FAKE IT FRIDAY: BRAYERED ROSES

Here we are with my second installment of FAKE IT FRIDAY (my OCT 16 POST explains the concept & wacky title) ... today I'm featuring another of my all-time-favourite-uber-talented Stampin' Up! divas, Patty Bennett.

Whenever I need inspiration or a reminder to loosen up, just try it and have fun, I visit Patty's blog or watch one of her YouTube videos. Afterwards, I'm usually RUNNING to my Stampin' Studio to try out one of her ideas; she's just THAT talented!

So to get ready for last Saturday's STAMP-4-FUN event (a quarterly day I host for my downline and other local demonstrators), I was searching through the maze of YouTube videos, looking for ones that used Sizzix embossing folders - I wanted to show my team some kewl techniques that they could try with these folders and their Big Shot machines. I found several good ones, but this video by Patty was BY FAR the best, giving me the most WOW for my viewing ... and I think the gals were pretty impressed on Saturday too!

I won't go into the technique steps - you can see how to do it on Patty's original video HERE - but I DO want to share my results and some tips (AKA: mistakes I made along the way) ... (remember, you can click on the photos to see a larger view) ...

The "Manhattan Flower" embossing folder gives an elegant look to plain white card stock (photo 1), but this time I wanted to add some colour. As Patty points out in her video, you can try to drag an ink pad across the top of the card to "catch" just the raised embossed image, but it rarely comes out clean (photo 2).

Instead, Patty advises flipping over to the backside (the "de-bossed" side) to add your colour ... now I'm excited! I pull out the same colours Patty used and I dove in, starting with the pink... oops!

NOTE TO SELF: Remember to remove most of the ink from the brayer BEFORE you go NEAR the card front. Otherwise you get ... photo 3.

My next attempt was much better - just a hint of pink, then add the yellow. (OK, so I think this one is too light on the pink and too heavy on the yellow but then again, I'm not partial to yellow roses. Some of the other gals preferred this version - to each her own. (Photo 4)

Here's the one I REALLY like - after colouring, I cut out around the outside edges of the embossed roses, stamped some leaves on another piece of card stock and then adhered the roses on top. It's not exactly like Patty's card in the video because I wanted mine to be a standard 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" in size. (Photo 5)

All in all, I really love this technique and can't wait to try it with my other embossing folders and some different colour combos. The way I see it, the more looks you can get with one product, the better - so thank you Patty for giving new life to the embossed look!

cheers,