a Happy Secret: a Tutorial on SCS! :-)

So, there's this happy secret I can finally share with You!


(Butterflies: K & Co. "Hello Friend" sentiment: Hero Arts "Just for You" digi kit.
"happy birthday" sentiment SRM Stickers "Happy" set)

First things first, Thank You! There are no words for how much your kindness means to me. I am always astounded anew by how incredibly supportive You lovely Crafty Kindred spirits are. How lucky for me that you take the time to share your wise thoughts and beautiful way of thinking. A thousand happy thank yous & I'll keep you posted on my journey to healthiness. OXO

And that secret?
It's an ultra special first:


A while back, the queen of tutorials, Beate from Splitcoaststampers

offered me the chance to do a tutorial on SCS. Of course, I jumped at
the opportunity & today is finally the day it goes live!
giggle giggle giggle

The technique is called Distress Watercolour Embossing
and you can find the tutorial here on Splitcoaststampers.

Here's a version of the technique that uses another image style of folder, a tree
pattern in a Spellbinders M-Bossabilities embossing folder called Flora:


(Butterflies: Hero Arts "Flutterbies" digi kit. Sentiment: Hero Arts "Just for You" digi kit)


This background is really quick and easy to do. I tried to get an ombre effect with the shades of green. Distress Ink colours used: old paper mixed with crushed olive & shabby shutters.
All the details are on SCS here, for this card.

If you like the graph paper,
it's a freebie that you can find here:

(I lightened the plum colour in photoshop by selecting the
following: image - adjustments - hue/saturation - lightness +)

To save this file:
In Firefox/Chrome: right click on the image & choose "save link as"
In Explorer: right click on the image & choose "save target as"
(or you can see the whole set here on Flickr)





And here's a version that's my attempt at that modern casual style:


("happy birthday" sentiment from SRM Stickers "Happy" set.)


It uses just a piece of watercoloured embossing &
a Tim Holtz Texture Fades embossing folder called Regal Flourishes.
Distress Ink colours used: tumbled glass; broken china; crushed olive
and all the other details are here on SCS.

If you like the papers, they are digital paper freebies
that you can find...

... here:


To save this file:
In Firefox/Chrome: right click on the image & choose "save link as"
In Explorer: right click on the image & choose "save target as"
(or you can see the whole set here on Flickr)

...and here:


To save this file:
In Firefox/Chrome: right click on the image & choose "save link as"
In Explorer: right click on the image & choose "save target as"
(or you can see the whole set here on Flickr)

This last example is a soft version that uses a more abstract watercolour

style and an embossing folder from Sizzix called Tropical Paisley:


(Baby T-shirts and Sentiment: Hero Arts "Special Delivery" digi kit.)


By the by, it's actually easier to do this type of folder than the rose outline one,
since there is less chance of getting embossing powder where you don't want it.
Distress Ink colours used here watered down to make pastel shades:
broken china; wild honey; crushed olive; spun sugar
And you can find all of the other supplies & details on SCS here.

If you like the papers, they are digital paper freebies
that you can find...

... here:

To save this file:
In Firefox/Chrome: right click on the image & choose "save link as"
In Explorer: right click on the image & choose "save target as"
(or you can see the whole set here on Flickr)

...and here:

(I lightened the plum colour in photoshop by selecting the
following: image - adjustments - hue/saturation - lightness +)

To save this file:
In Firefox/Chrome: right click on the image & choose "save link as"
In Explorer: right click on the image & choose "save target as"
(or you can see the whole set here on Flickr)

Thanks ever ever so much
for being You!

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... "packages tied up with string"

A random card for a random week. Mouse (the cat) and

I have been sick & we're all sleep-deprived.
(Though Mouse has been sleeping during the day):

(in the recycling basket) heehee

I have some kinda nasty bug, again. And she's in heat, again. She's been so reactive to medication and she's so tiny that we've been afraid to have her fixed. She lives on the 15th floor so no worries about boys... But we have to give in: next week is the date to take her in. I'm worried silly (as only a crazy fur-mommy can be). Sigh....

Anywho, here's the details about this birthday card:

The gift images are from an MFT stamp set called Top Shelf.
They're stamped on digital patterned paper from TracyAnnDigitalArt on etsy.

And they're popped up in the most affordable way possible.
(Those of you who love foam dots may cringe at this,
but I don't really like them much).
Sometimes, they're just too thick & do you ever wonder
how they stand up to the test of time?

