u/LadyofLA

I think this approach works much better with a dense full-page design. Maybe 3D is also more effective. I added the first one with the design on just on the left for comparison

I don't know, looking at it now, that the scoring that's supposed to simulate planking is necessary at all. I'm asking myself what it adds, but that was the way I saw the technique presented so that's what I replicated.

The thing about it that I think makes this "rubbings" effect interesting is that you can get more detail trying to accentuate the debossing than you can trying to accentuate the embossing.

I did the printed kraft background yesterday and I liked it. Today I mounted it and added the gilt frame (it's puffy wrapped fun foam). I love it. It has a strong masculine energy. But I have no conecept beyond the gold frame and I don't know if I have an image that will fit the center...

Oh well. Work in progress...

[Aside: I just saw how claustrophobic that pic is. Yikes!]

The first is on ombre cardstock with gold shimmer spray rubbed into the text before it runs through the press. The second is printed kraft wrapping paper just misted with water.

I have no idea what I'll do with them but I love how subtle or enhanced the effect can be and how well I think it will work into other things.

I saw a technique that was new to me on YouTube. I had to try it out. This is not the optimal choice of embossing folders but it was just an attempt to play with the concept. The designs I saw that knocked me out were elaborate full page florals.

The idea is to simulate planks of wood with a design debossed into it. You create the plank effect with a score board. Then you need to pay attention to the dimensions,. You want both the scores and the embossing to push into the cardstock. Finally you rub the flattened cardstock with a light neutral for an aged woody look and then a darker one to bring out the debossed design. Finally, you use a very pale color to just brighten the look.

Also on this card is clear plastic self-adhesive dots that work very well indeed with vellum. There's a dot on each corner and one in the middle of the sentiment. I can see faint ghosts of the dots but I know where to look. Sure wish I could link you to them on Amazon.....

Gotta go shear off some of that extra white on the right bottom.

The plaid background is in shiny Lisa Horton interference ink. Wish it showed in the photo. There's a pretty blue reflection on the green. The gold border is some lovely wrapping paper a friend gave me. It has the most wonderful antique-looking patina. The sentiment is in good old gold embossing powder.

This is another option for postal images from LDRS. Having slagged their Parisian layered stencils I think I have to give them a well-earned thumbs up for this simple stamped approach. I like the loose illustrations that sorta screamed out for watercolor. So I colored them with water based markers and washed them with a wet brush.

Someone recently said that they found small stamps difficult to use as focal elements. I found some examples. Have you got some to share? What's your approach to featuring them?

The lesson here is instead of falling in love with something and impulsively putting it in your shopping cart, look long and hard. Ask yourself what you'll need to get the results on the offering page. I didn't and I ended up spending $50 on something I don't ever want to use again.

First of all, I thought, when I saw the layered stencils in a $30 bundle with detail stamps, that I could use them with my WaffleFlower Postage Collage die. Not so. LDRS repositioned the small and elongated rectangles on the left and rotated the 4 rectangles on the right. So, when I figured that out, I had to buy another $20 die.

Then I set about using the stencils. I didn't look at the designs to see how detailed they are and how many colors they require to make elements stand out from one another. LDRS recommends 13 colors for a 4 stencil set! That means most of the stencils required a ton of masking off tiny areas sometimes with just microns of stencil plastic to adhere a mask to.

I should have counted the number of brushes I had to use. Thank god I had them! For the skies, I had to use 3 different size brushes for just a single color.

I spent the larger part of the day producing this single panel. If you got a good look at it you'd see how amateurish and clumsy it is. Repairs everywhere! That Metro stamp should be put out of its misery it's so tortured!

I'll make it into a card and send it to my Franco-phile friend because I bought it just for her. Then I'll retire the damned thing. ...maybe I'll sometime use just the latte, the bulldog and l'Arc de Triomphe. I dunno... I'll have to get over my present irritation. But this was NOT fun.

The moral is things should be designed for the way they'll be used as well as how they'll look. And a stencil shouldn't take a ton of time and yards of masking tape. I hope I've learned that lesson now as a buyer. The Romans knew that. Caveat emptor! Now I know it too and I hope I prevented some expensive mistakes for someone else.