Re-discovering light embossing and Lasting Impressions

I have yet to encounter a scrapping addict who will not complain about the tons of embellishing stuff she can't help but buy all in an effort to make her layouts prettier, striking or unique. I have heard much about scrappers dropping out of scrapping because the "hobby" is turning out to be so expensive to pursue.

In both instances I find myself saying three things:

1. You don't need to buy everything you see -- this line works all the time except with the likes of Angela & Lala
2. "Expensive" is relative - you can have a few stocks and still scrap - do try Filstar's products from National Bookstore every now and then and mix them up with your more expensive hoard - but Lala says you have to do the ph test in every item before using them ok? and
3. Do your own embellishments for a change if you want to have a 100% unique page!

Memory Box has quite a line of new templates from Lasting Impressions. I got to pick the ones on the right side however for both my demo and the demo materials I had to do for the event. While the templates were not THAT eye-popping at first sight, the output using the templates were so pretty enough to get the standard "ohs and ahhs" common among scrappers. To emboss using Lasting Impressions PAPER guarantees that your scuffing (distress-rubbing with sandpaper) yield the desired results WITHOUT wreaking havoc to your paper, design or layout.

Ok... but scuffing?

Lasting Impressions came out with this nifty little flower-shaped foam called scuffers: pink-blue-yellow for super fine scuffing and brown for rough perfect for distressing papers.

Scuffers can perfectly distress your designs by "roughing-up" the top layer of your paper for that "old, worn look.

Scuffing Lasting Impressions paper reveals a WHITE layer underneath the top layer you removed by scuffing. The white scuffed layer looks real neat and perfect. I tried scuffing other papers like Bazzil and some Sizzix pads. Bazzil didnt scuff well. Removing the top layer of the paper showed the same color of paper underneath. Ergo, no "scuffed" effect. Sizzix papers did scuff to reveal white underneath BUT the color I just scuffed out clung to my scuffers and I had a hard time cleaning them off. Using them on other papers without cleaning will TRANSFER the colors you removed from one paper to the other! Horrors! The lesson: dont scuff non Lasting Impressions paper - youre bound to have some unpleasant surprises.

Why not use the ordinary sanding paper then? Why scuffs? (1) Scuffs guarantees you dont destroy your paper/layout/design with too much sanding (its easy to get carried away but scuffs will NOT destroy your paper!) (2) Scuffs are flat and are therefore good for scratching off the top layer WITHOUT rubbing off other layers. Try scuffing with sandpaper rolled onto your forefinger and see what I mean. You wont just scuff away the top layers, there's the danger of destroying even the "unembossed" parts of your design eventually making your distressed "look" shabby and ineffective.

I mixed the Lasting Impressions paper Memory Box handed me with some of my Sizzix pads for a play of colors. I made use of the Paper Pizzaz 8x8 pads also from Memory Box for my main paper background. That way I get to save the Lasting Impressions paper only for the designs that needed to be scuffed.

The results were great considering that almost all embellishments were done instead of bought - a cut of fiber, some brads, a few crystal beads, buttons and some wire can do wonders equal to whatever embellishments you bought tucked inside your scrapping bag. Unique pages? Definitely.

I refuse to believe that you need to have a hoard of stuff to be able to come up with great looking pages. It's tantamount to saying that only those who can afford to buy scrapbooking stuff can scrap "beautifully." I always, always tell scrapping friends that the best scrapping tool you have is the one between your ears and the best scrapping designer you ought to listen to ALL THE TIME is the one inside your chest - your very own Becky Higgins - your heart.

While it is true that it so nice to be surrounded by your hoard, it doesn't necessarily guarantee great pages... more so, UNIQUE ones.

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Left: The carriage template combined with the the label template for the baby's name. Sprinkled a few heart buttons and journalled "Your laughter is my sunshine" to highlight a picture of a smiling baby.