In Stamping Mode

Friday, November 14, 2008

Do-it-yourself dry embossing

Bear with me folks...this post's gonna be a long one! I haven't posted in a day and I, literally, feel the need to write a novel, tehee. :)

First, remember my color challenge post with my frog in the post below this one? Well, I happened to notice that Kristina Werner had an update...she had listed her top 20 favorite submissions...out of 172. OMG!!! My beloved frog made it in the top 20! I was ecstatic! I ran, squealing with glee, to tell my husband, who just looked at me with a blank stare. Nevermind the fact that it was late and he was about to fall asleep. :P Where are girlfriends when you need them at midnight?! :) Really, this was just what I needed to keep things going. You see, I've only been blogging for a little over a month and I had just begun to question if people (besides my good friends and customers) enjoyed any of my work/postings. Sometimes you just need a little pat on the back every now and then and this was that. :) Ok, enough of that! Here's what I've been up to!


I made this set (it's only 2 though, so is that more a coupling??) of cards with a particular virtual blogger friend in mind. These cards are for Lynn over at The Queen's Scene. I love her work, and she is just the sweetest person. I even noticed that she nominated me for an award! Two pats on the back in one day?? Seriously! So Lynn, if you are reading this, I would love to mail these to you! I hope it makes your day, as you have made mine. :)

On these cards, I did a couple little neat tricks. I'll start with the Kindness card.


I wanted a bit of bling in the middle of all the flowers but I didn't want to use glitter *gasp* I haven't used microbeads in well, FOREVER. So I put a little dab of Crystal Effects in the center of each flower and then poured the microbeads on. Once they stuck, I used a toothpick to pack them more tightly into the circle. Didn't stop there though! I wanted the beads to have a teeny bit of color...to match the color of the flower. My flowers were stamped off in So Saffron so I took my So Saffron marker and used the brush tip right on the beads. They took on the color beautifully. :)


And here's a side view


Whattaya think? :)

Here's the butterflies card to go with it


Did you notice that the little 'pillows' that the butterflies are resting on are dry embossed? Want to see how I did that? :)

Well whip out your Curly Label punch (with coordinating stamp set) and stamp the "Thank You" greeting onto a nice, thick cardstock...I used retired River Rock. Cut that out along the border and then punch a piece of white cardstock with your Curly Label punch. Use temporary hermafix to layer your stamped piece onto of your white punched piece as shown here:


Flip that piece over and then, with your stylus, go around the edge of the white punched piece. What's that you say? Did I use a light table? Nope! You don't have to use ANYTHING! My stylus went smoothly around the cardstock leaving behind this nice border as shown here


I then sponged coordinating color on top of each little "pillow" and rested my butterflies atop. :)
Here's a closer look


Wondering how, at all, I did the butterflies? Well let me just tell you! I used the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set (which you can get FREE with a $350 party right now!!) I took the solid butterfly image and got it all nice and inked and then "kissed" it to my Paisley background stamp...like so


I then took the same background stamp and stamped the image onto Vellum Cardstock. Since ink doesn't really like to dry well on vellum, I embossed with Iridescent Ice. I think they came out cute! The little gems in the middle you can get simply from popping the rhinestones out of the rhinestone brads and applying with Crystal Effects.

All Supplies Stampin' Up (except the Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder)
Stamps: Heard from the Heart, Flight of the Butterfly
Inks: So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Washington Apple dsp
Accessories: Top Note die with the Big Shot, White taffeta ribbon, Bashful blue 1/4" grosgrain, microbeads (from pink duo beads), Curly Label punch, Iridescent Ice ep

Well, I thank you kindly for hanging in there to make it this far! Has it been a great wall of text and pictures or what? Are you "in stamping mode" now? :)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yaaay I found your blog from Kristina's blog...you'll be getting stax of new visitors now...and they will certainly be inspired Melissa with all this gorgeous creativity...thanks for sharing...love your work. Too funny about your hubby's reaction...yep, they just don't get it:0)

Lisa Brown said...

Love your dry embossing idea! Beautiful work!

Lynn Put said...

Melissa,
Big congrats on your card making it into Kristina's color challenge! Your frog card is adorable so there is no doubt as to why it made it in!
Thank you so much for the sweet words you wrote about me, I feel lucky to have found you and your blog!
These two cards here are beautiful!!! I love the little daisies with the micro beads and the embossing with the butterflies is fabulous!

Kate's Life said...

Love your projects! Thanks for instructions, they are great!

As for dh- yeah they are all like that! I was killing myself laughing at your story...sounds so much like my house! lol

Congrats again on making the top 20- it will not be the last time I am sure!

Kathy said...

I wanted to be there to scream with you when I saw your card on Kristina's top 20!!!! Way to go! Please don't ever second guess yourself about your blog - it's one of the best! And I can't believe you packed so many tips into one post. I learned so much! THANKS

Sam Woodruff said...

Thanks Melissa
for the great ideas Very beautiful cards.

Andrea said...

Wow! Those cards are beautiful! I am so crossing my fingers for a butterfly punch to go with the Flight of the Butterfly set!!

Alexandria said...

Both of these cards are so beautiful! They have so much detail to them.

katiesniche said...

Love what you did with those butterflies!!! Great idea!

thescrapmaster said...

Very pretty cards and congrats on the frogy making it to top 20! You totally deserved it, he was a cutie!

~Samantha

Kelly Taylor said...

Oh, I just love these cards! They look so good!

Julie O'D said...

Fantastic! Love all the little tips--the embossing, coloring the beads..

Katie Cotton said...

great ideas! thanks so much for sharing!

Libby Hickson said...

YAY!!! How exciting that you made Kristina's top 20!!! I love your blog, even though I don't find time to visit as often as I'd like, and I'm so glad you're blogging!! I've always been a huge fan of your work, your cards have always been my faves in the swaps we both do. I think you're going to be a blogging superstar before we know it!!!!! (I hope you remember us little people, LOL!)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...