Crazicards Crafty Blog

In my last tutorial I promised to show you how to emboss with you Mica Masks when you don't have an embossing machine such as a Spellbinder Wizard, Cuttlebug or Sizzix Big Shot.

It's quite easy really and the depth of the embossing can be adjusted to your needs quite easily where as with an embossing machine you don't have too much control over the depth of embossing.

Here are the tools you will need for this technique:

1. A Speedball or other soft rubber brayer.
2. A dye based ink pad such as a Ranger Big and Juicy.
3. A Mica Mask of your choice.
4. Cheap tissues, toilet tissue or shoe box tissue paper.
5. Card or paper stock.
6. Cosmic Shimmer Misters or any other Mica Mister or Ink Mister (you can even make your own mister using water and with mica pigment powders or perfect pearls).
7. Wet Wipes and paper towels for cleaning up afterwards.

 Step 1

Place a sheet of card or paper onto your covered work surface, you don't have to do this but as I hate to waste ink I do this every time. You will create 3 sheets from this one technique.

Now place your chosen Mica Mask on top of the card.

I chose the leaves mask again as it is one of my absolute favourites and it shows this technique really well. You can see all the other masks I have here.

There are 19 different masks to choose from.

Step 2

Cover the the mask with cheap tissues or toilet tissue making sure you create a good layer, n the same way as we did for the last project.

Step 3

Spray a good layer of your chosen cosmic shimmer misters over the tissue and then cover with a piece of card of thick paper.

Once your are happy that you have finished adding your colours place a second piece of paper or card over the top of you tissue paper.


Take your brayer and roll it back and forth over your tissue sandwich applying plenty of pressure.

At this point the initial depth of embossing will be determined by the amount of pressure you apply and how many times you go over the paper with your brayer.


TIP: You can also use a rolling pin if you don't have a brayer.

But don't worry if your not happy with the embossed images depth when you have finished brayering you can apply more depth by using a sponge.

At the same time you can also add other highlights of further colours if you want to.

Once you are happy with your background leave it to dry naturally or you can use your heat gun to dry your paper if your in a hurry.

I like to sit and make a whole load of backgrounds all at once, which is great messy fun, and then I put them away to use at a later date. It saves a lot of time if you are in a hurry and need to make a quick card for someone.

I used this background on one of my Charity cards, the one with the orange toned topper, that you may have seen in my blog update on the 2nd Feb, or you can see the card on my website here.