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The first step is to choose your stamp(s). You can hang several images under each other as in my bird example. For simplicity I only took one image for this tutorial. Next step is to decide on the sort of frame shape that you would like. A coluzzle works well for ovals, so does a curvy cutter. For my example those ovals were a bit too wide for my taste, so I generated an oval frame shape on the computer and printed it out, then cut it out with scissors.
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Next, stamp your image with stazon on a generous piece of acetate. You want the piece large enough so that you have plenty to cut off at the end. This piece will get a lot of handling and you would see smudges and fingerprints on it, so better to have a rim around the whole area that you can touch because you will cut it off at the end. I center my acetate over the frame (not cut out yet, yours maybe a real frame already) and then stamp into the center of that. It doesn't have to be exact. Let the ink dry before the next step.
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Now you can color your image ON THE BACK SIDE (the unstamped side)with permanent markers or anything else that works for you on acetate. Make sure to flip your acetate over and color the unstamped side and don't ask me how I know ;)
You can color all parts or just some parts of your image. I do this because transparent glitter (for windows, I prefer transparent to opaque) will take on all sorts of odd colors when hanging in the window/light. Sometimes those colors are rather disappointing and flat. If you give your acetate an initial "wash" with base color, the finished item's color will be more intense and not so washed out. As you will see later, I add different colored glitter over the same base color with a very nice effect.
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Once you are done with your pre_coloring, flip your acetate over again and add the glitter to your image. You are adding the glue and glitter on the stamped side of the image, not on the colored side! I try not to cover the stamped lines with glitter. You can add as much or little glitter as you like to your image. In my case I left the face clear as I feared anything over that would have eliminated the smile. When you are all done with your glittering you will have to let this piece alone and let it dry. This is always the hardest part for me as my patience tends to wear real thin waiting for the glitter to dry. You can see that its completely dry when you look on the unglittered side and no longer see any white glue! Good thing we have some frames to make, this will take your mind off the waiting part :)
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You will need two identical frame pieces for your image. Add versamark to your frame by pushing the edge of your inkpad all around the frame piece. You can hold your flimsy frame with a toothpick or skewer to get every little part nicely inked up. To move your sticky and inked frame to the area where you add the embossing powder, press your inkpad hard onto a larger area of the frame, the frame will stick to the pad, you can move it, use your skewer to nudge it off the inkpad and onto your embossing area!
I like to use the non-colored versamark for this, but of course you could use any pigment ink in your color choice, clear or colored embossing powder, whatever you prefer.
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Add a generous amount of embossing powder to your frame.
I love the effect of "enamelware" embossing powder (ranger) on dark colored cardstock, it looks like bird's eggs or something, very neat. I used that in the bird examples. This example in the tutorial uses natural colored cardstock and "ancient gold" embossing powder. To move the frame over to your heating area, slide your skewer under it, gently lift up and let the excess powder fall off, lift and move to your heat proof surface and gently lay it down. You never need to touch your frame, you can do all the moving with your skewer.
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Emboss your frame with the heatgun. Just keep your trusty skewer inside the frame and it will not fly away from you :) you don't need to touch the fame, just keep the skewer pressed to the surface. Aim your heatgun straight from the top and make sure you melt all around the frame.
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And then your nice frames do THIS! As they cool they will curl up like crazy, depending on the cardstock that you used, some curl more, some curl terribly. Just let them cool, they will curl back fairly flat and since you are glueing them to the acetate it doesn't matter at all. So no need to fuzz with them to get them flat, doing that would only damage your nice embossing. The layer of embossing adds a wonderful substance to the cardstock frame without making it stiff or too heavy. You want your whole window swirly to be rather light because then just simple sunlight hitting it will make it move, how cool is that?!
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By now your glitter might have dried. If not, go have a coffee or browse the internet, water your garden or something. When you come back your glue will have dried and your frames lay flat again :)
Time to attach the frame to your acetate! You can see I lay my acetate piece with the stamped and glittered image centered on the grid of my working surface, nothing like helping the eye out a bit with a grid! Add adhesive to your embossed frame on the non-embossed side and center the frame over your stamped image, press down along the entire frame piece to make sure that its all attached. Don't - touch - the - acetate - inside - the - frame :)
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Flip your piece over and add adhesive to your second embossed frame. Just match it up over the other layer and press down. Voila! you got your acetate securely inside a pretty frame. Now just holding the frame, cut all around to remove the excess acetate. If you messed up a bit and the outsides of your frame pieces don't quite match, just cut it off at this point. Only hold your piece on the frame, try not to touch the acetate cause you WILL get fingerprints on that which will show in sunlight.
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Using a grid mat if you have, center your framed piece and add the eyelet(s). Make sure if you use a punch and setter like in the picture to always work with glitter side up, otherwise you'll knock off a load of glitter during the procedure. If you have a whole series of images under each other, remember that all frames get two eyelets top and bottom except the bottom image which only needs one eyelet at the top.
Add your hanging thread and you are done!
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Scarecrow stamp by Firecracker Designs by Pamela!
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Bird stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms bottom small bird is Hero Arts.
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