Iron Technique and Exciting News!

Hello out there! It has been far too long! We've had some problems with our internet acting up and suddenly had a TON of unexpected things going on. Life happens ;)  

I made a pack of cards for my mom's coworker who retired and this happened to be one of the ones I came up with. I actually started off with the rainbow background and let it sit for weeks not knowing what I was going to do with it.  I bought this sunflower stamp at Hobby Lobby months prior but hadn't had the chance to use it yet. I had forgotten all about it, but once I dug it up and started coloring it, it hit me that I was using the same colors as the background I had made weeks before! I put them together and really dig the result!

I used the iron technique on the background and really think it's one of my favorite techniques to do because it's just so much fun and the results are so cool!  It's like a science experiment the way the colors blend and change.  

First, I stamped a chevron background stamp onto watercolor paper, then heat embossing it with clear embossing powder. 

After all of the powder was melted, I took distress ink and smeared them all over the paper.  This could be accomplished a few ways: using a sponge or dauber, a blending tool, a paintbrush, or the ink pad. For this card, I wanted a more vibrant look, so I smeared the ink pad directly onto the paper.  It rarely looks fantastic in the beginning and sometimes it looks flat out terrible, but after spraying it with water and letting it dry, magic happens. Sometimes it turns out awful, but most times, it just has this really cool blended look to it.  I like to experiment to see what colors I like and seem to gravitate toward rainbow colors or different shades of the same colors.  

The last step with the iron technique is literally doing what the name says: iron the card. I like to make sure it's good and dry, so I let it sit overnight before doing this step.  Before ironing, I think it's best to put a scrap piece of paper over the ink then iron over it to lift off the embossing powder. You don't have to do this step, but it's fun and it wouldn't quite be the iron method if you didn't ;)  The embossing powder resists the water and ink, and when you iron that off, you're left with a flat background.  All of the parts that were covered with embossing powder are now the color of the paper you were using because you removed all of it.  It's really so much fun and it's like Christmas waiting for the final results :)

I stamped and colored the sunflower with Copics before fussy cutting it and adhering it to the background. I chomped the corners and added the little "thank you" sentiment on the bottom with dimensional adhesive, and that was that! I considered putting a little bow or ribbon on it but I really loved the CAS design so I stuck with it.

List of Supplies:

Stampin' Up Positively Chevron Background Stamp

Recollections White Embossing Powder

Iron

Versamark

Strathmore Watercolor Paper

Distress Inks (Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn)

Copic Markers

Scissors

Sincere Salutations Stampin' Up

Tombo Mono Multi Glue

Foam Dimensional Dots

EK Success Real Estate Sign Punch

We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Heat Tool

Spray Bottle

Water

Perfect Pearls

Thanks so much for sharing part of your day with me! I have some exciting product reviews coming up in the near future, so stay tuned!