Sunday 25 March 2012

One Word One Technique week 13

Hi all it is my turn to show you all my project for One Word One Technique Week 13.
For a reminder of how 'One Word, One Technique' works, click here for Maxine's introduction.

The Prompt for Week 13

March Technique - Embossing
Word Prompt - Inspire

I couldn`t decide between Metal Magic and UTEE soooo me being me i thought . . . WHY . . .not do both, lol!

So first up is Metal Magic by Debbie Moore and this powder is truly magical! You can find Silver and Copper Metal Magic in the shop here.

This powder lets you make metal embellishments using your own stamps and you can also use your punches to make metal shapes.

First i inked up my stamp with Black Versamark ink pad.



Then i stamped up some card with clear versamark and srinkled the powder over,tipping off any excess.
Heat with a heat tool and while hot sprinkle on more powder and heat again,while it is still hot press your stamp into it.
{As you can see i have been doing a lot off stamping and need to clean my acrylic block,lol!}
Lift your stamp off and you are left with a deep impression.
Once it was cool i bent the card a little to make cracks appear and using a blending tool added some Black Soot to finish.

Second up my all time favourite UTEE sooo many ways you can use this powder,i couldn`t be without this in my stash!
Time to turn my attention to my art journal and the covers.
I chose a piece of Simple Stories patterned paper,cut to size and fixed in place.
Taking an ink blending tool,Black Soot distress pad, ink up the edges of the paper.
I then inked up the quote and heart stamp with black versamark ink pad and stamped,sprinkled some fine clear embossing powder over the images and heat with the heat tool.
This makes a nice outline to go in with colour,i coloured with Smooches.
I wanted a glossy finish to my cover so i then took the clear versamark ink pad and stamped all over,sprinkled with UTEE and heat with the heat tool.
It will look uneven at this point so repeat this process another 2 times to give a glossy finish.
On the back i used the fine embossing powder which gave it a different look,sorry it doesn`t show up so well in the picture.
At last i think it is starting to look like an Art Journal now.

Thank you for looking and i hope it has inspired you to have a go at embossing yourself!
Please pop back if you do as we would all love to see what you create.

Till next time
Big hugs
Tracy
XOXOX

Sunday 18 March 2012

One Word One Technique #12

Firstly, Happy  Mothers Day to all those mothers out there! We hope you have a lovely day and maybe get some crafting time in. Welcome to week 12 of One Work, One Technique.


For a reminder of how 'One Word, One Technique' works, click here  for Maxine's introduction.

The prompt for week 12 is:

March Technique - Embossing
This Week's Word - Joy

This week I wanted to share with you a tip I use for making the most of my stash: using embossing powders to change the colours of my alphabets. This technique can also used on embellishments like chipboard. This trick is ideal for those times when you have a font you want to use but the alphabet isn't in a colour that will work for your project. 

First you'll need to ink your letters, it's worth doing these just a couple at a time so that the ink doesn't dry too quickly before you get to using your embossing powder. When embossing I always use the Versamark ink pad as I find this is the best for this technique.  I simply press the letter upside down a few times on the ink pad to get even coverage. Be prepared to get sticky fingers!


When embossing I always work on a scrap piece of paper which I've folded in half. Having the crease in the paper means it's easier to put any excess embossing powder back in the pot. When the letters are inked you can shake over the embossing powder. 


Once all the letters are covered, I always give the paper a few taps or flicks to remove any excess embossing powder, before putting back in the pot. I then use my heat gun to set the powder.


You'll be able to tell that it's setting because the powder looks like it's 'melting'.

Here's my finished page:


And a close up of the embossed letters:


I hope this has inspired to look at your embossing powders in a new way. As always, please leave a link in the comments if you join in with this month's prompts.

Sunday 11 March 2012

One Word One Technique #11

Welcome to the third month of 'One Word, One Technique' :


For a reminder of how 'One Word, One Technique' works, click here for Maxine's introduction.

We're now on to week 11, and the word is: Surprise

and a reminder that this months technique is: Embossing

Sorry I am a little late today, but life as usual gets in the way, but here I am at last!

I have to admit to cheating a little with this one. I have a confession, I have never done heat embossing EVER! and rarely have I done blind embossing, so I took a slightly easy route and used some embossed paper. But please feel free to emboss whichever way you'd like.

I've gone for something in between a scrapbook page and an art journal page this time, just to keep things fresh! I chose a quote that I liked with the word surprise in it and used this to build my page around. The quote goes like this: Life is a celebration of awakenings, of new beginnings, and wonderful surprises that enlighten the soul. – Cielo



I started off with a piece of cardstock and layered some old sassafrass paper with an old Love, elsie embossed white paper with speech bubbles on which I love. Around the edge I used some neocolor watercolour pencils to add a colourful background and used maya mist over the top whilst still wet. I added some ink to the embossed paper so the details show up a little more. I used a few old stickers, some handmade paper, some inking, a crocheted heart and a bit of Dear Lizzy Neopolitan paper too. For the quote I used alpabet stickers for the words 'life' and 'surprise' and stamped the word 'soul', the rest is handwritten.

Here's a close up:


So, a bit different for me, but I had fun playing with it and adding little bits until I was finished. I hope you'll join in and please link us up with your page, project or whatever else you come up with!

Annie x

Sunday 4 March 2012

One Word One Technique #10


Welcome to the third month of 'One Word, One Technique' :D


For a reminder of how 'One Word, One Technique' works, click here for Maxine's introduction.

A new month means a new technique! The prompt for week 10 is:

March Technique - Embossing
This Week's Word - Play

So far so good with my journal pages! For this month's I decided to do some heat embossing to create a resist pattern on my page. I stamped a butterfly stamp several times on a journal page using versamark ink, and heat embossed the images using clear embossing powder. As I layered up the different colours on my page (using distress stains, ink sprays and acrylic paint) I made sure to gently wipe the embossed images with a baby wipe, to keep them nice and white. 
Once I'd got enough colour on there, I added some stamping with black archival ink, and some doodling with a black journaling pen. I've tried to find quotes each month to fit in with the prompt word, but I struggled a bit this week - the ones that I found all seemed really long. So I turned to song lyrics instead, and chose a line from one of my favourite songs from The Offspring.
The page still felt a bit bare at this point, so I went back over it with a star stamp from My Minds Eye. I didn't put the clear acrylic stamp on a block, but used it as it is so I could roll it over the page to give a more distressed look, rather than a clearly stamped image. 

I hope you like my example this week - as always, if you join in with the prompts make sure to link us up in the comments below so we can come and have a look :D

Jules xx

Thursday 1 March 2012

New March Kits

I can't believe we are in March already! I hate February being a short month it always throws me.

Anyway our new March kit is now on sale and this month we have 2 options for you! Both are based on the My Mind's Eye Kraft Funday collection, one used Happy Days and the other Everyday Fun.


You can find both of the kits on the website here.

Annie got to play with the Happy Days kit and has created some beautiful projects. In addition to the kit she also used a sheet of 12x12 paper, an ink pad and white card.

I love how Annie has teamed the kraft with this bright polka dot red to create this fab 12x12 layout, showing that this kit isn't just for smaller projects!


These papers make great notelets and even birthday cards when teamed with the bright buttons and bakers twine.

This tag is just so cute! I love how effective the kraft tag loks cut in half!


I hope that these projects have inspired you and if you buy a kit and create some projects we would love for you to share with us!

Happy Crafting,
Maxine & Annie