Crayon Rubbings - making your own templates

As a child, I used to love making crayon rubbings - bark, coins, old coins, shells, bumpy paper, textured surfaces... I used crayons, coloured pencils, and pastels.  I layered colours on top of each other.  I used different colours next to each other. I used white crayon and water colour paint over the top.

Today I explored with making my own templates to create crayon rubbings, using my Cuttlebug embossing machine and acetate.  Acetate is a thin, clear plastic sheet which you can get from art supply shops. I use acetate rather than paper to make the templates because it is more hardy and won't rip or tear and should hold its shape. You might be able to use a clear laminated sheet but I haven't tried it, so just experiment with what you can get/can think of.

You will need a cuttlebug, (or other embossing machine) so if you don't have one, you might like to ask around and see if a friend has one you could use.

Materials:
Cuttlebug
Acetate or sheets of clear thin plastic
Embossing folders

Cut the acetate to fit your embossing folder and insert into folder.

Sandwich the embossing folder between your plates.  Your sandwich should be:

A Plate on the bottom
B Plate
Embossing Folder
B Plate

Open up the Cuttlebug.
Place plates on one side of the platform.

Turn the handle to run the plates through to the other side.

I reverse the handle and make it run back and forth for a couple of times.
Turn the handle so that the plates come out at the other side.
Take acetate out of embossing folder.

Place underneath paper.
Use crayons or coloured pencils to colour paper and reveal the embossed image.