Hello Friends! Today I have an update on making my Yupo paper embossing plates. This paper cuts beautifully on my digital cutter, but you can also use it with die cuts. Make sure you get the medium weight (74 lb) not the heavyweight!
I’ve mentioned this in various places- in general I try different things and I tend to video as I’m going along. I then dump all the footage onto my computer and I may get back to it, I may not. It may take me years to get back to editing the video and putting it out on YouTube. And so I had filmed the first part of the included video talking about about the new way that I make/glue my Yupo paper embossing plates. However, when I was editing it, I started looking for where do I actually talk about using these plates? I have some footage where I’m doing this particular idea or this particular project or even maybe just a small tip, and I show myself using the plates, but I never really talk about the full setup and process. It turns out I did talk about this a couple of years ago, but this new post/video has the full, current process.
I have another post/video on how I take a photo and create my digital files in Silhouette Studio, if you are interested in that process.
My paper of choice for the embossing plates is Yupo paper- the 74 pound version. I believe this is called the mid or middle weight. But it is definitely the 74lb, and not the heavyweight. I’ve also used other polypropylene paper as I’ve mentioned here, but it was much thinner and could tear more easily than the 74lb Yupo paper, so I mostly stick with Yupo for embossing plates/stencils etc. You can use other paper or cardstock etc, but if it isn’t plastic it will tear more easily, will be affected by water/wet media and may need more layers for a good impression. I started with cardstock, but switched to Yupo because it cut so much better on my digital cutter. But if you are new to all of this and all you have is cardstock, then by all means try it with that first!
One more point- this post/video talks about how to take my cutouts and make them into embossing plates for use with the Sizzix Big Shot. You can certainly use another die cut machine, but you will have to figure out the sandwich for embossing. Most manufacturers have that info readily available though.
The first part of this post/video is about gluing the layers once I’ve cut them. The second half is how I use them to emboss.
I generally cut the Yugo paper design three times and then I layer and glue them together. In the past I was using Distress Collage Medium, but with super teeny, tiny, intricate details, it just got to be a pain. So I tried spray adhesive. Scotch brand photo mount works really well.
I just take my piece and I usually hold it using tweezers and I spray it. I do this outside. I make sure to hold it upright and spray a thin layer which is all you really need. And then I’ll layer the next one on top. Then I use my tweezers to pinch the edges of the design, both interior and exterior together just to make sure that everything’s lined up. The spray mount gives you a little bit of flexibility so you do have time to move things around. The wet glues I used before- Distress Collage Medium and Scotch Tacky glue- took longer to dry and sometimes even overnight was not long enough. The wet glues give you more working time, but it it’s a little trickier to do three layers, one on top of the other, because a lot of times if you’re moving the top one, the bottom one’s moving and by the third layer they’re all moving. With the spray mount. I find it gives you a little bit of flexibility to line up the layer, and then by the time that you’re working on the next one, it’s dryish
and less likely to move as much, so you can just keep going. So again, I make three layers. I spray the first layer then add the second layer, and line it up with the tweezers. Then I spray the back of the third layer add that to the stack, and line it up with the tweezers. I line up between the first and second and the second and third, making sure that all the layers are lined up evenly. Then you end up with a nice, thick embossing plate.
I also pointed out in the video that I take old cutting mats used in my digital cutter, and because they are somewhat sturdy, I stick a piece of non stick silicone on top and use it as a tray. The mat still has enough sticky so the silicon doesn’t move and most everything wipes or peels of the silicone, including dried glue. The Silicon comes as a large sheet on Amazon, but Tim Holtz also now has a sheet that is nonstick, but grippy. So that would work too. I use these trays as for drying things including these embossing plates.
One tip- do not put your cut outs on the tray and then spray down onto them, especially if you leave them in place to dry, because there is much more of a tendency for the glue to settle into the holes, particularly if they’re teeny tiny. If you spray holding the cut outs straight up in the air, then you can put it down on to the mat and just tap it and the mat will pull off the stuff that’s in between pretty well. You can also do that with paint and molding pastes. A lot of times I use acrylic mediums with my cut outs/stencils, and just tapping it on the mat will pull out some of the stuff that’s gathers into the holes.
