A Thank You for a Thoughtful Gift

My best friend growing up, who is stationed in Bagdad, sent me a flag that was flown over the American Embassy for me in honor of my grandfather and father who served in the Marines and Navy respectively.  I still tear up when I look at it.  Such a special gift requires a special thank you card.

I started by inking the flat side of the Leafy Branch embossing folder by Cuddlebug and embossing a piece of Colonial White cardstock.  Then I swiped an ink pad directly on the raised design.  I then used a sponge dauber to add a bit more color to some of the leaves and stems.  I love the batiked effect.  I heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder and then gilded the the top and bottom edge by perpendicularly pressing the edge into a Versarmark pad and then in the embossing powder.  I popped it up using foam tape.  The twine was bought at Target years ago.  I like how the metallic thread compliments the heat embossing.

I am entering this card in the Just Add Ink challenge to just add embossing.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A Star in a Swirling Metallic Sky

The Jingle Belles want to see Christmas cards with glitter or metallics and I had some of the Hero Arts Glimmer Metallic Ink that I wanted to play with.  Did I mention that the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge has the optional twist of stars?  I had a vision of a star in a metallic version of a swirling galaxy sky.  Time to get playing!

The glimmer inks are fairly thick, almost like paint, and come in a dropper bottle.  I put a few drops of pewter, blue, and purple inks on a craft mat and spritzed them with a bit of water to thin them some but not so much that they would not have some texture as they layered on my paper.  I smooshed Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock into the puddles dragging and lifting until the paper was covered and let it dry naturally.  I did not spritz the paper during the smooshing and dragging process.

Next I used a die from Stampin' Up's Star of Light set to cut a star from my dry panel and from a piece of craft foam cut slightly smaller.  I then embossed the sentiment and attached the card front and craft foam to the card base.  I cut a filigree star from silver foil paper to nestle into the star shaped well and finished it off with a blue violet sparkle.

Lastly I used Color Box silver metallic pigment ink to stamp the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi 

Materials used:

Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 cardstock, Close to My Heart Silver foil paper

Ink:  Hero Arts Glimmer inks in Pewter, Blue, and Purple, Color Box Silver pigment ink

Stamp and Dies:  Star of Light by Stampin' Up

Embellishments:  Purple Sparkle by Ki Memories, White craft foam, Gina K Superfine White embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches Meets Color Throwdown for Valentine's Day

After my last post about a valentine for a friend to give to her husband, please don't think I neglected my own husband.  Here is the one I made for him using this Freshly Made Sketch and this week's Color Throwdown colors, dark pink, black and gray:

I started by using the A Layer of Birch Press Design's Adora layering die set to emboss the background.  Do you think that can count as the leaf element?  The smaller heart is Melon Mambo layered over three black hearts, brushed with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents for sparkle AND shine (although it does not show well in the photo).  The black layers subtly echo the word "love" which was cut from black glossy paper.   For the "gray" elements I used Champagne foil paper and gray sparkles.  The card front is popped up with a piece of craft foam for added dimension.

Here is the inside which I embellished with hearts leftover from the card in my last post.  The stamping is embossed with silver and Versamark ink and clear detail powder over black ink.

Yes, he liked it.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 cardstock, black and Melon Mambo cardstock, Champagne foil paper, and black glossy paper from Stampin' Up
Ink:  Raspberry Pigment ink from Close to My Heart, Onyx Black Versafine ink, Versamark ink
Stamps:  Thoughtful Messages by Simon Says Stamp, Mad About You by Close to My Heart
Embellishments:  Gray sparkles from Close to My Heart, Silver detail embossing powder by Ranger, Clear detail powder by Stampendous
Other:  Adora Layer A die by Birch Press Design, Sweet and Sassy framelits from Stampin' Up, Cupid Hearts Border die by Simon Says Stamp, Opulent Swirls die by Crafter's Companion for Gemini

Shiny Valentine

This is a Valentine for a friend's husband.  Before you get the wrong idea I have to tell you that she asked me to make it for HER to give him.  I made it following this Freshly Made Sketch and assorted foil papers from Stampin' Up.

I cut the hearts using the three smallest dies from the Stampin' Up Sweet and Sassy framelits set and Simon Says Stamp's Cupid's Heart Border die from four foil papers (Black, Champagne, Lovely Lipstick and Grapefruit Grove) and proceeded to play mix and match.  Yes, I have a lot of hearts for other projects...  The overlapping hearts are popped up with thin foam tape.  For the word "Love" I used the die from Hero Arts Love stamp and cut to cut two from black cardstock and one from black foil paper and stacked them.  The rest of the sentiment was embossed in copper using words from the Thoughtful Messages set from Simon Says Stamp.  This required cutting (gasp!) the word "you" from the sentiment strip "you more today than yesterday."

This picture does not accurately show how shiny the hearts and "Love" sentiment are.  The Grapefruit Grove is particularly beautiful because it has a holograph effect when you tilt it, appearing to be copper until the changing angle of the light lets you see waves of pink and a bit of green shimmer.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi