Flocking: It’s not just for sheep

Martha Stewart.  Who would have thought I would admire the prowess of a convicted felon?  The crafty prowess that is.  And not me.  But I do admire her, in general.  Specifically, her line of DIY crafting products. 

I have learned more about treat bags, card making and scrapbooking stickers from this lady than I thought I would ever want to know.  Since my latest addiction is card making, I had to check out flocking.  I had no idea what it meant and had to do a little research to understand it.  It’s basically like heat embossing but rather than stamp the image with ink, you use glue.  And you don’t have to use the heat gun to melt anything.  You just sprinkle the fuzzy flocking powder onto the stamped image and wait for the glue to set.  This turned out to make flocking a little more forgiving.  There wasn’t any stray powder melted onto areas of my card.  And while the end effect is fuzzy rather than shiny, it’s still pretty and dramatic. 

Michael’s had a 4 pack of flocking powders for, get this, $1.  One jar of Martha’s powder is around $4.  Granted it’s a much bigger bottle but this way I got to try out this technique without breaking the bank.  I also bought a non Martha brand of glue pad.  I was so disappointed with the clear stamp pad in the embossing kit that I decided to try another brand.  Plus if I didn’t like flocking, I could use the glue pad for stamping with glitter. 

I bought the Martha Stewart flocking starter kit.  It has individual images printed out on double sided adhesive paper.  This way you can cut out the image you like, rub on the project you are doing and ta da! flock away.  The little bambi deer image was so cute I about died.  And the flocking is on sheets that you rub onto the sticky image.  This was less messy but just didn’t provide the results I got with the powder.  And I don’t know where to buy the image or flocking sheets once I run out.  The kit was also pricey ($14.99) for only 6 sheets of images and flocking.

I guess I really love the idea of Martha more than the actual woman.  Her prices are a little exorbitant for me.  Her packaging looks nice and streamlined but is too fussy for my tastes.  However, I would love for her graphic designers to come be my neighbors.  Those people can make some boring old grass look cute and inviting.