A Bit Of Heat Embossing

 I haven't done the  heat embossing resist technique for a very long time and I was reminded of this technique after watching a video  by Sarah Hardy,  where she created a rainbow effect on white card with sponge daubers, stamped and  heat embossed  images over the rainbow card using clear embossing powder.  Then the whole piece of card was brayered over with  black ink.  The  heat embossed images stay the original colour because  they are protected by the clear embossing.

 Inspired by Sarah's video, I decided I'd  give it a try. I inked up my card stock and while I waited for my multicoloured piece of card  to dry off little, I decided to  heat emboss a white piece of card with clear embossing powder and  brayer over the embossed images. The card above is  what I ended up with.  I quite liked the green and white piece so I turned it into the card above. 

I rubbed an anti static bag over the card before stamping to make sure any unwanted particles of embossing powder didn't stick to the card.

Using Versamark ink,  I stamped leaves randomly over the card and heated the powder until it melted.

With a sponge brayer I covered the entire piece of card with mossy meadow ink.. it took quite  a while to build up the density of the green background...  I have to say I wasn't too impressed with this piece of work. Then I had another idea, which I thought might speed things up a little.

Instead of using the white card stock I always use,  why not use coloured card stock.

So I took some yellow card stock and added a few patches of peekaboo peach ink before stamping and embossing  the leaves. Looking for another short cut.... ( my attention span seems to have dwindled a lot since lockdown)  It dawned on me it would be far quicker to paint over the embossed card with re inker rather than building up the layers of ink with a  brayer. 

I mixed  two  or  three sprays of water and four  or five  drops of ink, using  a 1" brush the card was painted in  a matter of seconds. Admittedly it took a little longer to dry out than a  heavily brayered  piece of card. But having said that,... I did over wet the card. It would have been better to give the card two  lighter coats of ink rather the heavy one I gave it.

While that piece was drying  I tried another colour combo, .. a little pixie pink ink daubed onto blue card and I repeated the  heat embossing process again until the last step, I mixed a few drops of Night of  Navy ink with a little water and painted it over the embossed area over the  heat embossed images in a few seconds.

This is how the blue and pink combo turned out. I will add a sentiment and maybe a fussy cut  an embossed  leaf or two before this  one is sent out.   I didn't want to hide the effect of this technique with a sentiment. I will add a sentiment later.
Then I wondered what stripes would look like over the heat embossing.....So  I  started experimenting  masking over  the heat embossed area to create stripes by  brayering over the exposed area in different colours  each time creating the stripes on the card below..

  I used post it notes to mask off the areas either side of the stripe before applying the ink with a sponge dauber. I didn't use the diluted ink as I thought it might be a little to wet and maybe seep under the post it notes.

In the card below, I worked  a little Merry Merlot ink  into the top left corner over  the mossy meadow ink for a more shadowy graduated look.   I'm not sure I want to clutter these 4x4 inch cards  by adding  sentiments. I just might use them as small notelets rather than a greeting card. 

My last card on this post and  using this technique. This one I turned into a notelet for a colleague.

The stamp I used for the sentiment is a two line stamp. The second line was inappropriate for this card,  so I masked off the second line. You must make sure your stamp is clean and dry before attempting this technique

 Sticking a strip of Sellotape over the unwanted text prevents the ink pad from making contact with that part of the stamp..   see example photo below. 

Then ink the stamp up as usual ......REMOVE the now inky Sellotape and stamp. 

 IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE PIECE OF SELLOTAPE BEFORE STAMPING.

 See the inky Sellotape below.

Hey Presto!! the final image minus the unwanted text.