Embossing with Paper Sushi

Embossing is a fun way to add dimension and shine to your rubber stamp projects! The result is a raised, shiny, version of your normal two-dimensional stamp print. Embossing is also a lovely way to add sophistication to your stamped wedding stationery, as well as bringing your cards and tags to life!

Beautifully sophisticated, right?

  

We offer Colorbox's clear embossing powder in our shop, and now it's time to show you how to use it. I'll take you through the steps to make your stamp printing one-of-a-kind.

First, we'll show you how to use clear embossing powder, with colored pigment ink. This is our recommended embossing set-up, as pigment inks sit on top of the stamping surface and dry slowly enough to allow you time to distribute your powder. 

Second, we'll show you how to use colored embossing powder with clear embossing ink. Through much experimentation, we've discovered that with clear embossing powder and colored pigment ink, the embossed image results in a more solid, shiny, polished raised impression of your stamp print. Using the clear embossing powder is a great way to highlight your beautiful pigment ink colors. With the clear embossing ink and colored embossing powder, we noticed that the result is a more vibrant color with lots of shine, but can be more spotty and bubbly-looking. 

Typically, one embosses on paper.  But, after a fun conversation with a customer, we turned to wood and discovered you can emboss even more surfaces!

Clear Embossing Powder

 

Stamp your surface with its respective stamp ink. Here we've used Versacraft, which is great for stamping on wood.

Pour a thin layer of embossing powder on top of the stamped image, covering all of the ink. We found that lightly pressing a dry, clean finger against the powder can help make more powder stick to the ink.

Tap off excess powder and pour back into your embossing powder container. Grab a dry paintbrush and wipe off any excess embossing powder. Excess powder can melt in the heating process, resulting in shiny, raised spots in areas you may not want to be embossed. 

To heat set the embossing powder, we recommend using an embossing tool. Simply turn on your embossing tool and hold 3 inches over your stamp image, making swirling motions as to not burn the embossing powder. You can tell if it's melting if the powder turns into a liquid, forms into a solid image, and becomes super shiny. This might take 2-3 minutes. We found that the embossing tool heat sets a lot faster on paper, than on wood. Be patient! If your powder is burning, it'll start to bubble, spread out, and look spotty. Once your entire image is heat set, melted, shiny, and dry, it's all finished! Give them as gifts, use in your scapbook, decorate your walls, use as wedding invitations, etc. 

Here is a completed embossed wood slice, made with clear embossing powder and black Versacraft stamp ink. It's so shiny!!!

Colored Embossing Powder

Clear embossing ink and colored embossing powder, makes a more vibrant color, but can burn easily and result in a spotty look. The process is the same as the clear embossing powder, however, it's always nice to go over the process again.

Stamp your surface with clear embossing stamp ink. Here, we've used Top Boss brand, which is great for all surfaces. Pour a thin layer of colored embossing powder on top of the stamped image, covering all of the clear ink. It may be difficult to see the clear ink, so we recommend using lots of light and moving the surface around at different angles, to make sure the entire image is covered. We found that lightly pressing a dry, clean finger against the colored powder, can help make more powder stick to the ink.

Tap off excess powder and pour back into your embossing powder container. Grab a dry paintbrush and wipe off any excess embossing powder. Excess powder can melt in the heating process, resulting in shiny, raised spots in areas you may not want to be embossed. 

  

To heat set the embossing powder, we recommend using an embossing tool. Simply turn on your embossing tool and hold about 3 inches over your stamp image, making swirling motions as to not burn the embossing powder. You can tell if it's melting if the powder turns into a liquid, forms into a solid image, and becomes super shiny. This might take 2-3 minutes. We found that the embossing tool heat sets a lot faster on paper, than on wood. Be patient! If your powder is burning, it'll start to bubble, spread out, and look spotty. Once your entire image is heat set, melted, shiny, and dry, it's all finished! 

Here is a finished wood slice made with clear embossing ink and colored embossing powder. Perfect for a whimsical wedding invitation!

Cranberry

I love all the brilliant colors my favorite ColorBox pigment ink comes in!  We're starting a new thing here on the blog, focusing on those colors.  Alicia is putting together round ups of lovely things, inspired by our favorite ColorBox colors.  She's kicking it off with Cranberry - a winter favorite!  Enjoy!  - jen

ColorBox Pigment Ink in Cranberry on Paper Sushi Shop

Red dining chairs from Lantliv
Fab red coat on Kendi everyday
Asa clutch
"This Way Wonderland" by Raceytay on etsy
Cranberry Red Thistles Cloth Napkins by MargotBianca on etsy


-Alicia

Well, hello friends.

