Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Emboss & Colour Fabric (one fish, two fish, old fish, new fish...)



Hello there, You!
Today, a fish-themed card or two.
One fish old and one fish new.
(Sorry, channeling Dr.Seuss today for some reason) ;)

This older card was never blogged, but it uses a
technique that was massively fun to play around with...

Cuttlebug Koi fabric card  mel stampz

...pressure embossing & colouring fabric
(that's been adhered to cardstock to give the fabric stability).


And here's the inside:

Cuttlebug Koi embossed on fabriccard  INSIDE  mel stampz

The papers are BasicGrey 6x6 papers that
I got from Paper Garden Projects back in the day.

Nook & Pantry: turquoise pattern; turquoise
weave; and yellow doily pattern.
Porcelain: yellow flower pattern

I stitched on some gold metallic seed beads
and added a whack of hand sewing.

There's matching envelope with more stitching:

Cuttlebug Koi embossed on fabric card mel stampz

It's so nice to change up & colour something
other than paper and outline images for a change.
Note to self: have to try this out again, soon.


...emboss & colour fabric

Step 1) Cut a piece of fabric & a piece of cardstock (in matching sizes that fit your embossing folder. You may want the fabric to be a bit bigger than the cardstock if you like a frayed edge look. I made my paper about 1/4" smaller than the fabric.

Step 2) Glue the fabric onto the cardstock (I like Mod Podge since it adds stability or stiffness to the fabric -acid free Mod Podge, if you have it & prefer archival).

Step 3) Let it dry & then run it through your pressure embossing machine.

Step 4) Colour any areas you like. I found Prismacolour pencil crayons & Copic markers to be a great combo (using the markers first & the pencil crayons second to avoid clogging Copic marker tips). You can also add details with a permanent marker. The eyes on these guys are dotted on with a Copic Multiliner.

Little Tip: Using the folder as support for the fabric while you colour is handy to keep the embossing nice and raised & crisp: just keep it under the embossed image (To keep it from shifting, you can tape it on, in place, if you like).

If you just colour without supporting it, the embossing does become less emphasized but you get nice soft looking colouring.

One of the Koi fish here is
cut out & adhered over top:

Cuttlebug Koi fabric CLOSE  mel stampz

And the new fish...
(a romantic manly card for my Fella
who loves fishin' with his Dad):

eat cake fish love note

The little wee fishy is one of the first stamps I ever bought
from Eat Cake Graphics
. He's teeny at 1 x 0.4
inches
but he is too cute, n'est pas?

eat cake fish close

Just look at that smile on his lil' fishy face! giggle giggle



The fish net under the heart is a piece of fusible webbing that came with
curtains from Ikea. The blue heart was cut on a Cricut Expression
(Plantin School book cartridge more about that here)

The background stamp for the texture on the waves
is an old fave: a Penny Black stamp called Paisley Swirls.

Most of the bits of paper are coloured with Copic markers,
but the blue cardstocks are old S.U. colours: baja breeze & soft sky.



The fish dictionary definition text freebie is here if you'd like it:

Click the images & right click and save as for JPEGs or Click the links to go to JPEGs (and PDF links) on Flickr. (I printed a high contrast version to get bright white paper)



fish dictionary definition text paper
on Flickr (with PDF link)

as a snippet:

fish dictionary definition snippet
on Flickr (with PDF link)


Clickable blogger thumbnails:





Hope your day is going just swimmingly!



P.S. no affiliations with these companies, just schtuff i like.

25 comments:

Katarina said...

Good grief, just when I think you've created the most awesome project I've ever seen, you come up with something double amazing. I just LOVE these cards, especially the teeny tiny fish! I love the texture and patterns you add to everything in the most unique way. Your creative mind is just.....genius. I so look forward to your posts! TFS!

Anonymous said...

Yes, you are a genius. And oooh, I love fishies too! Awesome blog, every bit of it!

Erum Tasneem said...

I like both the cards. There is a LOT of stitching going on... means A LOT OF WORK put in one thing... like I said you are the Queen of Creativity (now i have add "patience" to it too.. will be quite a mouthful :P)
I love what you have done with the fabric. I tried the same thing with Satin fabric and white glue (dont get modge podge here) and it gave an interesting effect, some places were matte where I applied more than usual white glue and the other places were a bit shimmery like satin actually is.

ps: glad to see you picking up pace. DONT OVER DO IT! Take days off, dont want you falling sick again.
Take care.

ike said...

WOW that is soooo cool with the fabric embossing....GENIUS.
I love both projects. Thank you so much for sharing and the freebie dikky page :-)
Hugz
Ike xx

Sue said...

wow your cards are so different, I love the embossed fabric. Off to have a look through your blog now.
Sue x

Ruth said...

Amazing again! You put so much of yourself into each creation! Ruth x

CharityHand said...

These are awesome! I'll have to try using fabric. I love how it looks. Thanks for the inspiration and thanks for the free digi too! :)

lilscrappers said...

Oh Mel! What perfect timing! I just got a cricut Expressions for my b-day and a your story binder thingee and they have been staring at me waiting to be opened and used. I don't have a clue how to start so this linkee is the perfect thing to break the ice.....scallops and hearts....Now I have to look at that little book that came with it and spend a bit of time tonight making friends.....What else have you done with the cricut?

Angela said...

Love these fishy cards! Especially the first one with its lovely swirls.

Glad to see you're up to posting projects! Love your work, Mel!

Patricia said...

this tutorial is fabulious..

Dawn said...

fantabulous! love those fishies.. and the teeny one is adorable!

Kimberly said...

WOW i'm your newest follower....i can't believe i've not come across your blog before....such beautiful designs...i have much to learn. TFS!
www.justwordz.ca

Michelle Quinno said...

These cards are fantastic!! I love the new look to your blog as well. Thank you for sharing the fish paper! I am following you on pinterest and I'm also addicted.

Priscilla said...

Fabulous as usual Mel. Never thought to use fabric on cards. Love all the details you put into your creations. Thanks for sharing. Pinterest is very interesting also.

Shoshi said...

Mel, these are simply gorgeous... Another awesome technique to try as I expand my mixed media horizons! Thanks soooo much for all the inspiration!

You and Mouse might like to know that Beatrice the Computer Queen has been At It Again - you can see what she's been up to on my blog, together with some pretty pictures of the Girl Herself.

Hugs to you and hoping you're having a lovely day!
Shoshi

Shoshi said...

PS Has Mouse read any good books recently?

Sandy Ang said...

Just wonderful cards. I love the sewing around the borders and the fraying of the textile !

Bernie said...

Brilliant!!!!!!!!! The first card is amazing, love all the texture and soft colors. Fab tutorial.
Blessings Bernie

Carissa said...

Such a beautiful fish card. I love how much detail is in your creations. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve given you an Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award cause I find your blog super sweet! Come over to my blog www.happilyeverpapercrafter.blogspot.com and pick it up anytime.
May all your paper crafting dreams come true.
Carissa

cursivearts said...

Red fish blue fish! Beautiful cards!

C said...

I was looking for a way to adhere fabric to paper. You must be a mind reader. Thanks so much! You rock.

Deepa Gopal said...

Amazing!!! Love the fish & the pattern!

Allison Rankin said...

As always, you are a supahstar. Love these fishies and that embossed BG is brill!

NancyS (momsnack) said...

Thanks for the fish definition page! My son is an avid fisherman so I'm always looking for something new for his birthday cards!

Unknown said...

Mel - these are great makes and love the soft colours with a pop or two. It really makes a lovely change for it not to be all cardstock. Love it love it love it.

Paula (UK) x x x