Random Cards, Mellow Yellow

The weather was gloomy, work has been hectic, there’s not much new to report and time is tight … so here are some random cards.

First, since I talked about some of my favorite embossing powders last week, here is a cheery card made using Zing! powders from American Crafts. Zowie, those colors are bright!

And more mellow yellow made from … yes, scraps!

I know, not terribly exciting, but fast and easy. Thanks for indulging me!

Fun Friday with Embossing

Sometimes, things just come together. Last week I used my new M-Bossabilities™ embossing folders and Distress Inks to create fast, simple cards. I wanted simple stamped images for these cards so the texture of the dry embossing would shine through. I had just received the solid sentiment images from Hero Arts and re-discovered some cool embossing powders. So what’s a girl to do? Why, play of course!

So I did. In another reorganizing attempt (my 1,325th!!) I re-discovered the Chablis powder from Judikins, which I got eons ago. Because it is somewhat translucent, it takes on a different look depending on the underlying color. Interesting, no? Well… that led to an embossing frenzy. Here are some of the results:

ACK! I couldn’t stop embossing …. I dug out some other colored powders that had not felt the love in a while, including Zing! powders by American Crafts. I love the way these colors pop. This time I used a VersaMark (clear) base coat so the powders could take center stage:

One more:

(the Neon Green was used over a VersaMark clear pad; the two bottom samples used Chablis over colored ink.)

What’s your favorite go-embossing powder?

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — M-Bossabilities™

Oooh, how I love a good embossing! Heat embossed or dry, I love the texture. So of course I fell in love with the possibilities of *Spellbinders’ new M-Bossabilities™ double-sided embossing folders that actually give you four different looks. Take a gander:

The folders have two designs. You simply flip the folder over to see the second design. But WAIT! There’s MORE! You can actually get two OTHER designs, depending on which way you insert your paper. Here’s what happened when I started playing:

Who doesn’t love a good chevron? Above is one side of the So Trendy ES-006 plate. (highlighted with Distress Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Pumice Stone.  The round images are from Hero Arts’s Untitled Word Shadow AC005; the embossing I’ll talk about in another post, but aren’t those colors hot?)

And below is the same side of the folder, but embossed with the paper put in the opposite way, so the debossed area shows:

(Colored with Distress Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky.)

And here are two cards made with the flip side of the same folder:

And using the other impression:

Can you see the subtle difference in the texture? (The fun balloon images are Hero Arts Flying Airships CG427)

Here are two more cards:

The one above uses Regal EL002, colored with Distress Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and edged with Old Paper.

M-Bossabilities™ folder Sea Beauty ES-007; inked with Distress Pumicd Stone; stamps from Inkadinkado.

And one last look at the cards before they were embellished:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

*Disclaimer.

Creative Chemistry Lessons

I recently took an online class, called Creative Chemistry 101, from the amazing Tim Holtz. Tim shared oodles of tips and techniques for working with Ranger products. I have been sadly behind in the fun part — actually MAKING things! But I managed to play a little and created a few tags.

In this first tag, I learned that yes, you CAN emboss with Distress inks!

The flourish vine (Hero Arts) was stamped with Distress Ink, embossed with clear powder. Various distress inks where then blended onto the tag. The ribbon rosette was made using Paper Source ribbon and a large glue dot from Therm O Web.

These next tags were made by inking my image (Hero Arts) using Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabbers, creating a resist, then tinting with Distress Stains.

I used a white dabber, and I thought the contrast wasn’t great enough, so I tried the white dabber again but with darker colors:

The last one used gold dabber:

I really liked the texture of the gold, which came out rather thick. To create the butterfly, I spread Ranger Dimensional Pearls (Lettuce) on a piece of scrap card stock and let it dry. I stamped over it, then punched my butterfly (Martha Stewart).

Thanks for looking!