MFT January Tips & Tricks–Dry Embossing with Inked Stencil

Hey there, and welcome to MFT’s January Tips & Tricks Feature! Today I’m going to show you how to stretch your products—in this case stencils. Stencils lend themselves all kinds of coloring mediums but they also are fabulous for dry embossing. Add ink to dry embossing and you have yet another way to use your stencils.

Here’s what you’ll need for this technique: stencil, card stock, and ink—and a die cutting machine. I use my Cuttlebug for dry embossing because my Vagabond exerts so much pressure that it warps the card stock. My ‘bug does a great job with no warping.

First step is to ink up one side of your stencil—doesn’t matter which side with MFT stencils. You can do it directly with the ink pad, dabbing straight up and down until the stencil is covered or use a brayer to apply the ink.




Next we’re going to dry emboss some card stock with the inked up stencil. Your sandwich will be: whichever plates your machine requires; I use A and C plates on the bottom, then the THIN pad from the Die-namics Embossing Pad Combo and some thin copy paper to protect the pad. This is not strictly necessary since you can wash it right off but I usually do it (I left the pad edges showing purposely here so you could see the stack). Then the card stock and the stencil, ink side down, and the top plate, in my case a B.




Run it through your machine as usual and this is what you end up with. I showed Berrylicious dye ink in the photo above but decided to do another one using Sno Cone dye ink for this card. I love the kinda “splotchy” look the brayer gives—almost a marble look.



To complete the card I used Sweet Nothings Stamp Set, Lots of Hearts and Lots of Hearts Outlines Die-namics, and Sweet Stack Paper Pack from the January Release along with some foam tape for dimension and some embellishments.

And that’s it from me for this month’s Tips & Tricks feature from MFT. Thanks so much for stopping by! See you soon!

All products from My Favorite Things unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Sweet Nothings
Die-namics: Lots of Hearts, Lots of Hearts Outlines
Stencils: Lots of Heart
Dye Ink: Sno Cone, Black Licorice
Patterned Paper: Sweet Stack
MFT Card Stock: Sweet Tooth, Cotton Candy, Red Hot
Supplies: foam mounting tape
Tools: Smart Grid Paper Pad, Mini MISTI, Mini MISTI Grid Paper Pad, MISTI Bar Magnets, Square Bone Folder, Scor-Buddy, craft tweezers, Die-namics Embossing Pad Combo

Other: Die-cutting machine, paper cutter, tape runner, Multi Medium Matte Glue, QuickStik Pick-up Tool, Precision Tip Glue Applicator Bottle, plastic eraser, Sprinkles, hemp cord