Fabulous Fiskars Fuse

I needed a quick gift for a friend and decided some letterpress-like gift tags would be just right.

Using my Fiskars Fuse, I was able to make more than a dozen tags in a about 20 minutes:

The Fuse (which I wrote about in this post) cuts, colors and creates a letterpress impression in one fell swoop. I use regular inks — pigment or dye (although a well-inked pigment pad seems to give better coverage).

Here’s a closer look:

The bad news is, Fiskars is no longer promoting the Fuse and I couldn’t find it on the Fiskars Web site. The good news? The Fuse is still available online, just search for it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Crafty News

Today, some news from the craft world.

We R Memory Keepers, makers of such great tools as the Crop-a-Dile, Envelope Punch Board and much more, has purchased the Lifestyle Crafts brand. Lifestyle makes the Evolution machine, which does letterpress, die cutting and dry embossing.

To celebrate, We R is having a giveaway. Check it out here.

Next week, I’ll show off some new dies. Have a crafty weekend!

Texture-ific Day Two

I have only began to scratch the surface of texture!

Today is all about my experimentation with letterpress. Letterpress is so old-school, so rich, so yummy! Unlike heat embossing, which gives a raised surface, letterpress “de-bosses” or presses INTO the paper. The best papers for letterpress are those that are a bit thicker. The letterpressed image should not show through to the other side.

In a July 6 posting (here), I introduced the new Fiskars Fuse, a letterpress machine that die cuts at the same time it presses. (here are the tags I posted:)

(Yes, I reversed the process for the blue tag — I ran the tag through so that the design was pushed UP, then I sanded the raised area to give more definition. This won’t work with EVERY letterpress plate, but will with some.)

So then I had to play with the Epic Letterpress by Lifestyle Crafts. Again, such a beautiful outcome. Check it out:

Is that fabulous or what? So lush! Although special, thicker letterpress ink is suggested, I just used some pigment inks because I wanted the colors.

Here’s another:

And a round tag, die cut on the Epic:

Am I done? No way! Stay tuned for more texture fun.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Fiskars Fuse

Wow… how often can you write a headline with all Fs?

Hot off the press today is this letterpress. My Fabulous Find is a new letterpress machine from Fiskars. Called the Fuse Creativity System®, this bad boy cuts, colors and letterpresses in one fell swoop. Weighing 25 pounds, it’s no lightweight; it’s sturdy. The 12 inch platform offers plenty of space — including a built-in storage compartment, which I adore — and the whole contraption folds nicely to a compact, upright position.

Take a look:

And closed:

You know how impatient I am (I want to play NOW!!) so I loved that I could use it right out of the box, since the kit comes with everything you need to get going. You can die cut, letterpress, emboss or do a combination. It handles other dies, such as those designed for Cuttlebug, Vagabond and BigShot, but you will need a Fuse Adapter Kit (sold separately.)

I had a chance to try the Fuse (*see disclaimer) while writing an article for Crafts ‘n things about texture (watch for the article in the October issue!). The kit I tried comes with two adorable tag dies and plates. These were so easy to make because they cut at the same time they letterpressed. One pass and I had one of these:

I used the dies two ways: on the right, the black butterflies were letterpressed (pressed into the cardstock). I inked the plate using the black ink that came with the machine. Yum …  (I have since played around with various pigment and dye inks, which seem to work just fine.) The paper, by the way, is a slightly textured, thick paper from Paper Source. Sadly, the blush pink color I used is discontinued, leaving only Luxe white and cream. Love this paper for letterpress. But I digress….

The blue tag (made using a textured paper from Core’dinations) I did the opposite way, using no ink, so I got a raised impression on the front. I lightly sanded it to bring out the core color of the cardstock. This is a fun way to get double duty out of some designs (be careful with words or letters!)

Can you stand two more? Same process — inked up and letterpressed the right way for the pinkish tag; reversed and not inked for the blue tag:

(papers are the same: Core’dinations and Paper Source.)

Sigh. Now I want more dies. I want to play some more with this machine. See the demos here.

Thanks for stopping by!