Scrapbooking Baby

I have covered the tecnique of Dry Embossing in Technique number 1 – Dry Embossing, and that bascially consisted of a template, a stylus and a light source. Now we are going to look at how to add heat embossing to your scrapbooking baby projects. Heat embossing is very different and requires different materials. Heat embossing is sometimes referred to as Wet Embossing. Heat or wet embossing requires a special ink called Pigment Ink, an embossing powder and a heat source.

Most of the time, a stamp is used for heat embossing but not always. Pigment ink dries much slower than normal stamp pad ink, so it allows you a little bit of time to work with it, but not much, you do need to move quickly. Usually you will ink your stamp with the pigment ink, stamp the image and then immediately cover the whole stamped image in embossing powder, quite liberally. You then gently shake the excess embossing powder from your page and back into the container of embossing powder. You will notice that so long as you were gentle, the stamped image is still coated in a layer of powder.

You will now use your heating source, which is usually a heating tool or an embossing gun, but you can also use a toaster or stove element if you are careful. Keep your stamped image about an inch, or 2.5cm away from the heat soucre and gently keep moving your image around. Now do not use a heat source that blows hot air like a hairdryer, as it will blow all the embossing powder away before it has the chance to raise and melt. The end result will be stunning, the image will be transformed from a flat stamped image to a beautiful raised effect. Embossing powders come in all sorts of colours, from glitters, to metallic to crackle effects, there are dozens and dozens to choose from.

Now another thing is that you can actually buy Pigment ink pens for scrapbooking, which opens the door to a whole heap of possibilities. This means that you are no longer limited to the patterns and designs of stamps, but you can design your own images for embossing. So basically anything that you can fairly quickly draw with the pigment ink pens, can then be embossed in the same manner I described above. Whether this is some writing, a quick picture, or even a decorative edge, you are now only limited by your imagination and the speed you ink dries, remember the ink needs to be wet for the embossing powder to stick.

So give it a go, if you aren’t into stamps, just buy one of the pens and some powder and give it a go, it will add another style of embellishment that is just beautiful to your scrapbooking baby albums. Once you have the powder and the ink, you will be amazed at how far that embossing powder goes, just always remember to shake the excess powder back into the jar/pot/container, it will last forever.

Technorati Tags: scrapbooking, scrapbooking baby, scrapbooking techniques

Hi everyone, and welcome back fellow scrappers, this is Tash again and this is the first scrapbooking baby Technique I am going to explain, but with many more to come over the coming weeks and months. So our first technique is going to be dry embossing, this is one that you need very little equipment for and everyone can do it. Now first of all there are quite a few kits available that you can buy that make things very easy and simple, but you do not have to buy one of these kits to get started. I love scrapbooking, and I love a lot of the kits and machines they bring out to help make things easier for us scrappers, but I am a huge fan of doing things on the cheap. I don’t mean cheap and nasty quality, but if I can do the same thing for half the price, then I’m there.

So for my kind of dry embossing, I am not going to be using any of the commercially available dry embossing kits, instead I am going to be using a stylus, a template, a piece of cardstock and a light source. Sounds simple doesn’t it? That’s because it is. A stylus is used to rub around the edges of the template to leave the impression of the template on the cardstock, which creates a raised image. The template can be almost anything you like, but remember you have to be able to rub the stylus around the edge of the design, so it’s probably not to choose one the has too much fine detail. Perhaps try starting with a simple lettering template. Oh and make sure the template you are using is just one of the standard templates that are about 1-2mm thick, not one of the ones that are about 5mm thick and design for one of the cutting systems. If you use a template that is too thick, when you use your stylus to rub around the edge of the template, it will end up tearing through the cardstock.

Now the way that I do my embossing, is to place your cardstock on the table in front of you, make sure you have the presentation side of the cardstock facing upwards. Next place the template you have decided to use on top of the cardstock and position it to where you would like it to be. Now carefully use some little pieces of tape to secure the template to the card stock, in a couple of places. Quite often I use a piece of masking tape for this as it always seems to peel back off easily without damaging my cardstock. Once it is secure, turn the whole thing over. This is the side you are going to rub or ‘draw’ the stylus on to create the dry embossed impression on the front of your cardstock.

Now once you turned the cardstock and template over, do you notice that you can’t see anything now? You can’t see the template anymore, all you should be able to see is the back side of the cardstock. This is where the light source comes in. I use a window for this, as once you place the cardstock and template up to a window, you will notice that you can see right through the cardstock. Now it is just a simple task of gently and carefully following the inner edge of the template with your stylus, be careful not to push too hard or be too rough with it, or you may tear through the paper, with a little bit of practice you will be able to create the perfect embossed image. Once you have finished drawing around the template with your stylus gently remove the tape holding the template and turn your paper over to reveal your beautiful dry embossed image.

Well I hope that this was simple enough for you all to follow, if not, just leave me a message and I will clarify anything else you need to know. Also please leave your comments about this technique, whether it was helpful to you or not, and even share some of your own tips and tricks if you’d like, I’d love to hear them.

Technorati Tags: dry embossing, embossing, scrapbooking, scrapbooking techniques