Thursday, March 16, 2017

Emerald creek embossing powders

I know it has been a while, but I wanted to share a few projects I made with some heat embossed accents, made with the incredible embossing enamels by Emerald Creek Craft Supplies. I have a vast collection of powders, from Tim Holtz' distress powders to Lindy's stamp gang iridescent powders, but the effects from the Emerald Creek ones just are like no other!

On this card I not only used the charred gold embossing powder on the corners and to age the double heart charm, but I also used a stamp by Emerald Creek. It is of a single rose and a rosebud. I added a second rose to give it more dimension. Oh who am I kidding ... I dropped the sentiment stamp on the card when I wanted to stamp it.... as seen below... and I managed to salvage the card by adding the second rose.
Initially I wanted to stamp the sentiment in the upper right corner. My hands were cold and I lost grip on my block and boom..... a bright blue print where it was not intended.... In hindsight I like the one with two roses better! I guess the proverbial "Everything happens for a reason" applies here. 
The double heart charm that hangs from the bow is also from Emerald Creek. I dipped it in embossing ink and then in the jar of charred gold embossing powder. It gives and awesome antique look!

I was playing with embossing paste and distress crayons. Sometimes you need to experiment to see what happens. After the embossing paste dried, I smeared distress crayons mixed with water all over the tag. I love the soft colours it creates. I wanted the butterfly to pop, so I heat embossed it with Northern Lights embossing powder by Emerald Creek. It is a gorgeous mix of blue, green, yellow and more, with a metallic sheen. I think it is sooooo pretty!

Again a tag with embossing paste and distress crayons. This time I smeared the crayons directly over the dried up paste and tag and spread it aroubd with my fingers. It created a much deeper colour. I wondered what would happen if I sprayed over it with distress stain....OMG I am so glad I took that risk! I looooooove how the brushed corduroy (my absolute favourite distress stain) made this tag look totally different. 
The die cut word is heatembossed with Soft fallen Snow embossing powder. It is a white with a teeny tiny metallic blue glitter. And when you heat set it, it pufs up a tiny bit. Such a nice contrast to the bold and dark background.  

And that is it for now. I will be back very soon, with more heat embossed goodness.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and I hope to see you again.

Take care and keep your craft on!

Freddie
xxx







Friday, March 3, 2017

Perfect pearls tutorial

Wow.... this has been an exciting couple of days. Not only did I win a mixed media challenge, but Ranger Ink has been reposting my Instagram post, of a work in progress with perfect pearls. On their post on facebook quite a few ladies asked for a tutorial.....so here it goes!

This is the unfinished tag in question, as I only have this pic and the one of the finished tag, I decided to do the whole process again with another tag, and make sure to take pics at every step.
This is the finished shell tag. I love this stamp by Emerald Creek Craft Supplies. The little semi precious stones are from the Quarry range, also by Emerald Creek. 

This is how I made a similar tag:

You need a stamp, your surface, I prefer tags, some colors of Perfect Pearls, Perfect Medium, a fine brush and a broader brush, a spray bottle of water and I finish off with hair spray. Just to make sure nothing rubbs off when I send it in the mail.

I stamped my image with Perfect Medium. No need to use black Perfect Medium as your surface is already black. I do use black Medium when stamping on lighter surfaces, that way the Perfect Pearls shine even more. 

Then I color the image with different colors. I leave the excess powder there, as when you brush it away at this stage, you brush it only areas you want to give another color. And once the powder is stuck.... it is stuck!
All colors are done, the whole image is colored. Now the real magic will happen......brushing away the exces powder, to reveal the crisp image.....

Tadaaaaaa. It is fine as it is, but ever since the release of the distress oxides, I have been quite obessed with them. And their chalky finish, once oxidised, makes the pearlescence of the perfect pearls pop even more. So this is what I did......

I surrounded it with broken china Oxide. I left a bit of a black border around the image, just so it stands out even more.

This is the finished tag. I did not add any embellishments at this stage, as I might want to add a banner with a sentiment at some point. Not sure yet.

Thank you so much for your visit and have a wonderful day :-)

Keep your craft on and take care.

Freddie
xxx