Tutorial Friday By MEGAN

I love using wood chips to add a little texture and dimension to my paper crafting projects! I usually leave them bare and natural, but sometimes you need a little extra color. There are lots of different ways to color your wood chips, and each of them gives you a slightly different look! I grabbed some arrow words and got to work. 1. Ink it Press or daub an ink pad directly onto your wood veneer until it is covered! Different inks will give you different looks. This pigment ink pad has a slight texture, but solvent and dye ink pads will have a flatter look. If you're looking to stamp a pattern onto your chip, use pigment ink: dye and solvent will bleed and spread through the woodgrain. 2. Paint it A tiny blob of paint goes a long way! Grab your paint brush or take the easy way out, as I did, and smear it on with your finger. You might need a toothpick or similar tool to make sure paint doesn't build up in the small nooks and crannies of your chip. I like seeing the grain through the paint, but several coats will do the trick if you want full coverage. 3. Heat emboss it Grab clear embossing ink, embossing powder, and a heat gun to cover your chip in a gorgeous raised finish. There are tons of embossing powders that will give you different looks. I'm using a metallic finish here, but there are also opaque, glitter, and distress finishes. You can even combine color ink and clear embossing powder if you don't have the color of powder you need! New to heat embossing? Learn how here. 4. Glitter it Use a glue pad to get some adhesive on your chip, then dump the glitter on! Make sure you do this over a piece of paper, so you can funnel the excess back into your container. You'll likely be able to see though to the wood with this method, so add a matching color layer underneath first if this bugs you. 5. Color it Use crayons, markers, colored pencils, or pastels to simply color on the chip. Watch out, because this method isn't archival safe if you are using products outside of those made for memory keeping. 6. Mist it Mist several times to get total coverage as I did, or spray once to get that lovely speckled mist look. Make sure to spray your chip inside of a box to prevent ink from getting everywhere! 7. Glitter glue it Use glitter glue (I like Stickles) on your chip. You can carefully trace the chip with the glue for a raised look, or your can do as I did and smear the glue all over. The later method of application will cause more of the wood to show through. You'll also probably need to clean out corners with a toothpick. There you have it: Seven ways to get color onto your wood chips--and all of the methods can work together harmoniously! What's your favorite way to color wood chips? I usually just base my method decision on the colors I have available! P.S. Having trouble keeping your chips still while you're working with them? I use craft tweezers to keep them in place so I don't get my fingers messy! -Megan