Embossed Paste Cards

Can you believe that another month is almost over. I sure can't believe how fast the months are flying. Here in a couple of days we will be starting March and that means St. Patrick Day will be here. I wanted to do some thing a little different for some of my cards and saw a card using embossing paste. What is a woman to do if she doesn't have embossing paste? Although I liked using gesso it didn't give the texture I was after so I decided to try out a recipe for making my own. After finishing the cards in the morning the boys and I went for a long walk at our favorite place.

I made a shamrock mat and cut it out of cardstock. Then used it as a stencil. The embossing paste was really thick and some of it pulled off with the stencil. When the embossing paste was dry I used chalk to color my background. Cut my scallop out of  kraft cardstock for the focal image. I'm not sure where I got this image but probably from Fairy Graphic. I decided that I wanted just part of the image cut out so traced the image where I wanted it cut out and did some point editing. I edged the image with Vintage Photo distress ink.

I decided to thin the embossing paste with some water. I have a difficult time even with color mist getting a nice look using this Calico Studio Huey mask. I overworked the embossing paste not thinking it had covered so I think that is why I have the color shadows on some of the triangles. Although you can't tell  in the photo I cut the gentleman out and he is pop dotted on the card. I am pretty sure this is another from Fairy Graphic as I remember years ago downloading a lot of  vintage images from there.

If you wish to make your own embossing paste to play with here is the recipe:
2 T flour
1 T white glue or Mod Podge
1/2 tsp of acrylic paint
water if needed to thin to the consistency you want
reinker optional to color or you could use food coloring like I did

Mix everything together until smooth. Then apply with an old credit card,spatula, or whatever you have on hand. If you use plastic stencils, embossing plates or anything like that be sure to clean them immediately or at least soak them in some water. This mixture probably will not keep but it is only pennies.  I do want to try some other recipes like using paper pulp for texture.

Yesterday was a sunny day with blue sky. A little chilly but the perfect day for the boys and I to walk to our favorite place. I'm not sure how far we hiked in the snow as I let the boys lead the way and choose the paths. We ended up making a long loop with lots of scenery. Luckily my boys are patient and were willing to stop so I could take lots of pictures. Thank goodness for a digital camera as I took close to a hundred pictures.

At one time the ocean was my favorite place to go to but I'm too far away from it now. However, two blocks from my apartment is the park that has all kinds of trails. Many of the trails are paved. Do you have a favorite place you like to go to?

Off to walk the boys but not to the park today. I am lucky that there is a paved pedestrian trail outside my door. If I walked it in one direction it would take me to the big city fifteen miles away. I'm not ready for a walk that far. LOL! Especially since I would have to walk it back. Perhaps some day on my bike with the boys in the trailer if they get tired. Will have to gradually work up to that though as it has been a long time since I've ridden fifteen miles a day.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Print and Cut Popup Card

Woke up this morning and it was snowing. It was snowing off and on all day so I thought it was a good day to  play. Before I had my Cameo I used to by hand partially cut out images so that they were a popup. When I saw an image from Fairy Graphic that I had downloaded a few years back I decided to see if I could do the same thing with my Cameo. I had to do a little tweaking after it was cut out with my scissors and to fold on the negative part so that it could be adhered flat. I had forgotten that little detail. Of course those changes are now made in the file so next time I'll be able to just print and cut.

After tracing the image I did an offset. With the eraser I erased the top and bottom lines of the offset part and then drew straight lines. I changed those lines to perforated. Then I drew vertical lines cut lines and added horizontal lines which were also changed to perforated. Then I folded mountain and valley lines to make it a popup. I took chalk pastels and colored the negative part.

I printed borders and cut them out . I glued them to my popup panel.

I welded hearts to make shamrocks. I then sprayed them with my own glimmer mist.

I have not done the inside yet. This is how it looks from the inside. I'm not sure how I'm going to do the inside yet.

I have one more St Patrick card in the works right now. It should be easier to do and not strain my brain so much. LOL!

Do you make popup cards?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Gesso and Stencil St. Patrick Card

Roni the author of the blog Ink Stains inspired me to make this card with her gesso and stencils on black cardstock. She also reminded me that it is time to be making St. Patrick Day cards. Her post is Here with not only the technique she used but also some fabulous cards she made with her stenciled backgrounds.

