I thought I would show you how to use Embossing Paste.  We went to a Card and Scrapbooking Convention and there was a lady there showing various techniques you can use with stencils.

For this process you don’t need a light table, just be sure to do it on a craft sheet.

I cut a piece of card stock about a half inch bigger than the stencil.

You need to tape off the card stock and around the stencil.  This serves two purposes 1) to help hold the stencil in place and 2) to protect the card stock from getting messed up with the embossing paste.

This particular stencil created a need for extra taping because it is oval shaped.  The trick here is you want to put the tape down in a clockwise movement and remove it counter clockwise.  This will help you pull the tape off (after you have put the embossing paste on) in reverse of how you initially put it down.  That is because the tape overlaps each other and if you pull a tape that is underneath another tape you could get the embossing paste on a part of the card stock you did not intend for it to be. 

I’m using Dreamweavers Embossing Paste in Copper.  This looks like “cool whip” in consistency and it spreads really easy across the stencil.

You can use a putty knife or an offset spatula.  I happen to have this plastic offset spatula and it worked very well.

I bought a squeegee to use with the Embossing Paste but I seem to be able to do a lot better job with just the spatula.

I took a “glob” of embossing paste and spread it over the stencil like you would frosting on a cake.  As I pulled the excess off I put it back in the jar.

At this point you start taking the tape off in reverse order.

When you get to the last piece leave it in place to create a hinge.  Gently lift the stencil off and carefully remove it.  Then take off your last piece of tape.

The technique of leaving the last piece of tape in place keeps the stencil in the right place just in case you drop it.

Here it is all done and now all it needs to do is dry.

Some things I learned. 

You only need a thin layer.

It works better if the stencil has small areas (like the wheat).

Don’t rush removing the stencil and the last piece of tape.  Remove it gently and carefully.

The larger the areas of the stencil are the more difficult it is to get the embossing paste smooth and keep it at the same depth.

If you click on the picture you will see the one of the Fleur De Lis has black paper showing through.  Because the embossing paste is wet the paper soaks it up and starts to buckle a little on large pieces.

Here the wheat is dry.  The copper color really starts to pop on the brown paper.

If you buy white embossing paste you can mix colors with it to make it a color.  I used alcohol inks and I think you could use acrylic paint.  Just remember to start with a small amount of white embossing paste and your colorant then build it from there.  A large amount of white embossing paste will take a lot of colorant to make it a color with depth or you could just use it as a pastel.