Monday Make with Creative Expressions

Hello!

Seem to have forgotten it is a Bank Holiday, I have no concept of time now that I am retired and living in such a peaceful part of Wales. Nothing reminds me of the day or time other than it being light or dark!

This week I have decided to show you what can be made with some very basic materials and of course the lovely English Country Garden stamps from Creative Expressions.

This is very much a Back-to-Basics project. 3 key ingredients; card, embossing ink and powder along with a stamp and an embossing folder.

After my foray into embossed embossing last week with the blog-hop card, I thought it might be nice to do something similar albeit on a lesser scale. Let me tell you what I did.

I ran a piece of the Coconut White Foundations card through my embossing machine with the Valor folder from Spellbinders on the cross side. 

I then pressed my embossing ink pad onto a large acrylic block.

Next I pressed the bumpy side of the embossed card onto the inky acrylic block. I pressed just firmly enough to get some embossing ink onto the raised areas. This worked better than running the ink pad over the card like I did last week! I suppose it depends on the effect you are going for.

Next I sprinkled some of the lovely Gold Cosmic Shimmer detail embossing powder over the card, tapped off the excess and heat set it. Any areas that are a little lacking in gold can be repeated. The old saying you can add but not take away should be remembered at this stage! Build up the amount of gold you want gradually. Ink again and again if necessary to achieve your preferred level of gold-ness. For me this card was all about less-is-more.

I stamped 3 images onto some more card and embossed them with the same powder. The stamp I used was the Rose Entwined. 

Because I didn't have any gold card of exactly the same colour, I cut my mount from white card and then inked around the edges to a width of about 5mm with embossing ink. You could use an embossing ink pen for more accuracy. Then I applied the gold embossing powder and heat set it. The width that needs embossing depends on the size of the mount you make and you only need to emboss the minimum amount. It is nice when all the golds are the same colour I think.

I made a banner using the Happy Days sentiment from the Desert Daisies set. It worked well as I wanted a ribbon sentiment rather than a tag type and did the same thing as before for the gold mount.

All in all a simple but very effective make. Ideal for a wedding.

Going back to basics provides a welcome change from the complex, highly decorative cards and projects the experienced and well-equipped crafters make. It encourages those new to crafting to have a go. Styles vary, fashions come and go but you each know what you like, what your skills are and who you are making your card or gift for. I was a long time into my crafting journey before I used a rubber stamp and then quite some time after that that I used embossing powder. We all start somewhere and the best way to progress is to master a technique before confusing yourself with multiple layers, assorted techniques and a myriad of paints, powders and inks!

Hope you enjoyed the project this week and that you will be back next week when I will be unveiling a new set of projects made with new Festive products from Sue Wilson!

Have a lovely week! Kim