With Sympathy

Hi there!  I have another for-fun (ie not for a team) card to share with you today.  I've had a chance to play in my craft area and have been having a blast.  Today's project uses the Altenew Build-A-Flower: Columbine layering stamp and die set and a fun glueless glitter technique using a stencil.

I started off by creating the background first with some new glitters I was trying out. It was so hard to capture in the photo, but there are actually four different (subtle) shades of glitter used, going from a white with yellow undertones to the three shades of blues.  Here is a closer look where I darkened the photo somewhat so you can see the variation a bit more.

The background was created using the Tim Holtz stencil (Woven Layering Stencil) and the glueless glitter technique.  This is such an easy technique to do.  Start off by temporarily taping down the stencil to your cardstock (I used white, but you can use any color), making sure you can place the stencil back in the exact same position.  Then cover the open areas with VersaMark ink and then heat set using Clear embossing powder.  For this stencil, I added tape to the top of the stencil and created a hinge so I could move the stencil out of the way when heat setting.

Next, lay the stencil back in the same place and cover with VersaMark ink again. (Do not heat set yet!)  Remove the stencil completely and add your glitters.  If using multiple colors, apply each color separately and shake off the excess glitter back into the container.  Keep applying the colors individually until the entire area is covered.  The final step is to heat set one more time.  You can see the glitter start to twinkle, indicating that it's melting into the embossing powder.  Once it's heat set the second time, the glitter stays in place.

Since my glittery background was in subtle shades of blue, I decided to stamp my flower in shades of blue as well.  I used VersaFine Clair inks for all the stamping on this project.  

Here's a trick I used to help me line up the stamps.  First I die cut the flower and the leaf shapes from a scrap of cardstock.  I then used this as a template to lay the stamps into. This helped me tremendously with the alignment issues I was having.  And as a bonus, it made the stamping go much faster.

I wanted a bit of dimension to the flower head, but not the stem.  To achieve the look I was going for, I added pop dots to the top petals and glued the base of the head and the stem directly on top of the background. When adhering the completed flower to the glittery background, be sure to use a good adhesive that sticks to glitter.  

The sentiment is part of the stamp set and I stamped onto vellum with VersaFine Clair and quickly heat set it with Clear embossing powder.  I wrapped this around the first two layers of my card and adhered everything onto my card base.

Until next time.....