Two of my Favorite Things, and they are both embossed

I can't think of any technique which say Wow like embossing. Whether you are using embossing powder and a heat gun to give your stamped image that shine and pizazz that pops off the cardstock or the deep impressions you get using a dry embossing template, nothing attracts more attention, making the simplest of designs extra special. Here are some examples of both types. Shiny Black butterflies colored with inks and a water brush, jump off the card where white embossed  simple flowers form the background of the card. Click on an image to see more detail.

The stamp set used on the blue card is Treasure Life D1306 for the flowers, I believe the butterfly is retired.

My personal favorite is the look of dry embossing which is easily obtained by using your embossing templates and your sizzix or cuttlebug machine. I think I could add embossing to just about every project and it wouldn't be too much. The texture is something special and adds the Wow factor to plain white cardstock like nothing else does.

White Daisy cardstock and black ink stamped between two sections of dry embossing using the Dotted Swiss cuttlebug embossing template. Stamp set is Captured Moments C 1423. Another example of this stamp set (one of my favorites) is in the next card. I believe that the embossing template is Branches by cuttlebug, the paper is some old retired CTMH and the image is stamped in Chocolate and color added by CTMH markers in fall colors.

Another great technique with the dry embossing is to emboss on colored cardstock, and CTMH has the perfect white core colored cardstock for the technique. Simple dry emboss using the dotted swiss cuttlebug folder, and sand lightly exposing the white core and the embossing pops off the cardstock. Each layer was dry embossed on this last card and I love the effect. Stamps from The Present D1436.