Did We Make An Impression?

Happy Tuesday everyone.

I hope you’re all having fun this week with our template dare sponsored by Funky Hand.
Aren’t those papers and colours just delish?

If you haven’t given it a go yet you still have plenty of time to make a card and be entered into the lucky draw to win a set of gorgeous Shabby Saturday papers, the prize kindly donated by Anice who designed them.
Oh yes, and just in case you haven’t seen enough of Shabby Saturday to convince you that you ‘need’ them, all but two of my sample cards on here today have been made using that very kit so why not pop over to the Funky Hand site to download some for yourself.

Well, as you know Tuesday is the day we have our new look Little Extra dare and this week the team have let me (Sue) loose to do my own thing, so I thought I’d ‘attempt’ to do a little tutorial for you….please be gentle with me!

When I started cardmaking about six years ago, one of the very first things that I learned to do was Dry Embossing and it’s still a technique that I love to use today because it’s so versatile.

It can be as simple as popping an embossing die through one of the many cutting/embossing machines out there or the very time consuming but beautiful craft of Pergamano which I dabble in but am by no means an expert at…….very far from it in fact!

In this tutorial my aim is to show you the basics of Dry Embossing and some of the different looks that can be achieved.

We’ll start by getting all our supplies together for ‘basic’ dry embossing, so you'll need.......

An Embossing Stylus (preferably with a large and small end)
Light Box
Brass stencils
Card stock
Low tac tape
Chalks or another colouring medium

The first thing you need to do is secure the stencil to what will end up being the right side of your card, using a low tack tape. This ensures that you won’t damage the card when removing it later and also stops the stencil from moving about while you are working.

Place the card stencil side down on the light box so that you can see the light shining through the holes.


You can even have a go if you don’t own a light box by simply holding your stencil and card up against a window so that the light shines through it or I’ve even heard of people putting a lamp under a glass topped table and doing the embossing on the top of that, so there’s no excuse not to give this a try!

Take your embossing tool and carefully trace around all the lines, pushing the card into the gaps. This is where you’ll find the small end of the tool very useful for getting into some of the finer detail of the stencil. This is how should look from the right side when you've finished.

I have to keep looking at this photo because it plays tricks on your eyes. Sometimes it looks like the wrong side of the image and the lines are debossed and other times it looks like a raised image but I can assure you that this 'is' the right side and the lines of the image are raised (or do I just need to visit the opticians. Lol)

Anyway, a very usful tip here............If you find that your embossing tool doesn’t glide very smoothly across the card while you’re working you can use a little wax to help it along. I always keep a little tea light to hand for that very purpose! You can use it in one of two ways; either rub the end of the stylus itself into the wax or you can take the tea light out of its case and rub it gently across the card before you start embossing but a word of warning….. if you choose the second option, give some thought to whether this will end up being the right side of the card and the method of colouring you plan to use because the wax will act a resist.

I’ve used chalks to colour my image and to do this you need to leave the stencil in place and uppermost in front of you. Take up some of your chosen colour onto an applicator, I always use a cotton bud for this, and carefully work it between the lines in the stencil. When you have chalked it all, remove the stencil and you’ll see that only the raised part of the design is coloured.

All that's left for you to do now is create your card.

Here's mine:-

Next I’ll show you how to emboss onto thin metal sheets using some of those wonderful Peel-Off’s that we all love to hate.

Obviously it’s no use trying to use a light box this time because it won’t shine through the metal so we need a slightly different technique.
First stick your Peel-Off straight onto the metal sheet. This will be fine if there’s not too much detail but if there’s going to be a lot of embossing to do I always find it best to stick the Peel-Off on with spot glue.

Now place the piece of metal onto a foam mat , either the embossing mat from one of the cutting machines or pricking pad work well, and with a fine tipped embossing tool trace around the lines on the Peel-Off.

Turn the piece over and you will see you have raised outlines on the back.

You now have to emboss again from this side, working between the lines using a larger tipped embossing tool. This pushes the metal back through the gaps in the Peel-Off.

Should you find that the sticker has come away from the metal in places you can run the embossing tool over it to stick it back in place.

Now to make a card.
You can either leave the metal panels as they are to mount onto your card as I’ve done here

Or you and paint them with Twinkling H2o's as I’ve done on this card that was made for one of our dares a little while ago.

The next method of embossing and the quickest of them all is to use an embossing folder in one of the many machines on the market.
All you need to do put you card or paper in the folder and sandwich it between the plates that come with your machine, turn the handle, feed it through the machine and there you have it…as simple as that!


You can also alter to look of your work, as you can with any embossing, by rubbing some sand paper over the top to give it a distressed look , brush an ink pad over the top for another look or even ink the embossing folder before putting it through the machine and I'm sure there must be lost of other ways to alter things!

On this card I've used the same embossing folder, first on a plain paper and then on a patterned one to give a slightly different look.

Now I want to say a little about embossing onto Vellum or Parchment paper.

You can do this with stencils or through the machines but the important thing to remember here, especially when using stencils, is that as you emboss on the paper you are stretching the fibres in it and it’s very easy to push too hard and go right through. So a word of caution here, be very careful because you don't want to ruin all your hard work.

You use the stencil in the same way as you do for the metal foil, placing it onto a firm foam mat and gently trace around the lines, but this time you will notice that Vellum / Parchment paper has turned White as you emboss.

Once you have finished all the outlines you need to remove the stencil and then you can carry on embossing, completely filling in some of the areas or just adding detail as I have on the leaves.

Now you can add some colour.

For this card I’ve used my PrismaColor pencils, working on the back of the parchment.

Here's my finished example.


Last but not least I’m going to mention a little bit about Pergamano.

As I said at the start, I’m no expert but I do love to play and the results can be stunning, even if it does take hours to make just one card, hense the reason I only make these for very special people and on special occasions.

Basically you are still embossing onto Parchment but this time you don’t use a stencil. You start with a printed template and place your parchment over the top. Then, using a pen and White ink you trace the design.
Next follows a combination of embossing, pricking, cutting and colouring using various shaped tools and at the end of it you will hopefully have a mini masterpiece.

This card is what they call White Work….....

I wonder what bright spark came up with that name. Lol!


Well that’s the end of my tutorial; I hope some of you have found it useful.

If you’ve never tried embossing before why not give it a try and add a new skill to your repertoire. Leave us a link so we can come and check it out your creations and even if you have embossed before, we would still love to see your cards.

It only remains for me to thank Anice from Funky Hand
again for sponsoring our dares this week and giving the design team to opportunity to try out her wonderful papers for ourselves.

I just thought I would edit this and add the usful tip that Heather has shared with us in the comments.

She says.........If embossing onto card you can use a tumble dryer sheet to rub onto the cardstock instead of wax, it doesn't leave marks and makes the card smell nice too!

Thank for that Heather