22 January 2011

LETTERPRESS? NOT IMPRESSED...

Hi all. Well, after many months of threatening to get the Letterpress starter kit, I eventually found one. I've put it off because I couldn't really justify £50 on a new crafty toy! However, MadAboutCards had one in their sale at half price, so I thought, why not?
I had read mixed reviews on it, but I really liked the look of the results. I have to say that the only good thing about it so far is that MAC delivered it in super-quick time!
You get a small collection of 'dies', actually very pretty and ones that I would use a lot. You have to stick them to double-sided adhesive paper and cut them out. This paper sticks them to the lid. You then line up your paper, ink up your die with the brayer (and you really REALLY don't need much ink, it goes for MILES!) and whack the whole thing through the machine. Now, I have a Cuttlebug and I can tell you that it works fine with it.
BUT the resulting image was not as wow as I'd hoped. It had printed fine and the ink was even, but it had done that thing where it shows the edges (there is a name for that, but I can't remember what) so there were black lines around the image. I cleaned it all up - a feat in itself - and tried again. No matter how carefully I ink up the die, it does the same thing.
And the adhesive backing comes off the die after one go, so I had to stick it on again, cut it out and stick it to the lid again. That will get extremely boring when I have my invitations to make!
So, all in all, not a great start. It is obviously something I'm doing wrong, but as far as I can see I've followed the instructions to the letter and I'm not at all impressed.
Any of you got one? What am I doing wrong?
xx

1 comment:

Mandi said...

Oh flip!!
~i too have looked at this a few times, og it's so annoying Ive done that so many times, wanted something so much, then it's naff!#

maybe someone with one can give you a tip?
Hope it improves for you hun

mandi x