Rise & Shine! pearly embossing powders

Stampee Crafts' Rise & Shine! pearly violet embossing powder

I'm happy to introduce Stampee's newest line of products, our Rise & Shine! pearly embossing powders, available in red, evergreen, blue, and violet. As loose powder, all of the pearls look like plain-old-boring clear embossing powder. However, when they're heat set they really come to life and produce a glitzy iridescent finish.

These pearly powders are really versatile, so let me give you the basics.

over dark ink

When you apply these over dark colored inks, you get an opaque metallic/iridescent finish in the powder color that you used. In this example I chose violet.

Get this effect: Stamp an image using a dark colored embossable ink. Normally you'd probably use black, but I used a very dark indigo here and it didn't make any difference. Sprinkle on the Rise & Shine! pearly embossing powder and gently tap off excess. Heat the powder with your heat gun until the powder melts to a smooth finish and becomes super snazzy. You've got a very iridescent violet design in your hands. Hooray! 

*Side note: pigment inks that tend to stay wet longer (Color Box) will give you a marbled look after you've heat set the powder, as opposed to drier pigment inks (Ranger).

over clear embossing ink

So, you're ready for something with a little more pizazz? Good news: you can apply the pearly powders over clear embossing ink and light colored stock to produce a shimmer effect with a color tint like my example to the left. Try using this effect to create a really pretty patterned paper with stamps, or to make a jazzed up watermark. 

Get this effect: Stamp an image using a clear embossable ink.  Sprinkle on the Rise & Shine! pearly embossing powder and gently tap off excess. Heat the powder with your heat gun until the powder melts to a smooth finish and becomes super snazzy. You're a card-making rockstar. 

These powders really pick up on the colors behind them, so you need to understand that if you stamp an image in clear ink on black paper you're going to get the same effect you would if you were applying the powder to dark ink. Got it? Good! Dark background=opaque and iridescent. Light background=tinted and iridescent. 

You can purchase our Rise & Shine! pearly embossing powders directly from the Stampee Crafts website. 

Retail price: $3.95

Available in pearly red, pearly violet, pearly blue, and evergreen pearl

♥ Stacey

Book Review: Paper Wonderland

  

Hold onto your pants, and get ready for some seriously cute stuff! I was strolling through my local book store, scanning the paper crafting section when I came across this little jewel. I was immediately drawn to its super cute illustrations and figured that even I could operate a pair of scissors and a tape roller adeptly enough to put a few paper toys together. 

On the front cover the book claims to have, "32 terribly cute toys," just waiting to be cut out and assembled, and the book delivered. I decided to start myself off with the toaster (I couldn't resist the angry piece of burnt toast's alluring eyes), which is the only toy I saw where you have to assemble components that go inside the toy as well as outside. Think heating elements. My point is, I must have picked the second hardest design to start with, the first being some fancy-schmancy Polaroid camera job with photos popping out.

As promised by the author, self-taught illustrator Michelle Romo, all I needed was a pair of scissors, some double-sided tape, and a craft knife to put these little guys together. The directions were simple and, well, direct: cut on the solid lines, score and fold on the dotted lines, then tape it all together.

Most of the cut outs were easy-peasy and could be done with scissors but some required a steady hand wielding a craft knife. For example, the toaster required thin slits to be removed from the middle of the top so the angry piece of toast had a place from which to glare. When it came to scoring the dotted lines it was easy enough to lightly run my craft knife across those using a straight edge as a guide, and that gave my guys nice, crisp edges when I got them all folded together. 

All in all, I'd say these guys are worth the work, and even if you don't decide to make the toys the book is absolutely beautiful. 

I should note for all my crafters out there who are trying to get the most out of their materials, the back side of the cutout paper is printed with super cute designs so you can turn all of your scraps over and use them for other projects. Hooray!

♥ Stacey

Squidshine!

Here are two versions of a card I made.

To create your own version:

• Print out an image using a laser printer.
• Lay a piece of Stampee Foil over the image.
• Cover the foil with a piece of copy paper.
• Run through a heat laminator on a high setting.
• Peel the foil away to reveal your super shiny image!
• Layer with cute patterned papers and keep it all together with colorful brads and double sided tape.