Up, Up and Away

Continuing the retired stamp theme... I saw a very similar card on Pinterest and decided it would be fun to pull this retired stamp set out and CASE it. There were lots of steps since you have to stamp the ballons and fussy cut, cut the scallop square behind the scene, freehand cut the hillside, adhere to the white card square, run that piece through the Big Shot embossing folder, emboss the Pistachio Pudding cardstock through the embossing folder, then layer all the various pieces, remembering to add the lace trim, punch the little posies and adhere with glue dots and add the pearls. Whew! But such a pretty card!

What a mess!

These are the two cards I used for inspiration today. Again they have the same basic layout. I started with the card to the left and created quite a mess.

 Here's the mess... I wanted to use Glimmer paper as a mat but also wanted it to be in the Rich Razzleberry color. So I thought I would use my Razzleberry marker... didn't get much color with that... so tried direct to ink pad... a little better but it didn't want to dry and I wound up with smudges of Razzleberry everywhere! On top of that I was trying to mock the gold dots on the background of the commercial card; so I used my dotted embossing folder and inked it with silver Encore pad before running it through the Big Shot. I wound up with silver smudges there, too. Realize now I should have used a Sharpie to color the glimmer paper. And could have embossed the dots and then used silver pen to fill them in. 

Then I remembered I had Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper. So, I changed my color scheme and came up with this card. By the time I had the background images colored and stamped on the Whisper White cardstock I decided using the textured embossing folder was just going to make it too busy. So quit while I was pleased with the background and moved on to layering my other elements. I used Clear Wink of Stella on the tree and grass to give some sparkle to that image as the commercial card had sparkles on the pathway and church building. It's a nice touch that doesn't show up in the photo. 

The second card went together much more quickly and with no mess! I embossed some Shimmery White card stock and then used Clear Wink of Stella to add more sparkle to the embossed design. It is so pretty in real life but hard to get a good photo. I'm really happy with the Clear Wink of Stella; now thinking about ordering the Gold. Then it was a matter of coloring the stamped image. Instead of using lots of layers of cardstock to get the same framed effect as commercial card I decided to free-hand a line using Watermelon Wonder marker and then layering on Watermelon Wonder cardstock which I trimmed freehand to match the wavy look of the drawn line. 

I also used the inside of this commercial card for my card interior. See how the flowers are hanging upside down. I would never have thought to do that. But I did give it a try and am pleased with the way it looks. 

Dry Embossing on Designer Series Paper

This card was made using my Big Shot and an embossing folder on Designer Series Paper. When you run the DSP through the embossing folder it breaks the fiber and will leave the white showing. I used a sanding block and carefully rubbed on the raised edges to bring out more of the white. It makes for a very quick and elegant background.
This embossing folder is retired but there are lots of new ones that would look pretty, too. The stamped expression comes from the retired Watercolor Wishes stamp set.

Anniversary card

This is the same card using two different techniques to edge the layered white card stock. On the top card I used my Simply Scored Scoring Tool with the Borders Plate to make the dry embossed border. On the bottom card I used Essentials pack to paper pierce the border. The hearts are punched using the Sweetheart punch. When I went to pull some scraps of Pink Pirouette I found some that were already embossed with an embossing folder in my Big Shot. I save everything! I like the way that embossing added a little something to this simple card. Happy accident!