Embossing-Brayer tutorial

I don't have a fancy embossing machine.

All my embossing is done by hand.

I bought these Fiskars texture plates a couple of years ago,

but had a difficult time using them.

By the time I covered up the plate with the cardstock,

it was hit or miss trying to guess where the grooves were.

This last week it hit me that I could

photo copy the texture plate to give me guidelines.

Here I have taped the piece of cardstock

that I wanted to emboss to the texture plate.

I then taped the photo copy of the plate over the cardstock.

I then went over the lines with my embossing stylus.

Brayer, ink pad and acrylic block.

I inked up the brayer by rolling it over the ink pad.

I then rolled the brayer over the acrylic block.

This step makes sure that the ink on the brayer is blended.

I then rolled the brayer over the embossed cardstock,

with the raised design on top. I used light pressure when rolling.

The finished embossing-brayered cardstock.

Sample card using the embossing-brayered cardstock.

Little red divas

Use red on your card. That was the way to use it challege. I had these little lady bugs left over from the teaparty on Tuesday. I used the MOJO103 sketch. I embossed and brayered the background. I had a tutorial on that technique that I hope to get up here later today.

Windstorm

My friend Kelly has a challenge on her blog on Wednesdays. She calls it Word of the Week. This week the word was WINDSTORM: a storm marked by high wind with little or no precipitation. I used the same sketch for both of the cards. I embossed the panels and used a brayer to go over the embossing. I went for WINDmill and WIND blown leaves.

Save the bug!!!

I made this card for Mothermark's teapot challenge. Cindy had the cutest little teapot with swirls and lady bugs. HERE is her teapot. I used polka dot paper that I made on my computer. I stamped my ladybugs and glued them to the base. I added dots for their trails and stamped flourishes. I outlined the card with red. Now see this mean thug bug has kidnapped Loulabella Rocka fella.

Happy Labor Day

I had a great Labor day celebrating with my family. Our little town has a Labor Day parade every year. Our church had an entry in it. My daughters were in the marching band. My oldest plays picollo. (The only one in the band) My other daughter is in the color guard, twirling the flags. She is second from the back. Here is the video on Youtube. First came our banner. Then came our cub scout pack. Then came the Dancing Umbrellas. I am center in the last row. The marching band was at the beginning of the parade, but my daughter put it after the Church's entry on your Youtube video. Traditionally people throw out candy at the parade. Our pastor decided that this year we would hand out popcicles. We handed out over 3000. I am feeling the effects of the parade today. I am super stiff. (Note we took home 3 trophies for our entry)

Don't blame me, Blame the purse

OK, I wish I could say that every card I make is a work of art, and looks like I wanted it to. I'ld be happy just to say I make pretty cards. But I can't honestly say that. This card was made for the splitcoast inspiration challenge. We were to pick a purse and use it as our inspiration. I picked this purse. I thought I could try and make panels that looked like the mother of pearl panels on the purse. I took an acetate folder and drew with several different markers on the inside. I sprayed the folder with water and put my paper inside the folder and rubbed on the outside. I then stamped flourishes. I took my versamark ink pad and went over the paper and added UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) and used my heat gun to melt it. I then cut the paper into squares with rounded corners. I sewed each panel in the corners. It looked really plain and ugly at that point. I decided that what it needed was "beads" because it looked like the purse had beads. So I took a white colored pencils and made little circles all around the panels. I then outlined them in black. Then my card didn't look plain and ugly, it was busy and even uglier. I asked both of my daughters for help. Sometimes when I am stuck I will ask them and they will make good suggestions as to what the card needed. Kristina, my second oldest daughter looked at the card and looked at the purse and said "Mom, you picked an ugly purse to start with." She did however suggest that maybe a ribbon would help. I added a pink ribbon and heated it with my heat gun to make it melt and crinkle. It still needed something so I added hot glue pearls. When I finished I thought to myself this is such and ugly card who could I send it too? I still haven't figured that out. It is growing on me though.

Punched pumpkin

I was reading Leigh's blog and she showed how to make a pumpkin using scalloped oval punches. Since I don't own an oval punch, I decided to follow her directions but use a scalloped circle punch instead. I love how it turned out. It was super easy and the result was so cute. I added a 1/2" punched circle at the bottom to give my pumpkin a base. I am going to try making these with my cubscouts and the little girls at church.

Scraplings

The limited supply challenge was to make a scrapling. A scrapling is a small card that is 1 1/2" by 4". I made two with butterflies and one with a golf bag.

