Cooking With Cricut Challenge: Emboss It! & Hop Winners

Our challenge this week at Cooking With Cricut was to use any type of embossing technique or tools. i.e. folders, plates, wet, dry, faux, etc. Well I have to tell you, this is right up my alley!  Before I became addicted to my Cricut I was a rubber stamper.  I have drawers and drawers of stamps, ink pads, embossing powders and other stamping tools that have been begging to be let out of their cabinet to play. 

One of my favorite ways to use rubber stamps is in what I call collage cards.  Start with your card base or a mat cut to go on your base.  Use your stamp pad to brush on some subtle color or colors, layer on some rubber stamp images and/or sayings, and then add a layer of ephemera -- photos, old postage stamps, or whatever else your heart desires. 

So you might say I've returned to my "roots" -- this project is not what you've come to expect from me at all.  There is no Create-A-Critter cuts (gasp!), no Pooh, no Mickey, no cutesy stuff anywhere!  I had forgotten how much I loved doing this type of art!  So without further delay . . . my project:

The card base is 8 1/2" wide by 5 1/2" tall and is a sage green.  The mat started its life as an ivory piece of card stock and using the direct to paper technique I brushed it lightly with a russet brown stamp pad.  Using that same stamp pad I then stippled on more color with a stipple brush until I achieved the antique look I was going for. 

I stamped a floral stamp and the Virginia Woolf quote stamp with a sage green stamp pad.  Both of these stamps are from PSX (Personal Stamp Exchange). 

The photo is one of my grandfather and his three sister that I scanned and then printed on my home printer.  This is one of my favorite pictures!  It was taken in 1907 -- he was about 6 years old.  I added a faux postage stamp, a scanned image of an envelope, a rubber stamped faux postage mark, a piece of a crocheted doily, and a dried rosebud tied with  ribbon.   The corners are punched using a Fiskars corner punch I've had for forever.

My Cricut cut for this project is the fountain pen.  It was cut from the Wedding Solutions cartridge -- the original cut has a feather on the end of the pen which I snipped off.  Using a VersaMark ink pad, I coated the end of the pen nib, covered it with detail gold embossing powder and heated.  On the barrel of the pen, I used a stamp made by Inkadinkadoo and randomly stamped the image using the VersaMark Ink pad; then embossed using the same gold powder. 

Once that was cool, I took a black ColorBox ink pad and rubbed it all over the barrel of the pen until I achieved the dark color I wanted.  Then I took a tissue and rubbed the black ink off of the embossed images until my gold embossing was shiny again.  I really have to say, I love the way this card turned out.  The vintage/antique look I was going for turned out exactly how I envisioned it -- I love it when that happens!

Thank you to everyone who played along with the Cooking With Cricut Sweet Shop Blog Hop this past weekend!  I hope you had a great time -- I know the Design Team had a blast.  And for all my new followers . . . I hope you'll stick around and leave a comment with your blog address.  I'd love to come for a visit!

And now . . . . the moment you've all been waiting for . . . . the Blog Hop WINNERS, as selected by random.org, are:

Day 1:  Winner of the Cutting File from Melin at PaperCraftingWorld.com is . . .

# 32 - Linda!  Linda said . . . The kids will love their valentines, I sure do! 

~ and ~

Day 2:  Winner of the five (5) Inkadinkadoo Clear Mini-Stamp sets is . . .

# 7 - Teresa!  Teresa said . . . All of these are adorable. I am a new follower. Thanks for the inspiration.

Congratulations, Ladies!  I will be e-mailing you shortly to get your information.

Don't forget to cruise on over to Cooking With Cricut and check out what my fellow Chefs have created for our embossing challenge!

~ Jen