TWO COLOR EMBOSSING

Do you love the look of heat embossing? Especially when a metallic embossing powder is used? Gold? Silver? Copper? Or my all time (retired) favorite, Pewter? They are all so lovely and always succeed in making a creation extra special.

Have you ever combined two different embossing powder colors? 

In my card today, I have combined gold and silver in the same background. While it may seem complicated and fussy to do, it really isn't. You just need to take some extra precautions to avoid contaminating any of your embossing powders.

I started out with a piece of Whisper White cardstock. 

My first step was to rub the Embossing Buddy really well over the entire piece before stamping. This prohibits embossing powder from sticking where it's not wanted. An easy enough step to take, but so necessary. It saves a lot of heartache. Believe me. I know.

Using a stamp of little snowflake clusters, I stamped randomly with VersaMark ink, leaving lots of space between the stamping. Starting with gold embossing powder. I sprinkled the stamping with the gold, tapping the excess off the stamped piece back into its container. Using the Heat Tool, I heat set the gold snowflake clusters.

When I am doing embossing, I always have a fresh page from an expired mini catalog to work on. As soon as the embossing is done, I dispose of this page. Clean away any signs of that first embossing color. 

I then went back to my work table and used the Embossing Buddy again, then filled in the spaces left over from the first stamping with the same snowflake clusters, once again in VersaMark ink. 

At the Heat Station, I this time added SILVER embossing powder to the new stamping. Since the gold was all finished and heat set, this new embossing color won't affect it at all. Tap the excess silver embossing powder back into its container. Use the Heat Tool to set the embossing powder.

Immediately throw away the page you'd done the silver embossing on.

By being intensely careful about disposing pages from embossing immediately after finishing, you run very little risk of mixing any of the embossing powders together. 

There! In two simple steps you now have both silver and gold clusters of snowflakes on a white background.

The next step involves some sponging. Bringing in Balmy Blue ink, I carefully sponged over the embossed white cardstock, making it lighter and darker in areas. 

Because I didn't want to cover up just too much of my two color snowstorm on Balmy Blue, I elected to adhere three beautiful snowflakes die cut from Whisper White with the Seasonal Layers dies, found on page 195 of the Annual Catalog. Have you checked out this set of dies? Please do so. There is such a variety of beautiful seasonal pieces.

To pick up a little bit on the silvery of half the embossing, I added Basic Rhinestones to the center of each of the diecut snowflakes. Don't they look pretty?

To create the blue on blue look of the background polka dot piece, I used a Sponge Brayer (page 181 of the Annual Catalog) over the dotted Pattern Party Decorative Mask, found on page 181, also in the Annual Catalog. I inked the brayer with white ink.

After using sticky tape over Night of Navy cardstock to hold the mask in place, I rolled the inked up brayer over and over across it. Lifting up the stencil for a quick peek showed me if I was getting the ink dark enough. If not, tape it back in place and give it a few more runs of the inked brayer.

With the exception of the three Basic Rhinestones at the centers of the three snowflakes, the only dimension in this card comes from the central snowflake panel that I popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals onto the polka dot piece.

A beautifully simple card, it doesn't really even need a sentiment. Living in central Wisconsin, this card can be used for any number of occasions.

Now, give two color embossing a try. Just be careful to not mix any of the embossing powders together. Have fun!

Metallic

Smiles.