With the weather getting warmer (here in Ohio) and the flowers and trees starting to bloom, I can’t stay away from these cheerful and happy Spring cards! I used several cardstocks today to make this card and several techniques – including using an embossing folder, ink blending on cardstock and die cutting these layered images. I had so much fun and you can’t beat the great quality of these cardstocks!
I absolutely LOVE the Cougar Smooth White cardstock – I have the 80# and 100# and use them for different things. The 100# is great for card bases and using for die cutting when you want a stronger die cut. I use the 80# when I am doing any dry embossing, such as in an embossing folder or with a stencil. Both are great to use for ink blending and copic coloring!
I used the Cougar Super Smooth 80# here with this 3D embossing folder and put it through my Gemini machine. Make sure to check your die cutting machine instructions on which plates/sandwich to use when embossing like this. The Gemini in combination with this folder and paper gives a beautiful, textured, detailed image for this background.
Look how pretty that embossed background is! The next thing I did was die cut all those little pieces out of the layered bird and branch dies. I used just one blue, one green, the two metallic colors. To give the die cuts some shading and contrast, we’ll add some inking!
I used some darker blue ink to make part of the bird darker. Ink blending on your die cuts helps you get lots of different colors with only using a few different color cardstocks. You can also add depth and dimension that way with shading!
I used smaller brushes with a light pink color to add some color to the centers of my flowers and some darker green ink to the leaves that accentuates the veins that were embossed into the leaves when they were cut.
Once I had all the die cuts inked and put together, I used foam dots to attach the bird to the embossed background and used liquid glue to adhere the branch directly onto the embossed panel. I embossed a sentiment using white embossing powder onto a piece is the metallic bronze cardstock and glued that down in the corner.
I love combing metallic and plain colored cardstocks with inking and embossing – it really makes your projects pop!
Cardstock List:
