FOILED EMBOSSING

This technique combines two of my favourite things..... embossing and foil.  The added bonus is that you can go through all your gorgeous background papers to find something that looks wonderful with your coloured foils.  It is a technique where you have to be quick to get the foil onto the embossing while it's still hot.  I've found it best to stamp and emboss in black first, let it cool and then just reheat sections and quickly press the foil down, press down lightly and lift up.  You do need to be choosy about which stamps you use and the ones that have some open areas work better than those that are very busy.  I've photographed these with the light shining on them so you can see the shiny foil in certain areas.  

"Cats have staff"...

"Tell a story"...

"Say you're sorry"...

"Another world"... 

(this one uses the gorgeous oil slick

coloured foil)

CREDIT CARD TECHNIQUE REVISITED

My absolute favourite background is credit card technique.  Over the years this has proven itself to be one of the easiest and most spectacular backgrounds that you can do with such simple supplies.... drawing paper (or cartridge or sketch paper), an old credit card, cheap acrylic paints and a water spritz bottle.  For the uninitiated, apply a thin line of one colour of acrylic paint across the top of an A4 piece of the drawing paper, immediately swipe it down the page with the credit card held at a 45 degree angle so you are scraping a very thin coat of paint onto the paper.  Wipe off excess paint, immediately do the same with a 2nd colour of acrylic paint applying another thin coat.  Then immediately spritz some water on all over the paper on top of the paint, making sure you have some big droplets not just a fine spray.  Count to 20-30 seconds, wipe again with the credit card removing the water and it will reveal beautiful backgrounds that are almost instantly dry as you've used a very thin layer of paint.  Experiment with colours and final top coats of metallics.  Just gorgeous!

"In the heart"...

"Plant a garden"...

"Malice in Wonderland"...

"Pixie Dust"...

Below are some of the samples of 

this background technique.

This atc below is the final one from last fortnight's alcohol ink smoosh class.  

"Dirt"...