Emboss to Impress

I am not good at stamping .... I know I go on about it and I know that practise makes perfect so ...... not just stamping but embossing as well!!!  Practise, practise, practise ........

Actually I feel that I cheated a bit as I used a magazine article for inspiration.  The October issue of Craft Stamper had an owl stamp as a free gift and lots of exciting samples, one of which i wanted to try.
I cut my card as a long piece and started to work.
I sorted some pieces of paper from my PIF bag and placed them at various angles across the card, rubbed some gesso over the whole and left the card to dry.  
I chose various stencils from stash, some acrylic colours (never used before by me!) and laid them out ready to decorate the card. 
I applied dark blue through one stencil, light green through an alphabet diecut negative, added a light blue HUG or two - cut from a birthday card - and used lemon through a daisy stencil. 
While this was drying I stamped my owl stamp several times onto watercolour paper and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  I created a long strip of owls using some leftover paper and I am soooo glad I did as my embossing gradually improved along the way!!!!  
I printed some owl sentiments in various texts & colours and chose four to attach to the cards.  I tore each sentiment, spritzed each strip of paper with colour and attached along the edges of each card. 
I chose the best four owls and watercoloured them in colours to match the background and then fussy cut the owls and attached one to each card.

There may not be a large amount of embossing on these cards but what there is has impressed me!  
I feel I have 'come of age' with these cards, not just with the stamping but also with the embossing and the mixed media background.  
Now perhaps I will be able to produce work to the standard I so much want to attain.
I thoroughly enjoyed creating these cards even though it was scary at times, but I have now used:
- acryllic paints - yeah!!!!  Not nearly as bad as I thought they would be.
- embossing powder, clearly and evenly.
- Stencils - with acryllic paints if you don't mind.  
I have to admit that this didn't go quite as well as I wanted, I think maybe I used the wrong brush to apply the paint - more research needed there!!!

I am really impressed with what I have achieved making these cards - Thank you so much Cinlan for a really challenging swap.

I received the following cards:




Embossed cups on the background!
Thank you ThouArtDelyrias.

Embossed wall background.

Thank you Suntrade.

Beautifully embossed silver unicorn.
Thank you Mouseit.


Spoiltpup enclosed an embossed 'Thank you' in the envelope.
Thank you for a Great Swap.