Beautiful to Me

Let's just say you don't see these greeting card techniques everyday so I thought they might be worthy of a share. I made this card for my stamping sister, Thelma, using the new bottle of glitter that she had gifted me.

I stamped my images (Simon's new Delicate Flowers set) on purple cardstock, outlined the edges with Nuvo Glitter Drops, used bleach with a paint brush to lighten the colored paper, tinted the space with colored pencils (orange and green), and finishing up with a big ol' fussy-cut.

I mounted my cut-out on some Prima cardstock (Ephipany), used black Scribbles to bring out the stamens, and edged the card with thin dark grey paper and more Glitter Drops.

I've used Nuvo Crystal Drops before but this was a first for the glitter drops and I must say they are very useful for a number of reasons. First, the are very easy to apply--the fine tip and soft-sided bottle allow for good precision. Second, this stuff is tough! Even after using the bleach, rubbing in the tints, and cutting right next to it, the glitter never came off the paper. It reminds me of Glossy Accents with glitter in it.

Duplicate

Craft nerd (and big fan of tags) that I am, when I heard the Monday challenge at Simon this week was "Tag It" I jumped right in. I grabbed a scrap of Tim Holtz paper (Memoranda) and a couple of his stamps and boom--a tag was born!

After stamping, I machine stitched, drew lines, tinted with markers and colored pencils, added some tissue tape, ephemera (the cigar ring and buttons), and even a touch of Glossy Accents.

No plan, no rules, just spontaneous play and when my head is in this kind of zone I am happiest. Thank-you, Simon!

Sending Hugs

I got side-tracked trying out a new stamp set from Simon called Delicate Flowers and ended up with a card I hadn't really planned on.

I'd been experimenting with coating thin papers with various mediums to use for collage. I had some rice paper, coated one side with fluid medium, let it dry and then decided to stamp it with my new set to make some masks.

After cutting the pieces out, I played around with tinting them and liked the result so I decided to use one of the flowers plus leaves on a greeting card. If you look closely, you'll see that the flower is transparent.

The background paper with the scrolls, bird, etc. is old stock from Prima called Epiphany.

I messed-up stamping the sentiment so I cut out that section, replaced it with a smaller square and re-stamped my text. A good save and one I'll remember if and when I mess-up again!

Yes, it looks handmade and it's a bit unconventional, but I'm dedicating it to all the encouraging commenters from my last post, embracing my greeting card style and learning a few tricks along the way.