I hope you are having a great start to the week. Next week I will be on holiday for a couple of weeks. I have been busy preparing 'scheduled posts' during my absence. I am looking forward to spending time with my daughter and grandson exploring London. My daughter and I are somewhat familiar with this wonderful city but this will be a 'first' for my grandson!
Today's card features Simon Says Stamp BE KIND. I really love this set of stamps and had to do another card. However, this card did not unfold easily for me .... a disconnect with the vision in my head and what came out on paper! I persevered!
I began this card with an ink blended background on a 4 1/4" by 5 1/2" panel of Bristol Smooth card stock. I used Distress Oxide Inks Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles and Peacock Feathers. After the ink was completely dry, this panel and a piece of matte gold cardstock were die cut with Simon Says Stamp A2 Fine Frames. The gold fine frame replaced the one cut out of the inked panel.
The leaf image was stamped on the central die cut panel with Versamark ink and embossed with WOW! embossing powder twice. The sentiment BE KIND was embossed once and the secondary sentiment was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black.
I painted the leaves of the branch with the same colours of distress oxide inks that were used for the blended background. Even with introducing an additional dark green oxide ink, Forest Green, I wasn't happy with the result. I felt the leaves did not stand out from the background. I thought I would highlight the image with a dusting of embossing powder. For this technique, the powder was sprinkled by hand sparingly around the leaves. The underside of the panel was heated until the powder began to melt and stick to the paper. The heat tool was then applied as normal ... heating the topside of the card stock.
Although I liked the look, I still felt the leaves were blending into the background. I used a Zig marker, Marine Green, to add more depth of colour to the base of each leaf. As I drew the colour out with a water brush, I was careful to maintain a highlight area.
To assemble the card, the central panel was mounted on white sheet foam. The outer die cut of this panel and the fine gold frame were held together with scotch tape so they could be more easily adhered to the card base. The foam mounted panel was attached. To finish up, the card was embellished with pretty green crystals. In the end, I liked the card but it was a bit of work getting to that point! I hope you like it, too!
FOR A VIDEO TUTORIAL, please link to YouTube.
Products used:
Simon Says Stamp; Be Kind, A2 Fine Frames
Strathmore Bristol Smooth
Distress Oxide Inks; Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles, Peacock Feathers, Forest Green
Versamark Ink
Versafine; Onyx Black
Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker; Marine Green
WOW! Embossing Powder; Metallic Gold Rich