Confused about acetate

[Marie]

:confused:
I wonder if someone could explain the difference between normal acetate, heat resistant acetate and shrink plastic? I assume that shrink plastic is the one where you colour a design then the plastic shrinks with heat so that the colour on the design becomes more intense. Heat resistant acetate I assume can be used for techniques such as embossing, but what else? And other than as a decorative function as an overlay for a card, what else would normal acetate been used for?
I realise this is a massive subject area but over the months I've collected each of the above and just want to make sure that I use them for the right thing! Any help greatly appreciated!
Marie:o

[Phree]

Acetate is the stuff that is used in businesses to do presentations in combination with an overhead projector. These days I guess it's less used for that as laptops etc can be connected directly to the OHP and sale charts and that kind if thing displayed directly from the computer file. Anyhow as you work in accounts I suspect you might be familiar with that application - so where does acetate fit into craft?

The original acetates were normally written on with special markers - same idea as those white board markers. This is usuful for crafter as they can stamp onto it with a permanent ink such as stazon and colour the image with permanent pens or pens like the Sakura range which dry on most anything. However you cannot print from an inkjet printer onto this type of acetate as the inks will not dry and will infact bead in the same way water droplets do and likewise you cannot stamp onto it with a waterbased ink.

So next there is inkjet printable acetate, no doubt a demand for this was created by the business world once people realised how handy it would be to be able to print spreadsheets, charts, etc directly onto sheets that they could then display on and overhead projector. With Inkjet printable acetate the difference is obvious via touch - one side feels slightly rough to your fingertips - that's the side you print onto - the roughness is from the special coating that allows printer inks to dry. You can also colour stamp onto this with Stazon and you can colour it much as you would with regular acetate.

Finally there is heat resistant acetate - now I am guessing the need for this was also driven by the buisness world when they decided it would be cool to be able to use Laser Printers to print onto acetate. Laser printers operate at extremely hot temperatures so no doubt the convetional types of acetate would have melted as they went through the machine. For crafters the reason we need it is to enable us to heat emboss onto it.

Shrink Plastic is something else altogether - as you have observed it's main attraction is the fact that it shrinks and does so in a predictable manner that does not cause distortion to whatever image we have stamped onto it. Chemically for all I know it's forumula may be very similar to that of acetate, but you would need to ask a scientist about that one! Because it is a plastic water based inks such as the Adirondack dye inks are probably not very suitable for stamping with but you can get away with water based colouring products when colouring in your image - tho some of what will work and what will not work will be a case of trial and error. One thing tho, I have heard it does not mix well with water so I guess if you try to tint an image with water colours you need to keep the paint to a pretty dry consistency and then allow it to air dry as much as possible before heating. Sakura stardust pens have an amazing reputation for the results that can be acheived with Shrink Plastic. I have certainly seen some fab demos on Create and Craft using those pens with Shrink.

[Marie]

Hi Phree, thanks for this very clear explanation. I've used acetates for presentations a lot over the years, though less so nowadays as most laptops can be used with a projector for presentations, but it was very common during the 80s and 90s (showing our age here!). But I was getting confused about how it fits into crafting, especially the heat resistant kind. So presumably you could stamp it with Versamark, then cover teh image with embossing powder (like the UTEE Glenda has been demonstrating this week) and heat the acetate with a heat gun and get the embossed impression that way. Is that right?
I've also seen the fantastic results that Sakura pens give on shrink plastic on C & C, I'll have to give it a try sometime soon.
By the way, also wanted to thank you for your advice about stamping over the past couple of weeks, I've done a few quite decent Christmas cards using my stamps today, I'm feeling a lot more confident about it now.
Do you know if you can do colour printing onto the printable acetate? Or is it just for b/w images?

[Phree]

Hi again Marie. Something I should add regarding the acetate - specifically the heat resistant kind. I am guessing when I say that this is the same type as that which is sold as being compatible for use with laser printers. Certainly you cannot throw just any kind of printable material into a Laser printer - ask someone who has put the wrong kind of sticky label sheets through - it will melt the glue and damage the printer! Office suppliers sell "laser printer compatible" acetate (aka transparencies) so that is why I am making a guess that the "heat resistant" acetate is the same type as that sold for use with laser printers.

As for what you can print and if you can print in colour - well you can print anything your printer can print in the normal way on paper - so if your printer does colour printing then it will print in colour, be it a business letter, a chart from a spreadsheet or a pretty paper design from a craft CD. There are only 2 considerations here - firstly make sure you have the correct type of acetate for your printer (ie inkjet printable if it's an inkjet, and laser compatible if you are fortunate enough to own a colour laser printer) and that you have set the printer settings to "transparency". Secondly bear in mind that inkjet inks are in themselves transparent, therefor light colours may not show up as strongly on a transparent surface such as acetate. This can be fine if you plan to overlay the printed acetate over something opaque like card, but you may be disappointed at how faint the print looks if you are using it in something like an apperture.

Oh and btw..... let me forestall your next question.... YES you CAN print on vellum too.... it's rather pretty actually so if you have some vellum you may want to have a play with that :D

[Wellington]

Hi Marie,

This quote from JS's site is her description of the heat resistant acetate they sell:

This film is a heat embossable acetate. It works excellently, I have used it today to double check - just don't burn it to pieces - be gentle with it and you will get some stunning results - using ordinary acetate for embossing usually results in a pile of melted plastic - so it's important to have the right product so have fun - the possibilities are endless. Please note you can't run these through a printer -

Also, you asked about crafty applications - yes, pretty wraps...But don't forget apertures & shaker cards...for dragonfly/fairy/butterfly wings...for making a shape stand out over the front of card...:)

We did a monthly swap last year for which the theme was 'acetate' - sadly we lost all the pics in the Big Bang this summer - & there were some stunnas :)