Keep Calm and Stamp On

The past few days we've been watching the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration on TV that's been taking place in London. It's been really interesting and inspiring to watch the festivities and to see Britain get excited that she has been Queen for 60 years now! I love London and we travel there each summer on our way to Croatia.

So I thought I'd share a card inspired by England. The stamp set I used is by A Muse Studio and is called "Stamp On". It's so fun to use this set and is a great card to give to fellow crafters. :)

The sentiment I used is a play on words of the popular phrase, "Keep Calm and Carry On". That phrase originated from a poster designed during World War II, which was found years later in a British bookshop.

Here's a video, explaining the origin of the phrase, "Keep Calm and Carry On". Very interesting history with an inspiring meaning.

I made a few of the cards to have on hand.

The background paper is the A Muse color Lido in the Venetian patterned paper line. The sentiment was heat embossed with A Muse detail white embossing powder, which is a great EP. 

The back of the card was stamped with an image from the A Muse stamp set, "Hand Stamped", which has a bunch of different handmade by stamps. A nice way to finish off a card. :)

There is also another great A Muse stamp called, "Keep Calm", if you like the "Keep Calm and Carry On" sentiment.

Thanks for looking and have a sunshine-filled day!

Heat Embossing and Dry Embossing on Coasters

When I saw that PTI was selling coasters I was super excited. It seemed like it would be so fun to experiment with different coaster designs. It's also great to use for diecutting, but I wanted to see what I could come up with using them as actual coasters!

I ended up using some impression plates to create some gold embossed coaster designs. 

I stamped Versamark ink onto the impression plate then ran the coaster through my Cuttlebug. Then I heat embossed the dry embossed design with gold embossing powder. It created a vibrant and rustic coaster design. These coasters are still resistant to water, since heated embossing powder is waterproof. It has dimension and color but it's still practical.

My favorite design was the Sunshine impression plate. I love this pattern embossed! There were a few spots that didn't emboss, but I liked the rustic look of it. If you wanted to fix it, you could use a Versamark pen to color in the missing spots and then heat emboss again.

The coaster will slightly warp when you heat emboss it, but you can just place a heavy cup on it and it will smooth right out.

I also inked up the Music impression plate with waterproof brown ink and then ran it through my Cuttlebug. I love the rustic look it provides and the music notes are a fun and unusual theme on a dinner table.

Dry embossing and heat embossing the coasters can be a fun and simple way to dress up the table. You can emboss them in whichever colors will match your decor and change them very cheaply for the different seasons.

What things have you made with PTI coasters? Would love to see it! Thanks for stopping by and have a sunny day!!

Supplies (All Papertrey Ink.)

Impression Plates: Woodgrain, Sunshine, Music Sheet

Ink: Versamark

Embossing Powder: PTI Filigree gold

Other: Coasters