A technique I've not tried before

I can't believe I haven't tried this out before - layered embossing....

For this, swap the organiser shared some step by step instructions for the technique and we could make whatever we wanted. I decided to play safe and work on an ATC for my first attempt, using very sturdy board as the foundation.

Stage one - cover the entire front with Versamark ink. Then using at least three colours of embossing powder cover bands of the surface in turn before heating to melt. I discovered that my stash of embossing powder is more limited than many other things - black, white, clear (no good for this) and metallics mainly - so I struggled to find enough variety for this experiment.

I used green, blue and bronze in the end for the first layer.

Step two - apply some more  Versamark randomly with finger tip - smearing to avoid finger prints the instructions said, although for a future project I like the idea of deliberate finger prints. I applied silver embossing powder on this layer and heated again.

Step three - using a background stamp (the line stamp from a Paper Artsy Hot Picks plate in this case) apply more Versamark and emboss in white.

Finally stamp the main image in black.

I then added a final layer of clear embossing powder melted on top to even out the surface because some areas were a bit pitted, as if the chipboard had absorbed the Versamark and not grabbed enough powder even with all those layers.

The result is rather limited by the colours I had to hand but if ever there was an excuse to shop this is it. I need some pretty colours to play with further.

Decorative houses

This month's swap - little houses to decorate our craft space. We are meant to make a row of three houses (with hanging loop) but I used the Tim Holtz dwellings die so  I had to make four. It would have been wrong to leave one out, how would I decide which one?

The rules of our swap were few - well only one really, that each house had to be no bigger than ATC sized so I had to chop the bottom off some of the die cut shapes.

 

Each is covered with part of the same gelli plate print which went from dark blue to lime green via shades of greeny blue in between. The windows and doors were stamped with Paper Artsy stamps.

The windows are glazed with glossy accents and each roof has texture added with matte accents or crackle glaze.

I jollied them up with a bit of contrast using die cut flowers. All four are mounted on to a strip of sturdy card with a tab to hang it from. I hope the recipient likes bright colours!