Happy Holidays Series | Northern Lights ft. Lawn Fawn "For You, Deer"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

For today's Holiday card I wanted to try something I had seen on Pinterest. Northern Lights! I've never even attempted this before, and I'm not incredibly thrilled about how they turned out, but they certainly aren't bad for my very first attempt and I'll definitely be trying them again in the future. I loved how the rest of the card turned out so I thought I would share it anyway.

To begin, I stamped the back side of these reindeer from Lawn Fawn's "For You, Deer" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I coloured them with Copic markers and then cut them out with the coordinating dies. I popped them up on foam tape and set them aside.

I used Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron for the first layer of my galaxy sky. I then began to layer on the blues starting with Faded Jeans, Blueprint Sketch and then Chipped Sapphire. For the darkest edges I used Black Soot, then set the panel aside to dry completely.

I used the "Stitched Hillside" Border dies by Lawn Fawn, I didn't want the stitching on the hillside so I used the other side of the cut. I used some Nuvo Embellishment Mousse to add a bit of shimmer and colour to the top of the hills. Once that was dry, I prepped the bottom with my powder tool and heat embossed my greeting using Copper embossing powder by Recollections.

Before assembling my card, I splattered some Copic Opaque white over the sky to create the stars and bright gouache paints to make my Northern Lights. I wanted to capture the movement of the lights so I started lighted with light green and added darker green and bright blue in an upward flicking motion with a dry stiff brush.

Finally, I assembled my panel and mounted it to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series | ft. Foiling and Lawn Fawn "Blissful Botanicals"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card that involves a couple of techniques that I thought would be fun together. While this card has a bunch of dimension, there isn't a lot of bulk, so it will still fit in a standard envelope with no additional postage.

To begin, I cut a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock down to 2" x 5 1/2" and stamped images from Lawn Fawn's "Blissful Botanicals" randomly to create a strip of my own patterned paper. I coloured them with Copic markers and adhere it directly to the front of my standard A2 sized card base.

I then cut down a second panel to 3 1/4" x 5 1/2" and prepped that with my powder tool. I stamped a couple of the images from the same set with VersaMark ink and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder.

I let my heat gun get good and hot before bringing it to the paper to avoid warping. I also alternate applying the heat between the front and the back to further minimize the warping of the paper.

For the greeting, I die cut the word "love" using the Love die from Impression Obsession (Die 385-B) several times out of the 110lb cardstock and adhered them together. I cut an additional one from Heidi Swapp's "Minc Sheets" and used a piece of teal foil on top.

I don't have the Minc Foiling machine (yet), so I use my laminator to get the foil to stick. While this machine works for the most part; I have definitely had some struggles with it. I find that it doesn't get hot enough to make a solid transfer every time. There are dozens of projects in my book that I want to use foiling for but until I get an actual foiling machine, they will have to wait.

If you are using a laminator, like me - I recommend that you let it heat up for at least half an hour before attempting a foil transfer. They do get hot, so as with any other crafty tool, keep it away from children and pets.

I then adhered the foil die cut to the top of my stack and mounted that over the heat embossing on the white panel. I popped that panel up on foam tape and mounted it to the front of my card.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Happy Holidays Series | Merry Christmas ft Nuvo Gilding Flakes

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

As you may have noticed, I'm a huge fan of the cute cards. I love the happy little critters that make people smile, but sometimes there's that person on your list that prefers something a little more elegant, and it's always fun to have a bit of variety in the cards.

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the Nuvo Gilding Flakes and thought that they would be perfect for a large greeting.

To begin, I prepped a piece of 65lb kraft cardstock by Recollections with my powder tool. I then stamped the large "Merry Christmas" greeting with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with sticky embossing powder by Ranger. Once that was melted I added the silver gilding flakes, burnishing away the extras with a stiff brush.

I have found the trick to sticky embossing powder is to ensure that you don't overheat it. It has to just melt and then remove the heat. If it is overheated it won't be sticky and that defeats the purpose.

I used some extra boughs and a bow I had cut using Lawn Fawn's "Large Wreath" die set, but instead of forming a wreath I lay them out like the boughs that are put on mantle pieces.

To adhere the boughs and the bow I used Tombow Mono Multi glue to give myself a little time to position them perfectly before they set permanently.

Finally, I adhered my panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.