Seems like it's about that time to dust off the ol' blog and let both of you know what I've been up to! While, I really enjoyed Fuzzy Sushi (and I do still have some knit and crochet patterns available), I've started down a new creative path that I love all the way down to my toes. You know that incredible moment when everything comes together and you know in your soul that you're doing exactly what you want to be doing? I'm calling that moment Paper Sushi. And I am completely in love with it! Granted, my friends and farflung family are occasionally curious if I'm still alive and - at least until the kids are back in school - there've been a lot of late nights trying to keep up with it all. But, putting pen to paper and letting the creativity flow is nothing but joy. So, here's a peek!



Stop by and check out custom wedding stamps, handwritten and handdrawn stamps, custom and address stamps and lots of back to school and bookplate stamps!

LoveForJapan

I am so very happy to report that Etsy reversed their position on collaborative charity shops and the lovely shop LoveForJapan popped up immediately. All proceeds from sales in the shop are donated to the Red Cross, shipping is covered by the individual sellers.

Fuzzy Sushi donated a set of hair clips, made in Japanese red and white, to the shop.



Red and White Flower Hair Clips Listing

There are tons of other gorgeous listings from other sellers as well! Click on the pictures to get to the listings.

Donated to LoveForJapan by KaleidoscopeByErin

Donated to LoveForJapan by Kimiko611

Visit the LoveForJapan shop to see everything they have!

Trying not to be useless.

I've been wanting to blog - lots of ideas and things to share! - but have instead focused my time recently on 1. Veronica Mars and 2. building out my hair accessories section in the shop. One of these things is less embarrassing than the other.

I can't sit still and not say anything at all about Japan, though. These satellite photos from before and after the disaster (use the sliders to see) show just how horrifying the devastation is. (via @makingitlovely)

I had wanted to participate in the relief effort through Etsy, by donating handmade pieces to a collaborative charity shop like the amazingly successful HeartsForHaiti. I was involved in the intital discussion to launch a similar effort, but unfortunately Etsy administrators disallowed the collaboration and instead suggested we tag our items with the campaign name and donate our individual profits to charity. Well, in my case that would largely be a symbolic move as my sales are few and far between.

It's times like these that make me wish I were independently wealthy. But, I donated what I could straight to the Red Cross. For whatever reason, neither the Japan Red Cross or American Red Cross sites were working properly for me. So, I went through PayPal. If American readers would like to do the same, click below:

PayPal Donations.

Fuzzy Sushi Accessories Line

I've been working on rounding out the new accessories line in the shop. I have so many more ideas and can't wait to keep adding to it!

I'm thinking more hair pieces, more jewelry, belts...I'm excited to get my fingers moving!

More Mustache!

I decided one thing my creations were lacking was facial hair. So, I remedied that posthaste.



Soft Merino Beanie Now With More Mustache

Like The Fuzz.

I mean, if you want to...

Aht. More aht, dahling.

Without really intending to, I've been slowly but surely turning the fourth "bedroom" in our house into a craft room. Albeit a small-appliances-books-and-exercise-equipment-storage-accomodating-craft-room, but I like to share. And, what's this...? I have a shop! That officially upgrades this from a craft room into a studio. Aaaaand, suddenly I feel glamorous. Everybody should have a corner of their house that makes them feel glamorous, no?

Since purchasing this print by june craft for El Niño's room, I've been looking for other independent artist's prints for the rest of the house. And this letterpress print by Julie West would be perfect for mah stuuuudio, dahling.

Love, love, love.

Via paper crave

Finally putting up some of the hats for small heads.

A pillbox for your little pill. Or a sweet hat for your sweetie. A flowered head topper for your little flower. Aaaand scene.

And I also finally finished up the custom orders on deck and got to start something new for the shop! I'm excited to finish that and show it off...

New hats!

I put some new hats up in the store today!

I've been wanting to create a hat with some but not too much slouch, and I love the way this one came out.  I like the delicate look of the spaced stitching. While it might not have done the trick for us this morning at a bracing 10°F/-12°C, it would be just perfect in less hardy climes.

slouchy beret listing

I made this hat a while back and I wish I could remember just what I did. I'll have to play around to recreate the look!

two tone beret listing

How cold is it where you are?

Oh, hello there.

Oh good, the blog is still here. I'm not sure what happened, but I lost steam for a while there. In the past few months, we've experienced our first Oktoberfest, gone to Italy, cheered El Niño in swim meets wandering across Western Germany, started watching the snow fall and I've started selling crocheted hats!

