Venting about the YUDU

Those of you who know me know that I like doing all sorts of scrapbooking, digi scrapbooking, and even t-shirt designing, so when the YUDU came out I was salivating at the thought of combing all of my loves into one machine. But the YUDU was always so darn expensive, so I waited and waited and waited. Then came the miraculous BLACK FRIDAY! I was finally able to get my beloved YUDU at a much better price.
At the foot of my stairs the beautiful big YUDU box sat, just waiting for me to gather the courage to open it and silk screen my every desire. But it had to wait for over a week, for I needed to get my first YUDU creation perfected in my mind, as to not wait the VERY EXPENSIVE paint and emulsion film.
The day came this week. A project was devised, a plan created, I watched 5 gazillion YUDU videos making sure I was doing right. Everyone made it look so effortless. Now was my chance to become a silk screening artist. Sadly, my first attempts were sad an pitiful. This is my story.

Here are the problems I had:

• the emulsion film would not adhere completely the first 2 times. I guess I wasn't getting it wet enough on both sides of the screen.
• the font and images I printed were too fine on the emulsion film that wouldn't adhere the first 2 times, so I couldn't see where it burned through.
• On the third try, (after the trip to Joanns for more emulsion film) I learned a trick from YUDU forums, and got the emulsion film to stick, but got the screen way too wet and watched half of my emulsion liquefy and run off the screen. I did my best to salvage the screen by drying the drips with a hair dryer on the cool setting. It works a little bit.
• Then after burning in my image, I forgot to take the clear plastic sheet off after drying the film and it ripped half my design off. So close, yet so far away.
• I did a run through on the botched film anyway just to at least say I made it to the painting part. That part is fairly easy. And I'm hoping that if the imaged had burned right in the first place it might have been darn near perfect.
• I decided to create a cheat sheet in bold orange sharpee to help me remember the steps, and so now, on the 4th try, I hope to be successful! I will triumph!

For those of you with a YUDU, visit YUDU forums. It will save your life!