n*Studio | Let’s Go Somewhere

21 March 201712 May 2017 | Marsha.

$Marsha Valk | n*Studio: Let's Go Somewhere \\ Faux Batik Stamping & Embossing$

It’s my turn on the n*Studio blog today! Which from now on means that I’m going to share last month’s project with you here!

Let’s Go Somewhere…

Somewhere exotic… somewhere where there are palm trees… cocktails… and where the women wear beautiful patterned summer dresses in vivid colours!

$Marsha Valk | n*Studio: Let's Go Somewhere \\ Faux Batik Stamping & Embossing$

The assignment was to use the Batik Art Foamies and batik only means one thing to me: fabric.

I decided to create patterned designs using embossing powder instead of wax in an attempt to make my paper look like batiked fabric. I’m not sure I succeeded, but it was a fun experiment!

Here’s the step-by-step video tutorial. There are a lot of repeat steps, to create a multi-layered look!

Materials used
RubberMoon – n*Studio Embroidery Cling Rubber Stamp Set
Art Foamies – n*Studio Batik Pattern 3 Foam Stamp
Stencil Girl Products – n*Studio Batik Stencil

Canson Mix Media Imagine (this is paper with only a light grain)
WOW! Clear Ultra Slow Drying Embossing Pad
WOW! Clear Gloss Regular Embossing Powder
Royal Talens Ecoline (201 Light Yellow, 334 Scarlet, 506 Ultramarine Dark, 578 Cyan, 580 Pastel Blue)
Posca marker (PC-1M black)

Please note that some of these materials were given to me, but I will not benefit from sales generated by the links!

$Marsha Valk | n*Studio: Let's Go Somewhere \\ Faux Batik Stamping & Embossing$

Find the written steps on Nathalie Kalbach’s blog: Let’s Go Somewhere – Marsha Valk.

And just in case you want to see what I have up my sleeve for the March n*Studio Creative Squad theme… Here’s a link to the new blog post too: Say it like you Mean it – Marsha Valk!

WOW! Embossing Powder | Guest Designer

28 July 201614 October 2016 | Marsha.

I’m honoured to be invited back as a guest on the WOW! Embossing Powder Blog today!

Want to see me work in my art journal, using WOW! Embossing Powder products? Then head on over to the WOW! Embossing Powder Blog!

And if that’s not enough, a little birdie told me that WOW! is going to give away ~~a couple of goodies~~ ALL the WOW! products I used in my video (!!!) to a lucky commenter, so definitely make sure to leave a comment whilst you’re over there!

Inspired by | The WOW! Embossing Powder Give-away Winner is…

21 March 201621 March 2016 | Marsha.

Congratulations Cyndi! We’ll contact you soon!

And thanks everyone for your kind comments!

Inspired by | WOW! Embossing Powder

10 March 201612 April 2016 | Marsha.

Hello! It’s the 10th today… and that can only mean one thing: it’s time for Inspired by!

Inspired by is a blog series by my friend Riikka and I. We decide on a theme (and that theme can be anything from a film, a book, a painting, to an item, colour scheme or material) and then we create something with that theme or thing in mind.

We keep what we’re making a secret until reveal day on the 10th, when we show you and each other our creations.

This month’s theme

Is a product… Or rather a range of products by WOW! Embossing Powder.

This was again one of those ‘one + one = two’ themes. We were discussing this month’s theme (IRL!!!) whilst at CreativeWorld in Frankfurt, right after we had visited our friend Tania at the WOW! booth. We both have WOW! products in our stash, I know I was excited about some of the new products they had on display and I think we were both inspired to use embossing powders, so… WOW! it was!

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with WOW! I do own quite a few of their products and so does Riikka. I’ve purchased most of my WOW! Embossing Powders and Fab Foil myself, but it’s only fair to say that I was also sent some in order to do a blog post for Scrap365 back in 2014 and that I’ve won some of the products at an event once.

The project

I didn’t have a plan and I didn’t want one either. I had been painting and sketching in my art journal only days before, doing some of the LoveArtHappyLife E-course lessons. Most of my supplies were still on the table and it felt natural to continue where I had left off.

So I took one of my art journals and messed around with a stencil, VersaMark ink, embossing powder and embossing glitter. My watercolours were still out on the table too, so I decided to add some colour with those… But that had to dry and I went on to another spread in another art journal. And that… became this:

Conclusion

It was good to just play. Combining colours, adding a little this, wiping some of that, adding a little more… I feel I overworked it in the end in an attempt to fix something I had messed up. But that’s OK. It’s just an art journal spread in an old book. No harm done!

It also felt good to be able to use a product that I felt I hadn’t used in a while!

Now… before you head over to Riikka’s blog to see what she has created… Would you like to try WOW! yourself?! WOW! Embossing Powders UK has kindly offered us a case of 6 jars of embossing powder to give to one of our readers!!! So we’re having a little giveaway!

You can take part by commenting on this post and double your chances by commenting on Riikka’s post as well. ~~Comments will close at noon of March 20th 2016. Good luck!!!~~ Comments are closed!

