A Fran-tage Tutorial

Hello darlings!

I wanted to share a humble little picture tutorial with you on how I add Fran-tage to my cards.

As I was making this card last night I thought I should take some pictures and make a tutorial.

So here we are!

Sorry in advance for the shadowy pics. It was late, and dark, and I was working at the kitchen counter where the light isn't the best.

I tried to add this post to my Tutorial page but alas,

 I have no idea how to do that so for now it's a regular blog post.

Let's begin...

This is what all the fuss is about! That fabulous shabby enamel by Stampendous! Fran-tage.

I have it in 5 different colors

Shabby Pink, Shabby Blue, Shabby White, Aged Silver, and Aged Gold.

I mostly just use the Shabby White.

This is what my card sort of looked like before I Fran-taged it!

Nothing was glued down yet because I like to do each layer of paper, one at a time before I assemble the card.

That way you get less buckling in your card from the heat having to travel through all the layers.

Trust me on this!

You'll also be more in control of where, and in which direction the enamel flies around when you do one piece, and one section at a time.

To Fran-tage takes patience! I don't always have that for this so I use the hottest heat tool I own. 

I have a couple of heat tools but I still love my original Milwaukea heat tool(paint stripping tool) circa 1980's from when I first started

 stamping/heat embossing.

That baby means business and it's HOT!

 You're going to need:

-Fran-tage

-Heat tool

-Versa Mark ink

-makeup sponge

-tweezers

-Empty chocolate box lid

Also, you will probably want to work in an area that's easy to clean up.

I prefer to use the kitchen counter.

In the past I've worked at the kitchen table and I now have enamel flecks melted to my hardwood floor!

Here, I've just inked up the makeup sponge and I'm dab, dab, dabbing in the corner and half way up each of the joining sides of paper.

I like to sponge and emboss small sections at a time.

Lay your paper in the chocolate or card box lid and sprinkle as much enamel over the versa mark ink as you like.

I was quite generous here.

-Press the enamel into the paper with your fingers before you begin heating.

This helps to keep all the fine loosey goosey fly-away flecks on your paper...kind of!

I'm holding the heat tool about 6"-8" away so that the enamel doesn't all fly off!

After about a minute you'll be able to see it beginning to melt/stick just slightly.

That's when I'll bring the heat tool in for the kill and hold it about 2"-3" away, turning the Fran-tage into a puddle of molten kewlness!

The idea here is to get as much enamel to stay on your paper as possible.

Be sure to shake the extra enamel from your box lid back into your container before continuing with each side so you don't end up making the bottom of your box too messed up with Fran-tage.

If good chocolate boxes are hard to come by, you can cover the inside of your box with a piece of tin foil and just replace when needed.

If you don't have a good box lid to work in, this will give you an excellent reason to buy your self a box of chocolates and to eat them...after all you need an empty chocolate box to keep with your craft stash.

I'm obviously not too worried about my box lid so it would seem I am getting enough chocolate! :)

 

  

I'm pressing the enamel into the versa mark here just before I take the heat tool to it.

Just so you know, it's not easy to heat emboss and take pics at the same time!

Thankfully nothing melted or caught on fire!

Like I said I was very generous with the Fran-tage application.

I tried to do it a little more sparingly on the top right hand corner side so you could see a difference.

This piece shows the Fran-tage sprinkled and pressed into the Versa mark that I dabbed on with the sponge.

I haven't applied the heat to the bottom section here yet.

 

 

Here you can see some melted and some not melted enamel.

make sure there is not enamel flecks on the main parts of your image!

You can keep a small paint brush handy to brush away any that might have blown onto an area where you didn't want it.

 

 

Ta-Da!  The molten lovliness!

 

 

I painted a chipboard heart with distress paint, then inked it up with Versa Mark ink and sprinkled lots of Fran-tage on top and pressed it down with my fingers.

 

 

Keeping the heat tool at a far enough distance away so that not all of the enamel blows all over the place.

You will need to play around with your heat tool to find out what distance and for how many minutes works best for you.

 

 

I love this part! When the glitter and enamel all melt and fuse together.

Let this cool for a couple minutes before you touch it or use a pair of tweezers to handle.

Here's a Prima flower that I sponged with Versa Mark ink and sprinkled Fran-tage on.

 

I think you can Fran-tage just about anything.

Please use caution when using your heat tool on different materials!

 

 

Here's the Prima flower after the enamel has been heated.

 

 

I should have timed this to see exactly how long it took me to Fran-tage everything but I think it was about 20 minutes?

It should go a little faster if you're not taking pictures as you go though.

So now I have all the layers and embellishments Fran-taged, and I'm ready to assemble my card.

 

 

Fran-tage can make your simply lovely card a fabulous piece of awe inspiring art!

Simple right?

The image I used on this card is a Pinkydolls digi called, Cookie with Bunny.

 

 

I love all the golden highlights and all the fabby shabbiness!

Whenever I make a card and think,hmmm it just needs something! I'll pull out the Frantage and that jazzes it all up!

I hope this tutorial was helpful to you! Please leave a comment and I will answer any questions here.

I think I used the word Fran-tage(d) 16 times in this post!

Your turn! Have fun!

B-U nique! Hugs!