I have a feeling I have a busy day ahead. Yesterday the Nova Scotia Premier announced a state of emergency here in Nova Scotia. You may not know but as well as papercrafting and blogging, I also work as a pharmacy assistant. Pharmacies are an essential service and so this means I’ll be going to work my shifts as normal. No staying home and binge-watching Harry Potter for me! Those of you who can stay home, should. Before you head for the front door ask yourself this question… “Do I REALLY need to leave the house?” Every person who stays home today, is helping to protect the health of those in essential services who have to go out. If you decide stay home today, thank you. While you’re there enjoy this birthday card including a faux mat technique (and a new product sneak peek).

INKED EMBOSSING FOLDER

This project began with a gorgeous new 3D embossing folder called Ornate Floral. It’s part of the new Ornate Garden Suite that will be available for customers to buy from April 1st. Like many embossing folders it can be a little hard to see the design clearly in photos so I decided to make that easier using the inked embossing folder technique.

To start with I had to decide which side of the embossing folder to ink. The side I needed was the one with the Stampin’ Up! logo printed on it. I opened up the embossing folder and pressed a Pool Party ink pad all over the embossing surface. Next I placed the folder onto my embossing machine with the uninked side flat on the platform. Then I put some Whisper White Card onto the open folder. With that done I closed the inked side of the folder and placed the 3D Embossing Plate on top. Then I ran the embossing folder forwards and backwards through the machine. When I opened up the folder the ink had transferred to the card making the design really stand out.

The only problem was that I hadn’t been very careful when inking up the folder. I’d obviously twisted it in some areas pushing the ink into the recessed parts of the folder. Then in other areas I hadn’t pressed firmly enough making the inking rather patchy. So without moving the card I reinked the other side of the embossing folder, closed it and ran it through the machine again. That was much better.

While I was there I decided to play with the inked embossing folder some more and ink emboss a 1″ x 5-1/4″ strip. Then I ink embossed the flap of a Whisper White Medium Envelope to match as well.

FAUX MAT TECHNIQUE

While the ink embossed pieces dried (I did use a lot of in after all), I got on with the sentiment.

For this I turned to the Layered With Thanks Stamp Set. I inked up the “Happy birthday” sentiment with Pool Party ink and stamped it onto Whisper White Card. Then I cut it out using the coordinating Label Me Lovely Punch.

The punch leaves a narrow white border around the stamped image which is nice. But there’s no larger punch if you want to create a mat layer. Not to worry though, there are a couple of ways I could use that white border to make a mat.

First I could fussy cut close to the line on the sentiment image. Then I could punch out some coloured card and glue the fussy cut piece on top. But that would be, well, fussy. So instead I pulled out a Pool Party Stampin’ Write Marker from the Subtle collection. Then using the brush tip I just carefully coloured in the white border around the sentiment. Now I had a “mat” effect on the sentiment with very little effort.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Now I was ready to start putting it all together. Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored a piece of Thick Whisper White Card. I folded the card along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create a card base.

Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed the main ink embossed piece to a layer of Pool Party Card. Once that was done I attached it to the card front.

Next I added a strip of Whisper White Card across the middle, followed by a narrower strip of Pool Party Card. Then to finish the front I added the sentiment with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I used more liquid glue to attach the ink embossed strip to a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Whisper White Card. Then once I’d glued that inside the card base I was done.

I absolutely love this new Ornate Floral 3D Embossing Folder. I’m also pleased with how the faux mat technique allows the sentiment to stand out, without obscuring the ink embossed design. What do you think?

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