 I started by using a Studio Calico stencil and gesso on black cardstock. After the gesso was dry I brushed water over my gesso paper and then stamped distress ink pads over it. I then took a wet paint brush and blended the distress inks.  I didn't realize the stencil was narrower than an A 2 cards and had gotten gesso on the edges. I had thought I could trim the edges but then I realized after I got the panel on the cardbase ready to trim I realized there were places where the gesso stains would show. I decided to bind the edges with ribbon.

The Irish lass is a image from Dover. Luckily she was easy to turn into a print and cut. I edged her with Vintage Photo Distress ink. She is pop dotted onto the card.

For the four leaf clovers I welded hearts together and added a stem. I decided to make a couple of different sizes. After they were cut I sprayed them with my home made glimmer mist. Then edged them with Peeled Paint Distress ink. As well as randomly added in places some of the ink. Then I curled the leaves and added beads I had cut off of a necklace I bought years ago at a dollar store.

The tag is from a free file by Delicious Scraps.  She makes some wonderful files and shares them for free.

Do you make St. Patrick cards?

Not sure what I'll do next. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Embossed Birthday Card

Hi everyone hope you are having a good day. February is such a short month and it seems like I'm always behind in making cards for those with a February birthday. Thankfully my good friend's birthday is the end of the month instead of the beginning and if I get the card in the mail today he should have it by his birthday.

In the meantime I am going to have to do something about Buddy as he is pouting because JR got his picture on the card and he did not. Alas because of his coloring I have not been able to do a print and cut of him yet. It is not for the lack of trying. I guess I could have put a party hat on him also in Photoshop and cut the image of him out by hand.

Originally I was going to cut out a fancy window for this card. However I discovered once I embossed the birthday panel to go in the window that the Happy Birthday did not all show. Oh well I can use the card base for another card. So I ended up cutting a rounded rectangle window and decided to make the card with rounded corners. Since I didn't know how the window was going to work with the embossed panel I cut this out of some heavy gray cardstock I've been trying to get rid of. I figured since the card is for a man and since I decided to use my metallic color pencils to go with the gray.

I embossed using Quickutz-Goosebumpz Happy Birthday metal embossing folder. Lol! I found instructions on one web site that had the folder for sale that said to use the embossing mat with the folder after I had already embossed. I found using the shim plate in my eBosser that it worked perfectly. I have also once used this folder in my Big Shot using a shim so if you can find the folder it will work in more machines than the Revolution.

I saw a scrap of pattern paper on my desk leftover from Christmas crafting and decided to emboss on that instead of plain cardstock or paper which I usually emboss on. I then took out my metallic colored pencils and colored in part of the cake and the letters. For the rest of the cake I brushed on glue and sprinkled Martha Stewart coarse crystal glitter on it.

The image of JR is from a photo I took a few years back and in Photoshop added the party hat. I had turned the background transparent to use it in a collage. Because I had done that it was easy to turn the image of him into a print and cut. I was going to put the image of him in all four corners but ended up with such small images to fit them in that I went with two larger images instead . I was originally going to put just one image of  him centered at the bottom but his hat covered some of the letters and I would have had to once again make him too small. I could have left JR off the card but I know how much my friend loves the dogs and pictures of them. Besides I figured the card needed to look more festive.

The emphasis this week for My Creative Life is colored pencils or water color pencils. It was fun to take out my metallic color pencils and use them. Normally I have not been happy with the result I've gotten using them but I will keep them in mind to use with something embossed as I think they gave the card a touch of elegance dressing up the cake and sentiment.

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. I don't know what I'll be doing next besides finishing cleaning off my work space in the Play Room. Lol! Maybe something else on the desk will spark more creativity.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Experimenting Again Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel Powder & Stamps

I should be making a birthday card but instead I've found myself experimenting some more with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and stamps today. I had experimented a little bit using regular rubber stamps but found that heating the enamel on the stamp did not work. As well as I learned that with a regular rubber stamp you have to spray with something which will release the cool enamel from the stamp. Thankfully I was able to get the cooled enamel off the stamp after my first experiment although I was willing to toss it if need be. Cooking spray worked perfect on my second attempt. Alas though one edge broke off so I remelted and used my one and only LaBlanche stamp. No spray was needed on that stamp as it is a silicon stamp.

I don't have a melting pot so I decided to take a Pyrex ovenproof glass measuring cup which was in the donation box to use as my melting pot. I melted the embossing enamel in the oven with the kitchen fan on to vent any fumes. I used both the Bronze shown here as well as some clear to help stretch it as the bronze I discovered is thicker as well as more expensive. Especially since I bought the clear at a yard sale for $1. If you decide to use clear for this technique you can color in the image after the enamel is cool and peeled off the stamp.

