Enhancing Embossed Cardstock

Hello there!  Thanks so much for popping in today.  I'm joining in with The Paper Players Challenge this week which has a theme of "Spring".  I'm also going to add this card to a challenge over at Papertrey Ink in Laurie's Fabulous Favorites where we are to use one of our favorite accessories.  One of my favorites in addition to Papertrey Ink's Cardstock is Nuvo Drops.  Seriously, Papertrey Ink Cardstock is #110 and smooth making it perfect for card bases or card panels.  I pretty much use Papertrey's Stamper's Select White Cardstock for all of my card bases.

I know that I am beyond ready to have some sunshine and warmer temperatures for sure. I think this is pretty well reflected in my color choices at the moment which seems to be pastels for the most part.  This is the coldest Texas Winter I remember for many years although we are in North Texas so it will be somewhat cooler than an hour south of us in Dallas.  When we were at a doctor's office on Friday evening, there was a Redbud Tree with tiny little buds on it which is the first sign of spring I have seen.  Later, we also saw a Bradford Pear that had small blooms, so Spring is trying to get here.

I have a few cards to share with you that I made using a bottle of Nuvo Drops to enhance the embossed image on my cardstock.  This is a technique I developed in the last few days and I am so happy with it that I have made a few more cards in addition to the originals I posted on Instagram and Facebook.  I feel like at this point I am perfecting my technique and improving each time as well as getting faster each time I make one of these now.  That is a good thing since having RA makes this pretty hard on my right hand.

I'll share a few tips and trick along the way in case you want to try this yourself. Tip #1:  Make sure that your Nuvo Drops or Liquid Pearls are warm in the bottle so they are pliable which also makes it easier to control where you are putting them and helps make the bottle easier to squeeze.  If the bottle feels cold, you'll need to warm them up.  I usually warm mine up in my hands by sitting and rolling the bottle back and forth in the palms of my hands until I feel like they are more pliable.  In the summer, this isn't an issue but in the winter, my studio gets chillier and they aren't as workable.  You could put the tightly capped bottle in warm water if the rolling in your hands doesn't work.  I haven't had to try that yet.

I have several types of embossing folders in my supplies, but this one kind of always stumps me with what to make with it.  I love the design and it is so pretty that I hate to cover it up.  Therefore, I played around with some embellishments to see what I could come up with.  I used Pale Gold Nuvo Drops for this which have a pearly shimmer to them.  While it came out nicely, I wanted to try something with a bit more contrast.  The image on the left is from my original attempt.  I tried a few more attempts that same day and came up with these two additional cards.

For the second card, I inked up the flat area of the embossing folder with some Simon Says Stamp Lemon Chiffon Ink.  It wasn't very noticeable at first, so I inked it up again which gave me the deep golden tone.  My best friend loves this very Tuscan Yellow color and so I made it into a card for her.  I also used a finger dauber to add some Nuvo Embellishment Mousse to the flowers.  It's actually very pretty in person and I framed it with some Avocado Green Shimmer Cardstock which is another of her favorites.  As I told her boyfriend the other night when we met up for dinner, Sometimes I give her a card because the colors make me think of her and other times I give her a card because I want it to remind her of me.  She loved this and in fact, framed it when she got home.  It just reminds me of the 1970's and all the harvest gold appliances, wood paneling and avocado green carpet that everyone had.  YUCK!  The softer yellow one turned out very pretty and I sent that off to a friend already.

But then I wanted to try some other colors and see how things turned out.  I really like the contrast of the Ivory Seashell Nuvo Drops vs. the soft gold.  But it just so happens that my most recent order from Simon Says Stamp arrived on Friday and I had a Bottle of the brand new Nuvo Dream Drops which are iridescent.  All of the Dream Drops are Iridescent and I got all of the colors available so far;  Gold Luxe, Indigo Eclipse, Love Potion, Fairy Wings, Dragon Scales and Cloud 9.  Translate those names to Soft Gold, Pale Purplish Blue, Pink, Lavender, and Pale Green.  Cloud 9 Dream Drops are White with Iridescent Shimmer.  You'll be able to see the difference in my pictures further along in this post.

