Hey y'all. Happy Friday! Woo-Hoo, the weekend is so close I can almost taste it! Unfortunately it tastes like rain. Oh well, maybe I can get some extra stamping done. Lemons into Lemonade and all that. :)
I have a special card for you today. Unfortunately I could not get a picture of it that really shows it off, so I apologize in advance.
Do you ever have someone really special or a really special occasion that you feel like you have to make an amazing card for? Not just your usual run of the mill amazing card, but one that's just a little more special than your normal cards? That's what brought this card into being.
My hairdresser Maria is AMAZING! I've been going to her for about 5 years and she is one of the few people my mom (the Queen of all hairdressers! Hi Mom!) approves of to cut my hair. There were many years, after I moved out of state, where I got a trim twice a year when I saw my mom, because I couldn't find anyone anywhere near as good. Then I found Maria. She was right out of school, working at a new salon we had found and I haven't even thought of going anywhere else! In fact she now does quite a few of my friends as well. (Hey Maria, You Rock!)
Anyways, Maria just got married, and is back from her honeymoon, and I'm going in today to see her. I wanted to make a special card for her, so I sat down to try and come up with something as Fabulous as she is. I've seen lots of different takes on "Wedding Cake" cards so I thought I would try my hand at one.
Here's today's card-
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| Wedding Cake Card |
I used my my Ott Light to try and get a truer light but all this picture shows is the basic card- you can't see any shimmer and it looks totally different than it does in real life. AUGH!
Here's a different pic -Sorry for the HUGE picture. I had to enlarge it so you could see the details and the shimmer
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| Wedding Cake Card with Homemade Shimmer Paper |
This card is also a first for me, in that it's all one color. The only thing that's not white is the sentiment on the inside.
I started with a base of Whisper White 4 1/2 x 11 scored at 5 1/2. All the paper is regular Whisper White c/s. Next I ran a piece of 4 x 5 1/4 c/s through the Big Shot with my Tulip Frame Embossing Folder. Then using sticky notes I played around with different sized rectangles until I came up with three that I felt looked like a tiered wedding cake. I used those measurements to cut scrap c/s that I embossed with my EF, I think it's called Pretty Petals. I took all of this including another scrap of c/s for the flowers and spritzed them all with my Homemade Shimmer Spritz Spray. I punched out flowers from the scrap piece of c/s I had spritzed and used them to add extra decoration and dimension to my cake. I didn't even have to curl the edges, they came out of the punch with that little bit of curl to them. I used Mini-Glue Dots to adhere them.
***I've seen lots of different recipes for Shimmer Spray, most use hand sanitizer. I mixed mine using plain old rubbing alcohol.
Here's what you'll need for this technique-
Shimmer Paint - I used Frost White but we have other colors as well
Liquid for mixing and suspending the paint -you want something alcohol based because you want it to dry quickly and not saturate your paper
A small spray bottle- I used one that I got in the $ bin at my local big box store. The small ones that you use for airline travel is a perfect size for this
Spraying box and scrap paper for protecting your work-space and or furniture- I used SU's spray catcher and grid paper
This is so simple-
1- Just mix a small amount of your Shimmer Paint in with a small amount of your liquid. You can adjust this to suit your preference. I used about 1 1/2oz of alcohol with a few drops of my Frost White Paint. Shake well and spray on a scrap piece of c/s until you get the color/consistency that you want.
2- Lightly spritz your c/s until you get the desired effect
3- Enjoy the look of your technique on your project and think of the smile it's going to bring to someones face! :)
Here's a few extra tips-
1- Because it's a liquid, even if you spritz lightly you can expect some curling of your paper. For this reason you want to use as little as possible to achieve your desired effect. You can use dimensionals to secure your c/s and give a little tension to it to help flatten this out.
2- Make sure your hands are clean and try to only handle the freshly spritzed paper by the outside edges. Avoid putting your fingertips directly on the paper until it's fully dried or you may end up with some finger-tip sized areas on your project where there is no shimmer. It may appear like a greasy fingerprint smudge. Not attractive...ask me how I know. :)
3- Experiment with different color combinations by adding a few drops of your favorite re-inker to your Shimmer Spray.
4- Always shake your bottle well before spritzing to make sure the paint is well mixed.
5- Always do a test spray on scrap c/s or even the paper lining your spraying box before spritzing your c/s. If it's been a while since you last used your spray bottle it may not give you a fine mist but spray globs. Once again not attractive and go ahead...ask me how I know.
6- Always wait to stamp until your paper is completely dry before stamping on it, otherwise your ink may smear. I know this sounds like a basic concept but even though it seems dry it may not be. If you're in a hurry you can give it a quick blast with your Heat Tool.
7- Never, Ever, stamp and then spray. Yes, I tried that and it was A Big Hot Mess! See I found out all the don'ts so you didn't have too. :) You're welcome.
Here's a look at the inside of the card-
Sorry about the photo quality. Stupid BB and Ott light combination! I used the sentiments from Petite Pairs and mounted them both on one block and stamped them onto my dry c/s.
(If you look closely at the picture you can see a few areas that are slightly spotted in appearance. This is because I didn't know about tip #5 above at the time I sprayed my c/s. Luckily it's so shimmery you don't really notice it in real life unless you knew to look for it. I got sooo lucky with that one!)
I added 3 of the shimmery flowers that I used to decorate the cake with and adhered them to the inside of my card for my "something pretty for the inside." I used Mini-Glue Dots to adhere them. The punch I used is retired but the floral stamp from the mini-punch bunch or from the Boho-Blossoms punches would work just as well.
Because I wanted the envelope to be extra special too, I ran it through my Big Shot with the same EF I used for the cake and then spritzed it too.
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| You can really see the shimmer along the bottom half of the flap |
Everything is such a soft shimmery white. It looks like I made everything with our shimmer paper. It's so beautiful and elegant. This is an amazing technique. It's so simple but makes even your extra-special cards into WOW! cards.
I'm so happy with this card. I really hope Maria likes it too.
Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you like it and I hope it inspires you to try something new today.
If you liked today's card I hope you'll leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. Please feel free to +1 or Pin today's card if you liked it. I have placed the buttons on my sidebar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome as well. :)
If you liked today's card I hope you'll leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. Please feel free to +1 or Pin today's card if you liked it. I have placed the buttons on my sidebar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome as well. :)
I hope you have an Amazing weekend full of Family, Friends and of course plenty of time for creativity.
Hope to see you back here next week, when I'll have some new projects for you.
Till next time-
Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.
Be Safe,
Shan
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Thanks so much for taking the time to share a little love with me. I hope you find this blog to be as much of a blessing to you as you are to me. :) Be Safe- Shan