You have probably heard about the new Spellbinders Betterpress System and I would imagine you have the same question that I had: Can I do Betterpress Using Hot Plates?
In this post, I’ll show you how I do it and also share some warnings.
Disclosure
- This post doesn’t aim to advise you to use Glimmer/ Hot Plates in the Betterpress.
- If you want to use glimmer plates as I do, this might or not involve the risk of shortening the life of the system or damaging it. So please be mindful.
- Warning!! Using hot plates in the Betterpress invalidates the Betterpress guarantee.
How to Use Betterpress
- The best way to use your Betterpress is to use Betterpress branded products here.
- Yes, you can use any paper, any ink but to achieve that luxurious letterpress effect Spellbinders has designed a specialised line of products here.
Can I do Betterpress Using Hot Plates?
Yes, I think you can BUT please read “How I do it” and the results section of this post ( below).
To answer this question, The first I bear in mind was the thickness of the Betterpress press plates vs the thickness of the Hot Plates.
I have a little gadget to measure the thickness of different materials and I found the following:
Press Plates Thickness 
SSS Hot Plates Thickness 
3 Shims Thickness
- Press Plates thickness: 1.0mm
- Glimmer plates: 1.2 mm (0.2mm thicker than the Press Plates)
- 3 white Betterpress shims together measure 0.3mm ( each measuring 0.1mm)
- Grey mat 3.1 mm
So from this point of view, it is simple mats. I needed to remove 2 white shims and the sandwich will be exactly the same thickness and should be the same pressure) BUT I removed the 3 white shims to be super sure.
So by removing the 3 white shims, the Betterpress sandwich is 1mm thinner. This also means less pressure. This also can compromise the quality of the impression.
How do I do it?
I repeat: To use Hot Plates on the Betterpress, I simply removed the 3 white shims from underneath the grey mat in the Betterpress and used the glimmer plates as I should use press plates.
I think that by removing the 3 white shims from underneath the grey mat in the Betterpress we can just guarantee an appropriate/ good pressure without damaging the system.
The system should run smoothly on the die-cutting machine. NO cracking noises at all.
I’m not sure if there might be other factors additional to the thickness of the plates that can be important to this equation such as the different plates’ metal composition.
**** VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: If you do not remove the 3 white shims when using glimmer plates the pressure will be a little too much and that defo can affect the Betterpress in the long term.
The Results
As you can see in the card samples in this post, the impression is enough but not as sharp as the Betterpress Press Plates for one simple reason:
- The Glimmer Plates aren’t designed to do letterpress.
So you won’t get the beautiful detailed and outstanding letterpress results using hot plates.
While writing this post for you, I just remember when the Spellbinders Hot Foil Sistem was just launched.
Do you remember that we all want to use dies to do hot foiling? Just because we had loads of dies.
How many times we had to try until we realized that to do hot foiling we need hot plates.
Do I Recommend the Betterepress
Yes! 100%. I love it.
Today’s Samples
So for today’s samples, I used a couple of Simon Says Stamp hot plates to provide a visual idea of how Hot plates perform in the Betterpress and also a video that will be available on my Instagram here later on.
Cards Recipe:
For the Green and blue card above I used the Intricate Rose and Blooms Bouquet Hot Plates by Simon Says Stamp.
For the card below I used Intricate Daisies Hot Foil Plates and Dies, Intricate Gingko Leaves Hot Plate and Dies by Simon Says Stamp. I also used the Layered Flowers Stencil to add a pattern to the card background.
- Intriciate Rose and Blooms Bouquet Hot Plates
- Intricate Daisies Hot Foil Plates and Dies
- Intricate Gingko Leaves Hot Plate and Dies.
- Layered Flowers Stencil ( for one of the cards background)
- Spellbinders BetterPress Letterpress System
- BetterPress Cotton Card Panels A2 Porcelain
- Best Ever Craft Tape
- Black BetterPress Ink included in the Regal Tones Mini 4 Ink Pad Set
- Layered Chickadee Wafer Dies
- The sentiments are from Always and Forever Sentiment Strips Press Plate and Die Set by Spellbinders.
That’s all for today.
Thanks for stopping by.
X
Bibi
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