I tried on my first attempt to use Brilliance Red Gold ink on the stamp. But it didn't really show up the details of the stamp plus I did not have enough of the enamel melted to completely cover the stamp. I went with the Memento Tuxedo Black hoping it would work. One thing about this technique is if you don't like the result you get you can melt it down again. :-) Of course sometimes the enamel changes color if you have previously stamped something. I ended up getting some reddish gold streaks in the finished enamel tile.

I love how this turned out with all the detail. It really does look like a metal piece on the stamped side. Of course if you did not like how the stamped part turned out and was not using clear you could use the back side as a faux glass tile. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to use this. Anyone have any ideas?

For those who are interested in this technique I've included the video. If you don't have a melting pot you can use an ovenproof container and your oven. I set my oven at 325 and periodically checked to see if it had melted. Using a rubber stamp I sprayed on vegetable spray and blotted off the excess with a paper towel. If using ink you will need to ink the stamp first.

Off to see about getting that birthday card done. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Hearts And Flower

Tis the time of year when my mind goes to hearts and flowers. I have always loved making Valentines and when other children would hand out store bought valentines I liked to make my own. I just could not resist making one more Valentine. Also this week the emphasis is on rubber stamping and I thought it was about time that I tried out Silhouette's stamping kit. I've only had the kit since before Christmas and had never made a stamp with it. Oh the shame! I know none of you reading this post have unused supplies.

 I used a scallop card base that I created in Silhouette Studio. I decided to cut it out of Kraft heavy card stock. I didn't know whether I wanted to use the base with the cut out scallop window or just a plain scallop card base. Behind the window is a piece of foil covered card-stock. I had tried to transfer an image when that did not work I had tried to use a stencil and moulding paste on the card-stock but when it dried where I had used my dot runner to adhere the foil the dots showed through the foil. I ended up using gesso on the foil. In places the foil shows through. I like how it turned out. The hearts are stickers by Hallmark which were a gift from a friend. I was trying to decide how I wanted to do the card last night and then remembered that I had filed some heart stickers.

The flower is one of the images which comes with the Silhouette Stamp kit. I cut it out on card-stock using cut the edges option. Then I cut out the stamp of the flower. Because the stamp is more like a stencil I placed it on the card-stock and  patted my VersaMark ink on top. Then I removed the stamp and heat embossed the flower petals. Then I placed the stamp over my embossed image and stamped with the ink which comes in the kit. I didn't like the look though and the petals looked really scruffy so I went and heat embossed again. I was using a leftover mixture of Raspberry and Aqua powder from embossing sentiments for the inside of Valentine cards. I love the resulting color when both colors mixed together.

I did not realize that the black ink stays wet so the powder also stuck to the stamped lines. I didn't like the muddy look of the lines so decided to stamp with VersaMark ink and use my Eggplant Pearl embossing powder. Some of the colored powder from the petals showed through the eggplant powder but I like how it turned out. I'm glad I decided to try that powder.

I rolled the petals a little bit up before I adhered it with a popdot. I hope the person I give this to tomorrow will like the card. I've been randomly delivering and mailing cards to people. The person I'm giving this card to has been ill since before Christmas so I'm hoping that it will brighten her day.

I definitely would buy the Silhouette Stamp kit if you have a Silhouette machine and like to stamp. Not that I'm trying to enable you to spend more money. ;-) The hardest part was to change the position of the rolller in my Cameo as the stamp mat is smaller. Of course if you have a Portrait you will not have to do that. I have not tried this yet with my SD so I don't know if it has enough power. The ink that comes in the kit works great with the stamping material but I discovered with an old fashioned rubber stamp it did not work as well. Of course that could have been the stamp itself. I can't wait to cut out  more shapes and make coordinating stamps.

Did you make valentines?  Are you using things in your stash that have been sitting there for a couple of months or longer?

Wishing you love, laughter, and a joyful life not just on Valentine's Day but every day the rest of this year. Also wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Awesome Orange And Heat Embossing Card

Baby it is cold outside! Just ask my boys and they will tell you. They quickly do their business when I take them out. Since it is too cold to walk outside for long I decided to play. I'm trying to transfer a photo onto foil covered card stock but so far have not had any luck However, trying the orange cleaner for transferring  an inkjet print produced an interesting look on the original print. Then since this week the emphasis is on heat embossing I thought I would play with that.

