Winter Botanical Cards

Afternoon Everyone,

Goodness! March already!

And it's Saturday too, the day Hazel posts another challenge over at CHNC. This week,  #166, is calling for ribbon, twine or fibres and, as luck would have it, the cards from Wednesday's WOYWW post are finished and there's twine on them ... what a coincidence :)

Still struggling to find the best site in the house to photograph cards - especially when there's more than one to line up ... which is why this photo was shot in the kitchen!

As I explained on Wednesday, I've been experimenting with creating stamps using an embossing folder and moldable foam. Here's the step-by-step guide to how I made each card.

Step 1: Choose an embossing folder with a suitable design. I chose the largest folder from the Sizzix Winter Botanicals set thinking the floral pattern would be clear and look good. Open the folder out as flat as possible ready for the next step.

Step 2: Next take a block of moldable foam (Magic Stamp) and a heat gun. Heat the foam for about 30 seconds and then press the warmed foam onto to the embossing folder.

Step 3:  Ink up the foam, I used Rangers Evergreen Bough distress ink, and stamp on to a piece of white card - I used one of the many scraps of white card I have pre-cut to measure 3¾" x 2½". As you can see, the stamped image is not perfect, but I quite like the blurred distressed look.

Step 4: Mat the stamped image on to gold mirri card - another scrap pre-cut to measure 1/8" wider all round.

Step 5: Wrap twine, Docrafts Papermania Brown String, round the base of the topper and tie in a knot, incorporating a tiny bell in the knot.

Step 6: Stamp the greeting, this one is from a Molly Blooms Christmas stamp set that came free with a magazine, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, in the bottom right corner of a white base card.

Step 7: Adhere the topper to the card - because of the twine I used Pinflair glue gel for this, it creates dimension and allows for the extra width of the twine.

Step 8: The final touch - the embellishments. Gold sequin stars added in the corners and some Suze Weinberg Jazz BeaDazzles glued to the centre of the large flower on the stamped image.

With the topper on the card above I tried to get a bit arty with water! First I inked up the stamp, sprayed water on it and then stamped, then repeated the stamping without the water. Again not perfect, but I think the watercolour effect looks very nice.

Note: I wasn't sure which side of the folder would give the best results, emboss or deboss, so did one side of the foam with the emboss and the other with the deboss. It's easy to heat and press one side of the foam block and then turn it over and heat and press the other side. And, after deciding which side gives the best image, heat the other and erase the image ready for using again.

As well as submitting the cards for the CHNC challenge I will be submitting it to Hazel's CHNC Challenge Extra for March - where anything goes as long as its Christmas themed.

I'm a day early but I think Di won't object to me saying I will be joining in the fun and submitting these cards to Pixies Crafty Workshop, Week 114, tomorrow - six snippets have been used up altogether :)

It's another beautiful day here, cold but sunny and after tapping the glass on the barometer I can report that it is up so the weather is definitely improving :) Whatever the weather is like for you I hope you are having a great weekend.

Happy crafting,