un-inked) craft pads, and they're fine if you want to ink a large plate all in the same color, but I wanted the equivalent of blank craft SPOTS (1" square mini ink pads). There's been some discussion on Splitcoast about buying them online, but they are felt, not foam. Felt is good for dye ink, but you need the foam for pigment ink.

Soooo, I remembered I had a sheet of this:

It's Cut-n-Dry from Inkssentials. I cut it into small pieces (about 1" square):

... then I applied some of my new Pacific Point Craft (pigment) ink to the center of it:



I tested it on the Northern Trim plate, and found I have a heavy hand and got it all over the plate in addition to the raised part. So the key is: use a light hand! Just dab it onto the raised design until it's all inked. Follow the sandwich directions that come with the plate and lookie:

My first try! Look how the pattern is debossed into the paper:

This is SU's watercolor paper, which is the closest thing we have to Letterpress paper. It is also supposed to work well with textured card stock.

Since I used our pre-cut watercolor paper, I just planned to use it as a layer on my card. I cut some Pacific Point as the bottom layer, then stuck on the watercolor piece with dimensionals. Like I said, EASY:

I'm thinking packs of note cards for the holidays, hmmmm?

Oh, did you notice? This is post 1000! Whoo-hoo! (The crowd goes wild!) What does this mean to you? It means I will have a giveaway! I WILL. That's as far as my planning has come. I will have a giveaway. And not just some cra ... er, stuff from the Captains Quarters. Nope, real paper pads and stamps and everything. I'd like to rig it so my faithful 3 (maybe 4) readers have the best chance of winning, and since I always use an unscientific, totally unfair selection process anyway, well, I'm just sayin'. :) Okay, I'd LIKE to rig it, but since I like to sleep at night, I'll do it the right way. I just don't want any hate mail, that's all.

So I'll get back with you on that once I have a clue.

Thanks for stopping by!