This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! I have a new video to share with you today featuring one of the utterly gorgeous new embossing folders from the Simon Says Stamp Sweet Wishes release called Holly & Blooms. Simon Says Stamp’s floral embossing folders are amongst my favorite products from them, because they make such an incredible impact on your projects with one swipe through your die cutting machine. I chose to take that phenomenal texture a couple of steps further with some ink blending and “gilding” using glittering watercolors, and I have a video to share with you showing how I achieved this crazy sparkly and still easily mailed card! You can watch below or click HERE to watch on YouTube:
In case you can’t watch the video, I will do a quick rundown of how I created this card.
*I have linked all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
I started by running a panel of Hero Arts Eggplant cardstock through my die cutting machine using the new Holly & Blooms Embossing Folder, which features some gorgeous blooms paired with traditional holiday foliage. I am itching to watercolor these blooms, as well, because they are absolutely luscious. After I had embossed the entire card panel, I used a blending brush to add some Aster Pawsitively Saturated Ink around the edges of the card. Doing this ink blending after embossing rather than before helps to enhance the already-spectacular details of your embossed image and provides depth and even more interest to your background.
After I had finished ink blending, it was time to add some shimmering details to the raised imagery on my card. I started by enhancing the stems on the berries and the flower centers with a super fine Spectrum Noir Champagne Paint Pen, the contrast of which is outstanding on the dark cardstock. I also used some handmade glitter watercolors to add gorgeous shimmer and sparkle to the edges of the flowers and foliage, in essence “gilding” them with holiday finery! Adding this shimmer reminds me of the sparkle of an icy frost on your garden, and it creates so much interest on your card front without adding any extra bulk, making this card super easy to mail! To add even more interest, I lightly splattered only the edges of the card front with some more shimmering watercolors, leaving the center of the card clean as a halo for my sentiment.
For the greeting, I die cut the detail layer of the perfectly simple Joyeux Noël die from Tonic Purple Rain mirror cardstock and the shadow outline from vellum, adhering the two pieces together with tiny dots of liquid adhesive. I flipped the sentiment over and added a few more tiny dots of adhesive behind the solid die cuts to keep the vellum as clean as possible. To add a bit more embellishment and shine, I added a champagne thread bow nestled up by the sentiment, finishing things off with some Gold Pawsitively Dazzling Gems!
Well, that’s all for my project today. Adding these elements of sparkle to the beautifully detailed embossed background makes such an incredibly dramatic impact while still requiring minimal work. This card could easily be adapted for mass production by swiping some gold pigment ink over the raised embossed areas in place of the glittering watercolors. You can’t ever go wrong with sparkle at Christmas, in my opinion! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
Absolutely Stunning!!!