My First Shaker Card

This is a straight-up CASE of a card by Vicky Papaioannu..  I've never really felt compelled to make a shaker card, but I loved the softness and the diffused effect that using vellum gives, so I decided to give my own a go.

To start with I cut three rectangles 12.85cm x 8.5 cm from patterned paper, plain white card and vellum.  To make a frame I measured 1.5cm in from all sides on the back of the white rectangle and then cut the middle section out using a craft knife.  (I may use my Silhouette to make up a load of these rectangles and frames for future use, as I'm pretty rubbish with a craft knife and even this simple task was a bit of a pain!)

I stamped the image and sentiment onto the vellum using silver pigment ink and then covered that with silver embossing powder. Heat embossing happens quickly on vellum so keep the heat tool moving to avoid bubbling.  Then placing the embossed vellum face down, I attached double-sided foam tape around the four edges of the vellum, sprinkled in some sequins then placed the patterned paper rectangle on top (also face down).  And that's the shaker compartment done.

I had intended to use the same patterned paper as a mat for the shaker compartment, but forgot!  Instead I used a lovely bright blue paper, which matched the colour tones of the sequins.  So there you go - my first shaker card!  I don't think it'll be the last...

I'm entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe challenge (any shade of blue / Embossing / Patterned paper).

CASE Study Challenge #195

This week I'm joining in with the CASE Study Challenge (CASE stands for copy and steal everything, by the way).  This is the design that was set: 

And here's my interpretation:

I used white pigment ink on Kraft card. At first the white really stood out, but as it dried it seemed to fade a little. Maybe the Kraft card soaked it up. So although I like the result, it's not as punchy as I would have liked. 

Then I thought about stamping with acrylic paint instead, to get a bolder finish, so that's what I did here:

The result is definitely bolder, but it has a different look to stamping with ink. This was my first attempt at stamping with acrylic paint. At first I applied the paint directly on to the stamp, but I was a tad heavy-handed and some of the finer detail was lost.  So then I applied the paint onto an acetate sheet and then pressed the stamp into that before stamping on the card.  The result was much better doing it that way.  It's not as crisp as the ink-stamped version, but I think it has its own charm.

Finally, because the white was not very bold, I wanted to do a comparison with black ink, and here it is:

The design definitely stands out more in black, but I'm not sure which version I like the best.  I was thinking that perhaps the black version would make a nice sympathy card if the white mat behind the sentiment was changed to black.  I also thought that another version of the white using embossing powder might be a good way to make the white stamping pop.

I am entering the following challenges:

CASE Study Challenge #195

Moving Along With The Times - Clean and Simple