But most of all, You can see them from the side.
(Crafter's O.C.D. all the way, baby!)


(Paper instead of foam dots
under images for dimension)

Sooooh... if we're going to go to all the trouble of adding special
touches to a card why have foam undies show?

Here's my fave, free (and acid-free)
alternative to foam dots.
It's nothing revolutionary: paper...



Scrap paper for dimension:

1) Stamp your image on paper.
2) Then, stamp the images again on scrap cardstock.
3) Cut the scrap paper out so that it's smaller than the image.
4) Stick the layers together with your adhesive of choice.



Flexible options: Stamp several times so you can
cut out more scraps for various levels.

I love that paper is so flexible that way. You're not limited to one width,
of whatever foam dot you have; you can add however many layers of
paper you want to add under an image).

Hard to tell from the photo, but the bottom gift has more layers
of paper under it than the top.

Then they all have thread
stitched around them to look like string.

The bow is pierced & stitched by hand, onto the pressure embossed argyle.

The vellum cardstock tag is stitched on too.
To get a heat-embossed font on it was easy peasy:

1) Cut a piece of vellum cardstock in half (to fit the printer).
2) Type out your text in a word document & colour it.
3) Have clear embossing powder ready to go.
4) Print the text out on the vellum cardstock.
5)Quickly sprinkle clear embossing powder on wet printer ink.
6) Gently heat with a heat gun to melt the embossing powder.
7) Use your heat-embossed computer sentiment however you like...

If you're curious about how the flower was made with a
circle punch, there are directions here.

Other Supplies: Kraft, White, Blue, & Vellum cardstock; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 5 (with the sides trimmed off); Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder; Blue, green, white & black thread; YG00 Mimosa Copic marker & white souffle pen to make leaves.

This is the ledger I used here (printed on kraft cardstock).
You can download it from this older post, here:

(or on Flickr here).

The lined paper white cardstock
is here with some other freebies:

Hope you're having a lovely week,

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Going Batty! (an interactive window card)

Another pressure emboss resist card...

Originally, I made this for the Hero Arts window challenge
that was over last month on the 29th (but I'm slow as molasses!)

The pressure embossing is done on
BasicGrey Ambrosia 6x6 paper:

before:


after:


Using Cuttlebug's Skeleton Scroll folder. Then, a couple of coats
of clear heat embossing & black ink for the resist.
(There's a pictorial here showing how to do it).

The part that was the most fun of all, though,
was stitching crosses of white thread over the skeleton's eyes:


The hanging bat was a howl to make
since he swings around on a thread:



When you open the card, he dangles inside it:



He was super easy to put together using
these Jolee's Boutique Halloween party stickers:


I just stuck them to the back of each other with some white thread
sandwiched in between & coloured any white areas that showed (on the
back of the stickers) with a black marker. He has a fuzzy pom-pom body
that gives me the giggles.

To get the window shape, I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities die
taped on with scotch tape to keep it even. Cutting through these two things:
1) a black A2 card-on the front only 2) The pressure embossed piece

To make it look like the bat was breaking through I did this stuff...

1) Stuck piece of white piece of acid-free copy paper to the back of the embossed piece (I cut the white paper a bit bigger than the embossed piece so it would also act as a white mat around the embossing).
2) Stabbed through the white paper with the point of scissors to make a hole.
3) Tore away pieces of it to make the edges jagged.
4) Curled the torn bits a little for dimension.

Inside the card Monsieur Bat has a spider buddy:



(from the Hero Arts set Spooky Spider Web)

To put the inside together, I did this schtuff...

1) ...opened the web image in Photoshop.
2)...dragged & dropped the spider in & re-sized it using transform.
3) Positioned the spider near the bottom.
4) Drew a line for him to hang from using the line tool.

Spider has some poor soul wrapped up in his webbing:



The Boo sentiment is from another Hero Arts digi set called Happy Haunting.
I just printed it & cut it with an EK Success oval punch, added googlie eyes, stitching
& some more BasicGrey Ambrosia paper that I hand cut for a thin border.

I cut around the spider legs with a hobby knife (exacto blade)
to try and make it look like he was holding the boo sign.

Thanks for dropping on by,

P.S. Disclosure: Megan from EK Success sent those Halloween party
stickers to me to play around with. Thanks, Megan!

