Hi Everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend.
Me? I had a long weekend, as I decided to take President's Day off to get some chores done and finish my classes and projects for the Altenew Educator Certificate Program that I am doing. I am pleased to say that I have completed all the Level 1 classes and projects. So, you will be seeing lots of cards this week!
The first one was made for the Let it Shine class. Hand's down this has been one of my favorite classes. I don't generally add a lot of shine to my cards, so it really forced me out of my comfort zone and I've found multiple ways to add shine to my cards over the last week.
As I enjoyed this class so much, I am gifting a class seat to one of my fabulous blog readers. Altenew aren't asking me to do this, nor are they compensating me for it – I'm doing it, just because I enjoyed it so much and it's a great way to a belated Happy Valentine's to one of my readers. All you have to do is answer a simple question by leaving me a blog comment – or sending me an email. I will draw a name randomly and the lucky recipient will get a seat at this class, too!
What's the question? Easy… peasy….
Question: What's your favorite way of adding shine to your cards? There's no right answer and no wrong answer. It's really just your personal preference. I'll be running the blog candy through the end of the week, so any answers to the question through to end of day Friday will be put into the random drawing. No limit to the number of entries, either 🙂
So… on to my card.
Carissa adds shine in many ways to her cards and one of them is through foiling without a minc machine. I decided I was going to give it a try as it looked really easy. For this card I used this technique as well as the usual gold embossing and I added a little technique of my mine.
Consequently, this card is overflowing with shine – but I still tried to keep it clean and simple.
I began by gold embossing two of the flowers, two leaves and a bud from the Magnolias for Her stamp set onto cold pressed water color paper. I used the cold pressed rather than the hot pressed because I knew I was going to be using more water than normal and it holds up better.
I then used some of my favorite colors of Altenew inks to color in these elements. The hardest part was having the patience to wait for the colors to dry between applications!
Here's a closeup of the flowers:
I love the pink and coral colors together and they work really well with the gold embossing powder. But…. gold embossing powder alone wasn't going to cut the mustard… So I die-cute two leaves from the new Create a Wreath die-set and added a little shine to them. I could have embossed them and heat set them with gold embossing powder, but I felt like doing something different. All I did was color them with my gold pen and let them dry – and it worked really well. here's a quick look at them:
I know they don't look shiny in the photo, but I promise they are! Once the flowers and elements were done, I had to create a background. I used some blue inks and ink blended a panel behind where the magnolias would sit on my card. But…. I wanted to add some texture behind them, so I splattered water onto the background to add a little interest.
Then…. I had to add the next layer of shine. I used Carissa's trick of using a glue pen to create a tacky surface so that I could lay down some champagne gold foil. I drew the two lines with a rule and the glue pen and left them to dry. they weren't perfectly straight – but I didn't mind that, it added to the more relaxed feel. Once the glue was dry and tacky, I rubbed the gold foil up and down the lines and they created just the frame that I needed.
Last thing? Add a sentiment…….. in gold embossing of course!
Here's my full card:
The sentiment from Sketch Floral had just the right feel for the card and finished off the shine elements. I had such fun putting this card together and think that, yes, there is shine, but I don't think it's too overpowering because of the strength of colors in the flowers, leaves and background.
I'll be back tomorrow with another card for you. In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.
Hugs
Jaydee
Card recipe:
- Stamps: Flowers: Magnolias for Her – Altenew. Sentiment: Sketchy Florals- Altenew
- Dies: Magnolias for Her – Altenew. Sketchy leaves – Create a Wreath – Altenew
- Inks: Altenew
- Cardstock: Canson Cold Pressed Watercolor. Neenah Solar White
- Gold foil: Heidi Swapp
8 Responses
What a beautiful card! I was intrigued how you got it so shiney.
Gorgeous card, Jaydee! Love your coloring and the blue background for the pretty flowers. Have a great day!
Hi Jaydee! Another lovely card!
One way I use To add sparkle is by using glimmer paper and my big shot toakesparkly die cuts. Your way is better!
I love to use a shimmer pen over my flowers for shine. This card is lovely with the gold touches and a wonderful what to had shine.
What a beautiful card! I use silver and gold shiny card stock especially to die cut Christmas ornaments. Like it for matting too.
I love the soft colors and composition in this! This is so dreamy and lovely, Jaydee! So awesome of you to do a giveaway!!
Gorgeous Jaydee! I think your floral cards are my favorites because they’re so realistic and pretty!! Love the soft delicate pink petals against the blue background. The gold open leaves are unexpected and give lots of shine, love that! Your classes are serving you well my friend! So to answer your question about sparkle and shine, I’m just boring and like to emboss my sentiments or greeting. I think it just takes the card up a notch in style when I do. I’ve been using some gold embossing powder lately but tend to use mostly black ink with clear embossing powder for true shine. Can’t wait to see what you learn next!
Wow, this Altenew floral is beautiful also, and I think I like this one better as you can color it in- hence more control over where the color goes than a layering stamp. Love all your shimmery touches of gold, too!