DIY Embossing Plates...SO Easy!!

 Last month I attended the U-Treat getaway weekend hosted by my upline, Jamilla Ivits.  One of the classes I took while there was on creating your own embossing plates.  Taught by fellow stamper and talented artist Judith Naylor (check out her blog here), this class showed us just how easy it is to create our own embossing plates using cardboard and our SU punches.  Today's cards use the both the plate I made in Judith's class and one I made on my own.  Check out the Tutorials tab at the top of this page for instructions on how to create your own plates!

Card created using my own embossing plate made with the Two-step bird punch

Love the seam binding ribbon and antique brads!

Here is the card I made using the plate I made in the tutorial found here:

Card made using embossing plate made with the butterfly punch.

Close-up of focal image detail.  Stamp is from the Bliss SAB set

Inside of card.  Sentiment is from the You're A Gem set.

These cards were so easy to do!  Both follow pretty much the same procedure.  Here are the instructions for the butterfly one:
Starting with a piece of very vanilla cardstock, run it through your Big Shot using your DIY plate.

NOTE:  You will have to play around with the various tabs on the multi-purpose platform as well as your cutting plates and Impressions pad until you find the correct "sandwich" to use with your homemade plate.  Once you have one that works, write it on the back of your plate for future reference!  For this plate, I used (from bottom to top):  no tabs, the plate, my cardstock, the silicone pad and then the Impressions pad

Once you've embossed the cardstock, sponge it lightly with both crumb cake and marina mist ink.  To stamp the focal image, punch a repositionable note with the butterfly punch and then layer the negative piece over one of the embossed butterflies to act as a mask.  Stamp the flourish image from the Bliss set in marina mist ink and then remove the mask (but save it for later).  Layer the embossed cardstock on a crumb cake mat.  Tie a piece of marina mist 5/8" satin ribbon around the cardfront and then adhere the whole thing to a marina mist cardbase.  Add some little pearls to the focal butterfly's body.
For the inside, stick your mask in the lower right corner and sponge the butterfly using marina mist ink.  Add pearl details as desired.  Stamp the sentiment from the You're a Gem set using marina mist and crumb cake markers on very vanilla cardstock.  Punch out the sentiment using the small oval punch and then layer it over a curly label in crumb cake.  Add more pearls if desired and adhere inside card using dimensionals.
So easy!!

I should have another card and tutorial for you tomorrow...check back in then!