Letterpress Help Needed
 

I purchased the letterpress about 2 months ago and today is the first time I got a chance to play with it. It has made a mess. I can deal with the mess but my images are not coming through entirely. :(:( I am putting it through my CB as I was old I don't need the full blown machine. This was told to me by the company rep.

Can anyone help? What am I doing wrong?:confused:

Yes, you can use your CB. Did you do it like this?

http://www.lifestylecrafts.com/howToUse.aspx

No, I didn't. I put the black part on the top of the machine and the plastic part of on the bottom of the machine. I'll try it that way. 8)

Do you know what the glass mat is for? Also, other than using the Letterpress wipes they use what else can clean acrylic paint? It is very messy and I have ruined my craft mat as a result.:(

The letterpress ink is oil based and will not clean off with soap and water. I find that Goo be Gone works perfic for cleaning everything, even better then their wipes. The acrylic mat is to roll out the ink with a brayer. I hated the sticky material that came with the plates. I have been using double sided temp tape from scotch and is much easier to work with. It doesn't need to be cut to the size of the plate, just a strip to secure it down. I use my big shot, since this is the same at the cuttlebug you shouldn't have problems if you use the right amount of ink on the right side of the plate. Make sure you use natural type paper that has some give such as all cotton.

A tiny bit of vegetable oil works great.

Thanks for the info ladies. I will play again with it tomorrow. I have to clean up the mess I made in my craft room from a swap and bday cards. I got a lot of work to do. Got to find that Goo Be Gone in my husband's supply drawers.

What about cleaning the plates? Should I use same products to get the paint off of them?

I use baby wipes then goo gone. the plates and the ink board will remain stained if you are using letterpress ink. It will take (me) a while to get the hang of using this tool. There is a great review here:

http://boxcarpress.com/us/blog/2009/...-boxcar-press/

I used UltraClean and everything cleaned up great.

The link appears to talk to more of the graphic artists out there than your ordinary crafters. I like his ideas but it gets costly if you have to get a different brayer, different paper, and their material. It is informational but appears to me like a sales pitch. If I have no luck with it today, it is going back to Archivers.

Thanks for all your help.