Hello Stamplings!
Normally, I like to finish my coffee with you while we chat about chatty schtuff, but today we are going to get right to my projects. The reason being is because I've got a batch of Christmas cards on the conveyor belt and you know what it's like to start a batch and then get disterupted. Think Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory!
At this month's Zoom session with friends, we played with embossing folders, another crafty product I have a bunch of, but tend to overcook.
Onefer
This is so brilliantly schparkly and golden that even the camera was successful in reflecting it without the need of a closeup!
I have a Gemini Jr. which I love for cutting dies, but pursuant to paragraph two above, I never got around to learning what sandwich it likes to eat when I use an embossing folder (e/f). So this Zoom session was also great because it forced me to figure out the menu for both my regular e/fs and my 3D e/fs. The e/f I used for this card came with the Gemini Jr. It's called Regency Swirls.
I learned two different techniques making this card. The first was double embossing. For that, you emboss your card front using one e/f and then you run it through a second time using a different e/f. First, I ran my blue-green panel through the machine using SU's 3D e/f called "Subtle." Which it is. And then I ran it through again using the Regency Swirls e/f.
The second technique was heat embossing part of the textured pattern you achieved during the first technique. For that, you pat your design's little bottom with your embossing buddy (or the like) to keep the embossing powder (e/p) only where you want it. Then you lightly tap your Versamark ink pad here and there in places where you want your e/p to stick.
I chose to use gold e/p and as you can see, haha, I apparently wanted the gold to stick everywhere! It's not aickshully the right artsy idea the technique is meant to convey, but as I always say, you can never have too much gold.
As such, I matted the card with glimmer gold paper, crop-0-diled the corners, added a schparkly gold ribbon (ribbon!), and then finished it with a thanks die from Simon Says Stamp in matching gold paper. I'll be making more of this beautiful gilded design for Christmas cards.
Challenges
- Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use those snippets! My blue-green paper and the sediment paper are snippets.
- Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Layer it up.
- UnstampaBelles: Inspire with a twist of thank you. Who inspired me to get into this craft? Sadly, it was so many years ago, I have lost touch with the ladies who invited me to my first SU workshop because they are no longer enjoying this hobby. But I do know ~ and am happy to be dear friends with ~ the ladies who first welcomed me into Blogland and the wonderful world of challenges, so this thank you is for them!
Twofer
Real quick, this design was made using a technique you are prolly familiar with. The one where you ink up your e/f, spray a piece of watercolor paper, place it in the folder, and then run the e/f through the machine. The e/f I used is a NBUS Spellbinders Floret Cluster. I used a portion of the piece to make a panel which I backed with a narrow plaid mat to keep the design CAS. The hugs sediment is from MFT. It was cut from the same embossed panel, which Hammy then backed with another cut made from black fun foam.
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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and be safe! LITS!*
*Life is too short!
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