Technique Tuesday - Altering Brads

Thanks for joining us today for a new Technique Tuesday.

For some this technique may not be new.  But hopefully, even if you know about this technique, this will be a nice reminder.  There are so many wonderful techniques to use in making our projects.  I don't know how many times I look at a completed project and THEN remember a technique that would have been perfect.

Today I am going to show you how to alter your brads to go with any project.  After learning this technique I no longer purchase colored brads.  Now I can purchase whatever is on sale in different sizes.

For my card I embossed gold brads to match my purple card.

For this project I used lavender embossing powder, my well loved VersaMark Stamp pad, tweezers, large gold brads, and a heat gun.  

Hold your gold brad with your tweezers.

Dab the brad onto the VersaMark stamp pad.  Dab a few times to get a nice heavy coat of the VersaMark ink on the brad.

Dip the brad into the embossing powder.

Sorry for the rotten picture.  The coated brad would have shown up better had the jar of embossing powder not been directly behind it.

Now use the embossing tool to heat the powder.  The powder will begin to look a little grainy.  Keep heating it until you get a nice glossy shell on the brad.  You can repeat these steps if you feel that you need another coat.  And don't forget the clear glossy embossing powder.  If you don't like the finish then you can definitely do a layer of that over the top of your color.  

So pretty!

Ok...so I mentioned yesterday that I would tell you how to get a great freebie.  Shelly's Images is hosting the current Sketch Challenge at Crafter's Digital Art Center.  And our freebie image is our Easter Collection.  The egg you see on this project is one of the 3 eggs that are part of the collection. And the collection even comes with two sentiments.  So head over to CDAC and grab our freebie and join the challenge.

I hope you enjoyed our technique today.  Please leave us a little note if you dropped in.  We love hearing from you!