Let the countdown begin!

Hi it's Louise with my last couple of posts for this year. Can you believe we're into December already?  Where has the year gone? Only 24 more sleeps until Christmas!

This month I did something I very rarely do... I chose a whole paper range from one manufacturer, right down to the element and alpha stickers! As soon as I saw the Echo Park Times & Seasons range I knew it had the potential to be perfect for so many photos I had of the boys... even though they don't have moustaches yet!

One of my favourite products at the moment is the American Crafts Zing embossing powders. The range of colours are a far cry from the nasty gold and silver that I used to emboss with way back at the start of my card making endeavours! I wanted to try and use the embossing powders in a different way than just embossing a stamped image, so I decided to combine a couple of techniques.... embossing and masking. The process was very simple, and created some fantastic results.

Firstly I cut a 3 inch square from a piece of scrap paper. I placed it onto the my LO where I wanted the stamped image to be.

 Using versamark and a My Mind's Eye doily stamp, I pressed firmly over the square aperture.

After removing the paper mask I covered the stamped area with embossing powder, tipping the excess back into the pot.

Once the powder had been heated with a heat gun, the detail of the stamped image could be seen clearly. I repeated this process with other colours and with a smaller square mask on the kraft base of my LO.

The metallic powders are just gorgeous and photos don't really do them justice. They are also really fine, so are perfect to use with intricate stamps without losing too much detail.

I decided to play around with this technique on my second LO too. This time I used a circular mask to stamp through.

As well as stamping directly on to the LO through the circular mask, I also stamped onto spare card and used a circle punch so that I could layer up the embossed circles.

I often add journalling onto a luggage tag, but look how fab they are when embellished with a strip of mix tape.

There is so much potential with this technique. I already have ideas buzzing around my head about using a Father Christmas stamp peeping through an aperture on a festive LO.

I hope this post inspires you to get embossing and masking. If you do have a go, please leave a link to your work so I can come and leave a comment for you.

All of the products I used on these LOs can be viewed below. Just click on the image to be taken to the shop. Stash shopping made simple.

I'll be back tomorrow with a couple more LOs using the same Times & Seasons range.

Bye for now

American Crafts Kraft Cardstock	American Crafts Cardstock - Geyser	Echo Park - Times & Seasons - Classic Broadside	Echo Park - Times & Seasons - Date to Remember
Echo Park - Times & Seasons - Sweet Stripe	Echo Park - Times & Seasons - Element Stickers	Echo Park - Times and Seasons - Alpha Stickers	Echo Park - Times and Seasons - Swanky Floral
Tim Holtz - Filmstrip Ribbon	Amy Tangerine - Mix Tape 1	Jillibean Soup - Soup Labels - Journalling Sentiments	American Crafts - Chap - Jared Clear Stamps
EK Success Slim Border Punch - Bubbles	American Crafts - Zing - Mustard	American Crafts - Zing - Brown Sugar	American Crafts - Zing - Metallic Purple
American Crafts - Zing - Leaf	American Crafts - Precision Pen - Black	American Crafts - Pigment Ink - Chestnut	Studio Calico - Chipboard Alpha

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