I also got the idea that I wanted to add a bit of color to the two main leaves with another finger dauber.  I am anxious to try other colors as well, but there are already three more cards for this post so I'll save that for another time.

Tip #2:  If you mist your cardstock panel with a bit of water, it will take the impression better and your cardstock will not crack.  This particular Embossing Folder is a 3Dimensional Folder so it was somewhat of a challenge to figure out the proper sandwich for my Cuttlebug.  My particular sandwich is C Plate, Magnetic Plate, Metal Shim, B Plate, Tan Embossing Mat, Embossing Folder with cardstock inside, and B Plate.  These folders are really much thicker.  I encourage you to get your folders and try embellishing them with whatever you have such a Nuvo Drops, Liquid Pearls or Stickles.  So far, I like the Ivory Seashell best although I think the gold might look nice on certain colors.  I also think this wouldn't work on darker cardstock.

Since I'm using the very tip of the bottle to "paint" my design, it's important to keep the tip clean and not get a lot of excess product on there.  That's why practice is important.  My first attempt was not bad, but my additional attempts are better.  I have four other cardstock colors embossed and ready to do.  I'll wait until another day for those.  I give my Sisters-In-Law a set of cards every year at Christmas, and I think this will be one of the ones I stash for them.  I also think these would make great Mother's Day Cards.

This card was embossed on Gina K Designs Sea Glass Cardstock.  once I run it through the embossing sandwich, I mist it up again with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist and Clear Sparkle Shimmer Mist.  Each of those is very pretty by themselves but I've found the combination is even prettier.  The flowers are sponged with Sea Glass Ink and the leaves with Vintage Jadeite from Papertrey Ink.

Here's a slightly angled view which I hope allows you to see that extra dimension from the side.  I die cut each panel before embossing it with a stitched rectangle die that is slightly smaller than an A2 size panel and then matted it on a gold cardstock panel that is a full A2 size which makes for a 1/16th-inch frame around the embellished panel.

This card is made with Lemon Tart Cardstock and Ink from Papertrey Ink with the same Ivory Seashell Nuvo Drops.  The leaves were again done in Vintage Jadeite.

Here's another slightly angled view for you.  The Sentiment is from the Friendly Flowers Stamp Set.  I used the same narrow mat around each of these card panels.

This last card was done with the Cloud 9 Nuvo Dream Drops and while it is very pretty, it is more subtle and not as striking as the ones done using Ivory Seashell Nuvo Drops.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and my attempt at trying to stretch my supplies in ways that are a bit unexpected.  These cards were all made with supplies I already had on hand.

Distressed Elegance

Sweet Blush Cardstock

Today's cards are some I made for the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #71, "Favorite Technique".  I would have to say Heat Embossing is my favorite technique and expands into all of the ways it can be used from simple to complex. I love to heat emboss with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which is my favorite because it's a warmer tone than regular gold embossing powders. The only part of heat embossing I haven't mastered is combining it with Masking. Those sticky little masks leave residue on your cardstock which embossing powder loves to cling to.  I have yet to get a clean image when attempting to combine these two things. If there's a trick here I am missing, be sure to leave me a comment and tell me what it is because I use heat embossing on almost every single card I make.  It's the look I love.  As long as you are consistent about using your powder tool, you'll get good results.

This card uses heat embossing in it's most simple form which is to stamp and heat emboss a sentiment. I often stamp and heat emboss generic greetings onto the little banners of black and white cardstock so they are ready to go. I send lots of just a note or thinking of you type cards so I can always use these types of greetings.

Sweet Blush Cardstock

For the rest of the card, what started as a make-over for something else became a cool new technique for my cards. My Sister-In-Law, Vickie, has a restored Victorian Era Farmhouse with a formal parlor and dining room. I'm telling you this recollection from memory (so I hope it's correct), but those areas of her house have some textured wallpaper that has had some kind of gold "rubbed" on it in this kind of distressed fashion. While the other project I was working on didn't really work out how I wanted it to, the packaging says it works on wood, metal, paper, etc. .... so you know I had to test it out on some cardstock.  I knew I wanted to try it with an embossing folder and this particular one reminds me of that wallpaper in Vickie's house. Once I had the gold rubbed on there, it reminded me of it even more and I loved the look.  So while this card is simple, I think it is also ultra elegant.

