Make Today Beautiful

My Favorite Things is having a "Camp Create" event. It began on June 13, and runs through the 23rd. Each day of the first 5 days, they issued a different challenge. The theme for Day 1 was "Glitzy Glitter." I admit, I'm not all that much into glitter. Not because of the mess, but just because it's not really my thing. I have glitter that has been in my stash for years I think now, and rarely sees the light of day! Recently, though, I saw Jennifer McGuire demonstrate a technique with glitter, and it made me want to try that. (Unfortunately, I can't find the exact video or blog post where she did this!)

I began by covering a 4.25x5.5" piece of white cardstock with a sheet of Scor-Tape. I used several dies from the "Wild Garden" set from Essentials by Ellen, and die cut the images into the adhesive side of the panel. Because the Scor-Tape is kind of thick, my dies mostly did not cut quite all the way through. Even so, I was very careful when I removed my dies, to leave the die cuts in their negative spaces. My initial plan involved making that whole panel my card front. The more I thought it through, though, I realized I'd be hard-pressed to stamp a greeting onto adhesive! So my plan changed somewhat.

After I'd finished my die cutting, I carefully peeled the liner paper from the adhesive, just for the center area of one of the large flowers. I covered the area with fine gold glitter, and burnished it into the adhesive. Once I'd finished that, I peeled off the liner from the next part I wanted to glitter, and sprinkled glitter on, then burnished it in. I repeated this process for each flower & leaf. I used a Swiffer Sweeper cloth to clean up the glittery mess as I went. It doesn't get every speck of glitter, but it still does a pretty good job!

When I had all my images glittered, I removed them from the negative piece. I cut a piece of light blue cardstock to 4.25x5.5", and placed the negative die cut piece over it. I used that to help me place my images on the blue background, so they were in the same position I'd had them on the adhesive-covered panel. Once they were glued in place, I removed the negative piece.

For my greeting, I used two stamps from My Favorite Things' "Simply Fabulous Sayings." This set has some nice, bold, scripty words, with supporting greetings in a sans-serif font. I placed the "Beautiful" stamp on my panel, using my MISTI to make sure it was straight. I also went ahead & placed the "Make today" stamp above the other. I did a "test stamping" on my plastic grid sheet with black ink, just to make sure the greeting was straight & placed well. I decided the "Make today" was not close enough to the "Beautiful." But both stamps were straight, so I was loathe to move either one. So, I cleaned my stamps, and masked off the "Make today" with painter's tape. I inked up the "Beautiful" with Versamark, and stamped it onto my panel. I heat embossed that with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I removed that stamp from the lid of my MISTI; replaced my cardstock panel, scootching it up about 1/16" of an inch; and then stamped the first part of my greeting. I heat embossed that as well.

I felt the top of the card was a bit bare. I trimmed off 1/4" to lessen the amount of blank space, but it still felt empty. So I took a sparkle stamp from Lawn Fawn's "Peace Joy Love" set, and stamped it in a few spots in Versamark ink. I heat embossed those in Liquid Platinum. I felt that helped the balance the composition a bit.

To finish my card, I cut two 1/8" wide strips of blue glitter paper. I adhered one along the fold of a white A2 card base, then adhered my panel below, butted against the strip. Finally, I glued the remaining strip in place. I will send this card to Send a Smile 4 Kids. Hopefully all that glittery goodness will brighten a hospitalized child's day!

I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:

Send a Smile 4 Kids: "Punches and/or Die Cuts 4 Kids"
Die Cut Divas: "Anything Goes"
Pile It On: "Old, New, & Blue" (old glitter, new technique, blue background)
Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"
Virginia's View Challenge: "Make It Colorful"