New Life for an Old Favorite!

Hello Everyone,

I hope you're having a great day!  Here in the northeastern U.S. we are having a sunny day - FINALLY!!!  It is, however, only in the mid 30's and we are supposed to get yet another snow storm on tuesday - this after the 16" we got last week.  So, I'm still dreaming of spring!  I took one of my all time favorite background stamps and CASEd my own card!  I made a very soft muted card like this several years ago...I haven't given it to someone because I can't part with it!  Does anyone else have cards like that?  So, I decided to make a spring version of it using bright happy colors that I know we'll be seeing soon!

Here are the supplies I used:

• Bold Background Stamp from Hero Arts
• Embossing Ink
• Anti-static powder tool
• Superfine Gold Embossing Powder
• Strathemore Bristol Board
• Green cardstock A2 cardbase
• Scrap of green patterned paper
• Various flower stamps 
• Stamp positioning tool
• Scissors for fussycutting
• Waterbrush
• Foam Tape 
• Regular adhesive
• Sequins
• Glossy Accents
• Gold marker
• Paper Trimmer
• Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: #031 Cobalt Blue, #037 Cornflower Blue, #041 Light Green, #050 Yellow, #052 Bright Yellow, #053 Yellow Green, #081 Light Violet, #222 Pink Flamingo, #083 Lilac, #047 May Green, #084 Deep Violet, #070 Orange, #036 Light Blue, #024 Wine Red, #041 Light Green, #043 Olive Green, #046 Mid-Green, #044 Deep Green

First I stamped my array of flowers on a piece of Bristol board in my MISTI and stamped them twice by rotating my paper.  I used my anti-static powder tool first.  I heat embossed the images with superfine embossing powder.  The stamps I used ranged in size from 3/8" to 1". I next colored these images using my Zigs.  You could use any waterbased marker for this or watercolor paint.  I have my Zigs handy so I usually go for those first.  I painted each flower a different color, but painted both sets of flower images the same.

O a different scrap of paper I stamped and heat embossed 3 little butterflies.  They were 3/4" across.  I thought they would work well to break up the flowers a bit.  Because I was blending the colors and doing a bit of shading, I used my water brush.  On the butterflies, to make them stand out a bit, I used 2 colors on opposite sides of the area I was painting and blended them together with my water brush.

Next I fussy cut the images...it really would have been nice to have dies to all these flowers, but I didn't.  So, I brought up some card making videos on YouTube and started cutting.  I only cut out one set of flower images.  I ended up using 2 additional ones, but I have a lot left over.  I went around the edges of the pieces I cut with a gold marker.  It really makes the images look better.  And anywhere the embossing might have come off....I filled in with the marker as well.

Next onto the larger pieces for the card front.  I took my stamp and laid it rubber side up, covered it with embossing ink, and laid down a piece of Bristol board 4.5 x 6, then laid down a piece of copy paper and rubbed it well, making sure to press firmly over the entire surface.  Then I heat embossed it with the superfine gold embossing power.  I painted the leaves in the image using green Zigs.  The leaves were repetitive, so I chose a type of leaf and painted all the ones like it the same.  I used 2 colors on each leaf and varied the combinations. 

After it dried I cut 2 panels - 5.25" x 2.25" and 5.25" x 1".  I also cut a piece of green patterned paper about 2" wide.  I adhered this panel first, adhered double foam tape to the back of the painted panels and put them on the card base with about 1" between the 2.

Then I filled the channel with the cut out flowers.  I used foam tape on these to pop them a bit and double foam taped the butterflies.  I added the sequins using Glossy Accents as glue.  A few of my flowers had solid gold embossed centers.  I felt they needed just a little sparkle so I added gold Stickles to them...there were only 3 that needed it, so it didn't look overwhelmed with glitter!  And that finished my card!

I think this looks so spring-y and happy!  I opted not to put a sentiment on this as I felt it was busy enough, but this card could be used for a variety of occasions!

I'm having a give-a-way soon, so keep on the lookout!

Happy paper crafting and remember...it's only paper!

Betsy