Creative Challenge - Reverse Painted Embossing Folder August 10 - 16, 2020
If this technique has another name, please share.
I came up with it partially out of frustration! It's probably been done before. I searched Splitcoast Tutorials for a name but couldn't find anything similar.
For this challengeDon't do this!I started out trying to brayer paint over the pine boughs directly on my embossing folder. Once you run it through your machine you will get the painted shape (pines in this case) pressed in to your paper as in letterpress. I love that look! I am too heavy handed I guess, and couldn't keep paint from also getting around the pines. I've also had trouble inking the raised part of an embossing folder AFTER running through my machine. Never fails, I get ink in the valleys as well as on the raised parts.
Try this!So this week I decided to try this instead. I've been wanting to use my paints more.
Challenge :
Brayer at least two different colors of paint (I used Distress Paint) on the flatter, debossed side of an embossing folder. Insert paper and run through your die cutting/embossing machine to create a background. Use the background to make a card.
Tips :
Paint will dry on your embossing folder. I made quite a few backgrounds so my paint definitely dried before I could clean it. Master's paint brush soap worked well for me, and an old tooth brush, to clean the paint off of my embossing folder. Use any brush soap you have, I've also liked the liquid, pink soap in the past.
Keep a baby wipe handy in case you need to wipe paint out from the debossed area and then brayer again, you won't be able to clean the deboss without also wiping paint off the flat area, so just brayer some more paint over it. Better yet, avoid the problem of paint in the deboss by making sure you get most of the paint off of your brayer before hand. Don't use too much paint! I put a small amount of paint on my craft mat and then brayered over it. Hahahaha. I meant to put a small amount of paint out, but a big puddle came out. Work with it! Keep making backgrounds until you use up your puddle, ha!
I put peeled paint on one end of my brayer and speckled egg on the other and ran it back and forth to blend just a little. I applied to the embossing folder in two directions. I did have to keep adding paint to my smaller puddle. My peeled paint distress paint is the old style with the dabber. The dabbers always get stiff and hard, so I took the dabber off and poured paint on my mat ... that's where the big puddle happened!
Here is my sample card.
I think I have enough backgrounds made for 12 cards.
What do you think? I pondered over this card for a few days. The background is about as shabby chic as I ever get, yet the ornament is very glitzy. (The ornament shape was cut from sparkly paper and the overlay from holographic). I debated keeping the ornament and choosing scrapbook paper for a background, or keeping the background and making a different, less sparkly ornament. In the end, I kept it. I think i like it. Let me know in the comments if you think the styles clash. What would you have done?
I hope you'll give this technique a try!
Add your card to the gallery with "Creative Challenge - Reverse Painted EF" in the title. Thanks!
Note : if you don't have acrylic paint, try whatever you'd like .... maybe ink refills? enamel accents could give you a shiny background? push ink on to your craft mat and spritz, then brayer it? I haven't tried these ... just suggestions.
I prefer you use a brayer. If you don't have one, try to apply paint to your embossing folder with the edge of a credit card or maybe a foam paint brush.
Actually, now that I think of it, this challenge is similar to one April did during a fest. In hers, I think we applied ink direct to paper over a debossed background. In this case we are applying to the debossed side of the embossing folder, using a brayer instead.
Have fun! Please don't curse me when you are cleaning paint off of your embossing folder!
Here is a picture of my backgrounds. You can see some have more paint than others or a few blobs or painted pines ... they haven't been trimmed down yet. I think they'll be fine once I put an ornament and a sentiment on them.