Playing Around with Embossing

This week's challenge on the Papercrafts forum on the CK Web site was hosted by Anne/Boobash. Her challenge was to use VersaMark. I haven't used my VersaMark pad for a long time. I decided to also take the opportunity to try a new technique or two. I actually tried three, but only one made it to the finished card. I don't think is going to be my favorite card ever. It sure seemed to take an awfully long time for such a simple design.

The one new technique I tried that made it is called Pastel Embossing. I stamped the image on black cardstock with the VersaMark and then heat embossed it in opaque white. Once the image cooled, I colored it with a blender pen and artist pastels. I just brushed the blender pen across the pastel square, then colored directly on the embossed image. I do like the result, but I want to play with it a little more. The embossing turned out more rough textured than I like, but I'm not sure there's much I can do about that. I also found that I had to go over the image several times to get the color like I wanted it. It turns lighter after it dries a bit. I am definitely going to do this again though. I really like how it makes the imag pop and allows you to stamp on the darker cardstock.

I tried two other techniques which I was planning to use for the background. One is called Mulberry Batik. You stamp the image on mulberry paper with Versamark and then emboss with clear EP. You then use ink, color sprays, water color, etc. to brush three different colors over the paper. The embossing resists the color so that you image shows through as the mulberry paper. You then use an iron an plain paper to get the EP out of the paper. It just didn't work right for me at all. I think I will try it again sometime though because the samples I saw were really pretty.

The other technique I tried was a regular embossed resist. I stamped the flower on bright pink paper and then clear embossed it. I used a sponge brayer to ink over the whole piece with black so that the flowers would show through as pink. I scrapped that one too. I have done that technique before, but I didn't like it with the black ink. and the background looked too much like the main image. So for the background, I just stamped the flowers with VersaMark and clear embossed them.

That's about all there was to it. I finished the card by layering my image, putting brads in the corners and tying the black ribboon around it.

You can find the instructions for all these techniques in the Resources section of the Splitcoaststampers Web site. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamp: Inkadinkado
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: pink and black cardstock (Archiver's)
Embellishments: Black ribbon, brushed silver brads
Techniques: heat embossing; pastel embossing