Faux Cloisonne Thanksgiving

Time to make some Thanksgiving cards! I pulled out an old stamp set (Tags & More) today, and paired it with current colors and designer papers.

Check out SU!'s Holiday Mini catalog--page 16--to see the inspiration for my layout. Following this design took me out of my comfort zone a bit. I wouldn't have used the Soft Suede panel on top of the same color base without a contrasting mat unless I had seen it done successfully, but I like it.

The main focus of my card is the gold-embossed leaves: I used the Faux Cloisonne technique. I stamped the leaf image onto a magazine page using VersaMark ink, and then embossed with gold ep. Cutting out the leaves was the most time-consuming part of making these cards, but my trusty Paper Snips was more than up to the task.

For the main panel, I layered a few strips and a 3 3/4" square of Well Worn paper on Soft Suede card stock, and popped that whole piece up with Stampin' Dimensionals. Mini Glue Dots were perfect for adhering the cut-out leaves, keeping them secure while allowing the edges to curl up slightly for dimension. I added a loop of 1/4" Basic Black grosgrain around the panel, too.

When I use dark card stock for my card base, I usually line the card with a light piece of card stock. For this set of cards, I cut pieces of Very Vanilla, stamped with leaves in both Cajun Craze and Soft Suede inks, and also added a Thanksgiving sentiment (from another retired set) in Cajun Craze.

One of my favorite ways to dress up a card is to add a liner to the envelope. I had just enough of the paper I used on the front of the cards to line all eight envelopes with the same pattern. Stamping one Cajun Craze leaf on the front of the envelopes was my final touch.

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to remember those in our lives for whom we are thankful. Why not make a few handmade cards to send off? Happy stamping!

SCS Milwaukee Swap #3

Here's my last Swap card for the Stampin' Up! Milwaukee Regional that is coming up on April 9/10. Since I can't make it to the event, I'm mailing my cards to my friend Jana in Duluth, and she'll be nice enough to swap them out for me. I'm excited to see what everyone else came up with.

(The scanned image isn't the greatest, sorry. I'm still working on how to get the right contrast with cards that have this much white.)



The technique I used on this project is called Faux Cloisonne'. It is gold embossing on top of a glossy photo, such as you find on a calendar or magazine. I've been wanting to use Faux Cloisonne' for a while, and just this week got a fresh container of Gold Embossing Powder from the UPS guy, so I was ready to roll.

Today, I searched through some old Nature Conservancy mags I had saved for this technique and found a photo of a coral reef on a seamount. I made a super-bold color choice; I have to admit that I was a bit worried, but I think it worked out. I pulled the crazy color combination (Sage Shadow and Gable Green, if you can believe it!)straight from the corals, sea water and fish!

1. Card base is Whisper White (standard size); Gable Green panel (at back) is 4" x 2 1/2"; Sage Shadow (really!) panel is 2" x 3 1/2"; Basic Black piece is 1 3/8" square.

2. The Whisper White image panels are all 1/8" smaller in each dimension than their mats (3 7/8" x 2 3/8";1 7/8" x 3 3/8"; 1 1/2" square).

3. This is my first time using this cute stamp set Happy Together, which I earned during Sale-A-Bration. Stems are stamped with Gable Green, flowers with both Gable Green and Sage Shadow, three little chicks with Sage Shadow.

4. For Mama Bird, I used the Rock-and-Roll Technique. Ink her up with Gable Green, roll the stamp on the Sage Shadow pad, then stamp! (It is important to clean the stamp before repeating the technique. Otherwise you'll get Sage on your Gable, which is not as good as chocolate in your peanut butter.)

5. The Faux Cloisonne' Technique looks really cool, but is actually super easy. (Those are the best techniques, in my book.) I just used the flower image (it is important to use a line-art image), stamped it with VersaMark ink, and then heat set the Gold Embossing Powder. Stampin' Up!'s Paper Snips work great for doing some accurate and neat cutting to produce the accents for this card. I popped those to blossoms (and Mama Bird) up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The only caution I have for this technique is that with the glossy image, it is easy to let the stamp slip a bit; you need to be pretty careful. Also, it is good to use the Embossing Buddy before stamping with VersaMark to keep the excess Embossing Powder from sticking to other areas of the paper.

This was a fun and easy project: even with so much cutting, the embossing, and careful assembly, I was able to get the whole set that I needed for my swaps done without burning the midnight oil.

Do you recognize the layout? Check out my earlier post, 'cause I did a bit of recycling!

I'd love to hear what you think, and I hope you'll try this easy way to add some texture to your projects.