WOW! products used:
Bonding Powder
Embossing Glitter Persian Indigo
Embossing Glitter Vintage Jade
Embossing Powder Brass Regular
Embossing Powder Ebony Superfine
Embossing Powder Opaque Bright White Regular
Fab Foil Dark Blue

Other supplies:
Circle And Dots by Birgit Koopsen (Carabelle Studio)
Embossing ink and embossing ink marker (Tsukineko VersaMark)
Gesso (Talens)
Watercolours (Winsor & Newton)
Watercolour pencils (Derwent Inktense)

Mixed Media Bottles Featuring WOW! Embossing Powders

16 January 201511 February 2015 | Marsha.

Ever wondered if embossing works on glass objects? Well… It does!

I’m going to share with you how I created these embossed Mixed Media Bottles, using WOW! Fab Foil and WOW! Embossing Powders:

Tip 1: Make sure your glass objects are clean and dry. Also make sure the glass object is going to be able to handle being heated by a heat tool. Drinking glassware is way too thin, jam and spaghetti sauce jars are perfect.

I used the Fab Foil as my first ‘mixed media’ layer. To be able to apply the Fab Foil, you need a sticky surface. I stamped my image onto my glass bottle with VersaMark first:

Tip 2: A curved, slippery surface can be tricky to stamp on. It helps when you refrain from mounting your stamp on an acryllic block. That way you’ll be able to shape it round the curves with you hand. Sometimes laying your stamp flat, inked side up is helpful too: that way you can roll the curved object over your inked stamp.

Next I sprinkled WOW! Bonding Powder over the VersaMark image, removed stray particles with a soft brush and melted the powder with a heat gun:

And then I applied the Fab Foil over the still hot powder:

Be careful, the glass is hot too! I used a cloth to gently burnish the foil.

I needed to repeat the whole process a couple of times until all the sticky parts were covered.

The result wasn’t perfect, but that just adds to the mixed media character of the project. I also found that some images give better results than others!

I continued by adding a second ‘mixed media’ layer: regular embossing. This time I used a stencil.

I taped the stencil to the bottle with masking tape. I also masked off parts of the image:

I applied VersaMark through the stencil, removed the stencil and sprinkled sparkly WOW! Embossing Glitter on top of the partly stencilled image. I tapped off the excess, removed stray particles with a soft brush and heat set the embossing glitter with the heat tool:

Tip 3: Parts of the glass are really hot now. Please leave it to cool before you go on to the next step. If you don’t, you will risk damaging the already embossed parts and more importantly: new embossing powder will melt immediately when it comes in contact with the hot glass.

Reapply the stencil and mask off other parts. Alternate the colours:

Because I had to wait for the glass to cool after each embossing session, I had time to work on three bottles at the same time. It was fun to experiment with the different kinds of WOW! Embossing Powder (Glitter, Metallic and Primary). Each one gives a different effect!

Tip 4: If you want to be able to clean your embossed glass objects, I would advice to protect the images with a waterproof varnish.

Materials used: WOW! Fab Foil Bright Copper, Dark Blue, Glitter Gold; WOW! Bonding Powder; WOW! Metallic Brass, Persian Indigo, Primary Bark, Totally Teal, Vintage Jade; VersaMark Ink Pad; Stamps and Stencils: Carabelle Studio; Nathalie Kalbach for Stampendous

This tutorial previously appeared on the Scrap365 blog.

WOW! Embossing Powder: Mixed Media Nature Canvas

2 July 201312 February 2015 | Marsha.

A couple of days ago I was given the chance to guest blog at WOW! Embossing Powder, UK!

I love their products and I’ve accumulated quite a selection of WOW! Embossing Powders in the last year and a half… I’ve managed to use five of them on my nature-themed mixed-media canvas!

If you want to know how I did it, hop on over to the WOW! blog for a step-by-step explanation!

Did you know that WOW! has a monthly challenge? You might like to check it out: Participants have a chance to win some of their awesome embossing powders! July’s theme is Summer & Sunshine!

Sketchbook365 July Sketch Challenge

21 June 201313 May 2017 | Marsha.

Back in March Liesbeth came to visit me on a Saturday. We just hung around, talked and talked (like we always do) and we played tourist in my city. We endured sun and snow, took a million photos (Liesbeth forced me to bring my DSLR) and drank way too many hot chocolates. It was a fun day!

I created this page for the Sketchbook365 July Sketch Challenge. Nearly all of the DT-members used Basic Grey collection packs for their creations. I used the Knee Highs Collection Pack for mine.

It’s fascinating and fun to see how some of the others not only used the same sketch, but also the same papers/stickers and still we all ended up with totally different pages in our individual styles. You can see for yourself at the Sketchbook365 blog!

I also found a way to try out my brand new WOW! Fab Foil and Bonding Powder on this page. I was lucky enough to win a packet last weekend during Art Fusion! I applied it to the Tando Creative Chipboard flourishes (Flourish 7), but you can also use it on stamped images and well… it’s just a really cool product!