There are so many great papers out on the market now that stamping an absolutely stunning card can be acheived in only a matter of minutes. I love rich texture - so I loved this paper from Best Creations... it has glitter and layering which inspired the final card design. To create this card I used a Flourish from my Rubber Stamp Tapestry Flourish Plate I clear stamp set, Happy Birthday Script from my Rubber Stamp Tapestry Phrase set ( which again has beautiful delicate lines and a huge array of words for all occassions). The beautiful frame is from the Love Letters Clear stamp set from Inkadinkadoo - another great versatile set (the forever card used a piece of this set) What I absolutely love about owning clear stamps is how versatile the sets are and how easily I can create new images by using designs from multiple sets. If you have not ventured into clear stamps yet...you don't know what you are missing!! More Designs for less Money, Easy Storage, the ability to see exactly where you will be stamping plus the ability to create your own images by interchanging your sets. So let me show you the original paper I started with first:
Isn't it just gorgeous!!
Next I added in some flourishes in the upper left hand corner. I stamped multiply flourishes with versamark and then I sprinkled superfine gold embossing powder from ranger and chocolate embossing powder from Gelatins across the stamped images - randomly...this gave me several gradations of color within the same flourish. Now of course I should explain that the Chocolate Embossing Powder from Gelatins-really smells like chocolate and it keeps it's scent for 2 or 3 weeks after you emboss with it ----sounds like a great embossing powder for Valentine's Day-----Doesn't it!! Next I stamped my frame using Adriondack Espresso embossing powder. Then I added the Happy Birthday in superfine black embossing powder, which I could easily line up to stamp since my stamps were clear. I love embossing powder- I like the raised shiny surface and the crisp lines I got from both these acyrlic clear sets. Now I reviewed my design and slowly added more flourishes...a couple at a time...the first layers I used both the gold and the gold/ chocolate mix (which I now have in an empty jar - for my own personal embossing recipe).
Now I decided to add more Flourishes in just the chocolate embossing powder (besides the great chocolate scent - this is a really rich chocolate brown embossing). By this time my husband surfaced into my classroom to ask if I was planning on sharing any of my chocolate stash. He was a little disappointed when I announce that I didn't think my embossing powder was edible.
I wish I had taken a picture of my original medallion...it had beautiful design and dimension, but it was entirely silver, which wasn't the direction my card design was going in. So I used my Krylon Gold Leafing Pen and altered the center medallion. I used my B110 Copic Sketch Marker to highlight the spokes of the medallion and I added a beautiful Gold Rhinestone from KaiserCrafts to the center on the Medallion.
Next I placed Olive Swirl Ribbon from Creative Impressions on the card...don't you love how this ribbon replicates the swirls in my flourishes. I decided to try using V2 Vellum Adhesive Spray to adhere the ribbon as it is so sheer and I am very happy to report that it worked beautifully!!
Now I wasn't 100% happy with the overall design, I felt I still needed a little something to balance the card design so I decided to add 1" and 1/2" mirrored squares into my design. These are from Darice and come as as a mixed bag with 2 sizes. Since many of my blogging pals have been playing with inchies - I thought it would be fun to incorpoarate these mirrored inchies. I used sections of the flourish stamp that I stamped the card with, on the mirrors and embossed them with the Chocolate Embossing Powder. Be very careful if you try this...the mirrors got extremely hot when I embossed them. I played with them on my card until I liked their configuration....and of course I asked my husband for a little design consultation. I think he has even missed blogging!! (Please don't tell him I told you that).
