Letterpress L Letterpress from Lifestyle Crafts. Welcome to the first post in a new mini series of articles on Scrapbook Update Over the next few weeks Ill be bringing you closer looks at tools and systems that bring a hot trend in stationery and cardmaking right into your scrap room letterpress. Whether youre planning a DIY wedding or party, or just want to add a touch of elegance to your everyday cards and scrapbook projects, Scrapbook Update will bring you all the information you need to choose which home letterpress option is the right one for you. Deckle Matching Software' title='Deckle Matching Software' />Some of the options for home letterpress that Ill be exploring in these posts are add ons to tools you may already own, some of them might actually be things you already own but didnt realize could be used this way, and todays focus, the L Letterpress kit from Lifestyle Crafts, is a complete setup that will have you making gorgeous projects right out of the box. The L Letterpress Combo Kit comes with absolutely everything you need to start making basic cards and projects. Included in the box are the Epic 6 die cut machine, several letterpress plates, black letterpress ink, a brayer and ink base, a sample pack of letterpress paper, and the bases required for both letterpress and regular die cutting with the Epic 6. If you already own an Epic 6 tool, there is a separate, smaller Starter Kit available containing just the letterpress related items. Pre made letterpress plate sets are available in a variety of styles and for a variety of holidays. Lifestyle Crafts also offers a custom plate service for customers who want to create their own specialized designs a great option for DIY brides Custom plates are 6 x 8 and can be ordered for 3. The ink included in the L Letterpress kit is a specialized oil based formula that has a slightly tacky feel to it. The first and most important thing to know about using this ink is that less is truly more when working with it. Ink control is the key to getting crisp impressions from the L Letterpress tool, so when you get started its best to squeeze out a tiny amount of ink refer to the small pea sized drop on my ink base in the photo below. Deckle Matching Software' title='Deckle Matching Software' />You can always add more if you find you didnt use enough, but too much ink can cause bleeding outside the edges of the debossed image. Dvd Installer 3.4 Wii. Once youve squeezed the ink out, use the brayer to roll it evenly until the ink base is covered. The ink should be spread very thinly and take on a slightly translucent quality. Remember when I said that less is more with this stuff That tiny drop of ink covered my entire ink base, as you can see in the photo belowThe letterpress plates are adhered to the carrier using a removable adhesive sheet. Simply peel the protective paper off of one side of the included adhesive sheet, adhere the desired plates to the sticky side of the sheet, and trim around the design. Once the adhesive has been trimmed, the backing liner can be peeled off and the plates adhered to the top clear flap of the carrier base. As an aside, I also had great results when experimenting with using Glue Dots to adhere the plates and found them a much faster option than trimming around the edges of the plate. Both the clear top and the base of the carrier are clearly marked with matching sets of measured grid lines to assist in getting a proper registration alignment of the paper to the design. The L Letterpress kit also includes a set of foam registration guides that can be temporarily adhered to the base of the carrier to ensure that the paper is placed in the same spot over multiple passes a great option to have when mass producing a projectOnce the paper and letterpress plates have been placed and properly aligned, its time to ink the plates. Roll the brayer across the ink base, using several passes if needed to achieve even coverage across the roller but, again, dont load it up with too much ink, then roll it across the letterpress plates to transfer the ink, making sure that all parts of the design are evenly coated. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. Welcome to the first post in a new mini series of articles on Scrapbook Update Over the next few weeks Ill be bringing you closer looks at tools and systems. Then its time to flip the clear top over to close the base, insert the base into the machine, and run it through just as you would a normal die cut sandwich. I was pleasantly surprised with the results from the L Letterpress kit. The card below was produced on my very first try with the machine, and I was pleased with both the crispness of the image and the depth of the impression. As I mentioned earlier, Lifestyle Crafts offers a wide array of letterpress plates, including a fantastic selection of background designs. These are available as add ons and not included in the starter kit, but I picked up a few to use for this review. This particular plate is from the Tile collection and produces a beautiful lattice print. Notice all the cross hatching on the plateThose are supports running across the back of the plate to support the large, filled portions of the pattern on the front. These supports help prevent buckling in the plate as it comes under pressure in the Epic 6 tool and ensure an even print. While inking this background plate I discovered a small drawback to the brayer included in the L Letterpress kit. Its quite small and is a harder rubber than those typically used by stampers, and I found it difficult to get even ink coverage over such a large surface area. Not to mention that it took a very long time to ink the entire plate with such a small roller I decided to experiment and instead used a 6 inch soft rubber brayer from Speedball to apply the ink. Theyre very inexpensive mine was less than 1. US, and Id actually recommend that you pick one up for almost any of the letterpress options that will be explored in this series. It made a world of difference when working with the larger background plates in the L Letterpress collection, and I was very pleased with the even results I achieved. The small brayer is good for the tiny, intricate plates, but for larger surfaces youll definitely want a bigger roller. Now that weve taken a look at how the L Letterpress works, Id like to talk about cleanup. Surprisingly, cleaning the letterpress plates took a lot of work, and a little experimentation with cleaning products since normal soap and water wont cut through the L Letterpresss oil based inks. The entire base, with the exception of a piece of white paper underneath the grid on the bottom of the base, is plastic and can be submerged for easy washing. Just be sure to lift out the clear grid and remove the paper before placing the base in water. Lifestyle Crafts sells a special cleaning wipe for use with the L Letterpress system, but I didnt find any available locally. After doing a bit of research online, I found that others were having great results using Goo Gone, an organic solvent, to clean the ink. I found a bottle easily at my local building supply store for around 7. US, and it worked miracles when cleaning up the L Letterpresss somewhat messy ink. Once Id completed my initial tests with the included paper and ink in the L Letterpress system, I decided to do what all crafty people enjoy doing experiment The first thing I tried was a different type of paper. Some of the other letterpress options well be exploring in the coming weeks work with watercolor paper, so I swapped out some Strathmore 3. Series cotton watercolor paper for the included L Letterpress paper also a thick cotton paper, which is a requirement for deep impressions.