Embossing With A Twist by Chris

This month’s tutorials by the Design Team will focus around the Cuttlebug. Join us as we explore different ways you can use your tool and discover its power!

Embossing with the Cuttlebug is a piece of cake—cut paper, insert into embossing folder, set up your sandwich, roll it through the machine, and voila—an embossed piece of cardstock. But what if you want part of the cardstock to stay blank or flat so you can stamp a sentiment or image or highlight an embellishment? It’s easy and just takes a bit of prep work, but once that’s done, you’ll have templates ready for the next time.

You can cut the templates either with your Cuttlebug using your Spellbinders Nestabilities (or with SCAL or MTC) and chipboard (or scrap cereal boxes). To start decide what size embossing folder you will be using. For this tutorial I used a 5x7 folder (Oriental Weave) and a 4.25x5.5 folder (Divine Swirls). You will have to experiment with your Cuttlebug to determine how many layers of chipboard you will need to stack for the embossing; it will depend on their thickness. For my Cuttlebug I cut three cereal box sides at 5x7. Decide what shape you want “open” within the embossing pattern—I made a set of a circle, square, and oval. Line up where you want the “hole” to be in the embossing. (It is important to measure carefully here as you will cut the oval from the next two rectangles and want them to be in exactly the same place. If you are using SCAL or MTC, you should be good to go once you design the rectangle as long as you tape down the cardstock so it doesn’t move.) Using removable tape, I taped my one of my Nestability Classic Small Ovals down on one piece of cardboard and then layered my sandwich: A plate, thin adaptor plate, my cardboard with attached oval—flip the cardboard so the oval is on the bottom side and its cut side is up—and then my two B plates, and ran it through. Repeat this two more times. You now have three rectangles with an open shape. Glue these together and set aside to dry. I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. I repeated these steps using a Square Nestability Die and a Circle Nestability Die.  Now you have your templates.

I then cut a 5x7 piece of cardstock and used my template to determine where to stamp my image. I put small pencil dots to indicate the corners of the open square and then stamped using Black Memento Ink and colored using my Copics. Okay so here comes the magic. Put your card stock into the embossing folder (colored side up and name side of folder up). Put your template on top of the folder and make sure the opening lines up with your design. To keep it from sliding I again tape, securing the template to the folder. Create your sandwich—A plate, Cuttlebug embossing folder with attached template, and plate B—and roll through. If it is not tight enough, shim with some thin pieces of cardstock. When you remove the template and open your folder your cardstock should be embossed all around your image. (Note: sometimes I do my image after embossing.) I do trim any unembossed cardstock from around the piece using my ScorPal cutting pad and finger trimmer.

It’s now just a matter of finishing your card. Here are two I did. One is simply enhanced with a Cutters Creek Gardenia glued down with some Inkssentials Glossy Accents Precision Tip on a blue mat with its edges inked—Tumbled Glass. The other is matted on green cardstock inked with Forest Moss and trimmed with Flower Soft Silver Peel Off Stickers , a ribbon, ribbon slide (cut out of some silver packing foil), a button, and bakery twine. Copics: Y17, Y15, Y0000, B24, YG23, YG61, E25, YR18, and YG00. Finally I added a few dots of white ink to the flower centers.