For this second technique I used today, this is how it started:  I have a small bronze Eiffel Tower that I use as a prop in most of my photos for social media such as Instagram and Facebook along with a small, fancy, little pair of scissors with Gold Handles. I am pretty neurotic, so it bugs me that that the gold on the Eiffel Tower and the gold on the scissors is not the same gold.  I went to my local Hobby Lobby in search of an inexpensive way to change this.  I wasn't sure what to try but I had a few things in mind.

This white cardstock was the first test I did for this technique. While it has too much product on it, you can see how opulent and shiny it is.  It's like gilding in a jar - incredible!

Way back in 1996, the company I worked for in Topeka, Kansas built a new national headquarters and my boss and I were in charge of that project. One of the big things for the board room in that building was that Gold Leaf was applied to the ceiling. There was tall scaffolding all the way up to about 2 feet from the ceiling. The workers laid on their backs, working with what was about a 4 inch square piece of gold leaf on some type of substrate that they applied to small sections of the ceiling at a time until the ceiling was completely covered in Gold Leaf.  It was tedious and took several days with two workers.  The end result was quite stunning.

Vintage Jadeite Cardstock

I knew that you could get Gold Leaf Sheets at Simon Says Stamp, but I also wanted to see what my other options were.  When I got to Hobby Lobby I went to the area where the spray paints are and figured that would be a good place to start.  To make a long story short, after asking the lady in charge of that department, I decided on a product called Metallic Lustre in the color Gold Rush. This is a wax based product that you rub on and keep rubbing until you get a gold shine. The effect is permanent. While I'm not too keen on how my Eiffel Tower looks now, it was such a cool product and it reminded me of Tonic Nuvo Embellishment Mouse. I think this product is pretty similar but I did order some of the embellishment mousse for a comparison and will let you know the results later.  Nuvo Embellishment Mousse is around $8.00 a jar and contains 2.2 oz. of product. Metallic Lustre contains 1 fluid oz. of product but the jars seem the same size based on photographs.  It costs $7.00 and I used a 40% off coupon for it.  I'll have to let you know later how size, quantity, texture and all of that compares.

Lovely Lady Cardstock

To apply this product, I wore a rubber glove. I buy a box of gloves at my local Sally Beauty Supply for messy jobs such as polishing shoes, hair color or any occasion such as this. I tried a soft cloth first but I didn't have as much control for applying the product and liked the rubber glove better.  As you apply this product, you just keep rubbing until it turns shiny.  It only took seconds for this to happen.

I did find that you have to be very light handed and careful when applying this to paper. It's is very easy to overdo how much product you are using.  There were a few pieces of cardstock I had to trash but I practiced on scraps to begin with so it was no big deal.  I liked so many of the ones I made, that I turned out about 10 cards really fast.  I was sending some cards to Vickie and another friend that had asked for some, so it was nice to include these in there as well.

I cut the background panels with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and used gold foiled cardstock for the leafy branch (Spellbinder's Romantic Vines) and the Fancy Butterfly (Impression Obsession and my very favorite) butterfly to tie everything in with the background panel and the gold sentiment on the banner. It's hard to capture how pretty this is in photographs, but give it a try and you'll see what I mean.

I tried this technique with a variety of embossing folders but I found that the Victorian Styled Anna Griffin ones were the style I liked best.  The lines of the embossing are very delicate and that particular characteristic seems to work best with this technique. I have a couple of those but you'll just have to try what you have. I cannot stress the importance of a very light touch. Just the barest hint of product on the tip of your finger is all it takes. You can add more, but you cannot take away with this product. I also tried this with a Mini Ink Blending Tool, but there was still not enough control for the light application that's needed. I suggest trying with whatever embossing folders you have in your stash and getting a feel for which ones do and don't work.

I hope you enjoyed this technique and I will be sure to share more information on the Tonic Nuvo Embellishment Mousse as soon as I receive it and can compare the two products.  I was thinking before that those mousses were in the "nice to have" category and now I think I may need a few more colors sometime.

Thanks for sticking with me this long.  If you try this out, I'd love to hear your results! Your sweet comments continue to be an encouragement to me!