Trapped Ink Embossing

Hello, welcome to my blog!

In today's card project, I will be clear embossing my images so that colored ink shows through. If you've never tried this technique, I encourage you to do so. Any stamped image would work, but I find bold, solid images work best as they allow lots of colored ink to show through the clear embossing. I have created two cards showing different color combinations. For the first card I will be using blender brushes to lay down my colored ink. For the second card I will use jumbo sponge daubers. Both applications lay down lots of ink, however, I find the sponge daubers apply the ink heavier and quicker.

Let's get started!!

To start, I cut two 4" x 5 1/4" white Neenah cardstock panels using my Tim Holtz Guillotine paper trimmer as I will be making two cards. With the first panel, I will be using my Life Changing Blender Brushes to blend my ink. I start with Gina K. Designs Wild Dandelion ink and blend small circles onto my panel, keeping in mind the size of the flower stamp I am using so I won't overlap my stamping. Next, I blend around my yellow circles using Gina K. Designs Passionate Pink ink blending the two colors just a bit. Once I have these two colors randomly blended onto my panel, I take the Pink Passionate and fill in all white areas.

It is very important to either let the ink on your panel completely dry or do like I did, I dried it completely with my Ranger Heat Craft Tool. *To test if your panel is completely dry, spoon some embossing powder onto the panel, if the panel is dry the powder will fall right off when you flick the cardstock. If any powder sticks to the panel after flicking the cardstock, it is not completely dry*. Next, I prep my inked panel using my Anti Static bag, also very important. Now it's time to stamp my image. Taking one of my Gina K. Designs Comfort Acrylic Blocks, I stamp a flower from Gina K. Designs Love and Prayers stamp set using Gina K. Designs Embossing ink. I then add Gina K. Designs Detail Clear embossing powder and heat set with my Wagner heat tool.

Now for the fun part! Using a Jumbo Sponge Dauber I completely cover my embossed panel with Gina K. Designs Black Onyx ink using a circular motion, also being sure to go over the embossed images to that the black ink gets into the details of the flower. I take a soft, clean cloth to gently buff the embossed images to remove the black ink that is sitting on top, this also makes the image pop.

I now take a circle die from Hero Arts Infinity Circle dies big enough for my greeting and run it along with my embossed panel through my Big Shot die cut machine.

I now take a circle die the next size up from my Infinity set and line up a piece of Fun Foam cut to 3 3/4" x 5" to the back side of my embossed panel. I hold the foam in place with a little Gina K. Designs Dot Adhesive Runner using a very little amount, just enough to hold the foam in place and flip it over. Taking a pencil, I lightly trace the opening of the circle that I previously cut out of my panel. I remove the foam from my panel and center the larger die over the pencil marks and tape down using Purple Tape and run it through my Big Shot. I now line up the foam and glue it down to the back side of my embossed panel using Gina K. Designs Connect liquid glue and let the glue set for a few minutes.

I set a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Gina K. Designs Wild Dandelion card base into my MISTI and set the embossed window panel on top where it will be when I finish my card so that I can center my greeting from Gina K. Designs Wreath Builder stamp set.. Once centered, I close the door to pick up my stamp and remove the embossed panel. I ink up my stamp using Gina K. Designs Amalgam Jet Black ink and stamp my greeting. Now, I mount the embossed panel over the yellow card base and add a few black jewels from Lucy's Cards Ebony Mix and my first card is finished.

For my next card, I changed up the colors. I used Gina K. Designs Tangerine Twist and Blue Lagoon inks. I repeat the entire inking process from my previous card. The only difference with this card is my greeting. I cut my greeting backer out of Gina K. Designs Black Onyx cardstock with a small stitched circle from my stash. I then use a circle die from my Infinity Circle Die set to layer using Gina K. Designs Turquoise Sea cardstock and glue together. I stamp a sentiment from Gina K. Designs Inspiring Poppies stamp set using Amalgam Jet Black ink. Next, I mount my embossed panel onto a Gina K. Designs Turquoise Sea card base. I then attach my sentiment using Gina K. Designs Foam Tape and adhere to my card front and add a few black jewels to complete my second card.

I hope you enjoyed today's cards and picked up a couple new tips. Using multiple colored flowers on one panel would be beautiful, also using butterflies would give a great look! Retro 70's flowers would be awesome with this technique!!

I have a bad cold coming on and need to get the house ready for company this weekend, so I will not have a blog post tomorrow. Come back on Monday for another fun card project! Have a wonderful weekend!!

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Happy Stamping!!

Jeannie