SAND

The Ways to use it challenge this week was to use SAND somehow on your card. I brayered my sky with masks for the clouds. I embossed the waves using my fiskars embossing plate and my embossing stylus. I SANDed the waves with an emory board. I made a SAND dollar out of a brown paper bag. I glued SAND to the bottom of my card. I finished it off with knotted twine.

Sunset

This is for the Sketch Challenge at SCS and for my friend Kelly's WORD OF THE WEEK challenge. WOW02. Her word for today was IMPEARL, to form into pearls. I used my hot glue pearls. I formed the hot glue into pearls by dropping them onto foil and painting them with white pearly fingernail polish. I played some more with my brayer. I paper pieced the little girl's dress.

Sunrise

More playing with my brayer. I used the color challenge on Splitcoast this week.

Teapot Tuesday- Rock concert in Africa

I made this card for Cindy's teaparty. We were to bring a black and white card because there is a Zebra named Zeke who is sporting a black and red look, who also wants to be a rock star. His parents would be happier if he was just your normal teenager. What exactly is normal? I made a piano keyboard card. I stamped a flourish on the inside and made little music notes. I can understand Zeke's rebellious nature. I wasn't sure I wanted to just bring black and white, so I brought a rainbow on the outside. I got to use my new brayer from my friend Anne. I had so much fun using it. I brayered the rainbow and drew the staff and music notes with a black marker.

Masked frames

These were made for the Technique Lovers Challenge to make a masked frame. You start with any shape. You lay that shape on the cardstock. Stamp around the shape with some of the image on the shape some overlapping the edges. When you remove the mask, you have a frame. I used leaves and roses for my images. I used a stencil on the rose card, and a top note die for the leaf one.

Porcelain paper butterflies

Here is my tutorial on how I make my porcelain paper butterflies.

Matterials:
Aleene's Tacky Glue
110 weight Georgia Pacific White Cardstock
Black Stazon Ink
Golden Sun, Crimson Red and Orange Prisma colored pencils
Scissors
Black Cardstock
Butterfly stamp (I used my stampabilites clear stamp butterfly)

Cards from this last week that used Porcelain paper butterflies

Limited supplies to make a gift card holder, using chocolate colored paper and add a butterfly.(porcelain of course) LSC235.

Sketch challenge with blue porcelain paper buttefly. SC243.

Sketch challenge with porcelain butterfly. SC243.

Painted grid technique using plastic canvas and porcelain butterflies. TLC235.

Painted grid technique with a porcelain paper butterfly. TLC235. This card is also for my friend Kelly's Word of the Week. It is a NEW challenge on her NEW blog. Can you guess what the word of the week is? It is NEW. I used new stamps, and a new technique the painted grid technique.


Notice the common theme with this last week's cards???? Porcelain Paper Butterflies. I have been working on a tutorial on how I make them. I thought I would show you the samples first and then show you the tutorial.

Vintage patterns

Thursday's ways to use it challenge was to make a card that was vintage. I used this pattern image. I stained it with tea and colored it in with prisma colored pencils. I added twine and buttons.

A game of clue

Adjusting to kids being in school has been a little difficult. I haven't had time to post anything this last week. This card was made for Cindy's Tuesday Teaparty. We were to make something that had to do with the game of CLUE. I knew right away that my card had to show the billiard room. One of my brother's creative outlets is to write and sing songs. He wrote a song about dreaming of being in the game of clue and that there was a rat eating catsup in the billiard room. My favorite line in his song is "... I don't care who did what, with what. Or if they ever get caught. I'm just waiting for my rodent friend to shoot." (Lyrics copied with permission from the author) Growing up we had a pool table in our family room. My sister and brother and I loved playing pool. The table was also good to play chase around. We had a little guinea pig that we would let run on the table and the guinea pig would run in the holes and down to where the balls rolled. Whenever we played I always wanted to shoot solids. My brother turned 38 last week and I already had a card ready to send him, but I know I am going to have to send him this one too.

Back to school

Here is my reason for not getting daily posts this week. It was back to school time. Johanna is a Senior this year. Kristina is a Sophomore, Joshua is in 8th grade and Kaleb is in 5th grade. 3 different schools. They started Wednesday and had 1/2 days this week. I dislike 1/2 days because it is really hard to get anything done.

Teaparty at Peggy's Cove

I made two cards for Cindy's teaparty this week. I made a lighthouse and then because we were supposed to either catch or bring 42,000 pounds I made a little fish card.

Gold Leaf Pen Resist

Had computer problems yesterday, so I am posting my cards for the technique lover challenge. It was to use a gold leaf pen or a silver leaf pen as a resist and then water color or mist over it. I did two. One with silver with the old car and one with gold with the flowers and butterfly.