In the Pink!

Today's card is shows the 2nd pattern my new M-Bossibilities folder makes (see yesterday's post for the first one and the "sandwich" I used with my Big Shot).  It really IS nice to be able to emboss a full 5" x 7" card!

Since some of you like to see a bit about my process in designing cards, I have an interim picture on this one.  I started by embossing the card and then lightly inking the raised areas with a makeup sponge.  I had these pink glitter "innies" from a cut I made with my lattice die (that card next week), and I liked the idea of placing them and some sparkley stickers over the embossing pattern in certain spots.  The pink glitter innies were attached with foam tape for more dimension. You might be able to see what I mean better in this picture I took part-way through:

As you can see if you compare this picture with the one at the top of the post, I decided the focal didn't stand out enough and was a bit small, so I double matted it.  That meant I also needed to move some of the sparkley stickers.  The mat was attached with some double sided tape and some foam tape so that it sat at the same level as the other pink glittery pieces.  The "Thinking of You" was then added with more foam tape so it stands out from the mat a bit.  I case you wondered, the focal was cut with one of Spellbinders "Fancy Tags" dies.

Thank You!!!!!

Today's card comes with a BIG thank you to my brother & his wife who gave me a gift certificate for my birthday.  Today's card - made for them - showcases elements from the products I purchased. 

The embossing is done with a Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder.  I LOVE the 5" x 7" size and it worked great in my Big Shot.  The folders themselves are a bit thicker, so I couldn't  AND I just put the whole card in it so the lightweight cardstock was double thickness. I found that I couldn't use both cutting plates in my embossing sandwich.  I created my sandwich by placing the folded card in the folder (this made a double-thickness of the lightweight card), placing the folder directly on the multipurpose platform (closed) and placing a cutting plate on top.  It worked great!

Another great feature of these folders is that you get 2 for the price of one.  This same folder does a different emboss design!  Watch for my next post which will showcase the other emboss design.

As you can see, I inked the embossed design.  I used a makeup sponge dabbed into an ink pad and then rubbed lightly over the card. 

The card focal is another Spellbinders Product - a nesting die set called Splended Circles.   They really ARE splended, aren't they! :-)

Gingerbread Foil Die Cuts Challenge

Today's cards were the result of a bit of a challenge I set for myself.  I received a sheet of die cuts as a VIP gift from Paper Wishes (that means they recognize I've spent a lot of money there!). It was to give me a sneak peek at their new Gingerbread Foil Artful Card Kit.  The kit comes with 3 sheets of these foil die cuts, along with coordinating papers and greeting cutouts.  I decided to see what I could do with this ONE sheet of die cuts and papers from my stash (mostly Hot Off the Press).  Look for a bit of a surprise at the end of the post!

On this first card, the focal is based in one of the tags from the sheet.  I added ribbons on the sides & placed a 3-D Christmas Tree Dazzle in the center of it.  The Stamp was also from Paper Wishes.

My next card uses red glimmer paper and one of MaryAnn's wonderful cutting and embossing dies.  The tag looks great here, but I made a couple of modifications to it.  I cut a piece of the red paper that was small enough to show the silver foil outline of the tag, but large enough to cover the other colors that didn't go so well with my card.  I stamped a snowflake and sentiment on it with white pigment ink and added a foil star (also from the foil die cuts page). 

This particular die cut page had several tags.  Here's another one.  Though the papers are not from the kit, I thought they went pretty well with the other elements.  The border at the bottom of the card is a portion of a border from the kit.  The three elements in the upper right are as well.  The layered snowflake on the upper left is made using outline stickers - probably Dazzles.

Here a couple of tags are combined with Dazzles and mounted on a glittered cardstock background.   There's also a Dazzles Christmas Tree coupled with a peppermint candy and star topper (both from the die-cut sheet).

 This card makes use of a couple small tags and a peppermint from the die cut sheet, but pairs them with a clear overlay (from one of Hot Off the Press Christmas sets) that was layered on a white background.

The next card makes use of a VERY cute gingerbread house that comes on the sheet. There are a couple of candy canes and a star that are also from the sheet and were mounted in place on the house with foam tape.  The star then has a small Dazzles star on top of that.   The sentiment is stamped on a piece of coordinating paper, backed with white and trimmed with fancy-edged scissors before being added to the card.  The rest of the die-cut border runs along the bottom of the card.

Here's a really cute tree with a couple of snowmen - all from the die cut sheet.  I think the white Dazzle borders add a great touch.

I was nearing the end of the elements on my die cut sheet.  This brown and red tag was mounted on some cream paper (that was inked along the edges). I added a second tag which I created with stamps I had from Paper Wishes.  

By this time I just had one die-cut left, and decided to make a card for an occasion other than Christmas!  I needed a birthday card, so that's what I decided to make.  I stamped on the die-cut tag with red StazOn ink (because the tag has a bit of a shiny surface to it).  Then I stamped it a second time with a slightly different color to try to make it look a bit more like the color of the outline.  I added another element at the bottom with little word Dazzles.

Coloring and Shading - Aqua Painter

This card is one I made at a recent Stamp-in Up Party I went to. The basic elements of this card were provided by the instructor and I just adapted it a bit to suit myself. 

I love the embossing folder we used to make the embossed frame.  I used a make-up sponge and inked the raised part to help it stand out even better.

The stamp was great for creating a focal.  I like my colors to match well, so I love the way that they have inks that match the papers/cardstock/embellishments.

We used the aqua painter with the dye-based stamp pads to color in the stamped image. It worked great! I was glad to see how well it worked for shading as I just used less water with the ink where I wanted darker areas, and added more water to the ink to draw out lighter colors. I love being able to make my stamp pads do double duty - providing color for stamped images & for coloring them in.