Faux Letterpress Background

Hi it's Lisa here and I've been playing about with the Chevron Stripe Mask again.

This is another way to create a textured background using both heat and dry embossing and is a sort of Faux Letterpress technique...

Completed Card

Here's what you'll need:

• Chevron Stripe Mask
• Sentiments Stamps
• Gold, Red and Black Inkpad
• Clear Sparkle and Red Sparkle Embossing Powder
• Viva Decor Pearl Pen
• Kraft and Red Card
• Die Cutting Machine

Step by Step:

1. Ink the mask with gold ink, making sure it is completely covered. Take a 14cm square piece of white card and place carefully onto the mask, securing with some low tack tape. Run through your die cutting machine to emboss and print the ink. I used a Cuttlebug and the sandwich was as follows A plate, B plate, mask, card, embossing mat, 2 card shims and a B plate. Carefully remove the mask. Cover with clear sparkle embossing powder and heat emboss. Mat onto red card and fix to your card base.
2. Take a strip of white card and stamp a border using the heart stamp (from Sentiments Stamps). Trim leaving a small white border, mat onto Kraft card and fix to the card blank and 
3. Create a fishtail on a strip of white card. Mat onto red card and fix to the card blank. Stamp the 'I Love You' (from Sentiments Stamps) onto Kraft card. Tear ends and fix to card.
4. Decorate with pearls.

Close-up of the de-bossed heat embossing!!!

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the start of our February Challenge as there are some fabulous projects to see.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon for more inspiration from the fabulous Hurley Girlies!

Lisa

Embossed Background

Hi it's Lisa here with my first inspiration post on the new look blog.

We have already shown you a couple of posts on ways to create texture using masks, one from Jaine here and one from Jess here. I wanted to try and show that you don't always need to get messy (although sometimes that is fun!) to create a cool background.

Completed Card

Here's what you'll need:

• Chevron Stripe Mask
• Sentiments Stamps
• Yellow, Orange and Black Inkpads
• Stickles Glitter Glue and Viva Decor Pearl Pen
• White and Orange Card
• Die Cutting Machine

Step by Step:

1. Take a 14cm square of white card and place onto the mask, securing with some low tack tape. Run through your die cutting machine to emboss. I used a Cuttlebug and the sandwich was as follows A plate, B plate, mask, card, embossing mat, 2 card shims and a B plate.
2. With the mask still in place use a stencil brush to apply the ink. Remove the mask and mat onto orange card. Fix to your card base.
3. Take a strip of white card and stamp with various sentiment stamps. Mat on orange card and fix to the card base.
4. Stamp 'Surprise' onto a thin strip of white card and trim ends into fishtails (I used a square punch for this). Fix to card base using 3D foam pads.
5. Decorate with pearls and glitter glue.

A close up of the embossing.

I'm not sure that the camera has truly picked up the texture but it looks lovely in real life and makes you want to stroke it (sad as that sounds!).

Hope you are inspired to try something different with your masks and if you give this a go leave a link to your project in the comments below as I would love to pop by and take a look...nosey? me? ;-)

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon for more inspiration from the fabulous Hurley Girlies!

Lisa

Playing with textures

Everybody has their 'thing' and I'm so happy when I'm using textures, in fact as I was making this piece I found myself actually smirking. (That's not sad is it?)

Anyway I thought I'd share with you how to make a similar background to mine whether it's for a journal page or a card topper, it's easy.

For starters you'll need a sturdy piece of card to work on. You need something substantial to hold all those mediums and layers. I used 300gsm mixed media paper but you could use a piece of cardboard just as well.

The first layer is gesso spread with a card. Not too thick but just like spreading butter on a piece of bread.

Stamp into the wet gesso. I used a new hexagon background stamp by Sarah. Please please please make sure you wash the stamp straight away after. Fill a bowl with warm soapy water if you know you can't wash it straight away as once the paint has dried it'll ruin your stamps.

Once the gesso is dry use a stencil to add texture paste. Use a card once again to wipe the paste through the stencil. I used the Chevron Stripe stencil.

You can also start to glue on some 3d embellishments. The thread, chipboard star and wooden leaves were all included in my monthly Kit Club kit but you can find lots of embellishments here in the shop. Once dry go over them with some gesso so they blend into the background more.

The fun bit is adding spray ink. You'll see the texture start to really pop out of the page at this point. 

Randomly stamp across the page.  Again I've gone for some of the Kit club stamps but it could be any stamps just to add an extra layer.

To finish my page off I layered some of Sarah's journaling cards from the Documented 365 range  together along with the film strip printed from the Say Cheese digi kit (I use this a lot printed onto acetate) and all held together with some staples. I stuck this down to the page and gave it a light covering of gesso just to stop it taking over the page too much. 

So there you have it. I really hope I can inspire you to try some texture and have fun. 

Jaine x