Sticky Barc: A Masculine Solution

Today’s tutorial is all about X-Press It’s newest family member Sticky Barc, which is a very fine sheet of wood, yes real wood, cut very thinly with a robust sheet of adhesive on the back.  Sticky Barc comes in two shades Cherry and White Birch, I have used the Cherry in my tutorial today the White Birch is a much lighter coloured wood, you could even mix them up on one project.  

For me the option to add wood to projects automatically speaks up for masculine cards and layouts,  I started my project today with one Sheet of Cherry Sticky Barc, cutting a 10x10cm piece for the first project, and then a series of strips for the second project.  I cut my Barc with a metal ruler and scalpel, but the Barc cuts really well on a paper trimmer as well.

This first card uses die cuts with the Sticky Barc.  You can cut Sticky Barc with all sorts of dies, I opted to use this star die today to demonstrate that even pointed cuts and thin shapes cut well.  It is best to consider the grain when cutting the sheet of wood, but the trusty X-Press It adhesive that backs the Barc keeps the wood stable.  You can cut from the face down into the Barc, or as I have done in this example, I cut from the adhesive back forward, this was primarily so that I could have the stars appear in the order that they do, as the die has the three stars on one piece of metal; but it works both ways.

Once I had cut the shapes out with the die, it was as simple as pushing out the stars and separating them, using the negative space left from the die cut as a feature that allows the background FabScraps Summer Lighthouse 2 paper to shine on through when the card is assembled.  Another great feature of Sticky Barc is that the backing sheet (to the adhesive) is applied in strips, this allows you to take pieces of the backing off at a time.  This is great as it takes the pressure off having to reveal whole sheets of the Barc at once when applying to your project.  I removed one piece of the backing paper, lined up from the bottom of the piece (where the adhesive is yet to be exposed) to get the position right, and then pressed the Barc into place.  Then it is a simple case of pulling back the remaining backing sheet to secure the rest of the Barc.

I coloured the cascading stars with a Copic Marker, the Barc takes Copic Ink really well, adding colour and allowing the texture of the wood to remain.  Stamping is also a great way to add interest and texture to the Barc, as the wood is natural in its form it does absorb the ink, so expect a little bit of blurring for your image, I think this adds a nice softness to the stamping, and once again allows the grain of the wood to remain a feature.

I added an image to the mix of stamped and cut Sticky Barc to finish off this little card.

The second card uses strips of the Sticky Barc.  The Barc is easily sectioned into strips, cut with the grain when you do this, I didn’t measure the strips just cut them at varying intervals across the piece of Barc.  I ran a Dark Brown Copic Marker along the edges of each of the strips before I started to build my background.  I have used long strips of Barc for this design, but you could also use shorter blocks, and fashion a wood wall, this would be a great way to use any “left over” Barc from other projects…. Even mixing up the two colours of Barc, or colouring the wood in different colours.

After building the background, I added an acetate tag which holds the name of the recipient of this card.  Using acetate allowed as much of the background as possible to be seen, and to remain a feature of this card.

Sticky Barc is a fabulous product, it cuts well, is easily coloured with ink, and altered with stamps.  Fashion backgrounds as I have done today, or build up flower and butterfly embellishments for your more feminine creations.

Here are the products I used in my project today:

X-Press It Stick Barc Cherry

X-Press It 6mm Double Sided Adhesive (on the card layers)

X-Press It Clear Gel (to secure the tag/button

FabScraps Summer Lighthouse 2 Paper

Until next time, I hope your creations are about to get "woody", enjoy!

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