You Make Life Bearable...and a small tutorial

Back to retro so to speak.  I used a couple old techniques that I forgot about, Shrink plastic and embossing on brads to change colors.  I used a Technique Junkie new Technique called masked Spellbinders for the image area.  Oh and the bear image and saying are from an old Dream Impression set call You Make Life Bearable.  I colored it with Prisma pencils but didn't like it so I went over it with Copics.  Still not the happiest but it is better.  Under the bear is a Spellbinder Pendant sponged with brown ink and I stuck a few Martha punches in around it all layered on top of a piece of brown ran through Cuttlebug folder and rubbed a brown pad over it. Now the greeting was HUGE, I think planned for the inside but I wanted it on the outside and a lightbulb went off, SHRINK PLASTIC!  It's been a long time since I used that.  I stamped it in Brown Stazon  and did the foot prints on top after I off stamped the first impression on scrap paper so it wouldn't overpower the greeting.  Next it was cut out with the same Spellbinder die I did for the image, one of the new Labels. (sorry, don't remember what number) and sponged that edge too.  Next punched a hole; always remember to do that before you shrink it and heat it and you can use a big hole punch since it shrinks a lot.  When it was cool I tied it to the image with some twine. 
Now for the brads...I can't believe I keep forgetting this technique!  It's really easy and if you don't have the right color brad, you can color one.  This card I used some brown distress embossing powder and it gave a neat look. 
TIP: use a wire snips or similar tool to cut the ends off of a brad that too long.  The ones I used on this card and tutorial are a box I got at an office supply store for CHEAP!  But the ends are to long for the edges of cards so they need trimming.

What you need are something to hold it (I used a hemostat, you could use a pliers or needlenose), embossing pad, piece of styrofoam, brad you want to change color of and some embossing powder the color you want (or use pigment ink the color you want and clear embossing pad, the color won't be quite an intense though) and a heat gun.  I don't know about you but I have tons of colored EP and never use it like I should. 

I dipped it on a Versamark pad and then right into the embossing powder (I used weathered wood for this series). Then I heated it.  I repeated this 2 times.

I use an old piece of styrofoam to hold it until it cools since if you set it on it's edge, it will mess up the edges. 

Here is a close up of what it looks like, it's got a dimple distressed look I just love!  If you want, you can repeat the dipping process another time.  So just buy silver or gold brads and make the color you want!