Merry & Bright

This tag will be entered into the 25 Days of Christmas Tags which is an annual event hosted by Tracey McNeely over at her blog "In My Creative Opinion".  Whenever I am in a class, I have several of those "parts & pieces" laying around from attempts at a certain technique or style.  This post is all about one of those but my attempt to reclaim this particular part was inspired by Tracey herself and her tag from Day 9.

I really messed this panel up the other day when I ran it through my die cutting machine after heat embossing the silver snowflakes and attaching them to my card front which today became my tag.  I put it in to cut the edges off of the snowflakes in alignment with the scalloped rectangle. So all of the silver embossing had lines and creases in it from all the lines and creases in my cutting pads.  I should have had a thin sheet of printer paper in there to prevent this from happening, but I don't normally cut after the fact, so I had forgotten this one little detail.

This panel was laying at the top of my trash can when I had a sudden thought that maybe, just maybe, I could use my heat tool to re-melt the embossing powder and salvage this panel that I liked so much.  BINGO!

The card stock was inked up with a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool using a bit of Thistle in the very center and Audrey Blue all over the rest of the tag.  I then stamped several of the Stamps from the Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes Stamp Set in Versamark and heat set them using Simon Says Stamp Ultra Fine Detail White Embossing Powder.  There are 17 stamps in this set. Next I cut the Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Snowflakes Eliza, Abby, Alexis and Kate in heavy white cardstock.  I inked up each of the snowflakes using Versamark and then put Fine Detail Silver Embossing Powder and heat set them and repeated that. This gives your die cuts so much dimension; it's really beautiful!  I attached them all to the Scalloped Stitched Rectangle from the Sunshine Layers Die.  Then I popped it back into the die and ran it through to cut off the overhanging edges. That is when I saw all the creases in the silver embossing.  So I tossed it in the trash and went on to the next card front.

I don't know what made me think to try reheating the embossing powder to see if it would melt again, but I had nothing to lose.  It worked like a charm and after seeing Tracey's cute tag from day 9, I had to make it into a tag even though I don't seem to have a cute little snowman like she does.  Ya'll know I love my snowflakes!

Since it wasn't in the shape of a tag and I don't have a tag this large, I slipped a My Favorite Things Stitched Oval over the top portion only and cut it to get the arch. I could have used a circle die but I came to the ovals in my binder first. Then I reheated it to smooth out all of the silver embossing.  I cut and stamped my greeting using the Mama Elephant "Merry" die with Silver Glitter Paper and two stamps from the Papertrey Ink Sparkle & Shine Stamp Set for the "& Bright" that are heat embossed in the same Simon brand Silver Embossing Powder on a strip of paper inked up with the same Audrey Blue Ink that I love and adore so much! It is such a beautiful color. I have a banner punch that I used to make the swallowtail end on the banner strip and adhered it to my tag with foam squares. A few silver sequins and Voila!   I used ribbon from my stash.

It's not captured very well but I'm really happy with all the texture and sparkle on this tag and will be uploading it over at the 25 Days of Christmas Tags on Tracey's Blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Pretty Purple Poinsettias

Today's post is not really a new technique, but I don't think I've shared it on here before.  And even if I have, a refresher is always a good thing.  I'm actually combining a few techniques from my class this week.

I started by masking off the top two thirds of my card with the same strip of Post-It Tape that I used for my homework for Monday's class. Using a Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool, I started inking up the bottom portion of my front panel using Simon Says Stamp Thistle Ink.  I really love that color a lot. It's a cross between pink and violet and it makes me happy to just see it.  It did take several layers to get the intensity and depth I wanted and honestly, I could have started with a darker colored ink but it's okay.  I had plenty of time and I was not in a rush.  Once I had my ink blended on the bottom portion, I sprayed a solution of Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spray just on the ink blended portion then set it aside and moved on to my die cutting.

I used the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia Die and cut all of the layers plus one leaf using my 100# Bazzill Marshmallow Card Stock.  I used my metal shim so that I would not need to emboss in a separate step.  I took the same ink blending tool and started by putting it down in the very center of each layer of the flower and turned back and forth right on the center very gently so I wouldn't bend up the layer.  For this I used SU! Blackberry Bliss Ink. It is a much deeper color and took seconds to do.  This left my flower layers still white on about the outer half so I came in with Simon Says Stamp Hollyhock Ink to finish up the ink blending. I did get out my already inked "pink" foam for this to keep the color pretty pure. I finished inking the outer half of the layers then took the purple blending tool and inked the edges of each petal. This gave me great shadow and depth.  Since the embossing makes hills and valleys on the paper and the hills are the highest points, it deposits more ink on those areas than on the valleys.  I set those aside to dry.  I've learned the hard way that even though the ink may feel dry to the touch, it really needs time to become completely dry.  With the dye based inks, the color smooths out while it is drying even though it may seem blotchy when you first stamp it. That's just the nature of the dye ink vs. a pigment ink that will stay pretty true to however it looks when you stamp it.  I started with Simon Says Stamp Beanstalk Green Ink for the leaf but eventually moved to SU! Garden Green to get the deeper shade.

I had recently (in the last 6 months or so) taken two Stampin' Around Wheels off their round little wheels and remounted them on some cling foam. The one I used here has always been a favorite.  It's 7 inches long all stretched out so it could also be used on larger cards  I have a  2 x 12 inch acrylic block that I got several years ago from Close To My Heart but Lawn Fawn has one here that is 2 x 8 inches.  Using Versamark Ink, I stamped that just beneath my line where the ink blending is and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Silver Embossing Powder.

For the sentiment, I die cut that in Bazzill Marshmallow Card Stock then inked it up with Versamark.  I sprinkled the same Silver Embossing Powder all over it and heat set it then repeated that same process to get a double layer of the silver powder melted onto my die cut.  It gives the die cuts so much dimension.  I hadn't done that in so long I had forgotten how much I like it!  *Ü*

Using Ranger Multi Medium Matte I adhered the die cut sentiment along the diagonal line on the front panel.  Then I assembled the poinsettia layers just in the center with Multi Medium Matte and topped it with a Silver Sequin using a mix from Stampin' Up that I got a few years ago.  I attached that to the card front with one foam square in the center of the flower and one under the leaf.   I used the same SU! sequin mix for the small and large silver sequins and a Sparkling Clear Sequin in the 10mm size from Pretty Pink Posh for the embellishment on the right hand side of the front panel.

I tucked in the leaf, then trimmed the left side of the panel to fit on my 4.25 by 5.5 inch top folding Blackberry Bliss card base with a border of color on each side and none on the top or bottom. I cut a piece of fun foam slightly smaller than the card base, adhered that to the panel and used Multi Medium Matte to attach the finished panel to the card base.

The Share Handmade Kindness Campaign continues for the whole month of November in addition to my Online Card Class so I'll be back soon.  Please leave a comment for me if you stop by and thanks for visiting!