Tippy Thursday- Impressabilities

Hi, thanks for dropping by, but I sorry to say that I have no tips for you today, just a little card from my experiments with the impressabilities dies.

The card base is embossed with my cut up impressabilities, and the flower is the Dahlia die.

If you have left any queries or comments I will get back to you soon - today I'm somewhere in the North Sea travelling back to Southampton and should dock tomorrow.  I'll be back posting on Monday with a special card for a special birthday girl! 

Have a great weekend!

Spellbinders Impressabilities - and finally

Hi, hope you are still with me and have enjoyed looking at my adventures with the Impressabilitie die.

Today I want to show you these......

embellishments made by embossing and debossing the stencil into card coloured with distress inks and coated with embossing powder. 

 

This was embossed, then inked, then embossed with 2 coats of clear embossing powder.

These were coloured with distress inks, then triple embossed, THEN debossed into the triple embossing. 

The effects to me are stunning, but I admit to being a bit of a nut case when it comes to distress inks, triple embossing and the Bug!  You can start off with something like this...

a piece of scrap card coloured with ink and spray with water, and  finished up with

this! 

  There's always that element of excitement every time because every piece is different and until the colours come to life with the embossing powder you never know what you will end up with! 

The embellishments are like glazed tiles, and difficult to photo to show them off

but here's a tag mounted onto an embossed card I showed you in an earlier post 

To summarise:  My thoughts on the Impressabilities dies have changed, I can now see that they are a useful piece of equipment to have in the Cupboard. 

If you have a Wizard or Big Shot, you'll not have had the problems that I've encountered, but the Bug is not as sturdy and adjustments are needed to get a good impression of a heavier weight card.    It seems from the comments I've received that various sandwiches work.  You need to try different ones until you get the clarity of embossing you are looking for as all machines are different.  Again the Golden Rule - never force or you'll break!

Impressabilites can be used for embossing and debossing die cuts for matting and layering. You can use techniques like letterpressing  or stenciling to colour them. You can use them in the whole.  Or like me - cut them up so you can embossed different  patterns straight onto your card base or make your own unique embellishments.  The only problem I've now got is.....where did I put that little butterfly?

Thanks for dropping by, hope you have found the week interesting and useful.

Impressabilities - Episode 4

Before I reveal my latest success with the Impressabilitie die, I thought I should show you this card made by my Cuttlebug mate Chrissie.

Chrissie has used to great effect a method of embossing call Letterpressing where you ink the stencil and then emboss it. 

Pop over to Chrissie's and view the work of a very talented crafter and since it's Friday and Followers Gallery time, I'm real pleased to put this card in my gallery.  Thanks Chrissie. 

If you would like to see more of this technique check out this link:  http://stamptv.ning.com/video/letterpress-with

TIP:   Dye (Momento/Adirondack) inks are waterbased and easier to clean from the stencil. It also dries straight away on your card, with pigment ink you will need to wait for it to dry on your image before you can use it. 

Final episode tomorrow......think you have all be patient enough!

Impressabilities - Episode 3

Hi back again with the next installment......hope you are still with me!

Now I can deboss (or emboss if you wish by having the front of your card facing down in the sandwich) the stencil has become much more versatile - okay, only through my accident of mangling up the frame but nevertheless more versatile.  You can move your stencil around to suit your card - here are two layouts. 

Using 1 stencil

Using 2 stencils

You will notice that I have placed the stencil over the centre fold, but even embossing this way works - it looks as if it was meant to be there enhancing the back of the card!

and another possible design

Add a flower spray and you have a card for any occasion.

I'm not sure that if I'd not had my mishap with the frame that I would have had the nerve to get the scissors out to this pretty metal stencil, but then accidents do happen and sometimes they turn out for the better.  I feel that the embossing is nicer like this than in the whole, somehow it seems more noticeable - a case of less is more and there is the added bonus of lots of different designs!   You will also have a decorative pattern on the inside on your card.  However, I have to admit that now I have 4 bits instead of 1, I cannot use the the impressabilitie die to stencil.  Wonder if I can stick it together?!?!?!  I've not finished with this tale yet for tomorrow in my Friday Followers Gallery I'll show you something that one of my blog mates has done with impressabilities!?!?!?

Impressabilities - Episode 2

Hi, thanks for dropping by to see if I'd solved the problem I told you about yesterday over the difficulties I 'd had with my one and only impressabilitie embossing die.  Enough for me to bin the it, but I don't like to be beaten so I preservered!

Since I couldn't get a good impression, I began to look at the sandwich I was using.   Yes, I was using the tan mat in the way that you do for brass stencils (you will find a link here of a tutorial I did last year) but that wasn't working in my Bug with this stencil.  Then I thought hey, perhaps it's the same as with some of the less sturdy dies, like Nellie Snellen and Joy Crafts, where reversing the order of the sandwich gives a better cut.  So, with fingers crossed and using the smallest of the dies that I'd cut from the whole plate, I made this sandwich......

B  /  B /  Shim / Tan Mat / card right side up / Die 

then topped the lot with the A plate.  A complete reverse of the usual sandwich.

Eureka - it worked!

Boy, was I excited, to get this far!!

and this is how my very simple butterfly die looked when embossed three times to enhance the background   to my decoupage embellishment

        This is the debossed pattern - I like this better than the embossed because it is more delicate.

One of the problems I had created for myself was that I like to emboss/deboss straight onto my card base.  I also like to use a heavyweight cardstock, with a lighter weight it is possible to do the task and get an impression, but for me, I still want to use the heavier weight. If you only want to make a decorative mat or frame, the lighter weight card works.   This card was a 240 grm.

If you have a Wizard or Big Shot you will not be having the same problems as me!  The Bug is not as sturdy and the pressure the rollers exert on the card is not as great.  Also all machines seem to differ, so what works for me may not necessarily work for you.  The above sandwich has caused me no problems despite being unconventional., and I have heard that others recipes also work, so it seems that the order of the sandwich is choice, but the right thickness is priority.  The Golden Rule being - NEVER FORCE. 

Of course, I wanted to go on with my experiments and I did and found that my new sandwich recipe helped, but if you're interested in how things turned out??????afraid you'll have to come back tomorrow.

to be continued..... 

Spellbinders - Impressabilities

This is a story which I'm going to tell you in episodes since it's happened over a period of a year....so I hope you will join me as the story unfolds.

Impressabilities I have not been very impressed with!  From the first I've had problems with this form of embossing.  I received my parcel containing the Butterfly stencil and, as you do, couldn't wait to get started.
The first thing I did was to warp the frame, not a good start!  Next, no matter what card I used I couldn't get a good impression using the Bug. I tried my usual thick card - no luck; I tried thiner card - better but not impressed; I tried misting my card - no luck.  I was told that other machines do the job much better, but this was not much consolation to me in my frustrated mood!  I could emboss pearlised card quite well, but I don't use this type of card very often; I could emboss decorative paper or mulberry paper , but again for me a limited use.  Disappointment!  I put the thing in the cupboard on a back shelf.

Weeks later I tried again, but this time because of the mangled frame I'd decided to cut my stencil  into bits.

Aren't they pretty?   But, I still couldn't use them!

BUT I WILL!!!!

to be continued tomorrow......drop by and see if I have!?!??!