nice try with those embossing folders, QuicKutz

Wow, I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying! Yes, I'm still here and I've not given up blogging. Life has just gotten very busy!

That said, let me cut to the chase. I've had some of these QuicKutz embossing folders for a while now. I wanted to say a couple of things about them.


In the photo above you can see the A2 size folders and a couple of the smaller 2x2 size folders. These are very much like the ProvoCraft Cuttlebug embossing folders, except for the bluish tint to the plastic.


Unfortunately, they are also like the Cuttlebug embossing folders in that they aren't quite a true A2 size--by this I mean that the embossed design will not cover the entire front of an A2 size card.


I hope that you can make out that the vines reach from the top of the card to the bottom, and they're a nice crisp emboss, too, but they don't quite make it from the left edge to the right edge. If you're a crafter who's driven nuts by stuff like this, then be aware that these folders are going to leave you a bit of unembossed border on your card front.


I also had another issue with my new QK folders and this one is a more serious one in that it seems to be due to a manufacturing defect. In the photo above, you can see that the folders don't close with nice even edges. I had an 'Uh oh' moment when I noticed this.


This turned to a "GRRRR!" moment when I held them up to the light and saw that the two sides of the folders didn't match up. Hey, that's what makes these folders work, eh? But okay, maybe they'd still emboss.


My apologies for the poor quality of this photo, but frankly, the performance of the folders didn't help. The usual sandwich combo produced only a faint emboss. I went with a slightly thicker stack and ran these through again--this time I used Tab 1 on my multipurpose platform rather than no tabs. The embossing was more distinct, but far from the crisp design that it should have been. It was also very uneven in places.


Here's why. I could make the faces of the design fit together, but this is what I had to do to the folder to get them to match. There's no way that would get that way or stay that way going through a machine. Heheheh, well, unless someone, oh, I don't know, maybe decided to cut it apart or something. ;-)

Here's how the other folder looked when I fit those faces together, poor contorted thing. Again, the only embossed design I was going to get using this folder was a poor one.

So, the bottom line at this point for me is that QuicKutz apparently didn't hear the pleas of crafters who want embossed designs to cover the entire front of an A2 card, or even something larger. Hurray for Sizzix for getting that right with their textured impressions embossing folders! I should mention though, that the QK 2" x 12" borders do look like they'll emboss the full 12", so that's good news for scrappers. But I now have some defective product on my hands. I'll be writing to them to see if they're interested in making this right. I'll update if/when I hear something.

One last point, since I'm touching on customer service--my Scor-It (and I've mentioned before that they have SUPERB customer service) was buried under lots of stuff, so I used my Making Memories cutter as my background of sorts for photos today. I'd written to Making Memories a while back because my supposedly self-sharpening blade was fraying card stock when it cut. Unacceptable. I like this cutter. I've been using it for about a year. All I wanted/needed was a new blade. Well, they're supposed to be self-sharpening, so they don't have replacement blades available. ARGH! Their customer service suggested I get in touch with their dept that sends out replacements. I didn't really want a whole new cutter, but okay. My new one arrived yesterday. Wow. I like companies that stand by their product and are willing to make things right when things go wrong. Very cool. :-)