Crazy 4 Challenges Purple Onion Camera Card & Homemade Embossing/Texture Paste Recipe & Tutorial

 The challenge over at the 'Crazy 4 Challenges' blog this week is to make a card based on a sketch. I flipped the sketch on its side, and came up with this design...

I loved making this card, and playing with some fun techniques. First off I used a Stampin' Up stamp set to make the pink ink splatters, using Stephanie Barnard's ColorBox 'Guava' ink - it is incredibly juicy, lovely, bright ink!

Then I added some embossing/texture paste, using an American Crafts chevron mask. I'm really pleased - I've seen this paste used from time to time and love the effect of it, but the paste is pretty expensive to buy. I'd seen some recipes to make your own, and finally had a go a couple of weeks ago, only I didn't have the right ingredients, so I made up my own and it worked A TREAT!! I'll go through my method for making it, below.

 Also for the card, I used some stamps from Purple Onion Designs' fabulous 'Paislee Press Photographer' stamp set, which I cut out by hand and layered up a bit.

Finally I added a few Prima Sugar Dots and sequins.

MAKING YOUR OWN EMBOSSING/TEXTURE PASTE

The recipes I'd seen on the internet called for either Bicarbonate of Soda or Talcum Powder, neither of which I had on hand, so I decided to give it a go with Cornflour (This is UK Cornflour - I think the US equivalent is Cornstarch). I used:

1/4 cup Cornflour

1 Tablespoon PVA glue (white all-purpose school glue)

1 Tablespoon White Acrylic Paint (Craft paint)

Some water

I just put the ingredients (except for the water) in a bowl and started mixing it with a spoon, and I added a splash of water at a time as I mixed, until the consistency was right.

 Hopefully this picture will give you an idea of the correct consistency - it's really quite stiff, and holds its shape completely - no 'flopping', 'melting' or 'oozing'!!

It's not so stiff though that it cracks or looks too dry when you spread it.

I transferred my paste into a small plastic tub with a lid, and then used an old store card to pick up a bit of the paste and scrape it over a stencil (also called a mask), which was laid over a card. I don't think it matters if you don't get the paste neatly covering right to the edges of the stencil - I like how it looks with the pattern just fading away towards the edges a bit.

Here are a few of my first attempts - I loved them! It's really easy to do!

I imagine you could also add different colour paint - or a few drops of ink, to make all kinds of colour pastes.

Once the paste had dried (it didn't take too long - perhaps 10-15 minutes) I tested out my paste for durability. I really tried bending/scratching it, and it held together really well - no crumbling or flaking off at all.

I made the paste a couple of weeks ago, and got it out again tonight, to make the camera card above. I thought maybe the paste would have dried out in that time, and it had dried out a little bit, but was still perfectly usable. Very happy with my experiment!!

Pretty, hey?!

Some of products used: