Friday April 23, 2021

Springtime Slimline

It's finally spring and the flowers are starting to bloom outside and in my craft room! Today, I made this spring-themed birthday card for my niece. I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire. She made a video two years ago who where she made a card similar to this. If you don't know who she is, her channel is a must watch! 

These floral framed tiles look like stained glass. Like my post a week ago, I used Distress Oxides to get the watercolor effect of their backgrounds.

Products needed for this card are Distress Oxides or other water-reactive ink, blending brushes or other blending tool, a slimline card base, pieces of white cardstock, a piece of halographic cardstock, square frame dies (I used these from Pinkfresh Studios), and a sentiment die (I used a border die from Lawn Fawn).

I started by randomlly ink blending with green and blue oxides. By blending ink first, the completed look is more striking. If you want a more subtle background, skip this step.

Then, I put the same colors onto my media mat. Spritzing them with water made them more fluid. You can add as much or as little ink as you wish depending on the effect you want.

I patted the cardstock on top of the ink, then drug it through. I dried it with my heat tool, then repeated until it was "done". Sometimes the hardest part is knowing when to stop, but I was happy with this.

While my panel was drying completely, I diecut three of each frame.  The lily of the nile die cut was not cooperating with me. I ended up using a rose frame on the final card instead.  I glued all  together before attaching the backings. This gives added dimension.

I cut up the inked panel into squares and attached them to the frames, making tiles. Then, using Glossy Accents, I turned them into "stained glass". I love this look! On top of giving a beautiful shine to your papercrafts, Glossy Accents is also an amazing adhesive!

While the tiles were setting up (about 40 minutes), I die cut the sentiment out of halographic cardstock. I debated whether to place a sentiment on the front of the card, but thought this die would look nice. I love Lawn Fawn's border word dies!

This is the finished card. I loved making it except for the measuring! Unlike my other cards, which I "eyeball", I had to measure both sides to certain points, then draw lines. One was to line up the sentiment, one was to place the top edge of the tiles, and one was for midline. If I didn't measure, the final project probably would have ended up looking like Picasso did it....lol. If you have any questions about technique or products used, please ask them in the comment section. Happy crafting!