Not my proudest moment - Easter Cards

I planned to make and post Easter cards for all my friends and family. I thought long and hard about the designs, ordered everything I needed. But then, last Thursday my husband informed me it was Easter this weekend. The time just completely got away from me! Being in lockdown I just take it day by day and make the most out of the good weather as much as I can. And then, because of the delays in post I didn't receive most of my supplies. Disaster.
I still wanted to make Easter cards since I was really looking forward to it. And since it was too late to post anything I just made a few for friends who live nearby so I could hand deliver them. I had one Easter themed die set by Sizzix and that's what I used.

So I made eggs. Loads of them. For some I used pattern dies included in the set, but I kept most of them quite natural. I cut them out of white, pink and green cardstock and splattered them with pearlescent watercolour. For that I mixed red and green to get brownish colour, but the shine of the paint made it look a bit like rose gold.
 I also used die cut patterns as stencils to apply some crackle paste - just for a bit of variety. It worked out great, but the pattern really is too small for that. It was good to try it though and I'll definitely use this technique in the future.

I also added some feathers and sisal fibre.

For two of the cards I added bunny ears sticking out from the eggs (dies included in the set) to make them a bit more playful.

I wanted the eggs to look like they were arranged in a basket so I've added layers of foam tape behind them.

 So here they are, my last minute hand delivered Easter cards. They may be quick and easy, but they did bring some joy to the recipients. And that's most important, especially during this hard time.

Hope you're having great Easter and enjoy the company of your closest ones.

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#cardmakingsuperpower Encouragment Cards Featuring Detail Foiling With no Heat

I love Jennifer McGuire's #cardmakingsuperpower movement. I love crafting, but I always asked myself what's the use of it in the world. And here it is. It's not just paper, it's personal. From personalised cards to movements like this when the times are tough. I had no second thoughts about jumping on board. And I had just the thing I needed.

I used an old Hero Arts layering stamp and die set. It features lovely goldfish and an encouragement sentiment perfect for the circumstances. Initially I wanted to create something simple and quick but I just couldn't help myself. So I've added a few details and eventually I'm happy with the results.

For the backround I used pearlescent watercolour on white cardstock. I just painted a whole sheet of cardstock and then die cut the irregular rectangle shapes, so some pieces were darker and some lighter, but all show variation in colour. Initially I was going to leave it at that, but it just wasn't enough. So I used an embossing folder from Papercraft Society January box by Olga Direktorenko. It was perfect for creating the waves effect.  I also used a couple of dies from the same box to serve as water plants.

I used Hero Arts mini ink set to stamp the fish and then stamped partially with black ink to accentuate the eyes. I wanted a bit of shine on the fish to make them look a bit more realistic and I couldn't decide what to use for that. Then I thought they were goldfish after all so I should add some gold. And foiling was perfect for this. I added just a little bit of gold foil detail - full details of the technique can be found below.

The gold detail really added to the stamps but they still looked a bit flat. So I used Dimensional Magic for the eyes. It really made them pop (wrong choice of words, sorry) and made the fish look even more realistic. 

Because I was making multiple cards I decided to vary them a bit and on some of the fish I added Wink of Stella shimmer.

Another variation was in the dimension. I mounted the blue bacground to white card base using craft foam. On some cards I just glued the diecuts directly to the background, but on others I mounted the larger fish with foam squares or stacked 3 dies together for added dimension. I was surprised how different the two ways look in the end. Although this is probably a nuance only a cardmaker would notice.

Here's the foam squares:

And stacked dies:

I used different combinations of water plants on each card and mounted the sentiment towards the bottom using foam squares again for dimension. Here's a few examples:

Now for the foiling technique. I used a way of adding foil which didn't require heat and also allowed me to add a small detail. And one way of adding foil is to use something sticky for the foil to attach to. It could be double sided adhesive, but it wouldn't work for me in this case. I used Zig's 2 Way Glue pen.

 It comes with a precision applicator similar to gel pens so it allows to only apply a small amount of glue. It also works two ways - when wet, directly after applying or when dry as it remains sticky. The glue is blue but turns clear when it dries. And it doesn't take long. I added a few small fish scale shapes and after it dried I placed the foil over it, nice shiny side up and pressed and rubbed it into the glue. It came out perfect!

The cards will be out on their way to our superheroes shortly and I really hope they'll bring them a smile.