Paper Craft Planet and Stampendous team up to bring you this weekly series on the Basics of Rubber Stamping. This is lesson #5 -- embossing and painting with powder techniques

2. Basic Embossing Reminders A folded piece of paper works well for putting excess powder back in the jar. Storing your powders in small containers can make using and saving excess powder much easier. An anti-static pouch rubbed on the paper first can eliminate stray bits of embossing powder. Using an embossing heat tool can greatly speed your heat setting of the powder. Use a pigment ink pad like VersaMark which will stay wet long enough to hold the powder for heating.

3. Birch Buddies Card This card uses VersaMark ink and Crystal Embossing Powder to create a tone on tone background that adds depth and dimension to the winter scene.

4. Birch Buddies Card Supplies used to make this card: From Stampendous SSC1055 Birch Buddies & SSC1058 Snowy Short Stacks Perfectly Clear™ Stamps SSH12 Mini Acrylic Handle SSH26 Long Acrylic Handle EP050 Crystal Embossing Powder EK01 Aspen Embossing Powder Kit VersaMark™ Ink Pad from Tsukineko Ribbon from Creative Impressions 3/8” Silk Ribbon – White Mini Rounds – White Card stock from Bazzill Basics™ Lakeshore and Bahama White card stock Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L – EZ Runner Dimensional Foam Squares Plus: Embossing Heat Tool 1/16” hole punch 1/8” hole punch Watercolors and Aqua Brush Corner Rounder

6. Birch Buddies Card Fold the Lakeshore panel at the score line and crease it well. For a tone on tone background, start by stamping the tall birch trees along the card front with VersaMark ink. Sprinkle birch trees with Crystal Embossing Powder and shake off the excess on to a folded piece of paper. Return excess powder to jar.

7. Birch Buddies Card Use heat embossing tool to heat Crystal Powder until it all turns from powdery white to clear and sparkly! Crystal is a custom blend of clear powder and holographic glitter that creates a magical, sparkling background on any color card stock.

8. Birch Buddies Card Stamp the birch trees again on the white cardstock panel in VersaMark ink. Also stamp the deer and the owl in VersaMark on a white scrap. Apply Chocolate Brown Embossing Powder from the Aspen Embossing Kit to the trees and the animals. Tap off excess and return to jar. A paint brush can help remove stray bits of powder from your card. Heat to set.

9. Birch Buddies Card To watercolor the birch trees, start with a medium brown and color just the left sides of the trees leaving a lot of white area uncolored. You can use a brush with water or an aqua brush like this one which has water in the handle. Remember to clean your brush between colors.

10. Birch Buddies Card Add a darker brown closer to the left side of the trunk. The paint on the trees should get lighter towards the top. It’s darker near the forest floor. Use your new color to paint the grass underneath the trees. When your trees are dry, cut them out. Paint your animals and cut them out, too. If you don’t have the colors you need, just mix them. I combined dark brown and lime green to get a gorgeous olive.

11. Birch Buddies Card Use VersaMark ink and the White Embossing Powder from the Aspen Kit to emboss a greeting on your tag. We used a greeting from SSC1058 Snowy Short Stacks Perfectly Clear Stamps. Stamp the greeting on your tag with VersaMark and apply White Powder. Remove the excess and put it back in the jar. Heat with embossing heat tool to set.

12. Birch Buddies Card Use a corner rounder to round all four corners of the tag. Then use a 1/16” hole punch to make three holes in the bottom of the tag and insert three White Mini Rounds from Creative Impressions. Next, use a 1/8” hole punch to make a hole in the upper left corner of the tag to tie the ribbon through.

13. Birch Buddies Card A Review of the Perfect Knot Put 6” of ribbon through the 1/8” hole and bring both ends around to the front. Cross the left side over the right side to form an x. Wrap the left tail over and around the right tail and pull the knot tight.

14. Birch Buddies Card A Review of the Perfect Knot (cont’d) Now cross the right tail in front of the left tail to make an x. Wrap the right tail over and around the left tail as before. This time hold the left tail still and pull only the right tail until the knot is tight. Trim the ends of the ribbon.

15. Birch Buddies Card Glue your painted trees to the front of your embossed card. Glue your owl on a branch and tuck your deer behind one of the trees. Apply your tag to the card with dimensional foam adhesive squares. A winter greeting sure to warm any heart!

