Saturday 2 October 2021

Oh Christmas Tree

 


Hello and Welcome
Time is just going by so fast.  
With sweater weather arriving so quickly here where I live, it reminds me that I need to get going on making some more holiday cards.  
So into my stash I went and this is what I came up with.

Here's what I did to create my card.
  • As I went through my stash of inky backgrounds, I found all the practice sheets that I had done on my Gel Plate with acrylic paint while taking a class from Vicki Boutin.  They certainly weren't my favourite so I decided to change that.  I found this one that had blue and green paint on it.  Kind of streaky and not great.  I scratched my head and wondered what to do.  I just picked up a new embossing folder by Spellbinders called Forevergreen and thought I would give it a try.  
  • I placed the painted piece inside the Embossing folder and ran it through my machine a few times to get a good impression.  TIP: Lightly spray your paper with water before embossing to get a better impression.
  • Next, using a small sanding block, I gently rubbed over the raised area to remove some of the blue and green paint. Now to figure out how I would make the details more noticable.
  • I squeezed out a small amount of white acrylic paint onto my non-stick craft mat and using my brayer, I rolled some white paint gently over the top of the sanded areas.  I loved the results.
  • I splattered with more of the white paint that was left on my mat and set aside to dry.
  • I die cut the sentiment from Simon Says from some white cardstock twice and glued them together for stability.
  • When the panel was dry, I glued it onto a piece of green cardstock, then onto a white card base.
  • I glued the sentiment onto the panel, then added some green gems.



I was happy with the results of my card using the embossing folder and this otherwise 'throw away' piece of painted cardstock.
I hope this inspires you to look through your stash and use an otherwise rejected piece.
To see some of my other cards using this technique, go HERE and HERE.

Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Supplies
Stamps- none
Inks- none, Basics Acrylic paint
Paper- white cardstock (Scribes Nook- Waterloo, Ont.)
Accessories and Tools- Forevergreen EB folder (Spellbinders); Speedball Brayer; 
Merry Christmas die (SSS); Spellbinder Platinum die cutting machine; green gems; sanding block

9 comments:

Sarn said...

Ooh I LOVE this. Another stunning card from you.

Hugs, Sarn xxx

Faith A at Daffodil Cards said...

More creative and beautiful work Karen, this is gorgeous.
Faith x

Glennis F said...

This is great! Thanks for sharing your experiments

kiwimeskreations said...

What an awesome 'save' of your basic piece Karen - love the finished card!
Stay safe
Blessings
Maxine

babYpose said...

Wow wonderful emerged of ordinary to beautiful piece. Love it. Happy greetings.

Pat said...

What a great idea to add the pine branches embossed over the top of the green toned background and it changes it completely Karen, and also to sand and add the white acrylic paint..the perfect background for your large die cut sentiment. A beautiful card. x

Susan said...

Love the way you resurrected that practice sheet! What a great background you created by sanding off the dry embossing!

cuilliesocks said...

A gorgeous card Karen, beautifully designed and I love the colours, Kate x

Bonnie said...

You are so clever, Karen! This background is impressive and perfect for the large Merry Christmas die cut!