Monday 6 June 2011

Crafty Cardmakers Spot 47 - Parchment

I've not done much parchmentcraft - I'm not the patient type! LOL! 
But I do admire it when it's done well and I know a few uber-talented crafters who perform this discipline the way it's meant to be performed - beautifully (...listen up Tina - I'm talkin' ta YOU!..)!


Unfortunately - I'm not one of those crafters so must apologize for my effort forthwith!


My Crafty Cardmakers teamie Jacki is to blame for this week's dog's breakfast...LOL! But you do need to pop over to base-camp and look at how this is meant to be done!




Materials
21 x 21 cm hammered white base-card
20 x 20 cm  backing paper from stash
A5 x heavy parchment (not vellum - too light)
A5 Rainbow card
Parchment pattern
Butterfly charm
Organza ribbon
Tim Holtz bookplate in cream
Handful of flowers to taste.
Gold-Touch pen
Embossing/pricking mat
Pricking tools
Embossing ball-tip tools
Good-quality white coloured pencil - (Bruynzeel Europa is mine)
Copics


Begin by placing your parchment over your pattern and tracing it with the white pencil. This will make life easier for you when you come to emboss and prick later on. It's a matter of taste as to whether the white pencil is on the 'right' or 'wrong' sides.




Greasing the 'wrong' side of your parchment with either a candle (tealight will do) or soap helps the embossing tool to glide over the parchment better.  (If you want to colour your parchment from behind then colour before you grease). For this project, I coloured from the front.


With your parchment on your embossing mat, take your embossing tool with the larger ball, gently trace over the white lines of the pencil.


What you are doing is 'stretching' the fibres of the parchment, so be really gentle with it as it's easy to push straight through the parchment if you go too hard.
You can always pass over again until you get the desired result.


On the leaves and petals use circular motions at the full and rounded parts then drag the ball in, in a 'feathering' motion for the shading like you would in colouring, although it's not exactly like colouring as it's not the darker parts you're shading this time, it's the 'highlit' parts! So it's kinda back-to-front!


Once you're happy with your embossing, do any pricking (if any) that's required.
I believed this is performed from the back, so as to create texture on the front, but have been corrected by better crafters than I and apparently it should be from the front!.


I then used my Copics (pale pink and green) to colour the floral pattern. This is not essential as many embossed parchment projects are just as lovely, if not more so, left white.


I then cut around the perimeter of the pattern with my scissors and edged it with my Gold-touch pen. This step isn't strictly necessary, but I've read about it so I thought I'd try it.  Think I prefer it plain actually. 


I also adhered it to a piece of rainbow card with sticky-dots round the edge and a fairly big couple of blobs of Pinflair Glue Gel right in the middle to give dimension.
You really can't see either of these through the embossed and coloured panel.


And that's my parchment done!  I think you can work out the rest yourselves! 
LOL!


Look forward to seeing your efforts on Crafty CardMakers next week!
Hugs
Ei
x







6 comments:

  1. This is fabulous, love the way you've coloured your flowers. BTW I prick my patterns from the front through to the back otherwise you get a 'rough' texture.
    Jack xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is stunning thank you for having a go with me and it is beautiful don't be so hard on your self I love it
    Jacki xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely gorgeous! It looks so delicate and pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such a well written tutorial. I wish it was available to me when I first started this craft a few days back.Such gorgeous effect you have been able to achieve.
    Cheers from Bangalore ,India
    Dr Sonia S V
    http://cardsandschoolprojects.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow Ei, you do yourself an injustice here. This is gorgeous and you have no need to apologise for it!

    Lin xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you all for your lovely comments - I really appreciate them!
    Hugs
    Ei
    x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment!
I will try to respond where time allows.
Hugs
Eiglas
x

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