Facebook Live Replay 7th July featuring the Blossoms in Bloom Bundle. I am delighted to say that for the first time in a few weeks my Live Coffee & Cards Facebook event was completed without any unexpected interruption!! Whether it is the best option or not, I have decided that the Webcam is definitely the way to go because I can then make sure that the Internet is more stable and I don’t have to rely on the WiFi. I decided that I would feature the Blossoms in Blooms Bundle today and that I would make 3 cards. If you watch the replay you will see that I actually made them in a different order, but I am sure you will forgive me.

The Bundle has two main dies, one very fine outline and one more solid outline. The fine outline will lay very easily over the larger die, but that was not the look I wanted today. I chose to use the Rainbow Glimmer Paper which was new in the current Annual Catalogue. Slight tangent, at what point does a New Catalogue stop being ‘New’ and become ‘Current’?

Two Cards for One

I ran the die through the die cutter and ended up with a gorgeous, large element. This will fit on the front of a standard A6 card base, but I wanted to make it stretch and work harder for me. And so the Two Cards for One was born. This is not a new idea, but it is a great way of making cards quickly. I simply lay two pieces of Whisper White Card on a piece of paper (keeping them in place with a tiny piece of Seal Adhesive). To hold the die in place I would normally jut add a few dots of adhesive in ‘strategic’ places and be done with it. With a Two For One, you need to make sure that there is a reasonable amount of adhesive throughout the back of the die cut.

Keep a nominal line in the middle of the die cut in your mind when you are applying your adhesive so you add enough in the middle areas. These will become the edge areas in just a few moments, so it will save time now if you pay attention to this. Now line the die cut on top of the 2 pieces of Whisper White card and add some pressure. Now simply cut the die cut along the same line as the mats and you have your two card fronts. Make sure everything along the cut line is well adhered.

Mat the pieces on Basic Black and then Whisper White card. I adhered one of the Basic Black mats to the card base with adhesive and the other with Black Dimensionals. I then reversed that for the sentiments, which were from the same set, heat embossed in White and mounted onto a couple of scraps of the Rainbow Glimmer Paper. Add a few gems and you have Two Cards for One completed.

Tone on Tone Heat Embossing – Any colour you want!

My next card, which was my first, is made from strips of the new InColors. Much as I did with the previous card, I added a tiny amount of adhesive to the back of each of the strips and stuck them to a scrap of paper so they were next to each other. I added stamped images using Versamark, making sure that I stamped over the joins, and over the edges.

Once the stamping was completed I added Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder to each piece and heated them to see the magic happen. Not only do the images take on a wonderful gloss, they also make the card look darker so you get the tone on tone look I mentioned.

Having stamped over the joins between the pieces, it was a fairly simple task to piece them back together in their original order as I adhered them to a Whisper White mat. The mat was a little larger than I needed so, once everything was in place I trimmed it down. I added the Whisper White to a mat of Basic Black and popped that onto the card base with Dimensionals. This time I added 3 clusters of white Elegant Faceted Gems to finish the card off.

The sentiments for all the cards were heat embossed on narrow pieces of Basic Black. The Basic Black give a great contrast, especially when the cards are otherwise quite plain, but bright. For the Rainbow Glimmer Cards I added a piece of the Rainbow Glimmer under each of the sentiments, just for an added bit of colour and to help tie everything together.

To see the Live event and all the hints and tips I shared along the way, why not click the video below. I spent quite a bit of time talking about how best to use the new Seal and Seal+ adhesives. The Seal in particular does have a slight learning curve, but it is such a great adhesive, it is worth it.