Back to Basics, 101 Embossing with a Touch of Distress

Hello all!  Donna here all the way from New Zealand.  I'm so excited to be here sharing this post with you.  I hope you have been enjoying all the amazing projects being posted,  their AMAZING!!! Tonight  I am going to  take you back to some basics, and for something a bit different add some distress to our final project.

So lets get started.  Embossing 101, Tips and Trick

I find it a really good idea to start with a clutter free working surface,  make sure its clean  and flat so you get an nice clean image when stamping.  I always use a anti-static pad on any surface that I am going to emboss.   The anti-static pad allows the embossing powder to glide off easily after you have stamped your image and applied your powder.  Lift your project up and lightly tap from the back and the embossing powder should fall off onto you scrap paper.  If you do happen to have a bit of embossing powder left on your paper, get a fine tip dry paint brush and dust away the unwanted powder.  Pop all the left over powder back into your container and pop the lid back on.  I know what your thinking,  but I have spilt so much in the past by being so excited in what I was doing and then forgetting it was there.  Now for the magic, heat your heat gun up and then slowly add heat to the surface you are embossing.  You can  tell when you have applied enough heat as the colour of the embossing powder will go shinny.  There you go,  101 on embossing!  p.s don't touch until it has cooled off a bit,  nasty on the finger tips,  ouch :-) 

Now for my project. 

 I have made a quick tag showing how I have used the Suzy West Flower  back ground stamp with the Opaque Bright White and then added distress Ink,  and a few other bits and bobs  lying round to finish it off.

Once I had embossed my tag with Opaque Bright white, I got my distress tool and distressed around the whole edge of the tag.



Distressing tool are great for giving a real ripped look effect,
 the harder you apply pressure the more tear you will get



Tag all distressed and ready for ink.

 After I had distressed my tag, I got my Distress Inks,  I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo for this tag.  Always start with your lightest colour and start applying to tag.


Apply ink to the parts of tag that you want that colour.

 continue to add the colours you want , then with a dry old clean rag, wipe of excess ink off embossed areas

Finished Tag.

Lastly add some Vintage Photo to the edges and there is your background of tag done.  I have added a photo to my tag and then dressed it up with some ribbon, flowers and a chipboard flower.  If you would like to see a project done with this technique pop over to my blog here.  So there you have it, some basics for embossing and a distress tag.  I hope you have enjoyed , Take care and Happy Scrappin.    xoxDonna