If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m always looking for something intended for use one way and figuring out if it can be used another way.  I had one of those “aha” moments that worked out this last week.

Remember, yesterday when I said I was strolling around JoAnn’s and picked up a few small things?  This was one of them.  These are called texture makers for Sculpey clay.

What first drew my attention to this particular texture maker was the design of the plate called “Chantilly Lace” (remember the song Chantilly Lace….) .  My Mother has been crocheting some beautiful flowers and I’m thinking this would be a great  embossing texture for a card and those flowers.

In this particular package you get two plates, the Chantilly Lace and a Script.  They are not a hard plastic like a Fiskar’s texture plate or a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder.  They are also one sided, unlike the Cuttlebug where you have a folder type instrument.

The next step was to see what type of sandwich (meaning combination of plates to run through the embossing machine) I needed to configure to get the best embossing.  Now keep in mind, that just like the Cricut, each Cuttlebug has it’s own little quirks about the sandwiches that it will take.   

If it is to thick of sandwich and it will emboss but will also emboss right through the paper.  As you can see, the card stock took the design but it also cut right through the card stock.  This told me my sandwich was to thick, so I had to try another mix.

This looks like a good sandwich mix, but if you look closer, it is still to thick because it is breaking through the card stock in areas.

This is a beautiful pattern. 

 TIP:  If you spray a little water on the cardstock it will emboss better also.

I finally ended up with the following sandwich for my Cuddlebug:

A plate, texture maker plate, cardstock, embossing pad, 3 shims and B plate.  I save the cardboard packaging that comes with my A2 embossing folders for shims.  The various thickness helps get the right mix  for the other brands of embossing elements.

Tip:  So if this combination doesn’t work for your Cuddlebug or embossing machine, play around with different combinations to find out which one works best for your machine.  There is no wrong or right combination.  Each machine is different.

I did a rough chalking of the design since I made the test on white card stock so you could see what it would look like.

 On the script I took a make-up sponge and an ink pad and inked the design.  I’m thinking these might work on white core card stock and then sand them to expose the white core, or Tim Holtz distressed ink would probably be beautiful to use on this also.

This is just another example of looking at something intended for one thing (clay ) and using it for another.  By the way, I did use my 40% coupon on these plates and I think they are going to be well worth the $5.20 for two.

Don’t forget if you want a closer look just click on the picture.  Thanks for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me.  Let me know what you think, I love hearing from you.