Beginner card making mistakes

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I achingly remember the crisp autumn colors of Fall in Louisville (my home town). Living in San Francisco for 13 years and now South Florida since 2000; I have long missed that foilage. As well as bonfires, frosty breath and well worn boots. That was my favorite season.

So, I was eager to use my leaves cover die. I have several leaf themed dies. It's only natural as I am such a tree lover.

I conjured up the feeling of dry, jewel toned leaves by preparing card stock ahead of time. The night before, I sprayed them with vibrant Fall pigments by Lindy's Gang. This paper would be for the central two leaves on my cover. For a video on this whole process, check out my video here.

I also painted swathes of Autumn colored Dylusian paints onto another card stock sheet. My thinking was that the Dylusian colors would shine through the die cut windows around the perimeter of my card front.

 Then, I individually tiled the leave's tiny components into the two central leaf windows. I  thought the central hand tiled leaves would stand out more vibrant and be the clear focal point. That was not the case. Got to hand it to Dyan Reaveley. Her Dyslusian paints are so pigmented that their painted background colors rival the three dimensional glued on leaf tiles! If I were to make another one of these cards, I would make the differences more apparent. Perhaps with more differing colors or amping up the three dimensionality of the central leaves.

Another surprise I did not foresee was the fact that the "Shine" sentiment, although embossed and die cut, does not stand out enough. I would have done better to cut it from a dark, solid colored cardstock, without shimmer. It competes too much with the intricacy of the leaf cuts and marbleized colors.

I spent some time preparing the under papers and individually gluing on leaf tiles with tweezers. So, I will remember this constructive critique. I am sharing these mistakes with you I because that is how we learn.

Supplies

  1. Spray Lindy's Gang shimmer paints over a white piece of cardstock. Let dry couple hours.
  2. Paint a white piece of card stock in random swirls and patches of Dylusian paints. Let dry half hour. Dylusian paints dry very quickly. (One reason they are great for art journals.).
  3. Cut and fold your A2 blank white card.
  4. Cut a 4.25"X5.5" piece of sunkissed card stock.
  5. Run the sunkissed piece of card stock through die cutting machine with the striped leaf cover die.
  6. Cut the Dylusian painted paper into a 4.25"X5.5" rectangle.
  7. Glue the Dylusian painted paper onto the front of your blank card.
  8. Then glue the die cut sunkissed paper onto the dylusian painted cover. This creates a lovely Autumn leaf background.
  9. Measure the two central leaf designs of the cover art and cut that out of the Lindy's sprayed card stock.
  10. Tape that over the central two leaf cut-outs of the cover die and run through die cutting machine.
  11. Very methodically, remove die cut pieces and reassemble with glue and tweezers onto the central two leaf cut outs on the card front. 
  12.  Stamp white cardstock with embossing ink.
  13. Sprinkle metallic bronze embossing powder and melt it by heating it with your heat tool. Be careful not to linger in any one spot for more than a few seconds. Keep your heat tool approximately four inches from the card stock and keep it moving slowly over the surface until it is all melted (shiny).
  14. Cut out the Shine sentiment with your die and die cutting machine onto your embossed paper.
  15. Glue the Shine sentiment to the cover of your card.

There you have it. I may remake the card. Or I will just learn from the experience. I hope these tips are also helpful to you. Have you made any cards that surprised you by teaching you a lesson?


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