March 10, 2022
Welcome on my new blogpost, today I am sharing a new card I have made with Pinkfresh Studio products. It is a rare time, the world is suffering a lot. War in the Ukraine, I have heard also horrible stories from the USA about racism and agression against the LGBTQIA+ community. A short story about my feelings and after that I will take you through my process making this card.
I just got some hope, the covidnumbers are good, so good that there are almost no regulations here in the Netherlands. Of course I am very careful due to my health, which is finally getting a bit better after some tough weeks. And than all hope was destroyed because of a war. And yes every war is one too many, I feel sorry for everyone who is suffering from it or the mental issues it has left. But the Ukraine came close, very close. So every card I have seen was blue and yellow. I wasn't able to make card myself and felt guilty, because I was asked to donate one and I would loved to donate a card! All those cards inspired me, gave me hope and I saw connection and the good in people!
Soon a friend from Sweden is celebrating her birthday, her favourite colours are blue and yellow. So I made a card with those colours, thinking about the Ukraine, thinking about the lovely country Sweden, thinking a lot and feeling grateful that I can finally make a card again! The last card I have made is almost a month ago... The reason I wasn't able to make any cards is because I was sick for the last month, so sick that I slept a few days in the hospital. I have severe asthma and some other diseases and my immune system is not working well, so I had infection after infection and some infections at the same time. My bed was my biggest friend and it was not only physically a challenge, but also a mental challenge. I am making cards for my hobby and it is a therapy for me. But if I can make a birthday card for everyone I want it is a big accomplishment for me and I am very happy, so there are no spare cards and I really hope to get so much better that I can make spare cards for auctions for a good cause, for nurses who work very hard, for teachers, for volunteers, for ill people and people who just need it to support them. So another goal for me that I want to reach:D Luckily it is slowly getting better now and I was able to make this card and hopefully this positivity keeps going and I can make a lot of cards this year!
So here finally my process. I started with stamping the nested chevron background stamp. I placed them all in my stamping buddy and removed every one except for the middle one. I take out the foampad in my stamping buddy, because this is a rubber stamp, actually I almost forgot it and was thinking why it would not close. Time to wake up... I treated the paper I had cut at a bit wider than the stamp with my antistatic powder tool and stamped it with my wow embossing inkpad twice to be sure and used metallic gold powder from WOW. Unfortunately it was quite static and there was some powder left so I took the smallest paintbrush I have and wiped it away. I heat set it with my wow embossing tool and put it back in my stamping buddy. I placed the following part of the stamp and used the blues from Pinkfresh, started with sapphire, the next one was blue jay and the last one slumber. I took them one by one and all stamped them twice for the best result. I took them back in place and went the different direction and started with my yellow oxides in the order mustard seed, squeezed lemonade and scattered straw. If I would do it over I would left the scattered straw and choose a darker yellow.
After stamping I took the nested chevron die and run it through my sizzix big shot plus. I took a cardbase and made a top folded US A2 card (5,5"x4,25"). I took some jeje foamstrips from 2mm thickness and placed them on the fully coloured parts of the diecuts. Thanks to my new tool from Tim Holtz it was easy to get the thin lined stamped parts out of the die.
I released the paperback from the foam, took my precision glue bottle and added some glue for some wiggle room. I started with the sapphire blue part because it was the easiest one to assemble. After that I glued the thin lined parts flat on the cardstock and I puzzeled my way until the card was covered. It was not that quick of a process, but I have seen it in a live Lea Lawson once did and I loved the effect! If you want to see that live, you can see it on the YouTube-channel from Pinkfresh Studio somewhere around Christmas last year I thought.
So now for the sentiment, I knew I wanted to use the Happy Birthday from the set I have, but could not find my gold paper so soon and it would be a different kind of gold. So I thought to be clever and use my embossing dobber on some paper scraps and heat emboss it, After that I die cut it and the shadow layer from vellum. I know you also can emboss your die cut, but it is so delicate and I thought this was better for my energy. I also cut it three times out of white cardstock scraps and stacked them with liquid glue. I glued it on the vellum shadow layer and just stacked there the tittle (the dot on the i).
Last I diecut the curvy leaves from vellum and also gold embossed paper and assembled them with a bit glue behind the Happy Birthday so I would not be noticeable and luckily that was enough to keep it all together. And again no sequins or pearls, I tried it but it was nicer without.
And to finish, be kind, be nice, you are good the way you are. Sharing love, sharing handmade kindness like Jennifer says makes the world a better place.
Are you curious what products I have used? I will list them below:
Crafters Companion white stamping card A4 300GSM
Heffy Doodle US letter size white cardstock 300GSM
Vellum (just one from my stash)
Pinkfresh ink cubes: sapphire, blue jay, slumber
Distress oxides: mustard seed, squeezed lemonade, scattered straw
Pinkfresh studio pop out Nested chevron
Pinkfresh studio nested chevron die
Pinkfresh studio curvy leaves die
Pinkfresh studio phrase builder: hello die set
Creative Expressions woodware magic anti-static pouch
WOW clear ultra slow drying embossing inkpad
WOW metallic gold embossing powder
Nellie Snellen stamping buddy pro
Tim Holtz retractable craft pick by tonic studios
WOW dual speed heat tool
Sizzix big shot plus
Tim Holtz media glass mat
Dutch Doobadoo glue
Vaessen precision glue bottle
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