turn up the heat...

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope it is a wonderful, creative, and truly amazing year for all!

And to get all those creative gears in motion, I have yet another Saturday tutorial for you. To fully understand what went into this tutorial, you have to understand what happened behind the scenes...

This technique requires the use of an iron. The only iron I had was an antique travel iron that belonged to my Grandmother I don't even know how long ago. When we were going through my Grandparents house to sell it, we came across this iron, and to my amazement, when I plugged it in, it worked. LOL! So this became my crafting iron. I honestly don't use it much, but I decided to pull it out for this project. 

As I was working, I noticed a strange smell, and not a good one... I shrugged it off figuring that it is an old iron, there is bound to be some smells with it, right?  What I didn't realize is that not only was my craft room in the basement being affected, but the entire house stank! To make everything worse, we were having an inspector come to our house that afternoon... OOPS!  

Needless to say, I no longer use that iron. I now have a brand new iron that doesn't stink. =)

Here is what you will need for this technique:

Embossing ink

Stamp

Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE)

Creative Inspiration Paint

Heat gun

Iron

Scratch paper

Your project (I like to work on cardstock for this)

Step 1: Ink up your stamp with an embossing ink. You can use clear embossing ink, or any color pigment ink that stays wet long enough. Here I am using Frost White pigment ink by Colorbox.

Step 2: Stamp your image onto your project.

Step 3: Quickly cover in UTEE. *you can use regular embossing powder, but the UTEE will give it a less crisp, more distressed look which I like*

 Step 4: Carefully melt the UTEE with heat tool.  To keep your loose powders from flying away, begin heating from a distance, and as the powders begin melting, you can slowly move in closer. You may still get some stray  splotches of UTEE, but it adds to the charm, I think.

Step 5: When UTEE is completely cooled, paint over it with Creative Inspirations Paint. Here I am using Tickled Pink.  I painted my whole paper, but how much you cover is up to you.

Step 6: Let paint dry (this shouldn't take very long), then cover with your scrap paper.

 Step 7: Using a hot iron (no steam), iron over your project.

 What you are doing is melting away the UTEE. By covering it with scratch paper, you are giving it something to absorb into rather than simply making a mess.  This scrap paper could also be fun to use on a project if you wanted. =)

Step 8: Carefully peel off the scrap paper.  Don't force this step. If it doesn't peel off easily, simply heat it a little longer with the iron.

Because we are using CI paints, when this baby hits the light, it shines!

 For my finished project, I die cut the carstock into a heart.

Here is a closeup of the heart

I love that the paint is both shimmery, and packed with color! this is the same heart, just tilted slightly to hit the light

I hope you enjoy this technique, and that you all have a fabulous weekend. Don't forget to take time for yourself to be creative!

Also, I'd like to take a sec to thank my AMAZINGLY talented DT for all their hard work this past term. I'd also like to welcome the 2 new girls joining our team... Holly and Dani. They are both very talented, and I am excited to get to work with you.  

~Kassi

items used for my project:

Paper: White cardstock, tissue paper, DCWV

Stamps: Fancy Pants "Pollen Dust", Kaisercraft "Grid"

Ink: Colorbox "Frost White" & "Black" pigment inks

Creative Inspirations Paint: Tickled Pink

Other: Ribbon, UTEE