CTMH Technique Blog Hop: Embossing Is Back!

Welcome to the April installment of the CTMH technique blog hop!  This month, we're featuring embossing.  (If you're already hopping then you've probably arrived from Wendy's blog.  You'll visit Catherine after checking out my two cards and quick tutorials.)  Both of my cards use heat embossing with the Some Kind of Wonderful stamp set and the Brushed paper pack, yet they look very different!

The first card uses the "emerging color" embossing technique.  Begin by stamping your images all over your focal piece with dye inks in various colors. I used ALL of the colors of the Brushed paper pack except black: Cranberry, Hollyhock, Pixie, Canary, Flaxen, Pear, and Juniper.  I did work from top to bottom creating a rainbow effect.

Let that piece dry completely! Then take solid (or mostly solid) stamps- the larger the better- and randomly stamp the solid images (in this case the solid butterflies) with Versamark ink.  Sprinkle clear embossing powder of this second layer of stamped images.  Knock off the excess embossing powder and heat set with your embossing tool.

In the above picture, you can see the clear embossing powder before I heat set it.  Unfortunately either my Versamark wasn't very "juicy" or my clear embossing powder has lost some of its potency, because my heat tool blew some of it off before heat setting it.  I've never had that happen before!

The next step is to sponge or brayer ink over the entire piece.  You can go with a very dark color to completely (or almost completely) hide your random stamping, or you can do what I did and use a rainbow of colors.

After you've covered the piece with a top layer of color(s), grab a tissue or some toilet paper and burnish the piece: wipe off the excess ink so that the clear embossing really show through.

The second card uses a much simpler embossing technique: white-on-white with sponged color.  I stamped the butterflies with clear Versamark and then heat embossed them with white embossing powder.  (White-on-white didn't photograph well, but is actually pretty in and of itself.)  Next, I sponged color over the butterflies and then burnished them.  This time I used Canary, Pixie, and Hollyhock inks.

 To finish this piece, I sponged Juniper on the "sky" background and added pearls and a pretty bow from my stash.

Thanks for sticking with me so far!  I hope you've gotten some great ideas on using embossing in your crafting.  I'd love to know which card you like better.  (Thanks in advance for leaving a comment!)  Your next stop on the CTMH embossing blog hop is CATHERINE.  Thanks for leaving me a comment before visiting her blog! (Just click on her name.)  Enjoy embossing!