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It’s been a while since I made a Stampbuster’s Video. I haven’t really had many stamping myths to prove lately until today! If you missed a few, most of them are HERE on this blog.
On with my experiment! If you have a cuttlebug, Big Shot or other machine that embosses paper, you may have you tried spritzing your paper with alcohol or water before running it through to get a sharper, raised image. There was a hefty debate with my stampin’ buds lately about which works better, water or alcohol. Seriously, you would have thought we were debating an issue of greater importance, such as which is worse for you – pink or blue packets of sugar substitute.
To put the speculation to rest for me, I set up a controlled test area (my usual messy desk) and cut 6 pieces of 3×3 squares of card stock. 2 were Regal Rose card stock and 2 whisper white. I spritzed one white and one rose colored card stock 3x with water and the other set of papers 3x with alcohol. I ran them through the Big Shot with the Squares Texturz Plate.
My results? Although the water did help the embossed images to pop up more than without any spritzing, the paper took longer to dry and curled up more. By the time it dried out enough for the glue to stick to it, I’d lost interest and moved on to something else. The alcohol sprayed paper had a more pronounced, embossed design and dried so fast! So the conclusion (for me anyway), is to use alcohol in a spray bottle for dry embossing plates and folders.
I used 70% Isopropyl alcohol from the drug store. If you have any other ideas or experiments you’ve had great success with to improve your embossing, just drop me a comment!
Addendum: Eileen left a comment the day after this was posted and said spray the texture plate instead of the paper for less curling. Brilliant! I tried it, same results as spraying the paper but dried faster and less curling paper for sure. Worked great! Thank you, Eileen!
Here is the video:
If you are interested in purchasing any of these Stampin’ Up Texturz Plates for your own experiments and enjoyments, you can order on my Demonstrator Website or contact me by phone or email if you don’t prefer to order online (my info is at end of post). I take all credit cards including American Express. US order only please.
The set of 3 Double sided Texture plates below are Stampin’ Up Exclusive Texturz Plates #1. $11.95 for the set of 3 plates, 6 designs. Item # 114512
This individual Texture Plate is a Stampin’ Up! Exclusive design called Perfect Details. It is only $3.95 and is double sided. Item #115962
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The plates below are called Texture Plates Kit #4. 3 Plates for $9.95, 6 designs. Item # 114531
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To place an order for the Texturz Plates, click here!
Linda Heller, Ind. Stampin’ Up Demonstrator Sr. Manager 1-866-460-4902
Hi Linda,
Great idea! I too have tried both methods and really liked the result with the rubbing alcohol however it really bothered how it still curled on the ends and sometimes SNAIL wouldn’t hold my cardstock down. So I experimented with a few other things and found a great result from using the following. I put two pieces of the brown cardboard (the ones that come with the Big Shot dies or the larger pieces that come with designer paper) in to my sandwich (on top of the silicone rubber). Sometimes it’s really tough to roll through the BS and I think I’m going to break the thing but the embossing is fabulous and no curling occurs to my cardstock. Thanks for a great blog! (:
Ooh, I have yet to even use my texture plates (did I hear a gasp?:), but my question is, does it leave any odor on your paper when you use alcohol? I actually haven’t watched the video yet, so I’ll go do that and see if it answers my question. 🙂 Thanks!!
The only thing I can add to your wonderful posting, is to try spritzing the alcohol onto the embossing plate or folder, NOT the paper. The results are the same, but even if you use water there will be no curling and far less drying time.
Huh….. I just run the paper through without spraying anything a get good definition. Will have to try it this way and see the difference. Thanks for showing both water and alcohol – will just try that!
Thank you so much for sharing this. I have not been very pleased with the lack of texture from my textured plates. I will definitely give this a try.