It only occurred to me the other day when I sat down to make this card, how long it’s been since I had done any embossing. It’s really strange because I absolutely adore embossing and never tire of the magic of watching the powder melt and slowly turn smooth and shiny. Even better when it’s a large area of embossing like the base of this card where I can watch it spread across the card like the tide coming in at the beach. In fact it was embossing that hooked me into stamping all those years ago. I sat patiently watching a stamping presentation, not very excited about it at all until I saw a sample card made with embossing and I was so curious to know how on earth that could have been handmade. So I saw a demonstration on how heat embossing worked and as I watched that gold powder melt I was hooked. No surprise that over the years many stampers I’ve spoken to have said the same thing – that it was heat embossing that hooked them.

To make this card I started with a piece of folded Basic Black cardstock and stamped it with Versamark ink using the Stampin’ Up! Print Pattern background stamp. Note that if you don’t like having little gold flecks all over the place then it’s a good idea to swipe your card with an anti-static pad first. I then poured the Gold Embossing Powder all over the card. I know some people like to gently sprinkle embossing powder but I can’t be bothered – just dump the whole lot out and then pour the excess back into the container. Now for the magic. I heated the card with my heat gun (also known as a heat tool) until the gold powder melted to make my lovely background. Another thing I used on this card which I haven’t for ages is vellum. I adore vellum, it’s beautiful translucentness makes it perfect for so many different projects – in this case it feels to me like a veil half covering and toning down a strong background. The vellum was stamped with the Stampin’ Up! French Script background stamp using Versamark ink and then heated. There’s a variety of ways to attach vellum but my favourite method is using a Xyron. I ran the vellum through my Xyron 510 which applied an invisible yet permanent adhesive to the vellum. The vellum was then smoothed onto the card. The lady featured on the card is a collage clip by Collections, she was simply layered onto some brushed gold cardstock (also by Stampin’ Up!) and then layered onto the card. As a finishing touch I stamped the word ‘courage’ from the Stampin’ Up! Expressive Flexible Phrases stamp set using StazOn onto a scrap piece of brushed gold cardstock. This was trimmed and adhered to the card and then framed using a piece of Antique Gold Hodgepodge also by Stampin’ Up!

Hope you like my card. If there’s anything you’d like to know about this card or any of the products I’ve used then please feel free to e-mail me on angelasargeant@gmail.com