Monday, January 24, 2011

Mosaic Tile Valentine's Day Card




Another accidental discovery led to this technique for making faux mosaic tiles. I spilled a little embossing powder onto a piece of foam mounting tape and I noticed that it stuck. Naturally, I heated it to see what would happen. I was amazed that the heat from my heat tool did not melt the foam tape and that the embossing powder melted onto the foam. I covered the whole strip of tape with more powder and heated it, thus discovering a way to create mosaic “tiles” that are easy to make, fun to use and weigh very little. Perfect for Scrapbooking and card making.

Materials:

Scotch brand foam mounting tape (can be found in any office supply store)
Black cardstock
Gold cardstock
Cream cardstock
Paper cutter
Scissors
MSRS Cloisonné Heart Stamp
Versamark Inkpad
Variety of embossing powders (I used: from MSRS, Desert Fire, Desert Rain, Pearlescent Ivory, and Mirror Gold and from Judikins: Rustique Jade)
Heat Tool
Double sided tape or glue

Steps:

Cut several lengths of foam tape (approximately 3 – 4 inches long). Place one sticky side up on a folded scrap of paper. Sprinkle on some embossing powder to cover. Shake off the excess powder and use the folded paper to put the extra back into the bottle. If you decide to use more than one color on the strip, sprinkle the powder in a few areas and fill in the remaining areas with another powder. You will have mixed powder left over. Save this as a custom blended powder! Continue until all the strips have been covered.
Heat the strips one by one with a heat tool until they are all melted and cooled.
Use scissors to cut random sized and shaped “mosaic tiles”. Set aside.

Stamp the Cloisonné Heart onto a piece of black cardstock using Versamark ink and any embossing powder. Heat until embossed. Cut the heart out and then cut it in half lengthwise as shown. Turn the halves over and begin filling them in with tiles by peeling the backing off and sticking them in place.

Stamp the heart again. This time, sprinkle on the same embossing colors used on the tiles onto random areas of the design. Save the mixed extra to your custom jar of powder. Heat to emboss and cut out.
Assemble the card with tape or glue by mounting the two mosaic half hearts and the multi-color heart as shown with the multi-colored heart emerging from the two mosaic halves. Mount onto a gold cardstock frame and a black frame as shown and place on a folded cream colored card to finish.









21 comments:

Hetty said...

Art is just a wonderful mistake! I love your faux mosaic idea, Mike!

CraftyJo said...

I love a 'happy accident' - thanks for sharing this technique which I know I'm going to try. The card is, as expected, beautiful.

Jill P said...

It's beautiful Michael!!

KathyR said...

Wow, this is so gorgeous!
Kathy Rossiter

Lyngo said...

will be trying this for sure. What a happy accident !!!

Anonymous said...

This is so pretty! Great accident,lol.
RosieG(gramig05)

Inge said...

This is really great, Mike! Great idea! Thanks!

Linda W. said...

Just beautiful - I had learned this technique quite some time ago but totally forgot about it - thanks for resurrecting!

Anonymous said...

Very innovative. Thanks for sharing.

valley1229 said...

As always you have created a beautiful piece of art!

Anonymous said...

Love it-so happy I found my roll of foam tape when I 'cleaned' my table-now I can put it to a new use.

Capescrapper said...

Michael, this is fantastic! Love the use of the photo mounting tape! Ingenious! I love happy accidents!

Mary Anne said...

Such a wonderful technique. I think that it would be really cool to try with one of your vase stamps, or the hummingbird or cat stamp. will definitely have to share it. Also, might have to case your thank you candy trays, since I am recently engaged and looking do wedding traditions and favors on a budget.

Mary Anne
scrap4me at yahoo dot com

broadwaygal said...

Love the heart idea!

Anonymous said...

Don't you just love it when mistakes turn out better than your original plans!! Can't wait to try this one!

Anonymous said...

wow what a great tip ty for sharing.. nice job!
Lynn
emsandjesmom2003@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Don't you just love it when mistakes turn out better than your original plans!! Can't wait to try this one!

Kim Kuhns
kmkuhns@yahoo.com

LearningByReading said...

Thanks for this one. I don't have the patience, but my wife will love it!

Anonymous said...

Simply designed looking so gorgeous i like it...
Custom gift cards
clear cards

Anonymous said...

I love trying techniques, & this is a must. The card is lovely. (& no grout;^))
Thanks Michael.
mary l.

Anonymous said...

I love trying techniques, & this is a must. The card is lovely. (& no grout;^))
Thanks Michael.
mary l.