Saturday, May 30, 2009

impressabilities - a bit of a let down

I've had my Spellbinders Impressabilities since they were first released. I had high hopes--the cards made by the design team had looked wonderful. They sounded so versatile, too. I was a bit surprised to see how thin they were when taken out of the package.


I knew that they had to be fairly lightweight. After all, I'd read that they could be cut apart so that smaller designs or only parts of designs could be used to emboss, deboss, stencil, or letter press. I hadn't expected them to be quite so delicate though. But okay, I'd give them a chance.

Now I love to dry emboss, so naturally, that was what I had to try first.


Well, I was unimpressed after making my first pass. I decided to mist the card stock and try again. I saw an improvement. This was Georgia Pacific card stock, by the way.


Here are those same sheets of card stock from a slightly different angle so that the embossing is a little easier to see. Not super deep embossing but it's distinct.

Now, I'll admit that I haven't tried stenciling or letter pressing. Not sure how well this particular Impressabilities template would do anyway--it was somewhat curled and a bit misshapen after the embossing passes, and it would take some work to get it to lie nice and flat. But as far as embossing, I think what I'll be doing from now on is recalling that these are very thin, and the impression can only be expected to be as deep as the thickness of the template. It's not going to be a deep, crisply embossed image like those produced by embossing folders. On the other hand, the impressed designs do look more crisp and detailed than those produced using texture plates--I don't think that they would hold up as well for multiple passes though.

Overall, these are just okay. They'd probably be best used for stenciling or letter pressing. They don't seem to be sturdy enough to hold up well for embossing or debossing, and for the price I think I'd rather stick to embossing folders or even texture plates which allow me to use them over and over and over again without worrying about ruining them. Even regular brass stencils would hold up better and give a slightly deeper impression since they're thicker. So, kind of a bummer that for me they didn't live up to expectations, but I have to say that I'll still love Spellbinders for their Nestabilities.

5 comments:

  1. I'd have to say I agree. I love my Nesties but have been quite disappointed by most of the other Spellbinders products such as the Edgeabilites, Pierceabilities and Borderabilities. These new Impressabilities are OK (I bought two) but won't bother getting any more. I hate waiting on my mail order only to be so disappointed when it finally arrives. In this case the hype is definitely more exciting than the product.

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  2. I have to weigh in here and also agree. I just got a couple and after the first pass they were really warped out of shape. Nice effect on the paper, but not very practical in my opinion. I'll be sticking to texture plates and embossing folders as they are nice and sturdy and predictable. I'm thinking these are best for using as stencils rather than embossing. ~chris

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  3. WHOW. Interesting, especially considering the hype on SCS. I have been debating on them also....was wonderng if I should put them ahead of getting the 5 Nestie sets I still want. I believe your informative post, as well as the comments above, have helped me make up my mind.

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  4. I think that these Impressabilities definitely didn't live up to the hype. I hadn't seen the reviews on SCS, so I took a peek. Now I realize that some did mention in passing that the templates warped after use, but I can't begin to approach the level of glowing praise that they gave this product. Wow.

    I want it to crisply emboss more than just paper. I don't really care that once it warps I can cut it into pieces--bottom line is that it's become unusable for any of the other things I want to use it for. I'm sorry, but that's not versatility--that's repurposing. Plus I'd like to be able to use something at least a few times before having to retire it from that use.

    As far as Spellbinders products, Nestabilities are still the way to go as far as really getting your money's worth, IMO.

    Appreciate the comments, everyone! Glad to know that I'm not the only one who feels this way. :-)

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  5. I used mine for the first time yesterday. I was very disappointed. This morning, I immediately went to SCS to see if anyone else had had the same results. One of the gals referred me to your blog. I was grateful that you wrote all that you did. I agree completely with everything you stated. I don't think I'll be getting any more of those. Thanks for the misting idea. I hadn't known to do that. When I saw your misted/not misted photos, I knew right away that you had gotten the same result as I had with the unmisted paper. Thanks so much for sharing!

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