Dream Big

A quick and simple card, once I decided what to do!

I had die cut a feather from a lovely soft green gel print ... and then didn't quite know what I wanted to do with it. Time passed.... I would pick it up, search for inspiration, and then put it back down again. And then came the day ( as it always does, if I wait it out) that I picked it up and knew exactly how to use it.

Card Base: 4.25 x 11, scored and folded at 5.5

black layer: 4 x 5.25

card face: 3 7/8 x 5 1/8

Card Face:

I used several colours of metallic watercolour to spatter the cardface.

Sentiment: I actually had this one in my stash (one of my "nope, that's not quite right" items) . I added a touch of gold to the rim of the circle by first prepping the surface with an Embossing Buddy. Then I stood it up like a wheel on a versamark pad and rotated it until there was a fine coating all the way around. I added some gold embossing powder and heat set it , and then added a tiny heart as a finishing touch.

Feather:

I liked the way that the metallic ink looked on the card face so much that I added the same colours to the feather. I did a bit of everything; I spattered, I ran the edges of the feather directly through the paint and I even dipped it in here and there. The final touch was a bit of embossing powder applied with a fine sprinkling of water.

Technique:

To apply embossing powder with water you have to work very quickly: have your heat gun hot and ready to go, and your embossing powder open and easy to access (without bumping it and spilling it all over!). It's also a good idea to have a dry paint brush close at hand.

I gave the feather a very light spritz of water and then very quickly sprinkled on some embossing powder. It stuck in place where ever the surface was wet. I quickly assessed the result and removed a bit here and there with the paint brush where it was too "clumpy". When I was satisfied I used the heat gun to melt the powder.

***It may be necessary to do this more than once to get the look you want: because you're only using a light sprinkling of water it evaporates quickly and won't hold the powder. Working in stages takes a bit more time, but will give you a better result in the end.

Assembly:

• I glued the black card stock to the card base, and then centered and glued down the card face .

• I added glue sparingly to the back of the feather and put it in place. (a sponge can help here, if you're using liquid glue. A double sided adhesive sheet could have been applied to the gel print before it was die cut, but I simply didn't think of that at the time.)

• I added a bit of dimensional tape to the back of the sentiment and added it to the card face and it was done.

Final Thoughts: I really love how light and airy this card feels, and also how the extra bit of metallic pand and embossing powder on the feather helped to tie the whole design together.

Supplies:

paper for die cutting: I used a gel print, but you could use plain cardstock, patterned paper with a subdued palette or even sponge colour onto cardstock to create your own custom piece

die: DIY Scrapbooking Artist, Amazon

metallic watercolour paint Aoulte, Amazon

embossing buddy:Stampin' Up!

versamark: Stampin' Up!

gold embossing powder, Stampin' Up!

dimensional foam tape: Dollarama

adhesive: Tombo Aqua, Amazon

Card Base: Accent 100 lb, Amazon

black card stock: Stampin' Up!

Card Face: Accent 80 lb, Amazon

Thanks for stopping by!

Thoughts?