Fun Technique for Leaves & Flowers

It's been awhile since I posted on my blog - been super busy.  I'm going to try to get back to posting more regularly, but it probably won't often be more than once a week because of schedule changes in my personal life.  Anyway, I wanted to share this card with you today.  It is really shiny & shimmery in person -- always hard to capture that on camera.  Today I'll be focusing on how I added dimension to the flower & leaves. 

First, here's my list of materials and tools:

• white glimmer paper
• green glimmer paper
• pink patterned paper (from Hot Off the Press)
• pink foil paper (not sure where I got that)
• stamps from JustRite ("Be Strong" and "Antique Valentine Tags One")
• white brad
• pink & green pads (I used green "Page Craft" and pink shimmer "Brilliance" inks)
• adhesive
• M-Bossability embossing folder ("Imperial")
• Spellbinders dies ("Petite Scalloped Oval Large", "Resplendent Rectangles", and "Rose Creations")
• Grand Caliber (could also use Big Shot or other die cut machine if it's large enough)
• Paper Crimper or Corrugator

Instructions:

Background & Frame:

• Cut the patterned paper 1/8" smaller than your card in each direction so it will leave only about 1/16" of the card for a border around it.  
• Using the pink ink, inked the edges of this and let it dry.  Then cut out and embossed the center of it using the largest Resplendent die, setting the cut-out aside for use in another project.  This creates the piercing around the inner edges of the patterned paper.  
• Cut and emboss the frame out of pink foil using all three of the largest dies in the Resplendent set.  
• Using the largest Resplendent die, cut a piece of white glimmer paper that had been embossed with the M-bossabilities folder.
•  Before attaching anything to the card itself, tape the pieces together from the back.  Center the foil piece inside the patterned paper and tape it together, then tape the white piece in place.  Now you can attach the whole to your card front with everything staying where you want it.

Sentiment:

• Stamp frame in pink on white card stock, then stamp sentiment in green in the middle.
• Cut out with the 2nd smallest of the scalloped oval dies
• Using the next larger scalloped oval die, cut and emboss a piece of the pink foil for the mat
• Glue the sentiment to the mat and then mount it to the card using foam tape for extra dimension. 

FLOWERS:  

• Cut each piece of the Rose Creations set (except for the leaves) out of the hot pink vellum. 
• Add dimension as shown below:

This was my "test" petal.  I've seen some really nice kits with different sized embossing-type tools that work great for flowers, but I don't happen to have one of those.  I first tried using the largest side of my standard embossing tool.  I placed the flower on the back side of a small mouse pad and rubbed in circular motions on the inside part of the leaf.  You can see the result on the petal in the lower right corner.  It turned the petal whitish and left all sorts of marks - not a bad look if you want it, but it wasn't what I was going for.  I really wanted a larger tool!  I decided to use the rounded end of my gel pen cover!  It worked great.  I used it on the rest of the petals.  It added a nice textured rounding to the leaves without discoloring them.  For my real flower, I used this "tool" on all of them - just pressing in a circular motion with the end of the covered pen.  For the smallest petals, I just placed the pen in the center of each petal and pressed while twisting it just a bit.  I was quite happy with the result.

LEAVES:

• Cut two large and one medium leaf from green glimmer paper.  
• The idea for how to add dimension to the leaves using a paper corrugator came from a Spellbinder's video, and it works great!  Simply folded the leaf in half lengthwise:

• Then run it through a paper corrugator! (They used a straight one, I only have the wavy one, so used that -- worked great)  Just place your folded leaf into your corrugator, tip side first, at a 45 to 60 degree angle with folded side down. Then run it through. 

• It comes out looking like this:

• And when you open it up you have this:

Isn't it cool?  LOVE IT!!!!  So quick and easy!  Your other option is to simply use your stylus and a mouse pad to emboss your own lines.  The smallest leaf shown above is approx 1/2" by 3/4" and perhaps looks better with the stylus-embossed lines, because the corrugator's lines are a bit far apart for a leaf that small.  Here is a picture comparing the two techniques on the smallest leaves:

The one on the left is hand-embossed with a stylus. The one on the right is just run through the crimper. I like the spacing of the hand embossed, but the crimper actually gives a bit more depth.  What do you think?

Have fun playing!