Friday, October 7, 2011

Bombshell Tutorial - Faux Letterpress

Greetings Glorious Bombshells!!  I'm here with you today to show you how to create a Faux Letterpress look to create your own coordinating background papers with any of your projects.  I must give credit to Jennifer McGuire as I recently learned this technique when I took her On-Line Card Class - Inspiration Showcase.  It's SO easy with a great end result!  

Let's begin!

First you need to gather just a few very basic supplies.  Paper, ink (any kind will do), any brand of plastic embossing folder and which ever die cut machine you use. 
 
I chose a dye ink as well as a chalk ink.  I like to play around and experiment with different inks.  Depending on where you want your ink will depend on which side of the embossing folder you rub your ink pad on.  If you want the ink in the recesses of the embossing you will rub the ink on one side of the embossing folder, like this:
You will then add your paper, quickly close the folder making sure to hold it closed so that the paper doesn't wiggle around (this will reduce smearing) and then run it through your die cutting machine using which ever "sandwich" works for your machine and embossing folders.

Here is the end result when you open your folder:
See how the ink is in the recesses of the image?  Super cool!  I went ahead and inked up the other side of my folder with my chalk ink:
and here is how it came out!
So in this example the script is inked up instead of the background.  This technique can be used in many ways and could easily be used to make super cool embellishments as well!  Here are a few more background examples that I did with a different folder using really bright inks.

 
And here is my finished example!  Clearly I have Halloween on the brain!  I kept my design VERY simple as I really wanted to show off that cool Faux Letterpress background. 
I hope you have enjoyed this technique!  

4 comments:

Stephanie aka Nerdette said...

That is such an awesome tutorial. I have given up on buying embossing folders, now I could kick myself. I LOVE this look. Thanks so much for inspiring me AGAIN ;D

Alexandra Lundgren said...

Love it Meredith! Great colors to show how it comes out. Going to have to play with that some, ok a bunch. LOVE the Bombshell, fab tights :)

Jenn Borjeson said...

So cool - great card! :)

Cheryl Valadez said...

Meredith, this is an amazing tutorial, lady! I love this technique and I can see using this for lots of fab creations. You keep me inspired :D Hugz, Cheryl