While the Yupo paper plates are drying I sometimes put heavy jars on top of them. The plastic jars shouldn’t stick, but just in case, I usually put another piece of the silicone mat to cover the embossing plates so they won’t stick. And then, most important, I let these dry overnight. I give it a full night at least, because even with the spray glue, I’m just not sure whether or not they could shift while rolling it through the Big Shot to emboss with. Definitely with the collage medium as the glue, that will eke out the sides and just make a huge mess if you don’t wait long enough, and then the layers could move. Now you’ve potentially ruined the plates and the project you were trying to emboss. If that does happen you can try to salvage the plate by carefully trying to pull the layers apart. This will only possibly work if the plate is made from Yupo or some other plastic paper. If it’s made from cardstock it is a goner. So let them dry at least an overnight.
When it comes to using these embossing plates, the first thing I want to mention is your paper. I tend to cut my cardstock mats on a die cut machine. It’s an Accucut and I use a wood rule die which lets me cut way more pieces of paper. In the video, I point out that there is a little bit of a ridge left behind by cutting so many sheets of cardstock. The thicker the stack, the more pronounced the ridge. Some people might like that ridge because it kind of almost acts like a frame. It’s up to you. I generally only cut 2 to 3 because I don’t love that ridge, and it is much less visible with fewer sheets. However one note that I didn’t realize until after I filmed this is that the new Tim Holtz Rotary cutter cuts as many as 6 sheets of cardstock- and no ridge 😉 .
The whole point of this discussion is there can be a front and a back to your paper. To me, the side with the pronounced frame/ridge would be considered the back. You want to emboss from the back to the front. So you are going to place your plate (or plates in this demonstration) onto the back of your paper. Think of it as you’re going to push the embossing plate into the paper and it’s going to show up on the other side. So embossing plates are placed on the back of the paper you are trying to emboss. If your embossing plate is a word or phrase, it should be reversed so that after embossing and the cardstock is turned over, you’ll be able to read it the correct way.
I first demonstrate the way I had always embossed before with embossing plates/stencils, as per the directions from Sizzix (at least years ago when I bought it haha. My sandwich was usually the multi-use platform with tab 1 down, a cutting mat, the embossing plates, the cardstock, embossing rubber, and another cutting mat or the Sizzix embossing mat which is what I always use now. As the first cutting mat, I tend to use an Accucut mat, but you can use a Sizzix or even something like a Magic Mat.
However, whenever I was using multiple plates to emboss with I realized this was so much harder to keep things lined up. I actually have another project I have not edited where I believe I struggled with this very process. In the old method, you placed the plates on the back of the cardstock, then flipped it over, and things can move. If you’re only using one plate, it’s not that difficult. Some people tape it. I don’t want to go through that extra step. So I changed my sequence a bit. I still use the multi-use platform with tab one down- usually. However, sometimes, depending on what you’re embossing with, it may be a little too difficult to roll through. So you can always remove tab one. Just use the plain platform with no tabs down and then use different shims. The shims can be acetate or plastic shims or you can even just use multiple layers of cardstock. I’ve definitely shown that before.
So on top of Tab 1, I put my Sizzix embossing mat, then the embossing rubber. These come as a set from Sizzix. If you want to spritz your cardstock with water, you can do that. It can help prevent the paper from cracking and sometimes wrinkling. If I do take that extra step, I spritz (LIGHTLY!) the front of the cardstock.
Then place your cardstock front side down and make sure that there’s plenty of embossing rubber and mat around your cardstock because the whole thing has to be covered by the rubber and the mat. I do discuss how to avoid embossing in an area by not covering part of the plate with the rubber in another video, but for this discussion we are going to emboss the entire plate. Then the embossing plate(s) are placed on the cardstock to be embossed and make sure they are reverse order. Words and phases are reversed. If you want an image embossed on the right, then place the plate on the left, etc. Arrange your pieces the way that you like. And now nothing has to move and it’s easier to make sure everything’s lined up. The last item to place is the final cutting mat. It needs to cover the cardstock, and it’s much easier to place just that one mat down easily. Again, make sure everything is covered- the cardstock and the embossing plates should be centered on the embossing mat and rubber underneath and the final cutting mat on top covers the entire piece of cardstock with the embossing plates arranged however you wanted.
