All you need is Love

I have a couple of extra cards which I have based around the anniversary card I made for my brother a few weeks ago. One is for a wedding card, and another for an engagement card, and all the basic elements are the same, but you can see what a difference a different colour palette and using embossing can make.

The first is an engagement card for a couple from church.

I decided not to go all white and thought black was more contemporary. I used my banana frog alphabet again (Budmo Jiggler), but this time I stamped with embossing ink and embossed with silver embossing powder onto black card. I used cuttlebug swiss dots to emboss some more black cardstock, and then layered these onto some spotty greytone paper I had. A little ribbon finished this off nicely, and was quick to make.

The second card is a wedding card for a friend.

I wanted to stick to more traditional whites and silvers for this, and used some lovely silver thread paper I have to layer onto. I again embossed the letters with silver embossing powder, embossed swiss dots onto some white card and finally made a small shrink plastic embellishment with the happy couples initials and the date of their wedding.

I love it when you find a card that is easy to make and so versitile!

Contemporary Anniversary Card

Just thought I'd share a card for you I made for my brothers wedding anniversary. I wanted something that wasn't too flowery and a bit cool (he's a graphic designer, so has high standards!) and I settled on the idea of the square Love design based on the Robert Indiana painting here.

I used my Banana frog Budmo Jiggler alphabet to spell out the word, and Cracked Sapphire distress ink.

The background is just white card that has been embossed with a 'that special touch of' small polka dot mask and then I kept the mask in place and sponged with more distress inks. I gently sponged around the outside of both pieces and layered onto some navy card. Finally I made a tiny heart embellishment from shrink plastic which I simply cut into a heart shape and wrote the initials of my brother and sister in law on before shrinking. A bit of ribbon and we're done! Hope you like!

Two new techniques...new to me!

Well tonight I bring you a birthday card I've recently made, and whilst making it I was playing around with a couple of new tecniques and products I have.

On the main card I used one of my new Wild Asparagus stamps from Minds Eye. Its a lovely Art Deco inspired flower. I did the background strip in Papermanias dark blue ink and then stamped a Labels 4 nestie with the stamp along with an art deco sentiment. All pretty standard up til now. I then tried something which I'd spotted on Ikkis Cuttlebug cupboard( http://www.ikkiscuttlebugcupboard.blogspot.com/ ) which uses 3 layers of clear embossing.  I was a bit dubious at first, and as a first attempt it wasn't perfect, but it gives this lovely glossy, almost enamel like finish. I'm really pleased with it, and am already planning future projects with this technique!

The second thing is Shrink Plastic! I picked some up at the Range a few months back, purely out of intrigue. Since then I've seen it demonstrated on Create and Craft and have been meaning to give it a go. I was thinking I might use the charm I made on the same card, but in the end decided against it. I started by cutting the shrink plastic in my cuttlebug using the same labels 4 nestie as the central image. I then stamped the same flower on it and as it wasn't that clear went over the stamp with a blue Sharpie marker. I'm really glad I did watch the demo as when you start heating it with the embossing gun it starts to shrivel and I panicked a little, but I remembered them saying to just push through that stage and it'll get better...and it did! I was so pleased with my little dinky embellishment, it is so cute! I put it on the picture next to the card to show just how much it shrank! I have no idea what I'm going to use it for, but its very cool. I might buy the white shrink plastic next time as it might show the stamping up better.

Anyway, hopefully I might inspire you to try these two techniques now, they're very satisfying, and also very fun to do!