A little more Elegance

Today we are taking another look at the Elegance die range, but this week we are hoping to achieve that elusive elegant touch using a very basic colour palette. They say simple is beautiful well I like to think it can also be elegant too!

The die that I used is a dove named Delicate Wings together with some great stamps from the good people at Darkroom Door. The colours of card are a couple of warm greys together with some pale cream and the Distress Inks are Old Paper and Pumice Stone.

I started by die-cutting the dove from cream card before applying the text stamp inked up with Pumice Stone Distress ink; these inks are not really designed for rubber stamping but they do give a lovely soft, subtle image.Next, I gently applied Old Paper ink around the edges.

I cut a rectangle of grey card measuring 95 x 140 mm and rounded off the corners with a punch before stamping the legend 'thank you' onto a strip of darker card before gently inking the edges. I gave the dove a very light spritz of spray adhesive before applying a little Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter which creates a very subtle effect on the right side of bling!

Here's the finished card piece mounted onto a standard sized cream base card. Hope you like it! 

Next Wednesday I will be blogging as usual but I will be on my way to Frankfurt to attend the Creativeworld fair, It's always a very exciting time and I promise to tell you all about it when I return.

A touch of Elegance

The Elegance in the title belongs to a new collection of dies which shares the same name. The dies in question are very ornate Framelits dies using a Damask style which ties all these dies together thematically allowing us to mix and match.... how thoughtful!

I created this card with Valentines day in mind and I chose a colour palette which has a more masculine feel, Having said that, I'm probably one of very few men who would appreciate the care and effort involved in it's creation, we're such ungrateful creatures!

I have used two of the dies from the collection namely Regal Owl and Graceful Flourish. I also used my trusty Framelits Circles and Scallop Circles of which I am very fond as anyone who reads this blog from time to time will be very aware! Click on the words to follow the link.

I started by dipping into my metallic card box and pulling out some dull gold metallic and some lovely copper coloured card. I die-cut both owls removing the inbetweeny (technical term alert!!) bits from the gold owl. Next, I die-cut the flourish from gold card before gently buffing both gold die-cuts using a fine sanding pad to lightly tarnish the surface. I then took the copper owl and attached it to the rear of the gold owl and I used strips of thin tape to ensure that the tiny bits remain in place.

I printed the legend 'Happiness is being married to your best friend' onto cream card as shown so that it fits within my chosen circle. Next, I die-cut around the phrase with a Framelits circle die before gently inking the edge and matting onto a larger copper coloured die-cut scallop circle. I then attached the flourish as shown. 

To make the base card I cut a 35 x 190 mm strip of music pattern paper and snipped one end into a chevron with my scissors. Next, I attached a 70 x 210 mm strip of brown patterned card near the left hand edge of a 130 x 210 mm cream base card. The paper is from my stash and comes from My Minds Eye first Lost & Found collection

 Once the base card was assembled I attached all the other elements using foam pads to create a sense of depth and here it is. I do hope you like it?