Nautical Themed Press Plate Card
Hi all, Jen here. I'm back with an extra blog post this month showcasing some of the new products from the Beach Days Collection.
For this nautical themed card I used the following products
You Are My Anchor Impress-ion Press + Foil Plates – LDRS Creative
Mixed Postage Rectangle Dies – LDRS Creative
Chloe Alpha Uppercase 6x8 Stamps – LDRS Creative
Whispering Meadow 4x6 Stamps – LDRS Creative
A2 Cotton Watercolor Panels – LDRS Creative
I decided I wanted to make a background using the anchor image from the You Are My Anchor Press Plate. However, this wasn't as straight forward as it is when using a stamp. The press platform I use comprises of 2 main parts. The Chase which is a magnetic base and the Platen which is the top clear plate similar to that on a die cutting machine.
In order to print an image a press plate is placed face up on the chase and ink applied. Then the cardstock is taped into place on the platen, which then sits above the chase on magetic feet creating the letterpress sandwich. The sandwich is run though a manual die cutting machine which presses them together leaving you with a beautiful inked image that is also pressed into the cardstock. Because the paper is facing upwards, you can't see exactly where your image will press on the cardstock. With this in mind there is a risk that your images will overlap. So I decided to make a template to combat this problem.
I took a scrap of printer paper cut to 5 1/2 & 4 1/4 inches, then using a pencil, drew around the outline of the anchor plate. Then moved the plate to another spot on the paper and drew around it again and again until I'd created a pleasing background.
I then used temporary tape to adhere the template to the chase and placed the anchor press plate into one of the outlines. I inked the plate with alloy ink and ran it though my die cutting machine. Then moved the plate to another outline and repeated this process until I'd completed my background.
The background was trimmed down and matted onto an A2 navy cardbase leaving a 1/8 inch border around the edge. I cut the 4th largest postage rectangle die from pale blue cardstock and added it to the centre of the background with foam tape.
The larger "AHOY" sentiment was cut from different shades of blue and red cardstock using the Chole uppercase alpha die set and stacked up on 3 additional layers of white card. For the smaller sentiment I stamped the word "there" from the Whispering Meadow Stamp set with Kiss Me Red Hybrid Ink. Then trimmed it into a sentiment strip with a paper trimmer.
I used a T-square ruler to glue the die cut letters onto the pale blue matt and adhered the sentiment strip with glue and a small piece of foam tape. To finish off I added some red gems for some sparkle.
I love the clean and simple style to this card and recommend giving this press plate background technique a try. I'll catch you all again later this month for my usual monthly blog post! bye!
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