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Monday, April 4, 2016

April Stamp Class Reminder and Flattening warped Big Shot plates

Just a quick note that the Deadline for this month's Techniques Stamp Class is Tuesday, April 5th.  These three cards are so special and downright cool, I hope you can come and make them!  Contact me to save your spot, and new stamping buddies are welcome!

Flattening warped plates: 
With so many people using the Big Shot in stamp classes, my acrylic cutting plates get warped very quickly.  On my own, I try to rotate the position of where I do the die cuts as well as flip the top plate each time, but in class with many users, this is harder to manage. Warped plates are more difficult to use since the dies tend to move around on the paper and it's also harder to crank through. I've tried to flatten them with hot water, but haven't had any success.  Doing them in the oven has worked, here is what I tried so you can see if you want to also.
  • Preheat your oven to 325 degrees, with the rack positioned in the middle of your oven. 
  • Wrap each plate individually in foil and place on a cookie sheet or in a Pyrex baking dish.  
  • Place another baking dish (or two or three) on top for weight. 
  • Place everything in the oven and heat for 20-30 minutes, (see note below).  I tried 20 minutes and there was still some warpage, so continued to 30 minutes.
  • Remove entire assembly from oven and set aside to cool without separating anything.  
  • When cool to touch, unwrap foil and brush off any paper scraps that have now been released from the plate -- a bonus!  
Hooray, clean and flat!  The score lines are still there of course, but the plates are much flatter and easier to use.  At last, a simple, effective solution! 
Note:  on the plates that I left in for 30 minutes, there is some white opacity into the plastic, perhaps getting too hot around the edges. Still usable, but doesn't look so good. When I completed the process on different plates for 25 minutes, this didn't happen, so check out what works for your oven, adjusting time and temperature for best results.

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