Dry-Embossed Gilding Flakes

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you had a great weekend as March is rapidly winding down!

I'm here for my monthly Group of Seven Cardmakers post. At our crafty Zoom session earlier this month, we played with gilding flakes, embossing folders, and Stazon ink. I have lots to share ...

This technique involves covering a surface with double-sided tape (or some other adherable product) and applying the gilding flakes. I used a Scrapbook.com double-sided 8.5 x 11 adhesive sheet and covered most of it with the gilding flakes. That gave me enough coverage to cut a full card front panel and two other partial panels to make the cards shown below ~ and to still have some left over for more cards. After burnishing the flakes and dry-embossing, you lightly run your Stazon ink pad over the panel. 

A. Onefer

I used Cosmic Shimmer Warm Sunrise gilding flakes. This was my first time using gilding flakes because I'm normally more of a clean and simple card maker who already has a lot of other products, if you know what I mean. But that's the nice thing about getting to know and play with these other talented card artists who enjoy a different style of design. It stretches my creativity.

Everyone warned me to be very careful, even just opening the jar, so first I put Hammy in his play space in the Big House. (Enough said about the hamster havoc that would have happened if I hadn't!) I was very careful opening the jar and then I took out a small amount of flakes and put them in a bigger plastic container to minimize the wafting and whirling.

All went well, but just as I was nearly finished covering the large card front panel with the pieces of gilding flakes, my defibrillator went off! I'm okay, it was just a two-hour interruption going to the ER. No, stop it, I'm just kidding, but when people tell you not to breathe while working with gilding flakes, they don't mean it literally. (💡A great use for left-over Covid masks!😷) 

B. Twofer

For this card, only the center panel is gilded, embossed, and inked. For the card base, I used the same e/f to emboss a piece of copper cardstock. Then I embossed a piece of black cardstock using the same e/f and die-cut the frame so everything is matchy-matchy.

I noticed that my black Stazon pad was juicy, so my finished gilded panel was somewhat sticky. So, just for fun, I flipped it over onto a piece of white cardstock to see if I could make a monoprint and it worked! It did take a lot of the black off my gilded panel, but I like the brighter, less moody, result. Here is the bonus card I made for my stash using the monoprint:

C. Threefer

Because the Stazon pad was a bit juicy, I decided to try Archival plum ink for the above gilded flake strip. I like the color a lot, but it, too, left a sticky residue, so I did another monoprint and made this CAS card:

Note: After I finished my cards, I was concerned about how I would be able to send them, sticky, in the mail. I could get them into an envelope, but how would the recipient get them out without damage because the sticky bits would stick to the envelope? So I messed around and found that if I stuck more of the gilding flakes over the sticky bits, the sticky bits went away! Hala Luya! 

I ended up really loving the gilding flakes! If I took my time and was careful, it wasn't as messy as I envisioned. I'm not sure if I will add the ink over the embossing in the future, but I certainly will make more cards using the flakes alone or by using the flakes and then dry-embossing.

On the Group of Seven Cardmakers website you will find the technique details, video links, and the fabulous results from the other ladies! I hope you'll give this technique a try and link your results in the gallery. We'd love to see how well it worked for you! 

Challenges: 

Card A: Seize the Birthday (A/G); Can You Handle The Pressure (A/G).

Card B: Rudolf Days (A/G Christmas); ABC Christmas (G is for Gold).

Card C: Just Us Girls (CAS); Krafty Chicks (All Occasions).

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and thank you for your condolences for my brother. Mwah!

*Life is too short!