more DIY embossing

Ahhh, Paris in the spring is a romantic notion. Springtime in the midwest of the US is not nearly as romantic. We've had a weekend filled with thunderstorms--thunder, lightning, hail, and lots and lots of rain. It was a little tough to get motivated to craft, but I did try out an idea up there. The stamped images are by Mary Mata and stamped using Memento Paris Dusk ink. The embossed fleur de lis is a Quickutz die cut, accented with that same ink. The embellishment was made using the Fiskars All-A-Fleur border punch and Robin's Nest Dew Drops.

So, I'd used some simple words and some very basic shapes to make some embossing folders before. You can see my first attempt with the word "fun" HERE. My more recent embossing folder made using a scalloped heart die is HERE. This time I wanted to see if I could do something more complicated and intricate, something with a smaller design that I could repeat. My eye landed on the Quickutz fleur de lis die and I decided that was the one that would be the guinea pig.

You can see in the photo below that what I did was die cut a sheet of chipboard with that die a dozen times. I'd marked it so that I'd know exactly where to place that die each time. I did well until that tenth one where I used the wrong line. OOPS! Oh well. I'd gone too far to turn back or to start over. I finished up the cutting.

Keeping the die cuts in place, I made my embossing folder by placing glue on the back of each fleur de lis. I then pressed that onto the inside of my transparency folder, a piece of transparency cut to size, scored, and folded. After letting that dry for a bit, I pulled off the 'negative' side of my cuts, used my Xyron to add adhesive, refit it onto the die cuts (Xyron adhesive side up) and closed the folder on top of it to adhere it to the opposite side of the inside of the folder. The hinge of the embossing folder is at the top.


My test piece of cardstock was Georgia Pacific. This is the same piece that I used in the card up above. I placed a smaller piece inside the folder for the photo so that you get a better idea of how the two sides fit together.


This is a close-up view of the embossing. This was made using only one layer of fairly lightweight chipboard. That's really all it takes. Unlike when doing the selective embossing or creative Cuttling that I described before, this can be done using thinner layers because there are both positive and negative faces to the image which together produce a crisp embossed image, so not a lot of pressure or depth or stiffness to the material is really necessary. I've seen this done with transparency used as the template, too. I like the look of embossing with the chipboard better. Unless the transparency is very heavy weight, it's just not thick enough to make a good impression without using more than one layer, though that's certainly an option--and also more work. :-) Just keep in mind that the impression will only be as deep as the thickness of the material being cut out, regardless of what you use.

Whichever look you go for, the main thing is aligning the die cuts and the cutout side properly so that the cardstock will be pressed around the die cut and into the cutout. Basically this works the same way that Cuttlebug embossing folders work. These are just made using chipboard rather than plastic.

It was fun to see that smaller die cuts can be turned into bigger backgrounds. Opens up even more possibilities and more uses for dies.