"Wow" is the only word to describe the AMAZING and overwhelming response to last week's Frosty De-Boss tutorial. I am so appreciative of all of the kind comments I received. I have gotten several links to reader's projects featuring the technique and truly love how everyone is using and interpreting the technique. I thought it would be fun to revisit the technique again today and experiment with some other surfaces.
First, I tried it on foil (adhered to Grungepaper).
And then clear plastic (Clearly for Art Modeling Film). If you don't happen to have any Clearly for Art (you really do need it, it is so fun to work with), you could use clear packaging from products like from Tim's Idea-ology products. I really love the weight and clarity of the Clearly for Art so I almost always use it first when want a clear piece in a project.
To experiment with the film, I started by die cutting the pieces into shapes. I used the Tim Holtz Sizzix Carved Ornaments and large Tag dies. You could use any shapes, but I had Christmas on my mind so I wanted to try the ornaments. I thought they would be fun for packages or to hang on the tree.
Since the film is clear, it doesn't matter which way you place it in the folder.
To emboss the foil tape, you need to adhere it to something that will hold the shape and add stability. I prefer to use Grungepaper with it. Simply peel the backing off of the foil tape sheet and place it on the grunge paper. You could emboss metal like I did in my copper pendants tutorial, but I don't recommend cutting shapes with metal heavier than the foil, the edges are just potentially too sharp. If you want something you can handle without the risk of cutting yourself but still with a metal look, go with the foil tape on Grungepaper.
Since the folders are clear, you can easily position your die cut so that the design you want is centered on it. Remember, since the foil/grungeboard piece has a front, you will want the wide flap of the folder on the bottom (on the grunge side) and the skinny flap on the top (the silver side).
The folder has a very fine texture on the inside. When you emboss something soft like the foil, that fine texture transfers leaving a very soft matte finish on the foil.
You can add color to the foil and film using several different products. My favorite is alcohol ink. You can apply it directly using a felt applicator, by dripping the ink on, or with a fill-able pen. The dripping method is not very precise. The ink will run and spread. If you want clean lines and precision, go with a marker application.
The first type of marker you could use is a fillable pen that you fill with bottled inks. I love that you can layer and build your color with alcohol ink. Here, on my first layer, it is very subtle. On my final piece, after about three applications, it is much darker.
The second type of marker is an alcohol ink based marker like Copics or Letraset ProMarkers. Again, on this type of surface, you will probably want to apply multiple layers of color until you achieve your desired color depth.
After your ink is dry, brush on the clear crackle paint. You can use the brush included in the small jar or use a paint brush if using the larger jar of crackle. If you use the built in brush on the small jar, be sure to wipe away any color you might pick up from your inks before putting the brush back in the jar. I noticed that unlike the paper tags with regular inks, I didn't not get much color transfer from the alcohol inks or markers. As before, you need to apply a thick generous layer that covers the whole surface and fills in all de-bossed areas.
Just as before, use the straight edge of a piece of chipboard to skim over the surface and remove the excess crackle.
Several people emailed after the last tutorial asking if you can re-use the crackle paint you scraped off of the tag. Yes, you can. On these examples, I simply used my brush to pick the paint back up off of my cardstock scraper and then re-used it. As long as it is not contaminated with color, you could scrape it back into your jar. If it does have color, you can still apply it to another tag if you don't mind a bit of color in your clear crackle.
One thing to note about using different surfaces is that not all materials handle embossing (or de-bossing) the same way. The film and foil may be a little more lumpy and bumpy than the de-bossed paper. The impressions may also be a little more shallow and a little less crisp. This makes the scraping part a little less clean than the paper version.
As with the paper version, you can let the crackle air dry or help it along a bit with a heat tool.
Warning. . . do not use the heat tool with the plastic. . . you simply can not heat embossed plastic, that is unless you want to wipe the slate clean and start all over.
Once dry, the effects of the crackle on the foil is gorgeous! In the past, I have talked about needing to put a base coat of Glossy Accents on a non-porous surfaces in order for the crackle paint to stick. . . I totally forgot that step this time. I am not sure if it has to do with the foil or the light texture from the folder in the soft surface, but after more than 24 hours later, the crackle is still in place with no flaking. I have twisted and bent it to see if I could make it flake. It has stayed put. If you find you have flaking, try the Glossy Accents base coat as mentioned in the copper pendant tutorial and the foil pendant tutorial.
The crackle on the plastic film is also staying put. I believe this is partly due to the crackle being very thin after scraping. You can scrape it off with your fingernail when it is dry so it is probably best used in an application that won't be handled a whole lot. A card or tag is fine, a piece of jewelry would not be. If you want clear jewelry with crackle, add that Glossy Accents base coat.
When working on the plastic, it was lumpier and much slicker. I found it hard to get a really nice clean scraping on it. I had a bunch of streaks after scraping. I hated them but decided to leave them so I could demonstrate why plastic wouldn't work for the frosty de-boss. . .
And then after it dried thoroughly, I had a change of heart. I started to really love the streaks because it reminded me of real frost and ice on a window pane. There are always lines and streaks in the frost and ice and so there really should be some on a clear frosty de-boss. Can't you just see this clear piece in the window of a card? I seriously need to get a stamp that looks like a window frame!
