ESAD Blog Hop - Annual Catalogue Favourites

 

Welcome to another ESAD Favourites Blog Hop, were we have each chosen our favourite product (or products) from the new Annual Catalogue. Now I have to say this was hard, because it is so very hard to choose a favourite, but after lots of thought and a little indecision (because I love so many of the products) I landed on the new amazing new Embossing Paste, with its coordinating Palette Knives and Pattern Party Decorative Masks. While not an actual bundle, I do think of these products as a bundle because they all work together.

For my first project I have sneaked in two of my other favourite products, the Eastern Palace Framelits and the great DSP in the catalogue: Delightful Daisy, and Bundle of Love. The background from Delightful Daisy DSP reminded me of snowflakes gently falling, and the pretty gold strip from Bundle of Love reminded me a bit of a Christmas garland. I love that Stampin' Up! products are so versatile, none of these were designed for Christmas but work really well together.  

To make the ornaments I used the framelits to cut the desired pieces from cardstock.  I then used this as the mask for the Embossing Paste, it really opens up your creative opportunities.  After pulling the masks away I sprinkled the still wet paste with Gold Stampin' Glitter, and allowed them to dry before cutting with the appropriate sized circle punch. The glitter adheres to the Embossing Paste and gives the finished ornaments a lovely raised feature. I decorated the inside of the card with a strip of the gold patterned DSP to match the front.

My next card also uses the wonderful Embossing Paste with a technique I literally thought up and did for the first time on this card!  I have also sneaked in another favourite the Colourful Seasons Bundle. Let me share this new technique with you, and some of the thought process that went into it.  I wanted to have a multicoloured but blended background without having to mix up paste with color before application.  I was initially thinking about just sponging the dried embossing paste to add colour, but then this came to me:

Leaving the mask in place I dropped different coloured re-inkers onto the still wet paste. Some of it ran a little and I wasn't really sure if it was going to work at this stage.

I then used a paint brush to drag the colour across the paste, trying to keep to the areas that had paste, but some went onto the plain card stock as well.  Still not sure at this stage whether it was going to work!  It wasn't until I pulled it away that I realised how cool the look was - I was too excited to actually make the card to take a picture of it, but I used this very first trial one on my card. 

A final techique for the decorative masks is to use them as a mask for sponging. Here I chose two colours that coordinated with the front of the card to add some colour, sponging both Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze over each other.  I used Washi Tape to mask the mask so that there was a clean border without ink.

Here is the finished inside of the card which leaves heaps of room for the message, it is so easy to use this technique to add some interst to the inside of a card or even deocarte a matching envelope.

  

I hope you have had the opportunity to play with the new Embossing Paste, and that I have shown you a new idea or two.  Time to hop on over to see what Courtenay's favourite product is!

Happy Stamping
Monique