P.P.S. I was so inspired by Lisa's fab video tutorial for her trifold window card that I wanted to link it up here. She has some great ideas.

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Happy World Card Making Day (and Merry Kissmas?)

Happy World Card Making Day,
Everybody!

And Merry Kissmas?

Are ya starting to notice Christmas cards popping up everywhere?
Guess it's that time again, hey?

Here's an little idea for a card & box set
using a sweet ol' MFT stamp called Merry Kissmas
Or if you prefer digital, you can find it here.

The image is cut out & stuck onto a heat embossed background
and a torn piece of white cardstock for a hill.
The little girl's coat & the snowman's hat are paper pieced (old S.U. paper)

The card base is 14o lb watercolour paper embossed with
a large Cuttlebug folder (the Winter Wonderland set)

The matching gift box:



Just a super simple box made with pale blue & red cardstock to fit a gift
and a little snowflake embellishment on the bow made from the
EK Success/Martha Stewart snowflake punch & a crystal.

The mistletoe is fancied up with teensy pearl beads stitched on
& shaded with grey marker to make them stand out:



The mistletoe leaves are cut out so that they look clean against
the heat embossed snowy background.

The snow heat embossing effect was made this way...

1) Stamp & heat emboss a dotted background two times: once in pale blue ink embossed in clear embossing powder & once on white pigment ink with white embossing powder

2) Sprinkle loose white embossing powder over the sky & heat it from behind to set it in place (but not have the air from the heat gun blow the loose powder away).

There's a full pictorial for the sprinkled heat embossing here:

Thanks for having a look. Hope you
get a chance to craft today,

P.S. On a personal note:

Bye Bye Mean Old Mister Migraine Monster!

Sorry I've been missing this week--migraine & flu, but YAY: methinks the cause of the recent return of the killer migraines is rooted out! We had switched dishwasher detergents trying to find the greenest brand. The migraines seem to be fading now that we have switched back!

It always seems to be scent or chemical triggers, for me. Now, we use only baking soda, vinegar, Doctor Bronner's all-in-one Castille soap, and ultra green shampoo & conditioner by Carina (grapefruit & deep conditioner) which surprisingly has made my hair 10 times nicer). But finding the right dishwasher soap has been problematic... Anywho, just thought I would share all this in hopes that it might help some of you fellow sufferers out.

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À la Peanut Butter Ink-Resists!

So, how do you feel about

embossing techniques?

(Secretly, they make me feel like a magician!)

Pressure embossing does seem like some kind of magic, doesn't it?
That raised loveliness appearing out of nowhere, just from
rolling through a machine... Poof! ;o)

And heat embossing is too thrilling: melting that powder
to transform it into gorgeous glassiness instantly.

When you add ink-resist to the mix
doesn't it all feel some kind of crazy-fun alchemy?



"First, I wave my magic wand & say the magic words:
À la peanut butter ink-resists!"...

...and we turn this piece of

pressure embossed patterned paper...

...into this inky textured piece:

Here's

Pressure embossing resist
technique:

This technique combines:

1) pressure embossing (using a Cuttlebug, BigShot,
Vagabond, Wizard whatever machine you have, and embossing folders)
with
2) Heat embossing (and the resist technique).

• Embossing folder
  
• Pressure Embossing machine
  
• Cosmo Cricket Early Bird patterned paper
• Versamark ink or other clear embossing ink
• Clear embossing powder (fine/detail)
• A heat gun
  
• A brayer, if you have one
• Temporary adhesive or rolled pieces of scotch tape

Step 1) Pressure emboss a piece of patterned paper in an embossing folder. (The one shown here is a Stampin' Up folder Vintage Wallpaper. A gift from the world's best BFF).



Step 2) Apply clear embossing ink.

Some Tips: I like to temporarily affix the paper to keep it flat Temporary adhesive or rolled pieces of scotch tape. Then brayer Versamark clear embossing ink onto the raised areas (or carefully dab the Versamark pad directly onto the paper, if you don't have a brayer).



Step 3) Apply Clear embossing powder to the wet ink (I like fine or detail embossing powder best).



Step 4) Pour off the extra embossing powder.



Step 5) Brush away any spots of unwanted embossing powder, if there are any.



Step 6) Heat set the embossing powder with a heat gun.



