I don't like plain old Christmas Cards, so it has become a tradition that I think up something 3-D every year. And every year WOW Embossing and Sizzix is involved somehow. 
The Sizzix Noel is cut from trusty old pizza boxes and embossed with Metallic Silver Sparkle which has fantastic coverage. For the bird and bauble (also Sizzix) I used random old dictionary pages which are much thicker than todays book papers. A bit of wire and some pearls and my 3-D card is finished without it taking forever.
This is my family and friends project which, also in time honored tradition, is always completed at the very last minute! Just another 50 or so to go......
Have a very happy Christmas everybody and a great start into 2014!

doris@cheappsychology.co.uk

I have had a set of cheap glass plates for about 10 years now and always wanted to do something with them. The Christmas theme this month was the sign. I wanted to make fancy place settings! After some experimenting (read ugly and disasters galore) I tried out Salt & Pepper from the Sugar & Spice set. Oh WOW..... that worked  a dream.


Here is how you do it:
Spray glass plate with spray adhesive and sprinkle on embossing powderPlace plate in pre-heated oven for 5 minutes at 150 CTake out an let coolAdmire gorgeousness
 I used Salt & Pepper which has a really nice black sheen, Spearmint Sparkle which is sophistication pure and Aniseed which is the red colour you can see in the pictures.


This is the spearmint sparkle decorated with a die cut. You can adapt them completely to your own colour scheme. 
The initial idea was to paint on the glass plates with embossing powders and I will take that idea up again when I have more time. Here is my first and not quite finished attempt, …

This is one of my mixed media pattern canvases I am so caught up with at the moment. A stylized flower was my take on the nature theme. For two days I have been trying to take a picture which reflects the colours accurately and this is the best I could get.  Lots of embossing on this mixed media piece. the little stems look like jewels and are a good contrast to the papers used. Liberal use of WOW Vertigris  give a lovely texture to this piece.

Cardboard is my go to material when it comes to up-cycling with embossing. Here is my stash before and after a die cutting session. Excuse the dog hair, hoovering is not as much fun as die cutting :) I chose this shape and double embossed it with silver embossing powder. To get the hammered effect, emboss over with clear embossing powder.

beautiful, cheap, recycled, interesting textures, looks expensive……………………. I am always thrilled with these little gems. Here is a pink with gold version:
And here some butterflies. I used acrylic paint and then clear embossing powder on these super dimensional embellishments

When anything goes in the design team, I am drawn to embossing furniture (just because I have not worked out how to emboss my walls without making an almighty mess!)

 I chose this little solid wood table. I use it as a bedside table and it came from my husband childhood bedroom. Considering how much time people spend these days distressing furniture, this came already distressed and I do not want to change that.

A couple of tips when embossing furniture:
Clean the item thoroughly removing grime and dustGo outside and wear a mask (when heating old paint there could be some nasty fumes)Distressed is the way to go! Any paint underneath the embossing powder might bubble under the heatTry not to pick a windy day like I managed to do!Chose a piece of furniture you can lift because you will have to tip it and  tap off the embossing powder


Here is the finished item 'in situ'. I used Primary Indigo  to emboss. Next I am going the do the piece on the other side of my bed which is a prop…

A very easy project this month! These pendants look like they are enameled and are quickly achieved with multi-layers of embossing. I used a sturdy die cut shape, you want it thick enough that it will not warp under the heat of the embossing powder. I like to use either cardboard or, a little more sophisticated for this project, mount board.
First I made a hole for the ribbon and then I started embossing. To achieve the enameled effect I actually embossed the heart five times with : WOW Primary Burgundy red and to get the really smooth, glass like finish, move the heat tool in small circles around the shape. I just added a little diamante and the ribbon but you do not have to stop there!
You can personalize your pendant with letters for example. Or maybe more sparkly stones!
I used: WOW Primary Burgundy red  as a base and then made the heart sparkle with Mojave from the Desert Sands Kit. The letters are embossed with WOW Gold Rich Pale. To give any metallic embossing powder an aged a…

This month the Theme really caused me a headache. 'Snow and Ice' - everything I tried was too Christmassy or even more depressingly lacked colour. I went through my embossing powders and stopped at the ' Carribean Jewels collection'. If those don't look like gemstones dipped in ice, I don't know what would. Gorgeous!
So I started layering bright acrylic paint on my canvas. That is what I craved - it has been so dull outside. It zapps my zest for life when I don't get enough colour! Then I used some molding past through a snake skin stencil (very cool effect) and some more colour on top.
The butterflies / moths and border have been cut out with my cutting machine. I sprayed them with glue and embossed with the powders from the jewels set.
The word dream and the canvas also got a little bit of a Fab foil treatment.
I whole-heartily buy into the saying I chose. I had an amazing 2012 and am hoping that 2013 will be an equally stonking good year for us all.

