Happy Holidays BetterPress Card Tutorial with Upright Italic Press + Foil Plate

Hello there, Michelle Short here to share a step-by-step tutorial with you using the new Upright Italic Happy Holidays Press + Foil Plate by Paul Antonio. This sentiment is a large plate, so perfect to act as the focal point on a card. All you need is a few elements to bring the card together! I chose foliage and a bird. I chose to press the plate today, but it does foil beautifully too! There are other sentiments in the collection, and they will work for this card design too; you may just need to rearrange the foliage and bird to fit.

PRESSING THE SENTIMENT

1. Flip Platen of Betterpress Letterpress System over and place 4.25” 5.5” panel of Seaside ColorWheel Cardstock inside the registration marks. Hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape in the corners.
2. Place Upright Italic Holidays Press + Foil Plate onto Chase (the Chase is magnetic, so it will hold in place). Use the registration marks to place it so that it will be centred horizontally and just slightly higher vertically.
3. Tap BetterPress Black Ink onto the plate and swivel the ink pad slightly to get a good coverage of ink.
4. Flip Platen over and place onto platform (over the Chase). The magnets in the corners will hold it in place.

5. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine.

6. Lift Platen from platform to reveal pressed image.
7. Remove cardstock panel from Platen by carefully removing tape and set aside for ink to dry.
8. Remove plate from Chase and clean.

Please note: Since the sentiment is pressed onto normal cardstock and not BetterPress cardstock, there will not be such a debossed/letterpress look to the sentiment, but the ink will still transfer nicely.

9. Once the ink has dried, apply tape runner adhesive to the back of the panel.
10. Adhere to an A2-sized (4.25” x 5.5”) white card base.

DIE CUTTING THE BIRD + FOLIAGE

PLEASE NOTE: The dies are shown in the photo facing upwards, so that you can see which die is cut from which cardstock. When die cutting, you need to have the cut side facing down onto the cardstock. Cut pieces of ColorWheel Cardstock to be slightly larger than the size of the dies.

1. Place the berry stem and holly dies from Christmas Cracker Etched Dies onto Peridot ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
2. Place the fern die onto Rainforest ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
3. Place the top layer of berries from Christmas Cracker Etched Dies and the boots and hat from Little Biridies Etched Dies onto Teal Topaz ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
4. Place the eyes from the Little Birdies Etched Dies onto Raven ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
5. Place the beak and legs die onto Beeswax ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
6. Place the scarf die onto Waterfall ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
7. Place the bird body die onto Blush ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
8. Place the bird wing die onto Chiffon ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
9. Place the trim of hat die from Little Birdies Etched Dies, as well as the base layer of berries from Christmas Cracker Etched Dies, onto Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.

TIP: Holding dies down with tape prevents them from shifting when going through the die-cutting machine. Use a low-tack tape like Best Ever Craft Tape so that it removes easily from the cardstock.

10. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine using the following sandwich (bottom to top):

• A Platform Base
• B Platform Top
• C Cutting Plate
• Cardstock with die on top
• C Cutting Plate

11. Repeat the process to cut the holly leaves from Rainforest ColorWheel Cardstock.

ASSEMBLING THE BIRD + FOLIAGE

1. Flip over the bird body die cut so that the back of it is facing up. Add a small amount of Bearly Art Glue around the eye.

2. Place the black eye die cut on top.

3. Flip the bird back over to the front.
4. Add a small dab of glue to the end of the beak.
5. Adhere the bird's body on top.

6. Add glue to the back of the wing.
7. Adhere to the bird’s body.

8. Adhere trim to hat.

9. Adhere scarf to bird’s neck.
10. Adhere hat to top of bird’s head.

11. Adhere the top layer of berries (cut from Teal Topaz) to the bottom layer of berries (cut from Classic White).

12. Add small dabs of glue to the ends of the stem branches.
13. Adhere berries on top.

TIP: Using tweezers or a Pick Up Tool is really helpful when adhering small die cuts. I switch between the two as to what feels comfortable for which die cut.

PRESSING ACCOMPANYING SENTIMENT

1. Add a 4.25” x 5.5” panel of Classic White Cardstock to Platen of BetterPress Letterpress System and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
2. Place plate from Mistletoe Greetings Press Plate & Die Set onto the Chase.
3. Ink up plate using BetterPress Black Ink.
4. Place Platen onto platform.
5. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine.

6. Carefully remove cardstock from Platen and let the panel sit to dry for a few minutes.
7. Once dry, place the coordinating die over the sentiments and run through Platinum Six using the same die-cutting sandwich as step 2 (die-cutting the bird and foliage).

CARD ASSEMBLY

1. Adhere boots to bird’s legs.
2. Using the bird’s body as a guide, adhere legs to card using Bearly Art Glue.

3. Cut fern smaller in length using scissors.
4. Adhere fern and holly so that they will look like they are behind the bird’s body.

5. Add foam squares onto the back of the bird’s body.
6. Remove the backings from the foam squares.

7. Adhere to the card.

8. Using the sentiment banner as a guide, adhere foliage in the bottom left-hand corner.

9. Add foam squares on the back of the sentiment banner and remove backings.
10. Adhere in place below the ‘happy holidays’.

11. To finish, embellish with Silver Mix Color Essentials Gems.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I combined the bird and foliage with the beautiful Upright Italic Happy Holidays Press + Foil Plate. I like having a lot of white space (in this case aqua in colour!), so I kept the design simple with just a few elements. It really lets the sentiment shine! Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you have a wonderful day!