In the video, my sandwich was a little bit thick so it was on the edge of being too tight, and in fact I ended up with wrinkles. If that happens, don’t use the tab on the platform, and experiment with shims like pieces of plastic or cardstock until there is some resistance to rolling, but you don’t have to struggle to crank the arm to roll the sandwich through. I usually place the shims over the final cutting mat to avoid moving the whole sandwich. However once I know the shims needed, if I make this again, I will sometimes place the shims on the bottom of the sandwich where the tab 1 would normally be. Sometimes, depending on the shim material one place or another can cause the shims to roll, but not the sandwich. It may be you need fewer shims, or it may be that you need to change the order of the shims.
For the next step, coloring, I leave my embossing plates in the cardstock because the Yupo papers is plastic and wetness won’t ruin it. Even with glue that could potentially get reactivated, the Yupo should protect it. I usually bring sprays on top and even that degree of wetness is fine with Yupo paper embossing plates. I wouldn’t do this with embossing plates if they were made from cardstock or other paper products though, because the wetness could wreck the cardstock plate or reactivate the glue. You could make another one, it’s not that big a deal. But if it’s very, very intricate, I probably wouldn’t want to line up the embossing plates to do the multiple layers again.
Usually for coloring these embossed images, I use an ink pad direct to paper and just run it over the raised embossing (you could of course to it on the opposite side for a different effect). I also, usually, use Distress Oxide ink. This is one reason why a lot of times I don’t spritz the cardstock with water before embossing, because even the water will start to activate the Distress Oxide which will start to oxidize it. So I usually take my Distress Oxide and run it directly across the image as flat as I can, trying to color the embossed image. However, most times the ink will also get onto the background. Some people don’t like that, but I don’t mind it because I usually spray with regular Distress Spray Stains on top of the Distress Oxide inked, embossed image. I love the look of the reaction- I call it Distress Oxide Resist because it appears as if the Distress Oxide is resisting the normal (non-oxide) sprays or inks, but in actuality the Oxide is just oxidizing. This technique tends to lessen the effect of those straggly smudges ;). I have another video that I will post in the future to show using sponges and brushed to color one of these embossed images, but most of the time I just do the ink pad coloring with Distress Oxide and then spray with Distress Spray Stains. You can use one or more colors of Spray Stains if you wish. Now, sometimes when you bring wet over the top, you can lose the crispness of that embossing. Leaving the embossing plate in there to dry overnight can help prevent that, but not always. And sometimes they fall out. And then when the paper’s wet, it’s hard to put the embossing plates back in.
So no worries in that case, just leave it out.
Next I leave the project to dry. When it’s all dry, if the wet media has softened the embossing then I will try to re-emboss. Typically there’s enough of the embossing impression on the front or more importantly, depression on the back that you can just line up the embossing plates again and roll it through the whole sandwich through the Sizzix again. I have another whole video where I talk about doing that in a slightly different example, but I wanted to talk you through it in this case. And I’ll try to remember to link to that video, when I get around to finally adding that one, so that this whole process is complete.
One additional note- making stencils is pretty much the same process. I may do 2 or even 3 layers, and if I use the multi-layer stencil with gels and pastes I will get thicker results on a project. However, I can also use it to emboss cardstock like I did here with a cutout. I used to always use the molding paste embossing plates that I talk about in this post/video, but if it’s not a stencil, that is if it’s a solid cutout, I now use the process outlined in this post/video. And if it is a stencil, I may make embossing plates from the stencil with molding paste and emboss with those, or I may use the stencil directly to emboss with. Some stencils work better with paste method and some work better this way.
Enjoy!
