For my fourth assignment, I am creating a spring scene. I am doing one of my favorite techniques - a dry embossed background - using Distress Inks and Embossing powder. 

Let’s gather all materials (colours, stamps and embossing folders are personal choice). 

Step 1: Die cut the Sizzix Rabbit from watercolour cardstock. Feel free to use any spring shape, the bigger the shape, the better the result. 

Step 2: Stamp scripts onto the rabbit shape die cut. Distress Ink in Bundled Sage is used. Let it dry for next step.

Step 3: Ink your solid stamp with a clear embossing ink and stamp it onto the rabbit shape. Repeat this step two to three times (the stamping platform is essential here). Pour clear embossing powder onto the inked surface. Then heat to melt the embossing powder. The melted clear embossing powder is now a more resistant surface to water and mediums. 

Step 4: Apply your Bundled Sage Distress Ink with a blending tool, onto the entire surface. Repeat for a darker result. Once dried, with a lightly wet cloth, remove the excess ink from the clear melted embossing surface. This process will reveal the stamped shape and script stamp. The stamped shapes, ink colours and paper will be revealed by the transparency of the clear embossing powder.

Step 5: (Tag’s background) The stamping technique used here is called “double stamping”.

First, we're stamping scripts onto the tag’s background with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. 

Mist your inked stamp with water lightly and then stamp it. Move the ink with water. Dry it and stamp it again on top (a stamping platform is very useful for this step). Repeat with Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink to stamp two to three more script images on the tag. The Archival ink in Rustic Wilderness is used to re-stamp on top, instead of the Distress Ink. This makes your stamped image sharper and resistant to other water interactions.

Let it dry before the next step.

Step 6: Use a brush to splatter Bundled Sage Distress Spritz onto your tag’s background. Let it dry.

Step 7: For a guaranteed 'wow' result - here I used my favourite dry embossing technique of all. I embossed the stamped tag with the Sizzix 3D folder Botanical 662716. It gives your background depth and unifies all your elements.

Et voila! Enjoy spring and the process!