Homemade Embossing Plate

I would bet that everyone has purchased something they just had to have and never got around to using it. For me, it was this filmstrip die by Sizzix & Tim Holtz. It sat in my craft room for years . . . alone . . . just waiting for this month's Cinema kit to come along. A match made in heaven.

I could simply die cut these strips and use them on my page or card, but instead I decided to create something unique and fun -- a homemade embossing plate! Check out this video for more details. 

Follow these steps to create a filmstrip plate:

1. Die cut five film strips from sticker paper.

2. Adhere the strips together, stacking them one on top of the other. (Tip: I left the backing on the bottom one until I was ready to adhere to the base plate.)

3. Cut the film strip into three unequal parts.

4. Cut a piece of thin chip board (base plate) to 4x5.25"and adhere the film strip pieces to the board.

5. Create your embossing "sandwich" and run paper through an embossing machine.

The "sandwich" will vary with different embossing machines. I use the Big Shot by Sizzix.
My "sandwich" from bottom to top - clear acrylic base plate, multipurpose platform tab 1, homemade embossing plate, silicone rubber, and impression pad.

Oopsie Daisy Gray paper held up nicely to the embossing.

The plain White cardstock was a bit thin for this technique and tore.

Bonus embossing plate: 

1. Adhere leftover film strip scraps together in stacks of five. 

2. Adhere onto base plate chip board in random pattern.

Embossed Oopsie Daisy Gray paper.

Once you have a nicely embossed piece, it is time to assemble a card.

1. Stamp Borders and Backgrounds images onto de-bossed (indented) side of plain White paper.

2. Continue to add color with a sponge tool in Amethyst, Orchid and Fuchsia hybrid inks over the de-bossed filmstrip image.

3. Nest the panel onto a 4x5.25" Wine matte.

4. Add embellishment (Spring Chorus rhinestone stickers) and the card is complete!

I added a little bit of spritzing with the Tim Holtz spritzer tool and a Dusty Concord Distress marker.

I hope you enjoyed this fun tutorial and will give it a try. Have a show-stopping week!

Julie

Aspen Blog Hop

I hope your holidays were wonderful! Today we're celebrating the December Aspen collection.

I just love the Wood Grain Embossing Folder included in the Aspen Lite kit. I knew my project had to incorporate it somehow. There are also a number of quotes on the Aspen rubber stamps that I really liked. So how could I put the two together? This is what I came up with:

UM stamped onto 8-1/2 x 11" Print

A fun little art piece that showcases the faux wood frame and one of my favorite UM quotes. Here's a close up of the faux wood frame:

Bridges Brown Plain embossed with Wood Grain Embossing Folder

Now let's see what our other bloggers have in store for us . . . enjoy!

Next up:

Inkstains with Roni

Deb at Liftbridge Cards and Crafts

Deb Duz Scrappin'

Jill P's Place

Tricia at The Efficient Crafter

Hetty at Craft Chaos

Kay's Keepsakes

Cathy at the Artful Gamut

Ann at Crzymom's Tidbits

Shona's Scraps

Debby at Masculine Inspirations

Dishing with Janet

Tiare at iClassy Girl

Lisa at Carpe Memoria

Marya at A Notebook Novel

Digital Musings by AnnetteD

Creatively yours,
Karen

Embossing--One Folder Three Ways

We are loving the new Aspen Lite Wood-grain Embossing Folder! Our design team had a blast creating three different cards with this versatile tool. Each card uses a slightly different technique to achieve a variety of looks.

Technique One:

Tricia's card features White Pigment ink highlighting the wood-grain texture on a Green card panel.

Place Green Plain panel into folder and run through embossing machine.

Add White Pigment Ink to raised surfaces to highlight wood-grain texture.

Technique Two:

Kay created the background on this card by embossing an Almond panel and adding two complementary colors of Gelatos on the raised surfaces.

After embossing, use two Gelatos colors on the raised areas.

Use fingers or soft cloth to blend colors.

Technique Three:

For the final card panel, Kay combined both mediums . . . Hybrid Inks and Gelatos . . . in a two-step process. The dimension and texture of this card is amazing!

Open embossing folder. Add Earth Hybrid ink to raised area.

Spritz with water.

Add Almond panel and run through embossing machine.
(Be sure to clean ink from embossing folder right away.)

Choose 3-4 coordinating Gelatos  and color onto raised surfaces.

Using fingers or soft cloth, blend colors.

Add more Earth Hybrid ink to raised area, if desired.

You can add a little texture to more than just cards. In fact, Tricia used the embossing folder on her photo mattes on some of the Aspen Lite Assembly Line Scrapbooking pages. I'm sure there are even more ways to use this versatile embossing tool than what's shared here. Why not schedule some play time with your Aspen Embossing Folder? We'd love to see what YOU create!

Creatively yours,
Karen

**********THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**********

It's Day 18 of Club Scrap's 25 Days of Giveaways! Today's vintage kit is the Paisley Club Scrap kit from March 2006. This kit has beautifully textured papers, an overlay stencil, rub-ons and more!

To qualify for the drawing, simply leave a comment below. We'll choose one commenter at random and announce the winner on the Thursday, December 19th blog post. Good luck!

Yesterday's (Day 17) Giveaway random drawing winner was comment #72, Stef (Anonymous)! Congratulations! Please email Karen at karen@clubscrap.com with your contact information so we can arrange to send you your prize!

Take Wing Spoiler

This li'l beauty ships a week from today. Darn Labor Day, causing this painful delay until next Tuesday. I figure a somewhat revealing spoiler is in order.

I uttered at least a month's worth of words at the Chicago Scrapbook Expo last weekend, so I think I'll let the pictures do the talking here with the exception of a few captions.

Stamp feather image with Gelatos.

Nest onto several mattes and a Lime card base.

Stamp greeting from the Collection UM.

Wind some of the pretty fiber around the Red panel.

Mmmmmmm.

Make another card with the stamps, stencil and embossing folder. Mmmmmmm.

Off to make more fun stuff with Take Wing. I cannot help myself. If you're not signed up to get this kit, we'll be happy to fix that for you!

Spoilingly Yours,

Tricia