Birthday card for a boy with Balloon Adventures

Okay, for me it is sometimes hard to create cards for boys, trying to keep them simple and not too frilly.

So the way I approach them is trying not to use ribbons and keeping the colour scheme simple.

So this card was inspired by Nacelle Farrugia, 

I just kept it a bit more simple. 

I stamped the balloons from the Balloon Adventures stamp set on a piece of designer series paper from Cupcake & Carouselles Designer Series Paper pack (Occasions 2017 catalogue). 

The colours on this card are Bermuda Bay, Basic Gray and Whisper White. I used the same designer series paper to cut two strips and the 'circle' at the back ground (the circle is actually a punched balloon using the balloons punch. The Balloon Adventures stamp set coordinates with this punch.

I stamped the balloon cords on the background Whisper White card stock, but hand-drew the part on the Whisper White circle layered just under the balloons (you can stamp them on the circle, but I figured it worked out this way just fine.

Sale-A-Bration Second release!!!

Stampin'Up! has released their 2nd release for 

Sale-a-bration items!

These will be available as of today until the end of March 2017.

Sale-A-Bration Second Release

Tarnished Foil Technique

I saw some cards online using this tarnished foil technique, and wanted to give it a try.

The layout of the card is inspired by Melissa Kerman. 

I started with a silver foil paper and used the new Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (whew... that is a mouthful...). It is a bit different from the other embossing folders. It makes a much deeper impression. The folder itself is much thicker, and you actually use it with just ONE cutting plate! They recommend that you sprits your card stock with water before embossing, so that you avoid any wrinkles in your paper. 

So here is what I did:

Sprits the back of your foil paper with water lightly (you can also use gold or copper foil).

Place the foil in the embossing folder. You want to emboss in reverse, so that the impression is SINKING IN rather than raised! This way the design stands out more - this is specially important if you use folders like Falling Petals and similar.

Then I randomly swiped the embossed image with VersaMark ink pad, then applied Copper Embossing powder and heated it. I tried to just heat it enough to set it, so that it still is 'granular' rather than smooth.

Next, I took a StazOn ink pad and rubbed it on the copper embossing. This adds the tarnished look. Then I heat set the ink. 

Then you build your colours by using other embossing powders. So in this case I inked the foil again with VersaMark, and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. 

I went a bit crazy, as after this you barely saw any copper embossing, so I rubbed it again with Black StazOn ink, and re-did the copper embossing. 

The background paper is from the Urban Underground specialty Designer Series Paper.

Love is in the air

Okay, Valentine's Day is in the past, but here is my design for this years card

The card was inspired by Kim Williams. She used a different heart and stamp for the sentiment, but the layout is similar.

The stamp I used is from Love Sparkles stamp set, which is one of the Occasions catalogue stamps. I stamped it with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. The heart die cut is from Sunshine Wishes thinlits set. The background card stock was embossed with Happy Heart embossing folder.