* Before I begin my blog post today I would like to ask that you pray for the people of Japan as they recover from the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the country last night. All of my mother's family is in Japan and they are thankfully all safe and accounted for at this time. Thank you! *
During the month of March we are focusing on techniques for our Fabulous Friday projects on the Sisters in Stamping blog - I got to choose this week's theme and I chose techniques that employ heat embossing in some form. My favorite technique is cracked glass because I think it is such a great effect, so that is what I used for my card to create my faux cameo. Hope you like it!
Can I just say how much I absolutely love the Easter Blossoms stamp set in the Occasions Mini catalog?!?! This little girl image just jumped out at me the first time I laid eyes on the Mini catalog and it was the one stamp set that I HAD to have when I placed my preorder way back in December. I have a cameo pendant that my husband bought me when my daughter Kelsey was born and I wanted to mimic the look of it utilizing this stamp set - I decided that marina mist was the perfect color for the base.
To create this look, I first heat embossed the little girl image using Versamark ink and white stampin' emboss powder on the oval of marina mist that I had cut out using the Ovals Originals die with my Big Shot (the largest oval). Once that cooled, I took my Versamark ink pad and rubbed it directly on the oval, completely covering the entire piece of card stock. Next, I poured clear stampin' emboss powder over the piece and heated it with my Heat Tool until there was a glassy sheen over the whole surface. While it is still hot, pour more clear embossing powder over the entire surface and heat again (if your piece has cooled you can reheat it or just repeat the step with the Versamark pad and add powder). You'll need to do this 3 or 4 times to get a nice thick coating on your piece. Now comes the fun part - take your card stock over to your freezer and put it in there for about 5 minutes. Once it is completely chilled, quickly take it out and bend and twist it gently back and forth until it cracks - this is because the piece has become quite brittle in the freezer. Fun, right?! If you don't think that your piece has cracked enough, stick it back in the freezer and repeat the last step. The heat from your hands does warm the piece pretty quickly so don't feel bad if you don't get a good "cracking" the first time you try it. If you are more of a visual learner, SplitcoastStampers website has a great tutorial that you can find here.
Here's a tip for you - I took a large piece of cardboard and covered it with aluminum foil and it is held in place on a clip board. Whenever I need to heat emboss something I clip a corner of it under the clipboard and it embosses really fast and evenly.... the aluminum foil heats the piece from behind as it conducts the heat and you don't have burned finger tips because the clipboard is holding your card stock, not you. Clever, right?! I saw this tip somewhere a long time ago but don't remember who to credit.
I hope you have been inspired by my project today and will give the cracked glass technique a try. Hop on over to the Sisters in Stamping blog to see some other great ways to incorporate heat embossing techniques into your stamping projects and have a wonderful weekend!
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