Part II More cuttlebug play

Thanks Kim for throwing out the suggestion of trying out alcohol ink on metal! Oh I love metal and don't use it often enough. I saw your comment this morning and every time I had a spare moment today my mind was turning around how to give this a whirl.

Sometimes when I use AI on aluminum it does not give me the contrast I want and I end up covering the background with acrylic dabber paint or gesso which does not leave the metal look to be enjoyed. So I started this time with trying out the AI on small pieces of brass, aluminum and copper. The colors did their own polished stone effects and created fun backgrounds. I then run it through the CB and tried a couple methods of removing the AI from the embossed leaves. Of course blending solution works great but one must be careful not to have a tip of the rag remove it from the background at the same time the leaves are being cleaned. I personally liked my other solution...Sharpie markers also lift off AI so I did that to replace the color of the stems. I found success in cleaning the leaves with a quick pass of the Sharpie marker and an immediate wipe with a dry tissue. This left the leaves the beautiful natural golden brass color.

I gotta tell you this is fast become my favorite embossing folder! The embossed pieces can be used any direction. This close-up may have the image upside down from the folder but to me it looks a lot more like tree branches as opposed to the bush-likeness in the original direction. This little serendipity learning occurred while using the scraps to make the card above. This photo is somewhat better of the AI than the card but I tell you--just try it! Get your fingers a little inky. This larger piece will be a wall hanging but I gotta finish it another day.

When I first saw these landscape type embossing folders I wondered what I could possible do with them besides pumping out the same image over and over. Now I am glad I gave them a try and I am one my way to order some of the other seasonal ones too!

Thanks Kim for expanding the possibilities even further! And for any of you who don't frequent Kim's blog Running on Ink do know she is one fantastic, creative and immensely talented young woman. You just might want to check out what she is doing too.

Artsy Play with the Cuttlebug

I just bought 2 of the new landscape embossing folders (the Leaves and the Grass with single bird) and have spent some time playing with them. Here is some of my work.

For these 3 cards I used the technique of inking the inside top of the embossing folder and running it through the CB. The outside of the top of each CB folder has a little printed indentification which helps to quickly distinquish the top from bottom.

The leaves and branches are the color of the paper I selected. The ink added to the folder is the flat background. The thread like lines are created by allowing the ink pad edges to leave heavier ink lines on the folder.






Here I added some background lines with cut n dry sponge.


Also colored a little color to the leaves a little.























Not too much space for stamping...but I okay with that since I got to have some creative play time.