Playing with Molding Paste

Egads! I can't believe it's been so long since I published a post! I've been writing here and there, but always seem to fall asleep or get interrupted before sending anything out to the world. I have some serious catching up to do!

Let's start with the oldest of my post attempts, started a day after my last post...

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Back in the dark ages of stamping, I worked in a local stamp store that carried Dreamweaver embossing paste (although I think it was called something else then) and metallic stencils used for dry embossing with a stylus and a light box. And the paste just sat on the shelf... no one was interested, including me. For me, it was that the designs in the metal stencils just didn't flat my boat. Then when I saw embossing paste used with a plastic stencil a few years ago, the lights went on and the angels sang... but still I didn't try it myself. I think part of it was that I was intimidated, and part of it was that I didn't have the proper tools on hand.

Fast forward to 2014, when I joined StampNation, and suddenly I was seeing embossing paste being used all the time! And the more I watched, the less scary it became. I ran across some molding paste in my stash and invested in a palette knife as well as some cool stencils, and finally I was ready. 

The first thing I learned is that while molding paste does the job, it dries more grey than white:

I decided to add some yellow reinker to it, and still wasn't too impressed with the results:

I wondered if it would look better on a darker paper, and decided to see what kind of results I would get with a more detailed stencil:

As I observed a lot of blotchiness and streaking, it became clear to me that I needed to work on my technique - so I practiced with some less detailed Stampin' Up! stencils:

 

(pink reinker mixed in)

and some non-SU! stencils:

No matter what I did the streaks remained, so I did some reading up and learned that while molding paste can be used for this technique, actual embossing paste is a better bet both for its consistency and whiteness. Needless to say, I have since invested in some embossing paste - in fact, several colors! - and will return to the drawing board at a later date. 

Meanwhile, I just had to make a card with one of the "experiments":

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I have a ton of cards to show you, so the next batch of posts will be less wordy (at least that's the plan) and feature lots and lots of cards. Stay tuned!

Happy to be back here,
Joyce Spear / StamperJoyce