fun with embossing

Playing around with some gifts from friends. Phyllis gave me this absolutely gorgeous stamp set from Artistic Outpost (I kind of won it for a silly comment I made on a photo....). Marian gave me some silver Cloisonne granules from Stampa Rosa - it's a chunkier embossing powder. She showed me a really cool technique - sprinkle some on your project and heat from underneath to create a spray of shiny dots (see close-up pic below). When Marian did it, she had a much more delicate look; on my first try I was more heavy-handed with the granules. I'll get better at it. It appears this particular product is no longer available for sale, but the larger granules reminded me of UTEE, so I tried the same technique with some gold UTEE I have and it worked just fine! (UTEE = Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel; readily available)

For these cards, I stamped the image with black StazOn onto a thick vellum, then added color to the back side - marker for the house and sponged Distress inks around. Then I sprinkled the embossing powder on the front side and heated from underneath (silver on right-hand card, gold on the left). The frames are cut with Nestabilities dies, and the punch is from Stampin' Up.