Faux Letterpress Merry Christmas by Anne Thompson

I needed just a few more Christmas cards and I wanted a bit of a challenge, so I looked online for techniques I hadn't tried. This faux letterpress technique was featured on a Jennifer McGuire video. It is similar to inking up an embossing folder to get a colored impression. The difference is that you layer up two or three die cuts and add a bottom layer of the same design cut from vellum. Then you ink up the vellum, place the stacked images on watercolor paper, and run it through your die cut machine using the embossing stack of plates. The process leaves the inked words deeply etched in the watercolor paper. This was my first attempt:

I used the LARGE SENTIMENTAL MERRY CHRISTMAS die 99804. I cut it three times from thin white cardstock and once from vellum. I stacked up the images right side up using a glue pen with the vellum layer on the bottom. I inked up the vellum with Lady Bug Memento dye ink. (Everything I read about this technique suggested that dye ink is the best for this purpose.) I carefully placed the words ink side down on a piece of watercolor paper and set up my die cut machine plates for embossing. After running this through the machine, I peeled off the die cut stack revealing the words pressed into the paper. I trimmed it a bit smaller than the notecard and added strips of washi tape before adhering it to the notecard. I added a red gem to dot the "i".

I re-inked the words using Ancient Page Aegean Blue dye ink for a second card. (The word stack is reusable. I made two more cards after these two and the stack is still good to use more times.)

I was curious to see how this technique would work with other images. I used the DECORATIVE POINSETTIA TRIMMING die 99865 (two layers of cardstock with one vellum layer) with Festive Berries Distress Ink.

And then--TALL PINE die 99848 and Distress Evergreen Bough ink.

Because these images were more detailed, and they tore when removing them, I wasn't able to get multiple impressions from each stack. I think that if I lightly misted the paper with water I might get a different result with a deeper, smoother, and inkier image with less stress on the paper. Think you might try this technique? I'm already thinking ahead to valentines and hearts...

Happy Crafting!