"Impress"ive!

One of the other cool things about CHA this year was that I got to play with a VERY cool new product being released by Spellbinders . . . Impressabilities!

These babies are a definite MUST HAVE for all of us crafty peeps! There are four different styles available . . . snowflakes, flowers, butterflies (which you ALL know is a personal favorite of mine!) and paisley! These are a stainless steel embossing template/stencil. There are a TON of different uses for these. First, you can use them like a stencil . . . lay 'em over your cardstock and spray with Glimmer Mist, sponge with ink, airbrush . . . many options here.

Another cool thing about these is that they will ENTIRELY cover the front of an A2-size card (edge-to-edge coverage, baby!)! They leave a lovely impression!



Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how we did our "make-and-takes" in the Spellbinders booth . . .

First, we cut out some flowers using the new Dahlia dies. LOVE these, for sure! One of the other things I love about the raspberry Wizard is that it comes with a magnetic spacer plate . . . awesome 'cause it holds your dies perfectly in place.




Next, we place the Impressibiliites template down on the mat and placed the already-cut Dahlias . . . still in the die. The reason for this is that not only will we get the lovely impression from the Impressabilities template, but we will also get the lovely embossed edge we usually get from any Spellbinders die, which gives these flowers are really great "finished" look.









Cover the sandwich with your tan embossing mat and finish it off with a white master mat.













Because we were using Coredinations cardstock, we sanded off the flowers to reveal the lighter color in the core of the cardstock, which just made those impressed images POP right out at ya!!











Here are ALL the flowers we cut out/embossed/sanded to create our lovely little flowers! MUI-MUI awesome, right??













And a close up of the lovely details . . .










Using a popsicle stick, some brads and pop-up glue dots, we made these darling little flowers. Wouldn't these make GREAT little party favors?? You could also use them as a pen topper, but they would be great to put on a treat (I'm thinking Pixie Sticks here!)



Here's another example of what you can do with the Impressabilities. You can cut out specific parts of the embossing template and "spotlight" them on your card or scrapbook page. (Since these babies retail for a mere $6.99, you don't have to feel bad about cutting them up, 'cause you can buy one for embossing card fronts and an additional one to cut up!) We did a "letter press" technique here. Heidi inked up the Impressabilities template (the little piece on the right) and then ran it through the Wizard. Isn't this just the COOLEST EVER??? It was hard for me to keep from "borrowing" one of these templates to bring home!! A new favorite for sure!!!