While Oktoberfest is technically only in Munich, we went to a fall festival with lots of beer and sausage.




We drink beer and wear Adidas!

Earlier this month, we went to Lignano Sabbiadoro in Northern Italy at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a neat little tourist town that is probably packed to the gills in the summer, but was quiet and welcoming at the beginning of the winter. It was a very short trip (although the drive with four kids under ten felt somewhat long) with two days spent driving, one day spent at a swim meet and one day spent wandering Venice.

Venice was amazing. We wandered aimlessly, admiring beautiful buildings that turned out to be things like grocery stores, until we found ourselves passing the same friendly Thai vendor for the fourth time. With phones out of service and the garmin confused by the lack of roads, we ended up buying a map. We explained to the kids what a map was and how in the olden days people were able to find their way with nothing more than a brightly colored piece of paper to guide them. They were in awe. The trip was a lot of fun, and whet our appetite for more exploration.

As I mentioned, I've also started selling crocheted hats. It started with a craft fair here that I submitted a few hats to. Only two sold, but an acquaintance recognized the work as mine and asked me to make a custom hat like one I had made for Cheeseball.

I later added a pink flower to this one.

This was the color scheme requested for my first order. Awesome, no?

Several other people overheard and I've received a bunch of other orders within the same group. I also volunteered to crochet some hats for El Niño's swim team and they sold 6 last week, proceeds going to the team. It's all been so fun and empowering, that I decided to open a store on Etsy. So, that was a really long way of saying...check out my shop!




So, that's three months in a nutshell. Suddenly I realize that I've missed this space and I think that means I'll wander back sooner rather than later next time.

My closet is for the birds.

When I went looking for the post I originally wrote when I bought what I will eventually get around to talking about, I realized I bought this lovely wall decal in January. Well, a mere seven months later, I got around to putting it up on the wall. Sort of. I put it on my closet.


Isn't it pretty?

Then, I sat down to sew some curtains for our bedroom. Right now, we have to lean out and close the shutters. I realized that with the way the print flows on the fabric I have, I'll need another two yards to cover the whole window. Well, another two meters.

So, I sewed something else instead and I'll get around to putting that up here in less than seven months.

Do you have the time?

Shortly after my ugly but functional clock radio became obsolete due to American vs. European voltage issues, my ugly but functional battery operated digital travel alarm clock kicked the bucket. Of course.

But, I've turned a new leaf in our new house and while I still promote function, form has taken on a new importance. So, I'm on the hunt for a pretty alarm clock and while I'm at it, why not a clock for another room or two. Currently without my ever present iPhone, I never seem to know what time it is anymore.

As always, my first stop is Etsy. And look what I found! Love.



1. hard drive clock by pixelthis
2. vintage Czechoslovakian Prim from ClockworkUniverse
3. vintage Russian Vitjaz from ClockworkUniverse
4. VW hubcap clock by GreenWisdom
5. vintage Russian Slava from ClockworkUniverse
6. splat desk clock by pilotdesign
7. Bulova mod pedestal from stilettogirl
8. green leaf clock by botanicraft
9. vintage German Europa from ClockworkUniverse
10. triangle clock by WoodstockClocks
11. vintage German Junghans from spacejam

Weekly Etsy/ 3.14.10

Can't believe another week is behind us! It's amazing how dropping one hour makes time fly even faster. But it does, and here we are and I hope you enjoy!

pillow by junahbird

antique doilies from fadedprairie

stickers from seasonaldelights

vintage shoes from SweetToothVintage

earrings by theshagbag

tote by christystudio

glasses from Vintage50sEyewear

Technorati tags: etsy, handmade, vintage

Happy Friday! 3.12.10

We have some fun things planned this weekend and are undeterred by the blah weather. I'm posting a few of my favorite things from blogland over the past week to add to your fun plans for the weekend!

Oh, Hello Friend turned me on to the adorable We Love Crafts online magazine. The layout is fun and the projects and pictures are cute and serve as great inspiration. If you don't understand enough Spanish to navigate the magazine, well...you probably don't have children who watch Dora.

I love the vintage inspired kid's birthday party featured on Decor8 this week.

Can't wait to score this kind of haul when we get to Germany and back to real farmers' markets!

Nicole at Making It Lovely put together a fantastic round up of painting advice, tips and tricks that I would have loved to read about two months ago.