Step 7) If you want high contrast to your resist (where the bright areas are nice and bright) then you might like to reapply more Versamark & embossing powder for even coverage. I find that 2 or 3 layers is good.



Step 8) Then just heat set those second or third layers of embossing powder.



Step 9) You could simply stop here & use the embossed piece as is for shiny pressure embossing or...

Add colour:



Step 10) Apply ink for a resist.

Some Tips: Be sure to let the heat embossing cool completely before inking for the best results (only takes a minute or so). I like to work with an ink dauber or sponge in circles to get in the little grooves. Dye-based ink works well but Pigment inks or Distress inks will work as well.



Step 11) Remove excess ink from the clear resist areas with a cloth.

and it should end up looking something like this:

If your resist areas look a little muddy or dark after you apply the ink...



there is a fun solution:



To get very high contrast, you can put the embossed piece
between paper towels and iron off some of the embossing powder
until it looks bright (This is a thrill!)



Any of the black ink that tinted the embossing powder
will transfer to the paper towel with ironing,

leaving you with lots of lovely contrast:



And pretty patterns revealed where you did the clear heat embossing:

A Tip: If you don't want to remove all of the embossing powder and you don't want the texture of the paper towel to imprint itself into the clear heat embossing, you can sandwich your piece in copy paper and then iron.

If you find that you've hit areas of your paper with
clear embossing powder & it resists leaving patches of pattern where
the black "should" be, like this one:

Don't sweat it. Enjoy the serendipity!
That natural messy artistic look is so hot right now.
(By the by, this folder is Provocraft's Birds & Swirls)

It's so fun to see which parts of patterned
paper show up on your raised image



And it's a stash-buster. You can breathe new life into old papers that
you might be bored with or not sure how to use.

The patterned paper above was
BasicGrey's Marrakech 6x6 Paper:

You can also stamp over it:



This one has a definition stamp stamped over it in white ink
& heat embossed in clear embossing powder.
(This is Provocraft's Skeleton Scroll folder).

And if you find that working the paper so much causes the pressure
embossing impression to disappear, you can put it back in the folder
line it up & re-emboss it:



Re-embossing like this works even after heat embossing.
(If your embossing folder is perfectly symmetrical you could even
re-pressure-emboss it to reverse the embossing
from concave to convex...)

Contrarily, if you want less of an impression
(more flatness) You can squish it!

Of course, it need not be limited to a dark look.

You can also use lighter inks or paint wash to get softer looks:

This was done on printed digi paper
(from Cosmo Cricket's Clementine digital paper pack)
& instead of black ink, I used a paint wash of white acrylic paint & water.

Surprisingly with paint, the heat-embossing retains a lovely shine
(if you wipe as you go with a damp cloth) and the pattern pops.

I thought the digi paper might bleed from using the paint wash,
but it didn't! (The snowflake folder is from
Provocraft's Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland Set).

This piece was clear embossed on white cardstock
then inked with Soft Sky ink:


(The folder is Small Alphabet from Crafts Too).
(I cut it up & punched out the letters 'h' & 'i' to spell "hi" on a card)

In place of patterned paper, you could also use:

• plain white or coloured cardstock;
• or stamped papers;
• watercolour painted paper;
• or shimmer sprayed paper;
• digital paper; book or magazine pages
  
• or whatever you like...!

A Tip: Some thin or fragile papers may work best if you glue them to cardstock first. My favourite adhesive for this is a layer of gel medium (or matte medium) not too thin, not too thick. If you get tearing in your paper, try embossing two pieces at one time as a fix.

If you don't have heat embossing supplies, you could experiment
with brayering on (or painting on) any of these instead:

• acrylic paints
  
• gesso
• gel medium/multi medium/glazes
• crayon/wax (you can iron it off later, if you like)
  
• But I don't recommend peanut butter! ;o)
  

Hope you found this as much fun as I did:

"One! One kind of embossing! Ah Ah Ah!
Two! Two kinds of embossing! Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah AH!
Oh, I love it! Ah Ah Ah AH!"
(Shhh... Don't tell, I'm the world's biggest craft-nerd.)

Thanks for putting up with my insanity! ;o)


P.S. Here is a one page reference sheet for
how to do this pressure embossing resist:


Downloads:

• Download reference page PDF here
• or Download it as a JPEG here
• or Download a PNG here
• (or on flickr)
  

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