Embossing Tips
with Brass Stencils - 'Faux Tile' Technique 
Contributed by Aldonna
Wedge |
| 1. |
Dry emboss
the complete tile design on your paper. Leave the stencil on
though step 6. |
| 2. |
Leaving the
stencil on the paper, put a second stencil of your choice on
top of the first (now on the right side of the paper). This is
your decorative stencil. |
| 3. |
Stencil the
second decorative design. Use permanent inks to avoid blurring
on the next step. |
| 4. |
Remove the
second stencil. |
| 5. |
With the tile
stencil still in place, dab with clear embossing ink. |
| 6. |
REMOVE THE
TILE STENCIL and sprinkle with clear embossing powder, or Extra
Thick Embossing powder. (If you forget to remove the stencil,
it will be messier to clean up). |
| 7. |
Finally, heat
to melt the embossing powder. Voila! A 'faux tile'. |
|
Stamp Artist - Lynell Harlow of Dreamweaver Stencils |
|
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Embossing Tips with
Brass Stencils
Aldonna Wedge - P.S. I Love You Brass Stencils |
| Front of Paper: The
front of the paper is the side that you put down onto the stencil.
You will be tracing on the back. |
| What to trace: You only have the trace the edge of the open
design. The center does not have to be traced. In fact, don't! |
| Waxed Paper: Rub the paper with a piece of waxed paper
so that the stylus will glide over the paper. Rubbing the paper
with your finger will also serve the same purpose. |
| Masking Tape: If you are just embossing, you may want to tape
the stencil to the light box. If you are going to stencil after,
you may want to tape the stencil to the paper. Be sure that you
stick the masking tape to your clothing several times before
you use it on the paper or it will be too sticky and tear the
paper when you remove it. Special tapes are available, but masking
tape used properly will suffice. |
| Stylus Size: I try to use the largest stylus possible for
a given design. The smaller the stylus, the greater possibility
of tearing the paper. If you don't have a stylus, a ball point
pen that has run out of ink, a knitting needle, or anything with
a rounded point will do. |
| Paper Choice: Many papers are suitable for embossing. A heavier
paper will give a nicer effect. Watercolor art paper which is
about 90 lb. weight is wonderful. 100% cotton paper at a lighter
weight is also great. Card stock is good, but if the color is
dark, it becomes opaque and you must do "blind embossing". |
Corrections: If you take up the paper and find that you missed
a portion of your design, you can put it down again and fix it.
You do have to align the paper up where it had been. I shine
a light on the paper to do this.
Variety of Use: You may decide to use only a portion of the stencil.
Also, there is no right or wrong side to a stencil, so you simply
flip it over to get a mirror image. Perhaps with words and letters
you may not want to do this. |
| Removing a new Stencil
from its packaging: I keep the
stencil flat on a table and pull the paper and tape away from
the stencil. This will prevent the stencil from bending if the
tape is especially sticky. |
| Stencils with points.
Some few stencils have points
that could snag or tangle with other stencils or objects. I make
sure these go into a plastic bag when not in use to prevent damage |
| Storing Stencils. I have many stencils, therefore, I keep them
in heavy poly bags numbered as I assigned them on my web pages. |
| Completeness of Design.
If there is a particularly detailed
design, I don't remove the paper to check it. I hold the paper
down and lift the paper and look at the design and compare it
to the stencil which you can see with the light box shining beneath
it. With the very detailed designs, it is very difficult to reallign
the stencil accurately. |
| Stencils as Ornaments.
Many of the stencils can be
hung as ornaments because they have a hole in them for this very
purpose. Be careful not to emboss or stencil that functional/non-design
hole. |
| Partial Use of the Design.
If you are making several note
cards or other items and using only part of the design, you might
want to mask off the part you are not interested in with masking
tape. Otherwise, you might forget and just use too much of the
stencil by mistake. |
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