A big part of why I wanted to take up knitting is my obsession with fingerless gloves. These, featured on Sacred Lotus, are uh-may-zing. I wants. Also, I wants her hair.

I'm looking forward to maggie makes' tutorial for this adorable fabric flower adorned easter basket.

Sfgirlbybay launched a vintage shop on Etsy. La Petite Flea...how cute is that!?

Love the sweet vase yarn craft featured on Sweet Paul's Crafty Friday this week. I foresee the need to use up scrap yarn in my future and would love to use it this way!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy these inspirations and ideas! What do you have on the burner this weekend?

Technorati tags: weekly links, crafts, blogging

My new hobby.

I've taken up knitting! I'm a knitter! And I'm so totally excited about it. I love the idea of making things to wear. I've done a lot of cross stitching and my friend Alicia and I have a shared craft blog. But, I haven't really created anything that I could wear. And, if you've been following along here at Chicken Fried Sushi, you know I likes things to wear.

Of course - before I even bought yarn or needles - I ran out and purchased a book full of difficult and complicated patterns.

Because, you know...that's smart. Sigh. Then I backtracked and went online. I found Lion Brand Yarn's Learn to Knit section really clear and helpful. It has both illustrated instructions and videos for each stitch. I also read somewhere on these here Interwebz that a knit stitch scarf was a very easy first project. So I made one!

When I finished it, I realized that I had dropped two stitches right next to each other which created a hole in the scarf.  So, I knitted a little rose out of my super awesome yet difficult book to plug the hole and it came out really cute!  But, also the size of half Cheeseball's head.  I tried to modify the pattern to make it smaller but apparently modifying patterns is waaaay over my pay grade.  I ended up just knitting a few rows of knit 2, purl 2 and then stitching the ends together and gathering the "flower" in the center.  I may go back and add a little button in the middle of it at some point.  I'm actually glad I made that mistake, because I think the flower is really cute on the scarf.

I think she likes it, too!

I ordered The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with More Than 30 Cool, Easy Patterns and can't wait for it to get here! A lot of the patterns on line are easy and you can certainly learn to knit with them but they fall woefully short on the cool criterion.

I also can't wait to hit up the new etsy shop of an old high school friend. She weaves and hand dyes her own fibers and they are so beautiful. I'll need to wait until the things I knit doen't have holes that need to be plugged or wildly varied stitch sizing. So, it could be a while...

Weekly Etsy/ 3.7.10

Spring feels like it's on its way and your weekly Etsy finds are already here. Enjoy!

clock by decoylab

shirt by pepperhem

leather pendant by flightpathdesigns

key necklace by ohhellofriend

phone from sovietvintage

lace necklace by whiteowl

poster by slidesideways

buckle by flightpathdesigns

cards by colettepaperie


Technorati tags: etsy, handmade, jewelry

Weekly Etsy: Buds and blooms

I have always loved having fresh flowers in the house. With the lack of an actual farmer's market and the overabundance of boring roses and carnations among the fresh flowers in the grocery stores here, I've gotten out of the habit. Putting the house on the market has given me just the excuse I needed to start bringing in the blooms again. Which also has me keeping an eye out for beautiful vases again!

bird vases by catherinereece

snuggling vases by annaspots

fern vase by kensgardenpottery

crystalline vase by dbabcock

painted square vase by simplyprettyprints

double stem white vase by taylorceramics

orange wood vase by BowlsandBoxes

mini white vase by RouDesigns

slim black vase by mrhstudio

Let's finish up with one of the always inspiring weekly we like it wild shots from design*sponge.

Gorgeous ranunculus (ranunculi?)

Technorati tags: etsy, vase, flowers

Weekly Etsy: Feel The Love

The Man and I don't actually do Valentine's Day as a couple. In terms of expressing love in a relationship, we tend to think of Valentine's Day as a manufactured holiday. Love should be expressed all the time in all kinds of ways. Buy me a prepackaged set of chocolates and cliche red roses and hand me a card because Hallmark told you to and I feel patronized not cherished.

But oddly enough, in terms of expressing love in general, I totally love Valentine's Day! I love seeing red and pink and love sprinkled all over.

This week's Etsy finds all sing Valentine's Day - lots of paper goods for spreading the love, vessels for flowers and beautiful reds and pinks.

felted river pebbles by Fairyfolk

vase by taylorceramics

red ring by MiliJewels

love print by hooraydesignshop

card by nouveaudesigns

tea towel by munaluna

valentines by PureVintageGold

pink ring by MiliJewels

finch print by Corrabelle

Technorati tags: etsy, handmade, Valentine's Day