New Technique

Pin It Now! One of the many perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is the opportunity to attend Convention in Salt Lake City every summer. They have TONS of goodies exclusively for those in attendance; however, there is usually a very limited amount of stuff that's left over that Stampin' Up! puts out for sale to those demos who were unable to attend. Well, since I wasn't able to attend Convention I have been anxiously awaiting the list of "left overs" to see what kind of goodies they had; it's always fun to look ;). About 2 weeks ago the list came out & one of the things I "had to have" was a DVD featuring quite a few different techniques fellow demos have presented over the past year at different Stampin' Up! events all over the country. I received all my goodies late last week & sat down & watched the whole DVD over the weekend. One of the presentations I fell in love with & of course had to try right away was the Faux Mother-of-Pearl technique that Heidi Baks demoed. My husband just happened to need a going-away card for a co-worker this week so I decided to use it on her card. Here's my first card using this new (to me) technique:

I cut out a Top Note using my Big Shot & Whisper White card stock. On a paper plate I poured out some Frost White Shimmer Paint & using a wadded up piece of plastic wrap I dabbed it into the paint; blotted off the excess on the paper plate. I gently blotted the plastic wrap all over the Top Note & added more Shimmer Paint as needed. You don't want to cover the whole thing, you want some of the card stock to show through. Once the Top Note was dry (it doesn't take very long) I stamped the main image from the set "Elements of Style" with StazOn & colored it in using Regal Rose & Wild Wasabi markers & a blender pen. I then used a sponge & sponged on Blushing Bride over most of the image. I also sponged on some Bashful Blue. When I was satisfied I took a paper towel & gently wiped the image to get the excess ink off. I did the exact same thing on a scratch piece of white card stock & stamped the sentiment from the set "Sincere Salutations". I used the Extra Large Oval punch to punch that out & a piece of Blushing Bride. I then used the brush end of the Basic Gray marker & ran it around the edges of the Top Note & the 2 ovals to add some definition. I used a scrap piece of Blushing Bride card stock & punch it out using the Scallop Trim Border punch & adhered it to the Basic Black card base using Sticky Strip. I used a piece of Basic Gray DSP (another scrap) & trimmed it to 5 1/2" x 1 3/4" then used Sticky Strip to attach it to the card front. The Top Note is popped up using dimensionals. I layered the 2 ovals & glued them together with Sticky Strip before using some more Sticky Strip to adhere it to the Top Note.

None of the photos I took really did this card justice; it's very pretty in real life. :) This technique is one I'll definitely do again; I'd like to play around with the pinks & blues some more & I'd like to try peach & yellows, too. The part that took my the longest was coloring in the flowers; you could stamp a solid image instead if you'd rather not color ;) Hope you feel inspired to try this technique for yourself; you'll love it too! Have a wonderful week! :)