This card was for my Mum and Dad's 32nd Wedding Anniversary, and so I went a little crazy with trying some new techniques :D To create the background I wanted to try getting an embossed resist, but by using a stencil rather than stamping, so I have this lovely damask stencil from That Special Touch, and I ended up squishing my white ink pad through the openings quite firmly so I got a really good coverage of ink, I then removed the stencil and sprinkled on some detail white embossing powder and heat set it :D My original idea was to have a simple emboss resit, so I got out my Gamsai Tambi watercolours (first card I'd used them on!!), and used these lovely vibrant yellow, orange and dark pink colours, I did one wash over the top, let this dry and then did a second coat to intensify the gorgeous colours :D When the second coat was dry, I stenciled on top using distress inks and some punchanella to give the dotty effect.... Something I wasn't expecting was for the paint to stick to the embossing powder (as when I've done this before I've used distress stains, and that seems to come straight off the embossing powder) It just wouldn't go back to the crisp white colour.... so.... I tried another technique! the iron off technique, I've seen this done before, but have always been to lazy to try it lol :D but this was the perfect opportunity for me to try!! (I actually have some more backgrounds I've just done that need their powder ironing off too :D) Next step was the sentiment, also another new technique, I've wanted to try heat embossing on vellum for ages, but didn't think I had any vellum, fortunately I found a little mixed pack of small pieces which are perfect for sentiments :D so I chose a pale gold coloured piece and used this lovely sentiment stamp which was free with a special issue of Die-cutting essentials :D For the focal elements I white heat embossed some lovely flower stamps from a Craft Asylum set and watercoloured them in the same three colours, while I did this I also added the same colours to a scrap of card, and for the leaves I used a Craft Asylum Sizzix die set and Sue Wilsons mosaic leaves dies :D The whole front panel was cut using the MFT Blueprints 13 big stitched rectangle (still my favourite die ever lol) and the vellum banner was cut using the vertical stitched rectangles by MFT (however it was too wide, so I cut a rectangle, then moved the vellum to make it narrower and cut again :D). The final finishing touches were a scattering of heart sequins, and some gold sparkle PVA from Cosmic Shimmer :D I really love this card, and I think I'll deffinetly try the background technique in some different colours :D
To see the process behind my card, please watch my Youtube video below:
Here's a few extra photos :D
