Way back in what now seems like a completely different era, I was at a craft industry trade show in Frankfurt. (Where we—as crafty people are known to do—hugged each other, squeezed together for group selfies, and passed around the candy bowl as if germs did not exist.)
At the show, my friend Marion Emberson from WOW! Embossing demonstrated a fabulous background technique that doesn’t require embossing ink. She called “Sprinklebossing”.
So, minus the hugs and candy-share, here’s Marion’s sprinklebossing technique, visible as the yellow embossing powder on my background and leaf focal. You see how the yellow is just sprinkled on? That’s the sprinklebossing effect!
Just scroll down to see the supplies and the card—you can also watch the video replay here.
First, create your painted background. I applied squiggles of Summer Sky, Caribbean Sea and Sargasso directly onto one piece of white card, leaving lots of white space. Then I pressed a second piece of white card on top, blotting and twisting so I got two abstract backgrounds.
When the backgrounds are dry, simply choose one and sprinkle on a bit of embossing powder. (No embossing ink, wet paint or water needed.) I used Sunflower from my Parc Floral Trio, because the cheerful yellow is such a great complement to the blue/greens.
(Parc Floral is available here in the US, and here in the UK.)
You’ll want to use a metal tool to do this, rather than a plastic one. WOW’s embossing powder and jars are specially treated to be anti-static. Using a plastic spoon introduces static to the powder. Why worry about static? Because it’s what often makes your powder stick where you don’t want it!
(I use a little metal spoon. You can also use the tip of a craft knife, or a metal palette knife.)
Now you can heat-set. Hold your paper up, and heat from underneath. As you might expect, aiming the heat tool at the dry embossing powder will cause it to blow all over the place, but heating from underneath will allow the powder to melt onto your cardstock.
One note: I first stamped my images onto the background before adding the embossing powder. I used the Eclectica ESN43 stamp set from PaperArtsy—this is one of my newest, and I love how easily the images work as backgrounds and focals.
In the UK, you can find this set at Amelia’s Creative Crafts, and in the US try Frantic Stamper. If you’re ordering online, please be aware that shipping times might be a bit delayed.
And that’s it! You can also do sprinklebossing on the stamped leaf focal, as I’ve done, to create even more texture and color.
Thanks for stopping by—and thanks to Marion for sharing her technique!
