Iris and Lace Card

This is the Darice Embossing folder I bought on Sunday. Originally I tried to do the letterpress thing where you brayer ink onto your embossing folder and then emboss it. I had planned on having a powder blue background with white lace, but unfortunately my letterpress things never look the way I envision them. So far, most of mine turn out blotchy and messy looking, so I revised my plan.

This time, I embossed a light aqua card and went over it lightly a couple of times with white ink and a sponge dauber. I wanted the white to contrast more than it did, but wasn't too bad, and I sort of liked the way a bit of the ink smudged onto the background so it wasn't just a solid color.

Then I kept playing with colors to mat the card with until I came up with these colors, which reminded me of some of the iris and hydrangea dimensional stickers I had from K&CO.

After I matted everything, I cut a white rectangle for the center and went around the outside of it with a Brilliance ink pad. Then I tried combinations of the iris and hydrangea stickers until I decided I liked this simple one. I added some fancy paper with glittered swirls from my stash to the rectangle as a background for the iris, cutting it just a hair smaller than the white rectangle. It was quite easy using my newest Fiskars trimmer with the wire thingy to show where your cut line is! Then I mounted the center dimensionally and added the sticker and a bow.

I was trying to decide whether or not to add a lot of flowers and things, or to keep it simple and let the glittery lace background, the embossing and the iris and bow be the stars of the show. In the end, I decided just to add four rhinestone to the corners to mirror the glitter in the center.

Pink Flowers and Butterfly Card

I took two photos of this card, one without the flash, and one with it. The one without the flash shows how well the butterfly matches, but is blurry and flat looking, and the one with the flash shows some of the shine on the card, but the butterfly is in the shadows.

For this card, I used a Marianne Creatables die. All the DP and paper embellishments are K&Co, the white paper is Core'dinations Pearl, the ribbon is Offray, the gold is three different pens, the shading is Brilliance Perfect Plumaria and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

All the layers are outlined with a gold pen, and all the die cuts are mounted dimensionally.

I wish I had outlined the flower and butterfly with gold, but didn't decide that until after they were mounted onto the card. I'm also not happy with the white between the flower stems. It would be very difficult to fussy cut them because of the way the dimensional sticker was made, but I may add a bit of pink shading to match the background.

Hanging Ornament Card

I didn't get a chance to make a card today, so I'm uploading an old one I never uploaded before.

This one uses an older JustRite Original Christmas stamp cut with one of the Spellbinders Ornaments dies. I used Dresden paper trim colored with Copics, and a gold pen around the edges. The stamp is embossed with gold EP. The ornament is hanging from a piece of gold thread and swings freely on the card.

The paper is Core'dinations Pearls, K&CO, and gold mirror card. I added gold outline stickers, gold pearls, and a gold bow to finish it. It was another fast and simple card I made a while back.

Roses and Lace Card

Today at work we had a lot of company, so I only had time to make a quick card.

I decided it was a good opportunity to try out some of the K&Co cards and envelopes I bought yesterday. This one was die cut with vellum behind the cut outs. I used a doily die cut from a pack made by Colorbok, and mounted it dimensionally in the center of the card.

Then, I mounted four prima leaves, with one of my Spellbinders Rose Creations roses in the center. After that, I added little roses in each corner and a bow at the bottom. The corner roses were some my local craft store sells, with some packaged cloth ones on either side.

Since I had the center rose already made, the whole card took less than half an hour to make.

I always feel like I am cheating when I start out with a ready made card background, but it is nice for quick cards, and the envelopes that came with it are very pretty and match the card.

After I made the card, I still had time to start making bows from my new ribbon. I like to have some bows made up in each color and different widths so I can try them on cards. The packs I got at TJ Maxx had 24 different colors in each pack, and I bought two of the ribbon packs, one in sheer colors, and one in solid satin, plus I had two spools of Christmas ribbon, so I've got a lot of bows to make, but it's fun and time saving when you are ready to add them to a card!