Friday, November 2, 2012

Stamped All Day

I stamped all day!!  Really, I did.  I made three more monkey Over the Hill Birthday cards, a lot like yesterday's, plus four envelopes to match.  Here's one:


I really need to name that monkey.  So far, I've just been calling him Buddha, because of his cute belly, but I'm not sure that's his name - just a nick name, I think.

After that, I worked on the snowflake waterfall gift tags.  That was an ongoing project throughout the day, but I now have a total of ten tags, so I am very happy about that!!

It was midterms this week, plus Will's application was due for the program to teach English in South Korea for a year.  Will finally had time to work on my technique video from my last Bea's Mini Album post.  He looked at what Lisa and I filmed and deemed it unworthy.  (You have to understand that he has had classes where he has directed TV and radio commercials and interviews, etc., so he's taking this much more seriously than I am!!)  OK, so I went along with him.  No problem.  If that's what it takes to get the video on my blog, that's what we're doing.  After much discussion, we set up, filmed and he disappeared.

Later, he reports that I just have to give up on this idea!!  It's going to be twelve hours of work, it is going to take equipment that we don't have, and he is going to have to learn how to do several things which he explained to me, but I didn't really understand!!  Now, I tried to explain to him that we are having a communications problem. What I require is not at all what he envisions as necessary.  We are currently in negotiations!!

I also wrote a story for my second blog today.  Another band story about Mr. Cezak. It's worth a look just to see eighth grade me in my band uniform (well, the hat, at least!!) You can find it here.  ;)

So, suddenly it's going on 10:00 PM, and I have nothing new for my blog.  Andrew, my hubby, suggested a technique.  That reminded me that I haven't decided how I am going to teach the technique that I signed up for at the unit meeting on November 17th.  It's an easy one, since I have been embossing for 24 years now!! My technique is CLEAR EMBOSS RESIST.  It's a fun one.  You need a white pigment ink or a clear sticky ink, such as Versamark.  I really like the Versamark.  I have used several other brands of clear ink that were too thick, and I was very unhappy.  This stuff works well.  (That was my little testimony.)

OK, so tap the Versmark ink (or white pigment ink) onto your stamp.  Stamp your image onto a light colored paper,  sprinkle with clear embossing powder, and tap excess powder off.  Now heat with your embossing tool, or like I first learned, over your toaster!!  Watch the powder as it slowly turns shiny.  When it all turns shiny, it is done.  I keep the heat moving a bit.  I have never had any problem, but some heat tools seem to run hotter than others and I have definitely heard of people burning their embossing powder.  They don't start a fire.  It just turns the image brownish and dull instead of glossy.  Maybe the heat gun is too close?  I'm not sure because I have never done it.

Now, this is sort of what has happened so far.  You took a white piece of paper and stamped an invisible image on it, then stuck some clear powder to that image, so it looked a bit fuzzy, but still not like much.  Then, after heating it, it turned glossy white on white paper.  Wow, that sure was underwhelming!!  This is where the fun happens. Using some kind of sponge, apply ink to the image and watch it appear!!


I wasn't 100% happy with the text, and I covered up a lot of the Goldenrod with Sunset, somehow!?  BUT you get the idea.


Everything on the left was done with the clear emboss resist technique and everything on the right was stamped  normally.  It gives you a whole new look, (plus it's fun!!)

I don't think I have found what I am going to teach on November 17th, but I'm well on my way.
If you have never tried this technique before I urge you to think about it.

If you have never embossed before, get some gold embossing powder and play "alchemist"!!  I used to do this with the Girl Scouts all of the time.  When you sprinkle on the Gold embossing powder it's very dull, but when it heats up, it's a beautiful liquid gold!!  They go crazy!!  I still do too!!







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