Thursday, April 14, 2011

Easter Card

Great Easter cards can be made from the Stella Rose papers that the Design Team used for April. I made an Easter card using three of these papers and resist embossing. When you are resist embossing, you emboss as usual and then use ink to color the paper. Because the embossing resists ink, the stamped design remains the color of the embossing powder but the paper is colored by the ink. For my card, I stamped a flower on a 1 ¼” square of white paper with VersaMark and embossed the flower with white embossing powder.
Once you have embossed your design you can apply ink in any way you like. Regardless of how you apply the ink, it will color the paper but not the embossed design. The easiest way to apply ink is to wipe an ink pad across the paper. You also can spray with Glimmer Mist. I, however, used a fun technique with ink and two colors of Glimmer Mist. Here’s how I did it. I used a 1” acrylic block like a stamp. I chose a 1” block, which was ¼” smaller than the paper I was using so that I would have a white frame on the outside of the inked image. I covered the block with Wild Honey Distress Ink as if it were a stamp. Next, I sprayed the ink-covered block with Sun Sisters and Peach Delight Glimmer Mist. This added more variety yellow and a different shade of orange. It also added glimmer. After adding a couple of spritzes of water, I stamped the block on the paper with the embossed design just like it was a stamp. You may want to practice with colors a bit to get exactly the effect that you want. For another card, I used Dragonfly Glimmer Mist just a touch of Inchworm Chalkboard. I liked the result. If you have a spots without paint, you can use a paint brush to push paint in those spots. Once dry, I assembled the card. For this card, I started with plain white ribbon and used Dragonfly Glimmer Mist to make it turquoise to match the paper. Once it was dry, I gathered the ribbon to give it a special look. To gather ribbon, you simply use tweezers to grab a thread or two in the center of the cut edge of the ribbon and gently pull until it is gathered the appropriate amount. Of course, you have to pull carefully so you don’t break the thread. I also find it helps to adjust the gathers as you pull. With these two techniques you can have fun and create unique cards. I’m sure they will be appreciated by the recipient.