Faux Snakeskin

Not long ago there was an article in Stamper's Quest by Kittie Caracciolo. This very talented lady did a card called "Faux Everything". I was totally intrigued and of course printed off the directions.

Here is my version of the "Faux Snakeskin". As I had almost none of the supplies that Kittie used I had to wing it. (as usual).

The Indian Stamp is by Ink Blocks. Check under Southwest and Native American to find this image and several other by the same artist. Ink Blocks is now owned by I Brake For Stamps.

The Indian is stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with Ranger Walnut Distressed Embossing Powder. A coluzzle was used to cut out the circle and the edges were sponged with black dye ink to add depth.







The feather is from a wild turkey.

Faux snakeskin!!!!!
1. Cut a sheet of kraft paper colored cardstock in quarters.
2. Lightly mist both sides to soften paper and get a sharper deeper texture when embossing with the texture plate.
3. Using the Fiskars snakeskin texture plate, place the plate on your mat, paper on top of the texture plate and then the embossing sheet. The embossing sheet is soft clean rubber that when pressure is applied by the die cut machine will push the paper down into the texture of the plate. Now put mats and shims over this until you have the correct recipe to achieve a nice texture on your dampened paper. Dry completely.
4. Use a brayer to apply Archival Ink. By using even light pressure the ink will only color the top of the snakeskin, accenting the texture. On some of my pieces of faux snakeskin I used some green and rust inks as well as several shades of brown, applying them lightly with sponges. I liked the results.
5. Snakeskin has a sheen to it. My sheen came from a coat of water based polyurethane. Again let it dry completely. You now have snakeskin.

Using archival permanent inks will keep the ink in place when you apply your "sheen" layer.
Remember that waterbased dye inks will be reactivated with most water based products you apply over them. They will "move" causing you to see part of your ink coming off the paper as you apply that polyurethane. Kittie used Modge Podge on her snakeskin. I didn't have any, so used what I had on hand that would give my snakeskin that shine of real snakeskin.