19 October, 2011

Day 3 - Christmas Card-athon Series 2011



Today's card introduces you to the wonderful world of embossing. I have in my craft room all the tools necessary for embossing but rarely use them, however they do add a really cool dimension to cards so I should probably dig them out more often!.

To start, I have used a plain, cream blank card from a pack of 50. As mentioned before these can be purchased in any good craft shop. I'm sticking with the Christmas colours of red and green and using a few 'unusual' materials to spice it up.


With this card, I have decided to cover the front side of the card in bright green card stock and cut the stock to fit the front of the card and then simply glued it down with glue. I then used a ruler to create "not so straight" lines with a white gel pen along the edge of the card.


I then selected a cream piece of paper with a snowflake design and cut it about 2cm smaller than the actual size of the card. I used 3D glue dots on the back of the cream card to adhere the piece to the front of the card, giving it a 3D feel. I love 3D glue dots and always ensure I'm never without them!



Place the card to one side for now and select some paper which you would like to use for embossing for sentiment. In this instance I have used a clear paper which is almost like grease-proof paper. I had it lying around the craft room and find it really interesting to use. In order to explain embossing, I've created a simple video below which should be of use to you.


Embossing made simple:
1 - Select your paper for Embossing
2 - Select your sentiment and ink (Ensure the ink you use is suitable for Embossing)
3 - Cover your stamp with your chosen ink
4 - Stamp your paper with your sentiment - remembering to apply equal pressure to the entire stamp
5 - Select your Embossing power, and lightly sprinkle over the wet stamp.
6 - Shake off excess Embossing power
7 - Use your heat gun on the stamped area and evenly distribute the heat of the gun across the sentiment.
8 - When you see a shine appear and the stamp "rise up", you're done!

Embossing is a really fun technique, but be careful not to burn your fingers as the heat gun is very hot! At the end of the post, I'll list below all the materials / tools you need if you're interesting in learning the embossing technique and exploring it further.

Once the embossing is complete, you should cut the strip of paper used to the size required and adhere it to the cream paper. To add something extra I have added faux stitches in white gel pen to the sentiment piece. You're now half-way there!


Next, I'm using one of my new favourite materials... doilies!! Yes, they're very "little old lady", but trust me they're the coolest thing and best of all, they're cheap! You can find them in your local euro shop or on Etsy.


For this card, I have cut the doilies to size and placed it half way down the card and just behind the sentiment. Feeling that the card was still a little bare at this stage, I cut a huge amount of red baker twine and carefully wrapped it three times around the card and tied it in a neat bow. Cut off any excess twine with scissors.


To complete, punch some festive snowflakes from some green and red pattern paper and place around the card and you're done!


See you tomorrow for Day 4!
I'll be showing you how to make a Christmas card for someone special!

Embossing Tools
- Heat Gun
- Embossing Power
- Ink suitable for embossing!

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