FERN RESIST

I needed a little pick-me-up yesterday. Because I love doing them, and they always pick me up, I couldn't resist doing a resist. 

After rubbing my entire piece of Whisper White cardstock that measured 4" x 5 1/4" with my Embossing Buddy, I carefully stamped the beautiful fern stem haphazardly in VersaMark ink. Even though VersaMark is a clear (sticky) ink, it is possible to see where you've already stamped, so it was fairly easy to keep the stems separated. 

When stamping an entire panel with the same image, start with one close to the center and work outwards from there. Don't forget to stamp partial images at the edges and corners so it looks like a continuous design that doesn't stop abruptly at the edges.

Once I felt I had covered the white cardstock well, I went to my Heat Station, covered the sticky stamping with clear embossing powder, then used my Heat Tool to melt the embossing powder. 

If  you think you have everything embossed, turn off the Heat Tool and tilt the piece at an angle to make sure each portion of the embossed images is shiny. If some of it remains a bit powdery looking, hit it with the Heat Tool again.

Next is the irresistible part of this technique. Grab a stampin' sponge or your blending tool of choice and some inks. I used Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive and Garden Green. Starting with the lightest color, randomly sponge that color here and there. Bring in the next lightest color and repeat. Do this until the background is sponged as you desire, with some areas lighter/darker than others to give it a nice variety of depth of color. 

When all the sponging is done, take a tissue and gently rub across the embossed areas to remove any excess ink and to make the embossing really pop.

On a scrap of Whisper White, I stamped the fern once again, but this time in Old Olive ink. I then fussy cut the fern. Even though it looks like it might be tricky cutting, it really isn't.

Since I needed the reminder, I stamped "just breathe" on a strip of Vellum cardstock (page 153 in the Annual Catalog). I cut the vellum about 5" long so I could wrap the ends over the edges of the resist piece.

To do the sentiment, I wanted it to be in Garden Green. But, not having that color of embossing powder, I first of all inked the sentiment up in VersaMark ink (which keeps the ink sticky enough to emboss), then in Garden Green ink. That way I had an embossed sentiment that matched my background ink.

I folded the ends of the vellum cardstock around to the back of the resist piece and taped the ends in place. I then tucked my fussy cut fern behind the vellum, leaving part of the branch casually draped over the sentiment.

To add just a teeny bit more interest to the card, I used the writing end of an Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker to make careful dots in the background, as well as on the vellum piece. When making these dots, be careful to bring the pen straight back up so you end up with dots and not dashes. 

The card base is Mossy Meadow cardstock. Isn't that a wonderful complement to the three green inks I used in my sponging? It just seems to ground the card.

The stamp set I used for the ferns is Positive Thoughts, found on page 87 in the Annual Catalog.

How do you feel about the emboss resist technique? Is it one you are able to resist?

Irresistible

Smiles.