A friend of mine has just bought a property in France and they are moving in beginning of 2013 and there will be New Years celebrations. Two embossed birds with one heat gun I say as the challenge this month is Celebration/New Year.


The Eiffel Tower is a cutting file by Jennifer Wambach and rather than using ink on these intricate shapes,  I utilized my discovery from last month and sprayed the whole shape with re-positionable adhesive (Krylon). It means I can glue the shape together first and then emboss. Super easy and fast! I used metallic Platinum Sparkle to cover the tower. It is so sparkly that it is hard to get a good picture of it without glare. Which is a very good thing!
The box underneath the Eiffel Tower is covered in French dictionary papers and some more Platinum embossing and washi tape. It will hold an album with French phrases.
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy start to 2013 or as we say in Germany
'Einen guten Rutsch!'
Doris cheappsycholo…

Hello, Doris here with my my Christmas project.

I had this box of light bulbs staring at me for some time now. I rescued them, they are the (now) old fashioned shapes which are no longer being produced because they are not energy saving. And then I had all these new embossing powders WOW has just come out with. I was itching to use them so I rebelled and did not go with this month colours. Because......

Glitter + light bulbs= tree baubles!!
I have tried embossing on glass before, but had trouble getting the embossing ink on evenly, especially when the shape was not straight. On my table sat a can of spray glue and I decided to spray my light bulb all over and it worked a treat - very even coverage (even on my floor until I used my bin as a spray booth)
Glitter+glue spray+light bulbs=quick 'n easy baubles!! I decided to do several light coatings and that worked great. Every embossing powder I tried performed well and looked stunning. In the pictures I used the new Dessert Sand set (…

The brief this month is 'Thank you' and I wanted to create a little album to give someone special some 'Thank you' vouchers.

I was in need of pockets and this little album is perfect! This particular pocket album design is by Lori Whitlock for my Silhouette cutter. But you do not need anything fancy, the colour and embossing combination would work great on a  normal greetings card too.

This month we do not have a design brief!! So I indulged  by starting with one of my favourite colours ever:  Golden turquoise acrylic paint. Just use paper that does not warp when painted. Water colour paper is good, but I am working a lot with lining wallpaper. When the paint has dried it is smooth and becomes quite stiff and works beautifully for 3D projects. And it works great with heat embossing. Did I mention that it is very cheap too?
I gave all my pockets two coats with the acrylic paint for a rich deep turquoise and the cards which slide into the pockets got one coat for a ligh…

An extra couple of ideas to 'spook up' your Halloween projects:
1. Ravens
These birds just shout Halloween. I printed out an online picture and then cut it out and embossed it.

2. Decay
These ATC's have been created with many layers of acrylic paints, bits of papers and embossing powders. I loved in particular what happened when I soaked an old lace doily I had bought from a charity shop. I tipped gold embossing powder over it and heated it and got the most gorgeous decay!!! A little bit of water works fine, no need for inks or anything fancy, the embossing powder will stick. Instant texture that looks great on any distressed Halloween project.



Happy decaying (as an art form of course ;)
Doris @cheappsychology.co.uk

You can see that our house number is not very inspiring ............but not for much longer!!
Any artist or crafter I know loves the blue enameled house numbers. A lot of people refer to them as French house numbers, but in German villages you can still find the old enameled house numbers and street names too (rather than the cheaper looking new version)
I have created this house number with my favourite blue WOW embossing powder Primary Lagoon. I cut the number and frame out with a cutting machine then covered the background with two layers of Primary Lagoon. The frame and numbers were covered in two layers of white embossing powder.

I glued the number and frame to the blue background. It can sometimes be tricky to glue onto an embossed surface as it become non-porous. You can use specialist glues for non porous surfaces. I found, that a mixture of your normal crafting glue and book binding glue works very well. I use a mix of 1:1.

To finish off, I unified the two elements by coatin…