Wanted...A New Technique!

I saw this card by a stamper named Lauraly as I was blog surfing, and I thought it was beautiful! Not only did I think it stunning, I thought it was something I could do, once I read her explanation of what how she did it. I made one and was so pleased with how it came out that I made a second one, photographing each step, just for you!

The image is stamped on Sahara Sand with Versamark.

This ink is sticky and I sprinkled it with embossing powder and heated it. This sponging is a layering technique, but it is based in what's called emboss resist. The melted powder creates a barrier that maintains the color of the original cardstock base, so you can layer color over it. Note how dark it looks right now. I was skeptical that it would turn out, but you'll see what happens.

I used the same color palette Lauraly did--Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, and Blue Bayou. Notice that there are little pieces of sponge in front of each pad. These are cut from 1 large sponge (see reference size in the middle of the photo). Very economical and since the ink is classic and therefore water-based, the sponges can be rinsed out and reused multiple times!

This is the first layer, using CC. I went from lightest to darkest ink color, centering the lightest color around the main image. Not much contrast yet.

Second layer...still not much change.

Third layer...something's beginning to happen.

Fourth layer...wait! Where did the horse go?

I went back and added some more CChip and some more BB, until I was pleased with the contrast. The image wasn't being covered by the ink; there just wasn't enough there to make it "pop."

I roughed up the edges of the focal image with the edge of my scissors and matted it with layers of BB and SS. I had this other piece of BB with a pattern that I had saved, and I thought it went well with the overall look I was going for. Some twine finished the look.

I hope you'll give emboss resist a try! If you do, send me a link to your creation. I'd love to see what you come up with using this tried and true, easy technique.