Magical Hot Foil for Freshly Made Sketches 745

It's been a long time since something truly different, and truly exciting, has arrived in my craft room: something never before seen or used or played with. And that folks, is Stampin' Up!'s brand spanking new Hot Foil System.

Once I'd worked out the technicalities of how to operate it (actually, really simple) I tried out a few things like using different dies, using different coloured foils and trying out different papers to foil. Now it was time to actually make something with it all, so I turned to the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to do just that. 

As part of my experimentation, I'd used the Garden Silhouette Hot Foil Die with gold foil on vellum.

Then I coloured the flowers from the back using Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends, with some  touches of Granny Apple Green and Daffodil Delight.

I cut this down to a long strip 9cm wide then folded it over a 9cm square of Bubble Bath card stock, attaching it with Stampin' Seal from behind. 

I can see that one possible negative of this lovely Hot Foiling is going to be the trouble in getting a good photo of it!

I used a Bubble Bath card base. The Basic White card front is embossed with the retired (but never to be parted with) Subtle embossing folder. I wanted some texture for interest but nothing that would compete with the busy gold foiled square, so it was the perfect choice. 

I ran a narrow strip of Bubble Bath through the same folder as a base for the sentiment.  For the sentiment, I hot foiled the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies, then cut them out with the matching cutting dies. There were a bunch of sentiments, which are great to have on hand ready to use - but I liked this one for a wedding. It's popped up on dimensionals.

While looking for embellishments, I wanted something elegant but not too flashy. I chose the sparkling white Shimmering Dots to finish things off. 

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Using Vellum for AYSI 310

 Welcome to the new challenge at As You See It! This time, it's our 'fill in the blank' challenge and it's a good one!

This one really got me thinking because vellum has so many uses: alcohol ink blending, as a 'softening' panel, die cut pieces, heat embossing, colouring, stamping.... what IS my favourite? Well, I came down on... EMBOSSING. Vellum looks lovely when you run it through an embossing folder. 

I had an as-yet unused folder sitting on my desk, Christmas Tidings. So I cut a piece of vellum, embossed it with Christmas Tidings and started building!

And it did kind of build as it went. I stamped and coloured the image from Festive & Fun, then dithered around about what to do with it. Solution - cut it out with one of the rounded corner rectangles from Nested Essentials dies. Problem - the die was not wide enough. Solution - extend the die cut.

Next problem - did placing the rhino image need something to ground it, or could it sit bare on the vellum? This lead to quite a long time of trying different slips of paper in various combinations - a ten minute speed challenge this was not! 

Next problem - I got my heart set on having stitched banner ends on the bits of DSP I'd chosen. I don't know why as life would have been much simpler if I'd just cut strips and shaped the ends with scissors. 😂

Solution - cut two banners with Nested Essentials and create the illusion that it was all one.

Next problem - did all the wording on the vellum constitute a sentiment, or did I need something else? Solution - much moving sentiments in various permutations on and off. On and off. On and off. Did I mention that this was NOT an under-ten minute card??

Next problem - embellishment. Solution - thankfully, pretty straightforward. Some silver Festive Pearls. 

Make sure you visit the As You See It Challenge page to see what other interesting things the team have done with vellum and to link up your own entry. You can join in with us until Wednesday November 1, 11.59pm PST.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking here. Any order of $90 will receive the Creativity Abounds Tutorial Bundle, with 13 projects, as a thank you gift. And if you purchase the Joy of Noel bundle, you'll also receive a project bundle from 'Join in with Joanne and Jan' which will give you two project tutorials from me and two from my buddy Joanne James, aka The Crafty Owl. 

GDP104 and Fab Friday

I've had my eye on the challenge at Global Design Project all week. The challenge is to CASE a card by team member and Artisan, Allison Okamitsu.

One thing that I wanted to take from this project was the repeat stamped background. The others were to do with the layout, specifically the coloured card base and the oval medallion nearer the top than the bottom.

I also really liked that the centre of Allison's card was a quiet oasis against the busyness of the background. To soften the background, I not only stamped off the Dapper Denim once, I also layered a piece of vellum over it before adding in the centre medallion. That is also why I did not add any extra embellishment to the area around the dragonfly.

I did add in a solid sentiment strip underneath. I like how it's like ruling a line underneath and on a more practical level, it meant the glorious wings weren't obscuring it either!

Once I did that, it also started looking a lot like the sketch at Fab Friday, which I'd also had my eye on. Although I had a different idea for that, I'm going to play there too with this card.

Ingredients

Card: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, vellum, silver foil

Stamps: Dragonfly Dreams

Inks: Dapper Denim, versamark

Other: silver embossing powder, Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, Stitched Shape framelits, Layering Oval framelits, dimensionals, 2016-18 In-Colour enamel shapes (retired).

Colour Inkspiration 7

Easter is also the start of first term school holidays. This translates into more crafting time for me, so I was happy to get a chance today to work on the latest palette from Colour Inkspiration.

When the retiring list came out, I went through my catalogue marking the outgoing items. This was not only good to do in terms of saying goodbye to things but it was a great way to be reminded of things that were still in. One of those was the ever so lovely Birthday Blooms set that I hadn't used in a while.

In all of the two years that Tip Top Taupe has been an in-colour, I've never quite made up my mind about it. I loved how it looked with Mint Macaron and Watermelon Wonder and I sometimes thought it looked stylishly elegant and sometimes I thought it looked dull and uninteresting. Colour procrastination... 

I watercoloured the flowers after stamping them in Tip Top Taupe then fussy cut them and gave the centre a lick of Wink of Stella.

After creating the background, I layered over it with vellum. I embossed the sentiment using clear embossing powder because I like the glossy yet subtle effect of it.

So today I'm coming down on the side of liking Tip Top Taupe ... a lot.

Update: Delighted to be a Top 5 Pick at Colour Inkspiration!

Ingredients

Card: Tip Top Taupe, Whisper White, Vellum, watercolour paper

Stamps: Birthday Blooms

Inks: Versamark, Tip Top Taupe, Pink Pirouette, Mint Macaron, Daffodil Delight.

Other: Clear embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella, aquapainter.