Featured Artist - Akshma on Embossing with a Tute!!

Hey all!!
I am so excited to have akhma (atchaya) here with me today to be the first Featured Artist of Krafttime!!

Here is a little something about her :)

I am Atchaya(Akshma-Well known as Akshma rather than Atchaya as my craft creation name is Akshma and all my crafty profiles are in the name of Akshma).Well,I am basically from Kanyakumari district,now settled in Chennai.I have completed my masters in Computer science and engineering and have few months work experince in software concern(HCL tech.).Then I had plans of doing my PhD and i was  hunting guide for it and in the meanwhile by june 2015 i  started my crafts as my hobby.To be frank I was a complete bookworm and have never done crafts before.So crafts world was completely new to me  a year ago but i had the urge to learn a new thing.I came into the craft world completely to break me from my usual world of studies.Then i really got addicted to Crafts and have developed a great passion towards crafting.
   I started  off with quilling and am into proper card making by last november i guess,before that i did some cards that were fully with quilling.I do quilling,card making,decoupage,clay works,mural,zentangle,madhubani etc.Still a single enjoying my life and I do graphic designing and website development too.

Your inspiration?
The list is never ending.In quilling Yulia Broadskaya,Pritesh,Suganthi Mohan and when it comes to jewellery i get inspired from each and everyone in a facebook group Quilling queens(all do a wonderful job there).In card making Sonia suprabha,Rajni Chawla,Rashmi Jajodiya(for albums),Theresa Momber(masking) and so many as I have subscribed to so many youtube channels  i hardly remember their names.Each and everyone is a great inspiration to me in craft world as everyone amazes me with their work.

If you are working and crafting as a hobby, how do you manage both?
I do my graphic designing and crafts in parallel as of now.I think planning before hand will work.I used to plan all my contests and do them first and I make sure that i shouldn't get tensed because both graphic designing and crafts are completely my passion and i shouldn't ruin that by making me stressed.( I read novels a lot  too that makes me more light and am great fan of Chethan Bhagat)


Where to find You?
Blog: Facebook.  Instagram.  Pinterest

 Onto you Akshma!!

Thanks a lot Uma for this opportunity.This is the first time getting featured in a blog.Am very thrilled in writing up this post.Well in this post I will explain some basics of heat embossing.

  Embossing is nothing but it gives dimension or raised look to our cards.So many embossing types are there .I am just covering some basics of heat embossing with you all.Hope Some other crafter will  cover other types of embossing like dry embossing lets watch out this space..
     Fine what is heat embossing?? Create an embossed look by stamping the images with inks( that can hold the embossing powder )and then covering that area with embossing powder that gets melted when we heat it with a heat tool or heat gun.

 So what are the inks that can hold embossing powder?Any ink that dries slowly will work out.Mostly used one by all crafters are emboss ink ink or watermark ink  because they are sticky and its slow drying so it holds the embossing powder well.The most popular brand for watermark ink pad is  Tsukineko's Versamark watermark ink pad.We can also use pigment inks and distress inks as they are also slow drying.

   My suggestion is to buy a Versamark watermark ink pad.I have ranger perfect medium too ,it also works fine to hold embossing powder.
   Coming to the embossing powders,there are also many types like ultrafine,thick,glittery,metallic and so many brands available in the market.I have used ranger and american crafts zing embossing powder.Its enough to have some basic colors like black,white,clear and gold.We can explore a lot with these colors itself.
    Coming to heat tool I am using ranger heat it tool and you can get it from any leading craft shops in india.We can also use hot air gun as a cheaper alternative too but my suggestion is to go for some branded heat tool.
 I did a card ,tag and a bookmark with basic heat embossing and emboss resist techniques.
 1. Card:

  I took a bielo card stock that i received as gift from  Priya Sivaraj of The CraftShop.Really the card is of superb quality and it works well for embossing and watercoloring.

   I took chevron stamp and stamped it with versamark ink pad.Then sprinkle gold embossing powder over it.Tap off excess powder by tapping with our fingers or we can use paint brush or even cotton buds also to remove the extra embossing powders.Just keep a paper below and tap off the excess embossing powder and transfer it back to the bottle so we can use it back.Below is the pic after sprinkling the gold embossing powder over the stamped chevron.

Then heat it with the heat gun .Don't keep the heat gun very near to it,keep some distance and start heating.We can see how the embosssing powder melts and give a embossed look.Dont over heat it.Heat it and see visually when we get the embossed look just switch off the heat gun.Here's the card after heat embossing.

Then again I stamped a motivational quote and my fav quote stamp from kaisercraft tea break stamps.Sprinkled black glittery embossing powder over it and heat embossed.Here's the look of it:

I took hibiscus stamp from mudra's stamp(indian made stamps and my fav too) gold embossed it and fuzzy cut  it.Around 3 sets I made so we will get more depth and 3d look to it.Here's the look of fuzzy cut gold embossed stamps:

Then colored it with distress inks abandoned coral and peacock feathers for leaves.Here's the final card:

2.A tag using emboss resist:

What is emboss resist?

It's nothing but the embossed image will resist the added ink over it.Well let me explain it with this simple tag.

I took the bielo card stock and cut it into a tag and then gold embossed it with the happy girl stamp from mudra's stamps.here's the look of it:

Allow it to cool.After that apply inks directly over it but the embossed part wont get affected of it.It will just resist the inks.We can use any inks and check it.I have used distress inks blended many colors and applied directly over the gold embossed girl pic but see it the embossed pic have resisted the inks ,have a look at the tag:

Cool isn't it!!

I added the sentiment from the same stamp set.Here I didn't use watermark pad to stamp the image.I use the onyx versafine black pigment ink pad to stamp the image.

Then I sprinkled some black glittery embossing powders and heat embossed it.The pigment ink also holds the embossing powder well.So to just show that i made this.Here's the final look of the tag:

3.A simple bookmark with the variation of emboss resist called Joseph's coat technique/Emerging colors technique.

Here's the bookmark:

I started off with bielo card stock and made a colourful background by blending different distress inks.Here's the look of it:

I took the leaves stamp fro mudra's hibiscus stamp and randomly stamped it with watermark pad and sprinkled clear embossing powder.It just gives a transparent look after heating.Here's the look of it:

Leave some cooling period of 5 minutes and apply any darker colors over it and see the magic.The embossed images resist them and the colourful bg gets highlighted over the embossed regions.I used black soot distress ink and vintage photo DI and blended together directly over it and here's the final look of the boomark:

See how the colouful bg pops up by this technique.Cool right!!Well try these basic techniques and if any doubts feel free to ask.There are so many variations in emboss resist technique.May be some time I will cover all those and put it in my blog so just follow my blog to know  more about  this or  if  Uma permits(?!)will post here too.

Feel free to post your reviews and suggestions.Awaiting to hear those.

Ofcourse Aksma, we would love to have you here!!!

Isn't is wonderful guys!!! Head over to her blog and show her some love!!!

I will be back with another featured artist soon :)