Faux Cloisonne' - what is it?

Cloisonne'......."What is it?"..... I asked someone today. Well it seems that a Cloisonne' is an ancient metalworking technique, is a multi-step enamel process used to produce jewelry, vases, and other decorative items. (The resulting objects can also be called cloisonne.) The above is an example of some Cloisonne' beads. Are they pretty or what? Well, today I decided to post about the stamping technique called "Faux Cloisonne'" The next photo is the card that I created today using that stamping technique.

What we do is find some shiny pictures with alot of color in them such as from magazines, old calendars, etc. I have found that calendars have the best bang for your buck. You can get them cheap at Walgreen's, and Michael's. The shiny photos I am working with today are from an old Easter Seals Calendar. See, donate to a worthy cause, and when the calendar year is over, you have a double use for it. So, choose an outline stamp set. I chose Stampin Up's "Embrace Life", which is one of my favorites. First we stamp with versamark onto our shiny colorful picture, and sprinkle gold or silver embossing powder onto the stamped image, shaking off the excess of course. Then we cut out the stamped images and assemble them onto a card. It is so simple, and the results are so stunning. Once you try this technique, you will love it! Now, I thought that I might share with you a few photos of the types of "shiny pictures" that could be used to do this to give you some ideas.

Look at those smooth, vivid colors, gorgeous. I see retired Stampin Up's "groovy guava" in that grapefruit juice ad.

Next, I want to show you what I did with the picture that I cut the three flowers out of for the card above. I continued to stamp and heat emboss as many of the flowers as I could on the picture as you can see in the next photo. This provides for more cards to be made now or later.

Now, if you notice, there is alot of gorgeous color left after we stamp all of the big flowers than we can on the picture. Well, I have a solution for this so that it doesn't go wasted. There is a smaller flower in that stamp set which we could stamp several times without the stem and make a bouquet of them to go on a card (I will post that one tomorrow - Wednesday).

Blessings, Lisa