Valentine Card - I Hope You See

 Hi everyone, Maria here from Stamp, Cut, Create! Today I'm sharing another Valentine I made along with a mini tutorial on using UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). My card was inspired by an Inkadinkado stamp that resembled an eye chart. I don't have the stamp, but instead created the image using Word and then printing it out. The red frame is from the Art Philosophy cartridge and I used the Gypsy to tweek the size, adjusting the height and width so it would just fit around the printed image. I then added some doodling with a white Gelly Roll pen.
The glasses are from the Forever Young cartridge. I wanted them to look like shiny plastic frames, and that's where the UTEE comes in. Like any embossing powder, the first step is use a medium that will make it stick to the surface you are heat embossing. For this, I use Versamark. When I'm covering an entire image, I simply place it directly on the pad and tamp it down to completely coat it with the Versamark.

This is what the piece should look like with a good, wet covering of the Versamark.

The next step is to coat the piece with the UTEE. I store my UTEE along with a plastic spoon in a plastic container with a lid. (Not my original idea, but a good one!) I hold the piece with tweezers over the container and sprinkle the UTEE on it until it's completely covered.

 Then I tap the piece until all the excess UTEE falls off. There will be a small space where the tweezers were, but you can simply dip that corner in the tub and again tap off the excess.

The next step is to use the heat gun to melt the UTEE. I have a ZAP! by American Crafts and so far have been very happy with it. Start applying the heat and in a few seconds you will see the UTEE begin to melt, keep moving the heat source along the entire piece until it is all melted. I use long tweezers for this step, because it does get hot and I've burned my fingers on more than one occasion! Don't keep the heat on too long or the UTEE will turn white.

After the first coat your image will sometimes look bumpy like this. Not to worry though, simply repeat the process of  Versamark, UTEE, then heat and it should come out like this:

Doesn't that look like a plastic eye glass frame? I think so! You can actually continue to add coats of UTEE until the piece is your desired thickness. Another nice thing, if you end up with a blemish on it, you can simply re-apply the heat and melt it out.

Here are the completed glasses with all the layers put together. I  added some bling with Swarovski heat set crystals and adhered it to the card with foam tape.
The heart paper is from SEI's With All My Heart Collection. It's mounted on a slightly larger piece of Hollyhock paper from CTMH. I machine stitched the edges with a silver metallic thread by Sulky. Finally, I added some adhesive rhinestones to the bottom of the card.
Thanks again for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed the card and the mini tutorial. I also hope you all have a very happy Valentine's Day!
Maria