Fabulous Vine and Flowers

I had so much fun making this card and I really love the way it turned out. The glossy paper and all the gold accents catch and reflect light beautifully.

I made it to satisfy two different challenges on SCS. The first was a Ways to Use It challenge to use a faux technique.  The second was a Mixed Media challenge to use a die cut shape that was made out of some sort of text. I figured if I was already going to cut up a magazine for the mixed media challenge, I might as well also use it for the faux technique.

I started with die cutting a magazine article with the Flowers & Vine #3 Bigz die from Sizzix. The resulting die cut was so delicate and flimsy that I also die cut a piece of very vanilla cardstock and glued the printed page to the card stock for stability. I wanted to actually use the die cut piece as a vine, so I sponged the whole thing with gumball green ink.

Next I found pictures that I could use for the faux cloisonné technique. I stamped flower images from the Flower Shop and Petite Petals sets and the butterfly from Backyard Basics in versamark and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder. In the past I would have fussy cut them all out, but today I got smart and chose flowers that had coordinating punches and a butterfly that I could die cut with the coordinating framelits.

Once my pieces were all die cut and punched, I arranged them on top of a plain vanilla card stock mat to see what I wanted to do next. The card definitely needed more bling and dimension. I took al the pieces off and started to add elements. I stamped the very vanilla mat with the Sanded background stamp in river rock ink. I also added a couple of pieces of gold foil washi tape in the upper left corner. I layered a small flower over a large flower with a dimensional and added some gold cord underneath the large flower before taping this assembly in the center of the vine. I added another small flower to the top of the vine with a dimensional. Finally, I attached the butterfly to the mat with two way glue along the spine so that I could fold up its wings for dimension (the picture on which I embossed the butterfly was made of sturdier paper that allowed me to do this without having to glue the die cut butterfly to card stock.)

The card looked OK at this point, but I wanted more bling so I added three gold sequins. I definitely could have left it there, and I wondered if going one step further would be too much, but I couldn't stop myself. I used a stamp from the Oval All set to stamp the sentiment and flower image on the same magazine photo as the butterfly in versamark ink. I stamped the flower image for a  second time on a photo with a different color so that I could create interest with layering. I gold embossed everything and punched the sentiment out with the large oval punch. I also punched a scalloped oval mat from the photo on which I embossed the second flower. I fussy cut this small flower (couldn't get away without fussy cutting after all) and layered it over its twin on the sentiment image before attaching the sentiment assembly to the very vanilla mat with more dimensionals.

Now the card was done and all that was left to do was attach the very vanilla decorated mat to the crumb cake card base. Well that, and to give it away to a fabulous friend :).

Recipe:

Paper: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake
Ink: Gumball Green, Versamark, River Rock
Stamps: Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Backyard Basics, Oval All, Sanded
Accessories: Gold Cord, Gold embossing powder, Petite Petals Punch, Pansy Punch, Backyard Basics Framelits, Large Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Flowers & Vine #3 Bigz die from Sizzix, Gold Foil paper tape by Studio 112 from K&Company. Crafter's Corner gold sequins from Greenbriar Inc.

Stampin' Pastel Birthday

I stamped this card recently for my mom's birthday and it not only took me out of my comfort zone, it reinvigorated my love of stamping. I know the photos I've been posting are not that great (I didn't take them with the blog in mind, so they're not lit up correctly) so you'll have to take my word for how pretty this looked in real life. It's a mixed medium card because in addition to traditional ink stamping, I also used stampin' pastels.

Long-time readers of the blog might remember that I absolutely adore using stampin' pastels, but for whatever reasons I haven't done so in a really long time. Even when I did use them more frequently, I never used them in quite this way. I'll admit it was time consuming, but well worth it in the end.

Now, I know Stampin' Up! no longer offers pastels, so it may be a little unfair to rave on and on about them since many people cannot get their hands on them anymore. Still, for those like me, who may have let their pastels gather dust, I hope this card inspires you to take them out and play!

Here are the details for my card:

1. The card base is 5"x7" and it was pre-dry-embossed with a striped pattern.
2. I used the Sizzix embossing folder for the main image. The folder is slightly bigger than 5.5"x4.25", which makes it perfect for this bigger card. After I dry embossed a piece of whisper white card stock, I used cotton swabs to apply stampin' pastels to the raised areas. Of course, the beauty of using SU stampin' pastels is that they match perfectly with the SU inks. I'll admit I had a couple of mishaps where the color slipped onto the base, but the eraser that came with the Stampin' pastels quickly took care of those. 
3. I stamped the sentiment in the center of the card and the cake slice to the side. I colored the cake slice with stampin' pastels as well.
4. Last but not least I stamped the flowers on a separate piece of whisper white, punched them out and attached the to the card front with dimensionals. I added a mat to separate the main image from the card base and voila!

I was shocked at how easy it was to use the pastels to color even the most detailed parts, like the dotted swirls. I can't wait to use the pastels on more embossed cards. 

Recipe (Stampin' Up! products unless otherwise indicated)

Paper: Rose Red, Whisper White, A7 Embossed white card base by DCWV

Ink: Lovely Lilac, Basic Gray, Rose Red, Regal Rose, So Saffron

Stamps: Sassy Salutations, Sketched Birthday, Petite Petals

Accessories: Stampin' Pastels, Petite Petals Punch, Dimensionals, A6 Birds and Branches Embossing Folder by Sizzix