Embossed faux watercolour: ISC "Men of Wisdom" (CAR)d

Happy April Fool's Day to You! No tricks up my sleeve today (other than the usual silliness), but this is something a wee bit out of the ordinary, a rare beast around here: a boy card!

This classic car stamp is from Innovative Stamp Creations' stamp sheet "Men of Wisdom." It's the perfect masculine stamp (a stamp genre that I, for one, never ever have enough of!) I thought it'd be especially nice for my wonderful Papa who really likes vintage cars. To colour this cool car for a (CAR)d, I tried an embossing variation of the faux watercolour technique.

The basic steps to this kind of faux watercolour are usually:
Step 1) Colour on the stamp with markers
Step 2) Spritz with a fine mist of water
Step 3) Huff on the stamp (breathe out heavily)
Step 4) Stamp it

I've just added a heat-embossing step:

Step 5) Sprinkle clear embossing powder on the wet image & heat-gun to melt it.

The water picks up the embossing powder in places, so you get a funky texture--just like water beading on a car that just went through the car wash. ;O)

Embossed Faux Watercolour
(with Markers & Water):

Supplies:

• A Stamp (this is ISC's Men of Wisdom)
• Any Water-based Markers (colours here below)
  
• Water in a spritzer/mister
• Clear embossing powder
• Heat-gun

Optional: Versamark. For Detailing: Copic markers (turquoise, grey, & leather colours); Silver pen; Crystals (headlights.)

Variation: Replace clear embossing powder with an e.p. that has glitter mixed in (like SU's Iridescent Ice) or a little bit of metallic e.p. mixed in. It's so fun to mix your own embossing powders (It helps to write down basic recipes on the bottle if you make custom e.p., so you can recreate them.)




Step 1) Colour on the stamp with markers:
These are Stampin' Up! water-based markers: Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy, & Night of Navy coloured in a gradiation (dark on bottom to give the image weight.)

TIPs:

A) Cover your stamp with Versamark before colouring to extend your working time.
B) Your markers won't get discoloured if you start with the lightest colour marker & finish with the darkest colour. You can huff on the marker periodically to keep the ink moist.



Step 2) Spritz your markering with a fine mist of water

Step 3) Huff on the stamp (breathe out heavily on the markered stamp, making a "Huuuuh" noise.)



Step 4) Stamp the image (and huff on it again quickly)...

Step 5) Immediately sprinkle clear embossing powder on



Step 6) Heat-gun to emboss the image.

Adding Details:

The nifty part about embossing with water is that since the embossing will be in speckles where the water was, you can still add shading to the solid parts of the image with marker.

Waterbased Marker versus Alcohol-based Marker Detailing:

Water: If you want to use water-based markers, just wipe the excess ink where the embossing will resist it.
Alcohol: Copic markers seem to work especially well for this, IMHO since even the embossed parts will pick up their colour.



Colouring the wheels. Since I was cutting this out, there was no worry about blurring. I used an aquapainter over a grey waterbased marker to try & get a paint-y look on the wheels.



Copic marker over the body of the car- to even out the colour & give it more intensity.



This stamp is perfect for adding silver (or other metallic) details to (on the wheel rims, the steering wheel, the lights & other neato hardware in the image.)



Swarovski crystals for headlights (adhered with Crystal lacquer.) It's so fun to sneak bling onto a boy card. :O)



This classic car image has that funky intricate look, but it was actually really easy to cut out.

The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is also from
the ISC stamp sheet "Men of Wisdom."
Luv that font; it's classic & modern (and so very guy-ish) :O)

To make a Lacquer
Hardware Sentiment:

This is a fun way to change up hodge podge or other hardware, looks just like glass!

Supplies:

• Crystal Laquer
• Any hardware, paper, & sentiment
• Pencil & scissors
• optional: thread & needle & silver Zig Painty pen
  

Step 1) Emboss sentiment onto paper (or stamp in very waterproof ink) This keeps the lacquer from making the ink run.

Step 2) Trace hardware. Place hardware temporarily over sentiment & trace it with a pencil. Remove hardware

Step 3) Cut inside of your pencil line.

Step 4) Dry fit to see if the paper is the right fit (or if it needs trimming)

Step 5) Adhere paper to back of hardware (I like to use Crystal Lacquer for that.) An Option: You can add dots of metallic to light hardware with a Zig Painty pen (I added silver dots) :O)

Step 6) Optional: Embellish it. Stitch details if you like (or add gel or glitter pen or maybe actual glitter...) I added a couple of french knots under the phrase for somethin' different.

Step 7) Pour Cystal Lacquer into the frame of the hardware & use something to move it to the edges of the hardware. Removing bubbles as you go. Set to dry in a flat relatively dust-free area.

If your lacquer has bubbles you can't remove, one trick to hide 'em is to distress the lacquer when it's dry (prick the dry lacquer with a pin or paper piercer to create a dot pattern. This will hide the bubbles & add a neat texture... Here's an example of that variation:

Click the pic to see it up close:

For this card post please click here.

Embossing Text Weight Papers:

Hopefully you can get some idea from this photo of the snifty Noir Sparkle Text paper that the road is made of. (Click to see a close up of the sparkle):

(Sparkle Text paper from Paper Temptress.)

Woohoo! A whole new world of affordable paper; it's new to me, anyhow. I used to be snobby about not using text weight (more is more right?) but surprise surprise. Less is more!... Who knew? You probably already knew, but text weight dry embosses with such crisp detail.

PT's sparkle text is 25 cents a sheet & makes for nice, light weight, mailable layers. You can browse the whole Sparkle group here. It comes in lots of colours (and cardstock weight too.) Purists may want to note that it's not acid free.

Like the sounds of Text Weight Papers? Here are other varieties:

• Sorbet Text Package & Individual Sheets
  
• Iridescent Text Package & Individual Sheets
  
• Mica & Metallic Text Packages & Individual sheets
  

Other card info: The road is dry embossed with the Argyle cuttlebug folder & the white lines on it are embroidery thread stitches. Patterned papers retired from Stampin' Up! (Notebook). Card: SU Very Vanilla cardstock (cut to 6x6). Embellishments: Swarovski crystals for headlights. White & Turquoise embroidery thread. Hodge Podge Hardware from SU & silver brads.

BLOG:
There are all kinds of gorgeous projects posted at Innovative Stamp Creations Blog & Sneak peeks of their upcoming releases too! <--You can check it all out there

ISC PCP GROUP:

You can also join the ISC group on Paper Craft Planet! :O)

STORE:
Browse goodies at ISC store here.

Hope you are feelin very CRAFTY today!!! ;O)

P.S. Want a last minute April Fool's trick? Here are some cute ideas. I think I hafta make Charles some of these Reese's Sneezes, ICK! But better than a pretend parking ticket or cat litter cake, heeheeheehee.