I don't know why the one corner looks like it is not down because I checked the card and it is down tight. My camera once again doing crazy things. LOL!

The photo is one I took last week when I walked to the park. It was a chore with the snow so deep to walk to take pictures but well worth it. I like the water color look that resulted when I sprayed my Awesome Orange on the inkjet print. I had placed parchment paper over the wet print so I could put a book on top to keep the print flat. When I took the book off I noticed that the parchment had left vertical lines in the print from where the parchment paper had rippled.Who knew that an orange base cleaner could give such an interesting effect!

 I used my finger and Ranger Perfect Pearl Medium which is like a tacky glue and rubbed it over where I wanted my embossing powder to be. For the trees after I sprinkled the embossing powder on I took a brush and brushed most of the powder off so that it would be a light layer. After I heat embossed I brushed glue over the embossed snow and sprinkled Martha Stewart coarse crystal glitter. I like the dimension the heat embossing and glitter gave to this print.

Have you used anything unusual in your crafting?

Next is to try transferring an image using hand sanitizer. and an image printed on photo paper. Also I saw where an image was transferred by printing on wax paper and then onto your media. For those who are wondering why all of this experimenting it is because I might want to have a print image on something which can not be printed in my printer and not necessarily want to decoupage it on the material. Besides it is too cold to walk far so I might as well play. Especially considering the alternative would be to clean.

Stay warm if you are where it is bitter cold right now. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!.

LaBlanche Sweet Poker Face Card

I happened to be browsing before Christmas and fell in love with the Sweet Poker Face stamp by LaBlanche. I put it on my Christmas wishlist and last month it arrived in the mail from a friend. If I would have known my friend was going to buy the stamp as well as everything on my wishlist I would have added more La Blanche stamps. They are lightweight silicone heat resistant stamps that use no pressure at all to get professional looking detailed images. You are suppose to be able to cover the stamp with VersaMark ink and then sprinkle UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on the stamp and heat it up with your heat gun to melt the embossing enamel. Once the enamel cools you can peel it off and use. I just found out about this technique with this companies stamps will have to try it later. Oh you wanted to see the card!

Cameron my Cameo was happy because he got to cut out the gears that I designed in Studio as well as the template for cutting out the embossed shape. I went and used perfect medium on the gears after of course cutting them out of scrap card stock. Then heat embossed with copper embossing powder. I felt like there needed a break from so much gold/yellow color.

The embossed panel is done with a folder by Teresa Collins. The folder came with the e-Bosser I bought. LOL! Being the frugal person I am I embossed on a scrap of heavy weight card stock that a print and cut printed out the colors wrong as soon as I unpacked my machine. Because the panel was already embossed I had Cameron cut out a template and used that to hand cut my panel. LOL! Don't worry the template will find its way in another project. I decided to play and painted the embossed panel with gold water color paint. I thought it was too brassy looking so then with a wet brush painted Vintage Photo Distress ink over it.

I played with the Sweet Poker Face stamp and different media. I finally decided to stamp it on ink and pen paper with Memento Tuxedo ink. I then painted over the stamped image with Tea Dye Distress ink and Vintage Photo ink on the edges. After the ink had dried I went back and re- inked the edges with Vintage Photo ink to give it more definition.

 I melted some beeswax from a candle and it got sooty looking. I went ahead and brushed the melted wax over my image anyway. In a few places I got some wax blobs but decided to leave them to give the image a dirty look like maybe someone had been carrying the card in their pocket. I thought of using a heat tool I have for use with embossing to melt the wax and brush it out more.

 Next time I'll use regular beeswax instead of a beeswax candle but now the candle fits better in the candle holder. I will also use. my electric wax burner as the wax will stay liquid longer. If you want to try the beeswax technique do use a disposable brush. Perhaps one that you plan to throw out anyway. Also be aware that beeswax can be unpredictable. For example if you used a scrap with writing on the back the writing may come through. Some colors may bleed. You may want to scan in your project first before applying the beeswax so you will have it if the beeswax makes a really awful mess.

What ideas do you have for using this stamp? I have a few more ideas floating around in my head including a couple which are  more frilly cards so don't be surprised if you see more cards using this stamp this year.

I was going to cut out stamps today and misplaced my kit. I just found it so will be doing that probably tomorrow. Unless I'm too tired after trudging through snow to mail some cards and buy some groceries.

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!