Small Gatherings: April Craft Club - Embossing & Stationary Boxes

This month at craft club we embossed stationary and made personalized boxes and ink pens.

Our supplies:
Wooden boxes
Patterned Scrapbook Paper
Solid Card Stock
Vinyl
Ribbon
Paint
Hot Glue Gun
Mod Podge
Sponge Paint Brushes
Paper Cutter
Ink Pens
Envelopes
Ink
Rubber Stamps
Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel
Embossing Gun
Rulers
Scissors

We only had one embossing gun so while everyone else was decorating boxes we came in one at a time to emboss.

To make the boxes just paint the entire box, measure the top then cut a patterned piece of paper to fit, cover the top of the box in a thin layer of Mod Podge, allow the Mod Podge to dry just a few seconds, lay the paper on top and smooth out with your hand. Let that layer dry completely. Paint another thin layer of Mod Podge on top of the patterned paper. Once that is totally dry, cut a piece of ribbon just long enough to tuck inside the top flap of the box. Use a bit of hot glue to attach the ribbon on both ends inside the top flap. Cut a large circle of patterned paper, then a slightly smaller circle of solid card stock. We used mod podge to attach the circles but did not Mod Podge over top of the circles. We cut initials on the Silhouette Cameo. The font is called Indy Pimp and can be downloaded for free HERE. We used the same font to cut vinyl to personalize the ink pens. The pens came from the $1 bins at Michael's!

We cut wooden dowels to fit and painted them to use as dividers.

For the embossing....

Each person got 5 pieces of card stock cut to 5 x 7 and five 5 x 7 envelopes. Embossing is really simple and lots of fun!!

Just choose your stamp and ink. If you emboss with clear ink and clear powder you get a raised effect. It's really hard to photograph but here's a comparison of clear ink vs. colored ink.

To emboss your cards, lay your card stock on a larger piece of paper, choose your stamp and ink. Rub the ink onto the stamp. Don't press the stamp into the ink. Cover the stamp very well with ink. Stamp your image onto the card stock, immediately cover liberally with embossing enamel. Then tap the extra enamel off onto the large sheet of paper. Any stray enamel will melt and leave a mark on the paper. Lay the card you've embossed flat and hold the heat tool over the image. You'll see the powder transform. Once it appears to liquify it's done. Remove the heat tool and let your card sit for a minute. It's that easy!