Springy Pink & Embossed

This card has a spring like feel to it with a feminine touch. If you want a card that is real girly girl, this is the one for you.

You'll spend most of the time to make this card with inking and embossing. It takes a while but you get a really pretty look. If you've never done any heat embossing before, you might find this project a little difficult.

White card stock 5 1/2 x 8 1/2" for base card, 4 x 5 1/4", 3 x 3 3/4", 2 3/4 x 3 1/2",1 3/4 x 2 3/4",
                           1 3/8 X 2 3/8"
Pale pink card stock2 X 3", 1 1/2 X 2 1/2"
Marina Mist ink
Regal Rose ink
More Mustard ink
Versa Mark ink
Clear Embossing Powder
Regarding Dahlias stamp set (#130327)
Trust God stamp set (#126702)
3/8" Melon Mambo Striped Organdy ribbon (#129293)
Sherbet Buttons (#116312) or other buttons that has a pale pink
Paper Piercing Pack
Paper Piercing Tool
Paper Piercing mat or mouse pad
Glue Dots

1. Distress the 4 x 5 1/4" piece, the 2 3/4 x 3 1/2" piece and the 1 3/4 x 2 3/4" piece of white card stock. I start with the yellow ink. Dab the felt or other distressing medium on the More Mustard ink pad and then directly onto the white card stock. Next, do the same thing with the Regal Rose ink going over top of the More Mustard. Finish with the Marina Mist ink over the Regal Rose. You will not cover the card stock solid with any one color. As you dab the ink onto the card stock, use a rubbing motion to get a good coverage around the card stock.

 2. Ink your image (I used the dahlia from the stamp set) with the Versa Mark ink. Stamp it randomly around the distressed card stock.

3. Place the card stock in a tray, on a lid or a sheet of paper. Sprinkle clear embossing powder to cover the card stock.

Shake off any excess powder. Return excess powder to the jar to use in your next embossing project.
4. Heat the entire card stock until the embossing powder melts.

When it is melted, it will have a glossy, shiny look.
Repeat this technique with the 3 pieces of white card stock.
5. Adhere the embossed card stock on to the plain white card stock leaving about 1/8" border all the way around each piece. The smallest embossed piece should be adhered to a piece of pale pink card stock. Layer the layers according to size with the smallest on top.
6. With the smallest piece of card stock, stamp a greeting from the Trust God stamp set in the center with Regal Rose ink. Use Marina Mist ink to distress with the blue around the outer edge of the card stock. Adhere it to the other piece of pale pink card stock with a border around the greeting piece.
7. Using the Paper Piercing tool or a very sharp needle(not recommended but it will work) punch holes all the way around the white card stock with the saying. Adhere this to the bottom right side of the card, overlapping the other layers.
8. Wrap ribbon around the right side of the card and tie in a bow. Sometimes I use glue dots to keep my bow in place.
9. Place glue dots on the back of a large pink button and adhere to the top left rectangle as shown in the picture.
10. Adhere the card front on to the card base, leaving a white border all the way around the card.

Distressing

Distressing is not one of my favorite techniques to use on cards or layouts but I decided that I wanted the computer printed history of this church to look "old" so I used distressing on this layout.

Distressing is actually a very easy technique. For  this today, I used direct ink to paper and tearing to get a distressed look.

Instead of cutting my side paper to mat the computer article on the history of this church, I tore it. I started with a 12 x 12" sheet of patterned paper from the Bashful Blue Designer Series paper pack (#112151). Just using my fingers, I carefully tore the paper at what looked to be about 4" from the edge.

I used one hand to guide my tearing even though it doesn't show that in the picture. When you tear towards you, you get the white edge on the back side of your paper. When you tear away from you, the white edge is on your side of the paper. To get the white edge, you must use paper with a white core. Most patterned papers have the white core.

To ink the white torn edge of the paper, simply rub the paper across your ink pad. I used Marina Mist for this part to coordinate with the colors in the layout.

The background paper is a pattern from the Beau Chateau patterned paper (#122357).

To make the background paper, the computer printed article and a picture have the old distressed look, I applied Crumb Cake classic ink to the edges of each of the items that I wanted to look distressed.

There are other ways to make paper look old, such as scraping the edges with scissors or a knife to rough up the edges but that is not a look that I'm especially fond of. If you want to learn more about this technique, you can google "paper distressing."