End of the Week Technique (EWT) #8 Versamark Marker - Embossed Gently Falling Card

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Hey y'all! I hope this post finds you well and if not sunny and warm, at least dry. Here in the DMV we have rain with 100% chance of more rain throughout the day. Seriously?!? You couldn't even give us 1% chance of sunshine. SMH... Oh well at least it's not my 2 least favorite 4-Letter words Cold and SNOW!

On the upside as I walked in to work this morning, the sidewalks were strewn with beautiful multicolored leaves. I do have to say that's one thing we never got much of back home. There's even this big tree across the street from my office and every once in a while when the wind is just right, you'll see a little swirling and fluttering of the golden leaves as they fall. So pretty!

It seemed kind of appropriate for today's card since it uses the Gently Falling stamp set. I'm a little early this week with the EWT but I put this card in as a challenge entry and wanted to be able to link it up here so, I'll try and do an extra post tomorrow or Friday with the other challenge I entered.

Have you been to Try Stampin on Tuesday? Not sure how I stumbled upon CherylAnn's regular site, but I'm so glad I did! Check her sites out....but after you finish here. :-)

Here's the sketch from Try Stampin on Tuesday-

Pretty simple, not a lot of fuss. I had an idea for the sketch as soon as I saw it. Too bad it had the same centerpiece as the idea I had for the Stampin 411 challenge. What to do....What to do? You know my inner Pooh-Bear came out- Think, think, think, think....come-on you know you just said it with me in your inner Pooh-Bear voice as you read that. :-)

Well, I have to say my upline Robin Merriman is such a creative inspiration for me. I missed her Firehouse camp last week, but saw the cards and wish I hadn't because they were SOOOOO Amazing! She posted one yesterday, here, that became the inspiration for my challenge card.

Here's my card-

As you can see, I only deviated from the sketch by changing the circle to a square. I have to say though, I only did that because I didn't have anything to make a large circle with, however I really like how it turned out. I hope the Try Stampin on Tuesday people aren't super sticklers for not deviating from the sketch.  I used a cardbase of Soft Suede and layered that with Very Vanilla. The next layers have DSP from the Spice Cake collection. So pretty! The more I use this collection, the more I like it. The final layer has Pool Party added for a pop of color and a bit of the unexpected. I sponged all the layers gently around the edges with Soft Suede and used Tombow to adhere them all.

For the Spice Cake sections, I ran them through my Big Shot with my Lattice Embossing Folder and then lightly sponged the top with Soft Suede to help define the embossing just a little.

Tip- When you use an Embossing Folder that has a lot of impressions or makes really deep or intricate impressions, Cut your cardstock larger than you need to (you can always cut it down to size). It will shrink up! Ask me how I know. In fact for this card I embossed a 5 1/4 x 4 piece of DSP and didn't have much waste at all.

For my center piece I used my Gently Falling stamp set and this single leaf fit like it was made for my card. Thank-you very much Stampin' Up! I was soooo excited to finally get to use this set as a 2-step set. I used Pool Party, More Mustard, and Old Olive. I don't have the In-Color markers yet so I inked up my stamp with my Pool Party Classic Ink Pad and then using a q-tip randomly (UGH, Random-U know it stressed me out, too!) swabbed off some of the ink. I then used my Stampin Write Markers to color in the bare areas. I stamped onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla and then inked up the outline stamp in Soft Suede (it's becoming a favorite color of mine) and stamped.

For those of you that know me, or have been here before, you know how OCD I am about stamp placement. I know that one of the nice things about the 2-step sets are they don't have to be perfect, but can I just say I still had fits when I saw the placement wasn't perfect. I took a breath though and decided the Very Vanilla showing through was a nice color addition and left it like it was. Boy, it was hard though to not flip that scrap over and stamp again!

So, are you wondering about today's EWT yet? Well, I think the leaf would have been pretty enough as it was, but I wanted to make it a little more special. (As if a Blue leaf isn't special enough, Shan?)

Well, I recently got a Versamark Marker and have been dying to try it out. I wanted to edge my pretty leaf in Gold and I knew just how I was going to do it! (Or at least I hoped I knew just how I was going to do it)

I grabbed my Versamark pen which, by the way, is dual ended (so nice) and used the Brush-Tip to outline my leaf. (It's just like using the brush end of your Stampin' Write Markers). I went just outside of both images, whether it was the solid line or the colored image. I then coated it with my Stampin' Up Gold Embossing Powder and fired up my Heat tool and watched as my leaf went from pretty to OOOOHHHHH! (And Yes, I did my Happy Girl Dance, yes I did).

But, as pretty as it was, this Scaredy Cat wanted MORE! I wanted the whole leaf to be Extra Pretty and Shiny, so throwing caution to the wind (who knew how this was going to work out...was I going to have to scrap everything and start over with a fresh stamp....oh stress, oh worry...) I took my Versamark Marker back out and ....wait for it.... Colored in my Whole Leaf! I was so excited the colors didn't blur or anything. So I held my breath (figuratively not literally, because that would have been really hard *tee-hee*) and using my Clear Embossing Powder and Heat tool waited for the magic to happen. I was not disappointed! I watched it go from OOOOHHHH! to WOW! (And Yes, I did my Happy Girl Dance a second time!)You can't really see it in the first picture so here's another one-

Ooooohhhhh..... Aaaahhhhhhh! Right! So Shiny and Pretty! Not bad for my first try, huh? This is definitely a technique I will be trying again! How about you? It's so quick and easy and gives almost Instant Gratification (always nice!) and such amazing results.

I cut it out with my Paper Snips as close to the embossing as possible and the positioned it with 4 Stampin Dimensionals, one at the N, E, and W points of the leaf and one a little low middle and then used some of the side Dimensional to put behind the stem.

I did do the inside of the card, but it was getting late and I forgot to snap a picture of it. Sorry. It uses the sentiment "Magnificent!- The perfect word for you" in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla. The sentiment is from our Hostess Collection "Perfect Words"

Well, that's it for today. I hope you like my card for the sketch challenge and today's EWT. I hope you try it! I think you'll be very happy with the results. If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Card Recipe-
Cardstock- Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Spice Cake DSP
Ink-Soft Suede and Pool Party Classic Ink Pads and More Mustard and Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers
Stamps- Perfect Words
Embossing Powders- Gold and Clear
Big Shot- Lattice Embossing Folder
Others- Versamark Pen, Heat tool and Powder Trays, Tombow, Stampin' Dimensionals

If you need supplies to make this card or others you can shop in my Online Store, 24/7.

Come back soon and see what else I have for you. I have a Stampin 411 Challenge to post probably tomorrow.

Till then,

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It