Thinking of you Card

I love elegant lacy things so the new dies from Anna Griffin were pretty irresistible when they appeared on HSN last month.  Of course, I "had" to sign up for the autoship program, so I will be busy creating elegant lacy and embossed things for some time to come!

This is the die I used for the silver medallion on the card.  This die both cuts and embosses.  If you look carefully at the die you can see some places where there is an open space within a cut line.

In this close up view you can see some of the embossed areas and the openings in the die that created the embossed effect.  Some of the openings are simply to help push the cardstock from the die after cutting.

I wanted to have a coordinating shape to back the medallion cut so I followed the same procedure that I  used to make the stamp backgrounds (see the post HERE) but I scanned an actual cut from the die and used that to create the blackout shadow piece in the Silhouette Studio software.  I hope that the ability to offset or shadow a shape will be added to the Design Space program for the Cricut Explore however, at this time, there is no easy way to create a complex shadow shape like this.

I cut the background piece from some American Crafts pearlized and textured specialty cardstock.  This cardstock has a white core so I needed to ink the edges to hide the white.  It just happened to be a great match with the Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

It can be difficult to ink an irregular shape like this.  I didn't really want the front side to show inking but just needed to hide the white edges to make the card look more finished.  I find it is easiest to lay the piece face down on a piece of scrap paper and use the blending tool to ink all over the outer edges.  When I try to hold a delicate shaped piece like this in the air to ink it, there is too great a chance that I will bend the cut or get an excessive amount of ink on the front side.

After the edges of the base piece were inked, I adhered the lacy die cut to the mat.   I use an adhesive pen to glue delicate shapes like these.

I wanted to raise the medallion from the card so I used lots of little foam squares.  I don't remember the brand, but these have not been the easiest to use and I am almost done with them at last.  Since the medallion is large, I decided to use up the edges of the foam square sheet in the center.

 I took the "waste" strip from one side and cut it into three sections.  These work well to hold up the center of the image.

Here is a quick shopping tip - always check the clearance area in any store.  I came across this box of printable invitations at Staples when I went to buy ink cartridges a couple of weeks ago.  As you can see they were marked down from $24.99 to $3.  When I paid, they actually rang up at $1 - a super bargain.  In the box there are 50 large invitation cards and 50 reply cards along with envelopes (100 envelopes in two sizes).  I'll be showing some of the things I made with these pieces over the next few weeks.

I used one of the reply cards to make a layer for the purple card base.  Since it was exactly the size of the card front, I trimmed away a bit of the borders leaving the embossed silver line around the edges.  I had some silver "peel-offs" that were perfect for the sentiment.

The standard way to place the medallion would be straight across the card.  As you can see, the matted shape barely fits on an A2 card.

I turned the medallion at a slight angle and centered it within the silver lines.

The peel offs are fun to use - they give an effect similar to heat embossing but with no mess.  I find it easiest to peel up the sentiment and then use a bone folder or other tool to hold it as I work out the position on the card.

The finished card is simple but elegant.  The silver and the embossing make it more formal and suitable for a sympathy or wedding card (with a different sentiment!)

I hope you are having a nice weekend - we will be seeing family this afternoon after we usher at church this morning.  The weather here is really nice - they predict 72 for the high! 

Subscribe to Capadia Designs if you would like to have new posts delivered directly to your email. 

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product using the link I may receive a commission. I only participate in affiliate programs for products that I use or can recommend without reservation