Je t'aime

I've had this die set from Spellbinders for some time, and have not used it all that much yet. I decided, though, that I wanted to make an elegant card to send to Operation Write Home, and figured these dies would be perfect. This particular type of die doesn't cut, but instead embosses or debosses. So, if you want to die cut your designs, you do need the basic Nestabilities. But for this card, I used them only to emboss.

Because I knew I wanted an oval in the center of my card I chose this sketch from OWH:

I chose a lavender cardstock for my base, and lined up the dies, taping them in place in the middle of the cardstock piece. I ran that through my Grand Calibur, using the standard embossing sandwich. I wanted the opening in my cream cardstock frame to be right around the embossing, so I traced around the largest oval Nestabilities and cut it out with scissors. (Had I die cut the oval, there would have been a "gap" between the embossing & the opening in the frame.) I popped up the frame onto the lavender cardstock with foam adhesive. I felt the frame was a bit too plain, so I punched 4 hearts from the lavender cardstock and glued them in the corners.

I decided, for such an elegant card, I needed an elegant greeting. So I stamped one of the greetings from this Simon Says Stamp set in Versamark onto a piece of vellum. (Je t'aime means "I love you" in French.) I heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. (I highly recommend this powder for detailed images, as it is a nice bright white and embosses beautifully.) I punched an embossed lavender heart using a Martha Stewart punch, and glued it over one end of the vellum strip. Then I glued the heart & strip to the card front, tucking one end of the strip under the frame to help hide the glue.

To finish the card, I coated the plain purple hearts in the corners with my clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen, and then went over them with Glossy Accents. That not only gives them some sparkle & shine, the Glossy Accents also seals in the glitter so it won't rub off. Glitter that doesn't rub off is a requirement for OWH cards, since it can otherwise make our heroes visible to enemy night vision goggles, putting them in danger.

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.