It’s time for to showcase another heat embossing technique: the reptile technique. One of my old favourites that I resurrect every few years because it gives such a great effect for very little cost. If you’re after a dramatic statement background, reptile technique certainly delivers!
Let’s look at the card first…
How cute is this crocodile?
Or is it an alligator? I’m not sure…
My friend’s young son saw this little guy and ask: “How do you tell the different between an Alligator and a crocodile?” when I replied that I didn’t know he answered “An alligator will see you later but a crocodile will see you in a while!” He laughed hysterically for 15 minutes after than – Gotta love his humour!
As you can see Kim’s Hey Love cling stamps from the 2019 Occasions catalogue got a work out again. (The links to the previous blogs will be down the bottom of the page if you missed them.)
Here’s a close up of the little guy coloured with watercolour pencils then blended with the clear wink of stella.
His belly was coloured lightly with the daffodil delight watercolour pencil then a layer of Lemon Lime Twist was coloured over the top. (The Lemon Lime Twist pencil comes in the Lots of Happy Card Kit) I used the Old Olive for the body and Lemon Lime twist on his back and eyelids. He was punched with the 2½” circle punch and Granny Apple Green Circle was cut using the big shot and the stitched shape framelits. The sentiment (words) are from the new Well Said cling stamp set.
Where’s the heat embossing?
You might be looking at the card and thinking “There’s no heat embossing on that! Chrissy’s finally gone mad!” But you’d be mistaken.
If you look closely at the background, you’ll see the entire background is heat embossed and looks like multi-coloured lizard or snake skin. There’s bumpy shiny yet smooth texture just like a reptile. It looks like really expensive paper doesn’t it? Well it’s not!
What if I told you if you have paper towel, ink, Stampin’ Mist (stamp cleaner), clear embossing powder and a heat tool you can get this same effect in about five minutes? You’d be pretty excited right?
I’ve done a video to show you how easy it is…
Introducing the Heat Embossing Reptile technique:
How easy was that? Yes it can a little messy if you spray too much Stampin’ Mist AND it can take a five minutes or so for the embossing powder to melt but it’s a super simple, cheap, effective and very unique technique.
Did I mention it’s different every time you do it? Imagine how much fun you can have experimenting with different colours and brand of paper towels – some cheap paper towels have really interesting patterns which would make a cool background. I’d love to see your experiments.
NOTE: I cut the paper towel background bigger than I needed then trimmed it down.
Just to recap
For this technique you’ll need:
- Paper towel or napkin – the cheapest, thinnest and least absorbent that you can get.
- Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin’ Pad [147111]
- Old Olive Classic Stampin’ Pad [147090]
- Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Pad [147095]
- Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin’ Pad [147104]
- Stampin’ Mist [102394]
- Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder [109130]
- Heat Tool [129056]
Let’s look at the card one last time
I really hope you like this technique as much as I do. I’ve included a list of the Stampin’ Up! products used to create this project below. Just click the picture and it will take you to my online Stampin’ Up! store.
The Stampin’ Up! Products:
2-1/2″ Circle Punch [120906] | ||||
