Cuttlebug Partial Embossing Tutorial

I know so many of you have asked for a step by step guide to do this, when I go rambling on about it, so here it is.

Below is the finished card, and the steps to follow will show you how I got there:


I have a cuttlebug, but am sure this can be done with other die cutting machines which have a plate / sandwich system, and if you 'know' your machine, and take it one step at a time adding layers as you go until you get the right pressure, without forcing things through the machine.
Once you have done the first one, I guarantee you will be hooked!


Here is a detailed image of one corner as well so you can see what we will achieve:

Materials Needed:

• Cuttlebug
• A B and C Plates
• Die to cut apertures (or craft knife to cut your own size apertures)
• Stamp or image which you want to emboss around, for sizing
• The card stock you want to partially emboss
• an embossing folder
• scissors
• sellotape

Sizing:

Decide on what size die or what kind of aperture you want to cut around your image , so that it fits, as you can emboss over your image, but in this tutorial i have embossed around it.

Cut Aperture:

• I have taken a C6 size piece of regular 250gsm card stock and cut an aperture (chose C6 as this is roughly the size of the cuttlebug folder) and cut a rectangular aperture in the middle.
• Once you have cut the first aperture, I cut 9 more (depending on the thickness of your card and if you use mount board you will need less or more layers)
  
• the idea here is to make as many to sellotape together, as to resemble the thickness of a B plate.
• If you don't get the thickness 100% right you can always add another piece of card when embossing at the end, as a 'shim' to get some more pressure / thickness in the sandwich.

Sellotape all the 10 apertures of card together (I usually align all the holes or apertures then trim off the sides before sellotaping together)

Embossing:

• First stamp your image or emboss it, or mark when you will be sticking down a 3D image or whatever you want to add to the embossed sheet
• then layer the sandwich as follows:

1. A plate,
   
2. Embossing folder with card stock inside ready to emboss as you usually would
3. Aperture stack of card you made, placed over the image so you can see the bits you 'don't' want embossed - this whole thing works by embossing only the areas with pressure, so it wont emboss where you have cut an aperture - okay with that??
4. B plate

• roll through the bug
• if the embossing effect isn't strong enough, add another shim of card stock the size of a cuttlebug plate, and try again until you get the thickness you need
  

End result:

Here is the embossed card stock, and in the middle there is no embossing where the aperture is - I have inked the edges just to make it pop a little more!