So Kind

Today's card is a complete and total CASE from Jennifer McGuire all the way down to the stamp set and die cuts she used here.  I even used the same kind of water color that she used but I didn't have any little helpers to make backgrounds for me so I created a couple of my own.  I was able to cut 2 hearts out of each background that I colored using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Water Color Set. One background I did completely at random and the other I intentionally made the ombre stripes.  Jennifer used her set of Finetec Mica Watercolors for the gold shimmer but mine have been back ordered and only shipped today, so I dipped my wet paint brush into my Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls and used that with a liberal amount of water for my top layer.  The backgrounds have a beautiful shimmer to them.

Since I knew that I would be painting these backgrounds in their entirety, I used my "not quite as white" Canson XL 140# Watercolor Paper for these.  I pulled some of the little pans of color out of my set and misted them with a short spritz of water to get the color moving a little bit.  The bottles I have came from Stampin' Up but this one by Judikins would work great as it has a very fine mist.

After I cut out my hearts using the Memory Box Stitched Heart Layers in the largest size, I lined up my coordinating die to go across the heart leaving the word, a top piece and a bottom piece.  Using a temporary adhesive, I put all three pieces down on my card front to line it up, then pulled out the word so that I could stamp the word in exactly the right spot.  Once I stamped that in Versamark, I pulled the top and bottom pieces off temporarily so that I could heat emboss it using Metallic Gold Sparkle Embossing Powder from WOW!  I didn't want any stray bits of embossing powder to stick to the heart parts until I was finished melting the powder on my sentiment. WOW! treats their embossing powders to be static free, but it's always a good idea to use a powder tool or embossing buddy first. WOW! is available in 136 different styles and colors from Simon Says Stamp, so there is something for everyone. Next, I adhered the top and bottom of the hearts back into place using a permanent adhesive.



This "Being Classy" stamp set is from a newer stamp company, Concord & 9th. The coordinating dies cut the outline only so this is why it works for this technique.  There are several words included in the set to make multiple greetings that are thankful or encouraging.  I think a thorough review of all my coordinating sets is in order to determine what other cards are possible using this same technique.  One of the best things about this card is that it is highly mailable.  There's no foam popping up the front panel that might get squished.  I seldom make a single layer card and this is easily the nicest one I have ever done.

The card bases are all made from Bazzill Marshmallow in a top folding A2 standard sized card. For the hearts, I swiped a piece of white card stock across my Versamark Ink Pad then sprinkled Metallic Gold Sparkle Embossing Powder on it to make an exact match. Using the Simon Says Stamp Mini Hearts Set die after I heat set that, I cut 3 rows of hearts for my 3 cards.  I'll keep the extras in a little container that I keep of spare parts.  I attached a few of the hearts randomly on each of my cards using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  Just to keep everything in place, I laid a large acrylic block on top for a couple of minutes.

One of the words with a matching die for this set is "courageous" and I plan to make a card for each of my friends who are currently battling Breast Cancer. Thanks for stopping by today.  Please feel free to leave me any questions or comments.