Inspiration: Just Add Ink #563
Last week, my local scrapbook store owner shared a technique during her Facebook Live where you dry-emboss a cardstock and then use wax or polish to add to the raised surface. She did this on both white and black cardstock, and I was inspired to pull out all of the wax and polishes I have on hand, emboss four pieces of white cardstock and four pieces of black and test my products out with this technique. The results were very varied and it was nice to get a better idea of which I liked better for what. (In summary, for this technique, I definitely preferred the Finnabair waxes over the other polishes I tried, which stayed in place on the cardstock and were hard to move around.)
On the leaf-embossed cardstock, I used Mint Sparkle wax and it was catching the light nicely when you moved the cardstock around, but was otherwise pretty drab, so I decided to pull out a few colors of Distress Oxide inks and my blender brushes to add color to the background. I liked the new look so much better!! On the Coastal Weave cardstock, I had used White Gold wax (my favorite!) and again, decided to ink blend a couple of colours of brown Distress Oxide inks.
Those test papers stayed on my desk for a little while and during today's crafting session, I was inspired to pair the foliage and basket weave papers together along with the Tropical Squidgies stamps to create a card. I also grabbed a gold-foil frame from my desk, as I still have a bunch leftover from using the Fine Frames Plate Die from Altenew. I needed something where the two cardstock met, so I added jute ribbon and the cute cocktail washi tape from Doodlebug (which I made sure to place down on white cardstock first so that the design showed up properly).
I colored my image with Polychromos pencils and die-cut it with the matching die. (Too bad Stamping Bella decided to discontinue their die offering - I found I was using their images more when I started buying the matching dies.) I also found a sentiment die from the Label Love French set, stamped it on a leftover scrap that had previously been cut using Tim Holtz's deckle trimmer. I moved my image and sentiment around on the card and found that it looked quite lost in the large frame. So I decided to pull out the Botanical Builder die set I had recently used to make a few 3D flowers to fill in the space. I have to say, the flowers came out better than I had anticipated. I've seen a few videos here and there on shaping flowers and while I don't have the specific tools to do it, I do have a few old styluses, including the EK Success Empressor, that I bought back when we were using metal stencils to do dry-embossing and that has been gathering dust since. I gave it a try to mold flowers and it works really well!! I dipped the tips of the petals directly in matching ink pads and I used Generous Grapefruit holographic foil paper to create my center, along with holographic bling. It filled out the space nicely and stayed with the tropical theme.
This card is sort of a nice surprise, as it is a mix of different experimentations. In the past year and a half, I have really discovered the value of "play time" when it comes to crafting. Before then, I always sat down at my desk with the goal to create a project from beginning to end. Testing out things, creating stand-along elements or embellishments and putting those aside for later is definitely a new process for me, but it's working out quite well, yielding surprising and unique results. I don't think I would have created two different backgrounds, plus colored an intricate image and prepared 3D flowers all in one evening. By dividing the work in more than one sitting, I ended up with an intricate card and a mix of varied elements without the process feeling daunting. I hope I can encourage you to try those "testing sessions" out for yourself!
Supplies
Stamps: Label Love French (Altenew); Tropical Squidgies (Stamping Bella)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Mango Melody, Green Galore, Evening Evergreen, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie,
Gold and Holographic Generous Grapefruit Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!); Cotton Candy (Bazzill)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Lucky Clover, Twisted Citron, Frayed Burlap,
Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Strawberry Slush, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Blushing Bride (Stampin' Up!)
3D Embossing Folders: Layered Leaves, Coastal Weave (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Tropical Squidgies (Stamping Bella); Botanical Builder, Label Collection (Stampin' Up!);
Fine Frame Rectangles (Altenew)
Accessories: Polychromos Pencils (Fäber-Castell); A2 Bronze Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Jute Ribbon (Stampin' Up!); Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Spray, Glossy Accents (Ranger);
White Gold and Mint Sparkle Wax (Finnabair); Tropical Punch Washi Tape (Doodlebug Design);
Bling Stickers (Recollections); Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic)
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