More Card Making!

First of all, I need to apologise for the lack of activity on this blog lately, this last month I have been in the process of moving house, so both of my blogs took a back seat, but before that I was so preoccupied with my Nail Art blog, this one was kind of forgotten about. I aim to rectify this in the near future :) this next week I am still in the process of moving, but after that my posts should become a little more regular.

Anyway, recently I went to a show called Craft for Crafters, and bought myself a few goodies to try out some different techniques. My mum is also heavily into crafts and card making, the amount of stuff we have between us is pretty unbelievable! My mum bought a Big Shot machine, which is a machine used for Die cutting and embossing, and she spent a lot more money than she intended to on plenty of embossing folders and die cutters to go with it of course! My attention was caught by a method of making 3D designs, with metal stencils and a 3D paste, So I bought a few stencils, a colored paste, and a translucent paste for adding glitter to.

Today being Valentines day I decided I had the perfect opportunity to try these out making a card for my Valentine! Unfortunately I have not seen him today, so I am emailing him a picture of the card instead :)

I started off creating the main feature of my card, the 3D peacock, here is what I used -

The small pot contains clear glass micro-beads, the larger pot contains a bronze(ish) colour 3D paste, I taped the peacock stencil down firmly over a small piece of black card. You are supposed to use a spatula type thing to spread the paste, but I used an expired debit card instead, good thinking huh?

So, I scooped out a large blob of the paste, placed it across the top of the stencil, and the gently dragged it down to make the design. All of the excess can easily be scraped back into the pot, so there is very little wastage. It is easy to cover up any spots you have missed, or smooth out anywhere the paste is too think, it is very easy to use. Straight after I was happy with how the paste looked, I untaped the stencil, and poured glass micro-beads all over his tail for some extra sparkle. Here is the finished peacock -

No Flash

With Flash

Close Up Of Tail, With Flash

Close Up Of Tail, No Flash

Now, to make this into a card... I clearly needed to try out mums big shot machine, my original idea was to cut out a square of red card, emboss it, and place it behind the black card, but it turns out that the peacock was nearly the size of the card base anyway! I still wanted an embossed background for him, so just embossed the entire front of the  card instead! I then used Pritt Stick to attach the peacock, and decided I needed a heart on there too - it wasn't looking much like a valentines day card!

I wanted red hearts, but due to the orangeness of the peacock, it just didn't look right, so I settled on silver. I cut out 2 different sized hearts using the big shot machine and nesting heart dies. I then embossed each heart with a different pattern (you may notice I was very precise with the placement of the embossing folder, look at the tiny embossed heart in the smallest die cut heart) I attached the small heart to the large one, using a thick blob of 3D glue, and then attached to the card with 3D glue. Here is the finished product, I am so pleased with how it turned out :)

Showing 3D of Hearts

I love what I have achieved here, and am super pleased with everything I bought at the craft show :) the 3D paste is a quick and easy way to make a stunning design, and the embossing ability of the big shot machine can add an extra level of interest to just about anything, it is so versatile. The micro-beads are certainly an eye catching alternative to glitter too, and these clear ones can be applied over any colour to add a more interesting texture and an incredible sparkle.

Wishing you all a very happy Valentines day, S x