EMBOSSED BRILLIANCE W/O EP

Several people have asked me to show how I use Brilliance Ink Pads to stamp my images. First I would like to print what Tsukineko states about the Brilliance ink pad:

Fast-drying ink and rich pearlescent colors... you never thought you'd see this combination from a pigment ink. Designed for use on shiny papers, Brilliance dries to perfection on vellum, mica, acetate, photo papers, sculpey clay, shrink plastic, and much more! Brilliance is the solution to all your tricky pigment stamping problems. Ideal for scrapbook embellishments - no smeared pages or smudged page protectors.

Their statement is true, but does not state how it reacts on regular matt cardstock and that it actually raises up when heated and sometimes when left to dry on its own. Also, have any of you ever smudged your Brilliance because you didn't wait long enough for it to dry. Well I have. So when I was a hurry I heated it and discovered that it has a tendency to raise up. I did the following tutorial to show you what I mean by raised up and also how it looks when used with any watercolor. I just happen to use Twinkling H2O's. Below I describe the way I use Brilliance pads:

Supplies:

Heat Gun - (One with a plastic tip protecting the user from a hot metal end)
Scratch Paper under cardstock - It gives me a more even impression
Brilliance Ink Pad - Inked: Not dripping, not dry. Dry pads waste paper.
Briliance Reinker
Stamp - Open or detailed is fine. Today's is open to show how the impression looks.


When I use unmounteds with acrylic blocks, I found saving the protective paper that comes on the back of the mount, then putting it back onto the clingable part, after cleaning the stamp, helps preserve the cling effect. That's it laying loose and curling up on the left side of the stamp.

I get better impressions by laying my stamp down with stamping side up and then patting it with the ink pad. It gives me a more uniform coverage of ink on the stamp and I can see if it's inked everywhere. If it isn't the pad is dry. I pat from top to bottom and lastly check for complete coverage. It saves paper.


Next I heat it with the heat gun. I grab the heat gun and hold it like it shows above. (I see people holding it by the end or grabbing it around the vents.

First, I can't imagine anyone doing a lot of embossing when holding it by the tip and wiggling it all over the place. It does build finger muscles. Just kidding. ;-)

Second, if its gripped by the vents the gun will burn up sooner so you can buy another one. :-(

Third, shaking it doesn't prevent someone from burning up the embossing powder, etc., it just takes them longer. :-) True fact.

Sometimes I do hold the cardstock and emboss moving the cardstock or the gun, but not all over the place. I move one or the other slow and steady. I am careful not to get too close or too far away. You will know from enough practice.

At last, if my stamp was inked properly it will feel raised up when I am done, and should look like the picture below:

I purposefully left the image above without decreasing it. I wanted you to be able to get a good look at it before I do some painting (click on it for a close-up). By the way, this image is Poinsettia Swirl by Impression Obsession and is one of their new Christmas stamps. Below is what it looks like it looks like when you paint inside or on it as well. If you single click on it you can get another close up of what it look like when you paint over it with twinks. So.....that's it!
I am going off to work on some more cards and I don't know what this will look like when I am done. If you have more questions about it that I didn't answer completely, please feel free to Email Me by clicking on those exact words in the sidebar on the right. Thanks for stopping by "the blog".

 

 Shirley