Mermaid Seashells Starburst Stains

Had a brilliant workshop yesterday, the ladies were lovely and enjoyed themselves too even though I did work them hard, it was too hot for embossing yesterday really, but we managed to get loads of techniques done. I don't know about them but I was really shattered last night, hence no blog again!

Starburst Stains - Special Offer! Were £24.90 now £19.99!!

As we have a special offer on these at the moment I am going to work through all the Starburst Stain sets over the next week or so with colour charts and also show ideas of the colours used in projects. Visitors to the shop have been able to see these colour charts and I know they have shown them on our Create & Craft TV shows but hopefully this will be an easy reference for you, and help those that haven't got Sky TV. The top left hand panel shows all 5 colours in the set stippled together to give and idea of how the colours works together.

The first picture is of a panel from a concertina book I made and the 2nd picture a card both made using the fusible webbing.

Today's set is Mermaid Seashells, this set contains the following colours:-

Azure Sea Asters, Cockle Shells Coral, Glory of the Seas Gold, Opal Sea Oats, Sea Mint Green

The card idea shows the Fusible webbing that I've mentioned before. This is the best way I have found to use the webbing. There are 5 pieces in a pack for £2.50, they are approx. 5" x 6". For the first attempts try cutting a piece in half as it will be much easier to manage until you get the hang of it.

Place the webbing over a coloured piece of card, whether a created Starburst Stain background or plain coloured card. Stretch the webbing between 2 large acrylic blocks so that the webbing doesn't move when heating.

Heat the webbing with a heat gun all over until it is all stuck to the card, do not worry about making lacy patterns at this stage, just ensure the piece is stuck down, it takes a bit longer than heating embossing powder, and tends to look clearer when it is heated. When you are happy that it is glued down completely, remove the blocks and then start to heat to create lacy patterns.

Once you have the lacy effect showing all over, keeping heating and ensure the webbing is really hot all over. One thing I noticed at the workship yesterday is that people thought it would be like embossing powder and were afraid of overheating it. It isn't the same so keep heating, even if it seems to take longer than you think it should.

Once you are happy it is hot all over, quickly add embossing powder, it can be any embossing powder, so try experimenting with different colours/types. Tip off of the excess powder and emboss as you would normally, start one end and gradually move over the piece as it melts. If you find that the powder hasn't stuck to parts of the webbing then it wasn't hot enough, it is worth adding more before you heat to emboss as you may have tapped off too much and sometimes it still sticks.

Allow to cool and trim for either a complete background, cut up into smaller pieces to add as textured elements, or punch/die cut into shapes. I tend to save any trimmings and even use thin borders so that none is wasted!

Been awol!

I've had a few days off from blogging, and it would be nice to tell you that it's because I've been busy finishing all the ongoing crafting projects I have on the go at the moment. But I haven't! It's not normal for me to be quiet and not to have or find something to say so yes, it's been an odd few days!

My excuses are that Sunday was Sunday, a day off, and too hot for doing anything other than umm essential Sunday chores.

Monday saw Ian and I sitting in a hospital waiting room for 3 hours, having spent time traveling there too, when we're sure he could have been seen locally, as he has been before. My blog would have resembled more of a rant, so better that I didn't blog about it at all!!

Yesterday, well blogger's cramp had truly set in and I couldn't think of anything to say. Must be the heat, but I'm not really complaining...well only a bit... Why does this country run on extremes, either too cold, too wet, too windy or, too hot... well that's how it seems! So I'll follow suit and waffle too much today too... Just for the hell of it!

The yellow sea of buttercups has disappeared from the garden now the grass has grown higher. Hamish (our dog) is covered in grass seeds and we can't keep track of him in the garden, we just hear a rustling sound as he moves about! The ground will definitely be well re-seeded for next year!

Upsetting news from the garden is that all the bees have gone. We found some in the front garden, but we are sure they usually stay all summer by the Cotoneaster, strange! Hope they are OK, we miss them!!

I'm holding a workshop tomorrow, embossing techniques, it will include using fusible webbing as a background amongst other things, hence the pictures. It gives a lovely lacy effect. My first attempts with this quite a few years ago were disastrous, it ended up wound round the end of my heat gun like candy floss! So, I'm glad I cracked it and found the best way for me to use it. It's a good example of not giving up on a technique when it doesn't work for you straight away, keep at it and you will get there eventually, honest!

I often try to think back to how it was when I first started embossing with stamps, it was quite a primitive procedure back then, before art rubber stamping was even considered a craft in the UK. I'm so glad I stuck with it, if you are new to it, or still learning (as we all are), do keep practising. If you're a die hard stamper lacking mojo, here's a challenge, revisit some embossing techniques you haven't tried for a while, I've thoroughly enjoyed playing with the older techniques again.

Products have improved so much since we started, we didn't have the best fabby embossing pad on earth back then, ie the VersaMark Embossing Pad, or even heat guns, it was either a paint stripper, toaster, light bulb or a heated baking tin in the oven! My first public demos were using my gas cylinder Braun curling tongs (t'was without electricity in our humble show tent)!

Thought it was ingenious at the time to be able to emboss on the go! Forget the benefits of what the tongs could do for your hair, (or not as it turned out). But no-one really appreciated how clever that was at the time! Well, until they got addicted to stamping that is and reported back that in desperation for a heat source, they'd tried it too!! Those were the days.

That first major venue for us was the East of England show in Peterborough, little did I know way back then that IW & C & C would have me returning to Peterborough for the filming of craft shows years later! Funny how things work out...

We have much more stuff to use with embossing powders now and more variety of EPs than back then, it's easier to achieve the many techniques with the great products available. Time permitting tomorrow for all these techniques (I always plan too much stuff to do), we will work our way through the basic/best tips for embossing onto card, vellum, acetate, different types of EP etc. Then we'll hit the real fun... ultra thick, Jacob's coat, shrink plastic, style stones, noodle brush embossing, the hot pot and more....

Ian usually throws us out way past the time our workshops should end, probably a good thing as I guess we'd never stop playing. So much embossing, so little time...

Fusible webbing instructions... coming soon!

Jill

PS: Do pop over to Lesley's blog HERE to see what she made at Saturday's workshop, stunning!

Another Tag Book with French Country Starburst Stains

Here's another tag book, I've used Moonglow Fusible Webbing on the panel showing on the first picture with white detail embossing powder to create a lacy effect.