Embossing and Inking – Cards Made Up – and a Good Tip for Matting

 

Following on from my post on 1st February, I’ve now finished making the embossed and inked samples up into cards, and finally got round to photographing them. I am very pleased with most of them, although a few are a bit mediocre, but the idea was to build up a card stash for emergencies, so these are not for special occasions particularly. I also find I tend to do more inspiring designs when I’ve got a particular person in mind, which of course was not the case here.

On some of the cards I have left space for a sentiment, either stamped or cut with Jiminy Cricut. On one of the large cards I’ve already done this. The large cards, and those made with very dark coloured base card, will have inserts made as and when they are needed, again, when there is a particular person in mind.

These are some basic cards I did, using a very nice detailed fern stamp. The shadow is very effective, stamping with black after the inking of the background is done, and the white heat-embossed image acts as a resist to the ink.

This one was mounted on a base card made of Core-dinations card, which has a different colour on the back. It has a slight woven-effect texture, and when you sand it, the black surface is removed, revealing the colour beneath. In this case it gives a nice distressed effect, which is offset by the glitz in the border and the multi-coloured sparkle yarn I have tied around the card.

These ones I did with the same fern stamp, but not using the whole stamp; I stamped over the edge. I am not terribly thrilled with these, as this stamp makes it look a bit busy, and it isn’t the right design for this particular stamp. At the show I saw the demonstrator use part of a rounded flower head which was a lot better. Still, it’s only experimental! Somebody might like these cards. I was also a bit careless with the embossing powder and I’ve got a few mistakes – forgot to use my anti-static pad!

This gingko leaf stamp is in the same set as the fern – lovely fine detail. I made two like this, and I think they came out very well. I like the slightly coppery effect of the sparkle ribbon.

These geometric roundel design stamps (Floral Doodle Dallions) came from the same place – StampAttack on Ebay - I bought a few stamps when I started papercrafting in earnest last spring. They are beautifully detailed, high quality unmounted rubber stamps with unusual designs. (I also got the "Fanciful Fans" set which I haven't used yet, but look forward to trying. The leaf set is called Real Leaves.) With these, after inking the background, I picked out some of the detail in the stamped image with Perfect Pearls, using a fine watercolour brush and some water, using my non-stick craft mat as a palette. I think these are my favourite cards in the range. On some of them, I continued the theme by stamping more images onto the base card and doing some more inking. This is definitely something I want to continue with.

This next one is the first in the set that I’ve earmarked for someone – my friend Nilly (Vanillalemoncake on my Blog List) was having a clear out recently, and offered some crafting CDs on the Brainfog forum to anyone who wanted them, and she kindly sent me one. When she saw the photo of the original samples, she had said that she liked this one, so the other night I cut out the “Thank You” sentiment using Jiminy Cricut, and decorated the letters with some silver Stickles. I’m going to make a nice insert for the card, and then I can send it off to her. Thanks Nilly!

Not terribly thrilled with the next one… Unfortunately I didn’t get the ribbon straight! I quite like the colours, and the Core-dinations card that I used again – this time embossing it in the Cuttlebug before sanding. The tree image is a bit disappointing.

Ed.: Later, I gave this card to a blind lady, and she absolutely loved it – she could feel all the rich texture. So it was a success after all!

I’m not really very keen on any of these tree ones… I quite like the background on this one, but it’s a bit boring.

Likewise with this one – less than mediocre! I missed a bit when I stamped the tree, and ended up covering up the mistake with a stick-on silver butterfly, and balanced the silver with a peel-off sentiment. I don’t use these peel-offs much these days, but they are useful sometimes. This card might come in handy sometime, if I can bring myself to send a card I’m not over-thrilled with myself! Still, can’t win ’em all, I suppose, and at least I’m not ashamed to share my mistakes with you!!

This version is slightly better, because I like the multi-coloured inking on the base card, and the addition of the multi-coloured sparkle yarn. I have left a space on the left of the image, for a vertical-text sentiment.

All in all, a bit of a mixed bag! Still, I achieved my end, of putting into practice a lovely technique I saw at the Craft Show, and also building up a bit of a card stash.

I don’t know if it’s just me being ham-fisted, but I do find it incredibly difficult to get matted cards straight! Using double-sided tape there’s absolutely no room for error – once it’s down, it’s down, and if it’s crooked, too bad… Since matting these, I’ve learnt a couple of brilliant techniques to get round this problem (I’m soooo envious of those TV demonstrators who work so fast, and just pop their cards down, absolutely straight every time! How do they do it…?) Anyway, Ikki of the Cuttlebug Cupboard (link in my Blog List) recommends swiping the exposed surface of the double sided tape with a glue stick (e.g. Prit) before sticking it down, which enables you to reposition it if necessary. The other day on the Create & Craft show on TV, I saw an even better tip – instead of peeling the whole of the backing strip off, you just peel a little bit at the end, and fold it at 90 degrees so it sticks out the side of the card. You do this for all 4 corners, and when you put it down, it’s lightly held in place by the exposed corners of tape. When you are satisfied with the positioning, you just take hold of the turned back piece of backing tape and pull it off, without moving the card from its position on the mat. Brilliant! Works every time!