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| the product of a friday morning time constraint! |
this card (well, it's more of a layout, really) was created with a friend's graduation in mind, thus i decided it might be fun to incorporate a little word-play into the title :) this was a rather simple project, as i only had a couple hours to work on it. with the exception of the twine which required considerable manipulation, most of the embellishments were simply taped or glued on. the title, on the other hand, was really the site of creative experimentation on my part.
the alphabets were originally white thickers from american crafts. american crafts thickers are positively the holy grail of alphabet stick-ons, and i was more than stoked upon realizing that madewithlove had stocked up some of their DIY thickers (in fact, i snapped a packet off the shelf without batting an eyelid). basically, these work very similarly to your conventional alphabet stickers except they arrive in plain white, and peeling the top layer off reveals a sticky surface on which you are allowed to customize each alphabet :)
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| yummy DIY thickers. |
this is the exact packet i purchased, and as evident in the picture, the kind people at american crafts have already provided a wonderful illustration of how one may go about designing each individual alphabet. of course, if you're hard up on white thickers, you may very well refrain from embellishing them entirely, although that would be a pity because these alphabets are specifically manufactured for that purpose. for my friend's layout, i decided to emboss the thickers because i haven't quite embossed in awhile.
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| zing! embossing powders. these shades are gorgeous, but unfortunately, i do not own them. |
with embossing, my favourite line of powders is still zing! from american crafts. i also own a couple of tim holtz distress ones, but zing! remains a personal preference due to the myriad of available colours and finishes. after selecting four powder colours, i proceeded to emboss each alphabet. the process was a tad messy (admittedly, i am not the neatest of workers), but the real challenge was heating the alpabets up. after a few seconds, i began to realize how the letters would curl (an occasional occurrence with embossing) and the melted powder would create tiny crater-like bubbles, something i wasn't prepared for. turns out i'd overheated the powder a tad. but because i decided i rather liked the grainy texture of the alphabets, i followed suit for the rest of the lot.
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| grainy embossed thickers, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise! |
i haven't quite thought of how else i'd work with the DIY thickers, but meanwhile, i'm holing myself up in my creative box!
