Jan 31, 2013

White Embossing Powder Part 2


*Disclaimer* - Er. Um. If you've been living under a creative rock recently, you might not know the faux chalkboard trend tsunami that has washed over our little card making world. I'm happy to be the first to welcome you to the latest technique CRAZE -- Faux Chalkboard! --- Do you love it - or scratch your head thinking, this is popular?!? Let us know in the comment section after you read the post :) 

Welcome to White Embossing Powder day #2! 

I didn't even realize there would be a day 2 - but, when I was thinking of the other cool things I could do with white embossing powder - BAM - it hit me! Duh, Nicole - try the faux chalkboard thing-ie everyone is doing! 

So, because I'm not at all above following the card trends of today - and borrowing the best of ideas off of pinterest - (tell me you do that too!) I tried my hand at this technique. I'm happy to report that you're looking at my first try. --- So, it wasn't a total fail! Actually, quite the opposite. 

I challenged myself to use only old stamp sets (we've got 8 new sets coming Feb 12th --- and some of those images would have worked out WAY better) -- but, I decided I wanted to post about it today - so no new. at. all. 

Humph, ok - so, after rummaging through my stash of stamps I quickly realized I had quite a few that would work into a Chalkboard sign quite nicely. Here's the tricks I learned along the way --- 

Stamp your 'sign' with versamark and emboss ALL your stamped components  You're going to be doing A LOT of 'distressing' --- so, you want your sign to stay as legible as possible. In order to do this you'll want to stamp and emboss each element one by one. For a couple reasons - 1. So that you can see where your going with your sign, it's hard to see when you stamp with clear versamark on black paper.  AND 2. So that you're keeping the embossing powder mess to a minimum. 



I used 3 different mediums to get my messy chalk-y look. White ink pad (Colorbox Frost White) | white color pencil | white water color pencil (and the waterbrush to go with it) You can see in the above photo that I used the watercolor pencil for the frame 'lines' - and proceeded to wash them out a bit with water. Then I used the regular pencil to add some other texture around the embossed images. (I think you can see it, right? - I hope!) 

Then I took a blotter thingy (sponge dauber, for those who aren't fluent in Nicole's crafty talk) and added some Colorbox Frost White ink all around - using my fingers to wipe off and fade it out. 

What I might do differently next time - Choose some other stamps --- line up my sentiments better, with a ruler! 

What I'll do the same - The distressing came out REALLY nice, so I'll probably just stick with the same formula. 



Other than my super pretty button - and a couple hearts and bling in the corner... my card is pretty much faux chalkboard fab! 

I would LOVE to see some other people tackle this technique - please leave your blog address (or the address to the photo) in the comment section if you post your own version! Also, we'd love to hear how we could do it better - OR, if we missed a crucial instruction! 

Supply list below! 
Happy Stamping, 
Nicole 




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2 comments:

  1. oh my goodness! what a gorgeous card!! i have been wanting to try that technique, but i haven't yet! i'm totally inspired now!! i LOVE how you used embossing powder, ink and colored pencils to get the looks! who knew!? LOVE it!!

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  2. Some really great tips here! Had to laugh at your tsunami reference! Haven't tried the chalkboard technique yet. Such a cool look!

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