Twinkling Paper Studio

Today's card came from an idea that I saw on Pinterest and is somewhat inspired by Joanna Gaines, The Magnolia Mom.  You might recognize the name from HGTV's Fixer Upper.  She does such a lovely job on all of the homes she decorates and they are heavily influenced by chalk and distressed looks.  I personally don't like the look of brand new furniture that has been sanded to make it look distressed, but a lot of the things she does with metal and chalk boards, etc. is pretty fun and since it isn't my furniture, I like it!   So when I saw this style of a card on Pinterest, I pinned it to come back to later. This is the inspiration card created by Betsy Veldman for Paper Trey Ink.

Betsy has a video for this on YouTube so I watched it a couple of times. I don't have the same stamps that she does, but she gives a couple of tips on how to find a style in something you already have which is what I did on my card.

I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of cardstock in Lost Lagoon which is the perfect green chalkboard color.  I do have some black chalkbooard paper, but I want to try this technique a few more times before I try it on that paper.  

I had one more Christmas card to make that I will be hand delivering later today and I didn't start on this until kind of late last night.  So with the lateness of the hour, I didn't really look through my embellishments to add anything.  But I'm okay with the Clean and Simple style of my card.  

I selected a flourish from an unknown maker set I already had.  I'm pretty sure it was a Fiskars Stamp Set but the packaging is long gone.  I stamped the flourish in Versamark on the top and bottom of the cardstock and then the greeting that came from the WPLUS9 Holiday Greetings Stamp Set. I put my greeting at an angle as Betsy did.  I sprinkled it with white embossing powder and heat set it.  

Next I took a White Prismcolor Pencil, my see-through ruler and following the line of text on the bottom of the greeting, made my bottom "banner" line.  Then I moved my ruler up, keeping my angle identical (which I could see through my clear ruler) and made the top banner line.  I loosely colored in some of the white on the banner around the greeting to make it seem like chalk dust.

I went all around the edges of the card stock piece with a sponge dauber, using the Lost Lagoon ink in a circular motion just to add some depth to that panel. Next I took a piece of dry paper towel and just tapping it onto my craft white ink, gently swiped areas of the card to make that seem like chalk dust as well.  I took a couple of the smallest snowflakes from the Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes and added a few in here and there with Versamark and heat set them with white embossing powder as well.  Once I had that done I cut that panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle and adhered that to my card base.  I cut a Simon Says Stamp Eliza Snowflake and attached that to the card, trimming off the excess from behind with a pair of scissors.  

I'd like to try this card again after Christmas using my Craft White Ink and clear embossing powder to see if I get a better quality embossing.  I think my white embossing powder is not a fine detail powder, and I know my clear is so I will try this again when I have a bit more time to put into it.  

My card is not as good as Betsy's, but for the time I had, I think it looks pretty good.  Also, I don't always get something right the very first time I try, but I had enough right here to go ahead and finish it.  I know my friend will really like it as she likes the distressed, vintage look and feel of things.

Have a great weekend everyone and I'll be back soon with another project to share with you.