Inchie Art Squares Card

I came across this card that I haven't shared with you yet.  This is a technique invented by Lisa Lee of Inchie Arts, to use dies with Artsquares.

by Dianne Johnson

For this technique, you need masking paper, Artsquares, a die of your choice, pigment ink, and clear embossing powder.  I used 4- Inchie Plus Artsquares, and I pushed them together to work on them, but this is also a great technique for the 3" squares, or the ATC sized Artsquares.  The die is Memory Box Cheshire Branch Outline 98599, and the sentiment is Magenta "Thanks for Touching My Heart" 07.731.I

I applied temporary adhesive to the backs of the squares to adhere them to a scrap piece of card stock while I worked.  I covered the Artsquares with the masking paper, and put the die face down onto the masking paper.  You need to experiment with your sandwich when you run this through your machine, because the Artsquares are about 1/16" (or about 1.6 mm) thick.  You want it to go through firmly, but not so that it's hard to crank through.  The die will cut the masking paper, and emboss into the Artsquares.  You then peel up the masking paper selectively, for areas you want to color.  I did the background first, and applied pigment inks with sponge daubers.  I then peeled the masking paper from the petals, applied the purple pigment, and the last piece of masking paper was on the leaves, which I left white.

For the last step, you apply clear embossing powder over the whole image and heat emboss.  In order to get the shiny finish, I then applied Versamark clear sticky ink to the entire image, clear embossing powder again, and heat embossed.  I did this last step once more, until the finish was shiny and smooth.

I peeled the squares up off the scrap card stock, and mounted them onto a square of purple card stock with dimensional adhesive.  I then mounted the purple square onto my card and stamped the sentiment.

Lisa Lee of Inchie Arts is coming to Art 'n Soul on Saturday, September 21st from 1:00-3:00 to teach this technique, and students will make a number of beautiful cards, using different dies and colors.  If you are local, be sure to call or come by the shop and sign up for this great class!  Once you get the hang of this technique, you can make beautiful cards that look MUCH harder to make than they are!