Sunday School - Acetate 101 (and lots of Stuff)

Oh. My. Goodness.  The things I do....:D

This post isn't called 'Acetate 101' because I'm going to give you the complete low-down on acetate.  Oh no.  It's because, should I find myself in George Orwell's Room 101 with all the things I hate most, acetate will be there after today.

This might be a very long post, and it might not tell you much, but really I feel I should share my disasters and triumphs, lol.

I just thought it would be a good idea to look at various ways of using acetate on projects, as I've got a fair bit of it languishing in a drawer.  The other week I went to Daughter's art exhibition and there was one display which made lots of use of acetate, layered onto collages.  It added a brilliant extra dimension to the work and I thought I'd come home and dig my own bits of acetate out.

So here's what I have:

These are pre-cut shapes from Fancy Pants which came in a pack with some album pages.  I've used one of the albums without including any of the shapes, so most of the shapes are still in the packet.  I've got two packs actually.

These are the pages I used.  Lots of shapes there, as you can see.  I did use a boat and a couple of other bits a while ago, but the rest are still there.

This is something I got as part of a prize package, very pretty stuff (although it's the same design in six different colours, they might have mixed it up a bit more!)

This is the remains of a packet of Papermania acetate.

I've got a couple of other bits too, but I'll leave them for now because to start with I thought I'd focus on cutting the acetate into shapes....

This is where it got interesting, and not a little frustrating.

Straight away I had problems when Youngest, who was practising a little Extreme DIY upstairs - cutting the legs off his loftbed without taking it apart first - wanted me to go and help him.  I don't know where to start criticising his efforts, lol.  Firstly he was using my pruning saw.  'It's really good at cutting wood', he said enthusiastically.  I didn't say anything.

Second, he didn't seem to have thought through what he was doing.  Not unusual for a 14 year old boy, or indeed anyone of the male persuasion.  Personally I would have taken the bed apart, measured and cut the legs and then put it back together.  He didn't seem to understand why I was getting so exasperated.  'But what's going to HAPPEN' - I kept saying - 'when you try and lift the bed down to the floor?'  He couldn't seem to grasp the fact that underneath the bed was something of exactly the same size, ie the bit of the frame he'd detached it from.  Sigh...

Third (we'll get back to the acetate in a mo, I promise), he hadn't tidied anything up.  The bedroom was still full of furniture, most of which was preventing him, the bed or me from moving anywhere.  There was stuff underfoot, crunching and sticking to my feet and jabbing my ankles.  And there was stuff in front of the door, too, so that I couldn't get out of the flippin room.

After about 15 minutes he'd had enough of me haranguing him and let me escape.  About an hour later he invited me to go and have another look, and lo and behold he had smallened the bed and very nearly tidied up the room.  It's so much better when I don't have to watch.

Right.  Acetate.  By the time I got back to my desk I was a little frazzled, and what happened next didn't improve matters.

I thought I'd die-cut some of the pretty Slice acetate, so I got out a Cuttlebug Cut'n'Emboss butterfly die.  I'll show you what I ended up with:

There - ain't that purdy!  Well, not entirely.  See that butterfly at the top left without its antennae?  There's a story behind that.

I sandwiched everything up as per usual, and it all went through as I would expect it to - but when it came out, several bits of the butterfly had failed to cut properly.  So I added a shim (the first effort got chucked out) and tried again.  This time it worked better but the die had a distinct warp to it, as did one of my cutting plates. Veritably, dear reader, it began to resemble a banana.  And I still had to cut some of the antennae away using a pair of Squizzers.  The top left butterfly wouldn't play so it's got none.

Next up was the Tattered Florals die.  No problems with that one, which was as I expected.

I will just say here, that I had a great deal of trouble getting this acetate clean.  The green sheet I used first, had obviously had a stint on the Slice cutting mat and was covered with dried-on adhesive.  I had to scrub it several times in soapy water to get the stuff off...

Next up, nesting dies:

That wasn't much fun, either!  Initially I cut a piece of acetate to fit the cutting mat and arranged several dies on it before putting it through the machine.  I'd already tried one little circle die on a scrap left over from the Tattered Florals, and it didn't cut very well at all.  So I added a shim.  Half way through the Big Shot, there was a hell of a lot of noise going on and I was very much afraid that my cutting mat - which was bending upwards at one end in an even more banana-esque way - might snap.  So I took the shim off (it was in two halves).

Well, the bit with the shim had cut okay.  The bit without the shim hadn't and again I had to get the squizzers out.   The shapes are definitely  useable, but I wasn't enjoying myself very much!

These are the dies I used, by the way.  Top ones are Spellbinders and the bottom ones are Go Kreate.

So, on to the Papermania acetate.

This is an old pack and I can't find it anywhere online now.  The fact that I've looked might give you a clue as to how my acetate-cutting experience changed at this point!

The Papermania acetate is MUCH thicker than the Slice stuff.  My favourite, the blue check, didn't have much of the sheet left, but I put it through with a scalloped circle die and straight away I got this

There's a sheet with birds on which I won't show you because you can't buy it any more (!), but here's what I did with it:

I also cut out some of the little birds with scissors - the ones that hadn't been obliterated by my die-cutting, and tried the butterfly thing again:

And it all worked much better with the thicker acetate.  So then I had a brainwave and put some pink Slice acetate through in a double layer!

It cut much better like this.

So, there you go!  I had intended to do stuff with the acetate once I'd cut it out, but I feel quite drained by all the drama!  I did, however, make a layout using the flower shapes and one butterfly:

And here I've tucked a label shape under the photo at the bottom, and added a rub-on to it, which is something I'll be testing out next time as well!

So, next time I'll be looking at the ready-cut acetate and doing stuff with that.  Although the patterned Papermania acetate is no longer available, they do clear 12x12 sheets which are of the same thickness.  Having had this stuff in the drawer for ages without using it all, I've suddenly become rather fond of it and I've got plans to buy some of the plain stuff! 

I should point out, of course, that the Slice stuff is thin because it needs to be - the Slice wouldn't cut through the thicker stuff.

I hope this has been of interest, even though it's not very exciting!  Do come back and have another look next week - I'm really looking forward to doing pretty things with my plain acetate.

NB:  I decided to highlight all the stuffs I've typed, rather than find a better word, because I'm not afraid to expose my shortcomings, and also because I've now drunk quite a lot of Peach Schnapps in an effort to sleep despite my sciatic twinges :D

 

 

Comments

[Helenb]

Love your acetate saga! Some days the Gods/Goeddesses of craft conspire against us - (I often have a falling out with the Glue God) - but you made great pages at the end!

[Fifi-T]

I've never cut acetate with my die cutter, I think I might stay well clear :o

[2amscrapper]

thanks for visiting

[Helen Lebrett]

so I found your blog and have spent the last 1/2 hour perusing it and had to leave you a "comment". I've thoroughly enjoyed (and chuckled) reading your posting about acetate!! I've never tried using the STUFF before ;-) but will definitely think of you if I ever get brave enough to do so!!! And your layouts are just beautiful!! I'll be back to visit: thanks for the lovely reading :-) Helen From Healdsburg, Calif.