16. Painting with Powder Card This card uses the fun Painting with Powder™ Technique to create a painted winter landscape with embossing powder. You can learn more about this technique and see lots of samples on the Stampendous You Tube Channel at: www.youtube.com/stampendous

17. Painting with Powder Card Supplies used to make this card: Perfectly Clear™ Stamps from Stampendous SSC1055 Birch Buddies SSC1058 Snowy Short Stacks SSH26 Long Acrylic Handle SSH12 Mini Acrylic Handle Embossing Powder from Stampendous EK01 Aspen Embossing Kit VersaMark™ Ink Pad and VersaMarker™ from Tsukineko From Creative Impressions Primary Color Paper Fasteners Card stock from Bazzill Basics™ Candy Apple, Atlantic and white card stock Adhesive from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L EZ Runner Plus 1/8” hole punch, Embossing heat tool, paint brush, containers or folded paper.

19. Painting with Powder Card Using VersaMark ink and White Embossing Powder, emboss the birch trees from Birch Buddies across the folded card front in white to form a background for your card.

20. Painting with Powder Card Using VersaMark ink pad, ink the entire white panel by pressing the pad on to the card stock. Be sure to handle the wet panel by the edges so you don’t ruin the ink coverage.

21. Painting with Powder Card Apply Baby Blue powder from the Aspen Embossing Kit to the top 1/3 of the white panel. Shake the excess off of the card so that it falls across the blue area and not on to the area below. Apply Silver Tinsel powder from the Aspen Embossing Kit to the bottom area of the blue sky. Let it overlap the unpowdered section just a tiny bit and tip powder off the card towards the blue area. This creates just the hint of a horizon line.

22. Painting with Powder Card Follow the diagram at left to create a natural looking background with your embossing powder. Apply the three white areas first, one at a time, leaving a very narrow path between the ellipses of white. After your white, snowy hills have been created, then apply silver powder to the white area and shake off. The silver will cling only to the unpowdered “pathway” between the white sections giving your landscape a very organic feel. This takes some practice, and each one is a bit different.

23. Painting with Powder Card Start in the upper left near your horizon and spoon a bit of white powder on to the inked card. Tap the side of the card gently with your finger to cause the white powder to flow in an arc down towards the right side of the card.

24. Painting with Powder Card Start the second band of white on the right side and repeat the process tilting towards the left. There should be a very narrow line of unpowdered card between the first and second bands.

25. Painting with Powder Card Start the third band of white on the left side and pour off tilting to the right. Again leave a narrow path of unpowdered card.

26. Painting with Powder Card Apply Silver Tinsel powder to path areas to fill in with silver. Tap the card lightly on the side with the spoon to remove all excess silver powder before heating.

27. Painting with Powder Card Heat your landscape background until the entire thing is shiny and set with no powdery areas. Sprinkle white powder with your fingers on the sky area to create clouds in the sky. You want to have areas of varying thickness in your clouds.

28. Painting with Powder Card Heat your clouds from underneath to set. This keeps the thick areas of powder from blowing away. If your card had started to warp and bend, heating on the back will cause it to go back the other way.

29. Painting with Powder Card Use the three birch trees and VersaMark ink to stamp trees on the right side of the landscape panel. Apply Chocolate Brown powder from the Aspen Embossing Kit to the stamped birch trees and shake the excess powder back into the container.

30. Painting with Powder Card Stamp the body of the elf to the left of the trees. You need to stamp and emboss the body so you can see where to put the head and feet. Cover with Chocolate Brown powder and heat elf body and trees to set. Stamp the elf’s head on top of his body and his feet underneath his body. Apply powder to remaining brown objects and remove excess. Heat head and feet to set.

31. Painting with Powder Card Use the VersaMarker brush tip to color in portions of the elf such as his coat, shoes, and the stripes on his hat and socks. Apply Ruby Red powder from the Aspen Embossing Kit to the VersaMarker colored areas. Remove excess powder and heat to set. Repeat by stamping greeting above elf and embossing in red.

32. Painting with Powder Card Adhere the elf panel to the Atlantic panel. Then use a 1/16” hole punch to make holes for the red Primary Rounds Paper Fasteners. Insert the paper fasteners and open them out on the back of the panel.

33. Painting with Powder Card Attach your layered elf panel to the front of the embossed red card. Now this festive and cheerful greeting is ready to brighten someone’s winter day. With practice you can create all sorts of embossed backgrounds such as landscapes, underwater scenes, or abstract designs. Play, play, play…that’s the only way to develop these techniques.

34. Card Challenge Prize Package One lucky stamper will win all the products used on these two cards in our Challenge Prize Package! Thanks to: Stampendous, Tsukineko, Creative Impressions, and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L for these generous prizes.