Now back to stamping....this card is one of my favorites and it was inspired (which is a nice way of saying I pretty much copied it!) by one of my most highly admired stamping friends, Sandi MacIver. She has a knack for making beautiful creations without involving too much work and for that I thank her so let's all give Sandi a big salute! She shared this particular card in the Splitcoaststampers.com card gallery so I don't have a specific link to her website with this photo but I assure you that it's Sandi's work through and through, I just changed up a few of the details. If you care to visit her blog, click on this link (after you read my post!) and enjoy! http://www.sandimaciver.com/ So that's enough chatter
...here's the card!
Using Night of Navy cardstock, the image of the wise men (complete with start and scenery in the background...it's all one stamp, what could be easier?) was embossed using Versamark ink and gold embossing powder. The sentiment is an individual stamp also included in this set. When you emboss, don't forget to use your embossing buddy...a little pouch of magical anti-static powder which removes static from the cardstock so the powder sticks where it's supposed to be and nowhere else. This is especially helpful when embossing on darker cardstock.
There is a little panel on the left side of the card....that's where I actually changed it up a bit. Yes, me...being ever so slightly creative, what a concept! ;-) Anyway, in the original card Sandi included a panel of cardstock embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. I did the same thing, cut a small strip of Night of Navy the same size as the card base and ran it through the Big Shot with the elegant Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder then layered in on a slightly larger piece of white cardstock so just the edges showed on each side. But it wanted something more...I finally settled on sponging some Encore Gold embossing ink over the dry embossed portions to highlight the pattern and that did the trick. I just love this card! I didn't take a photo of the inside but I put a smaller panel of white cardstock inside and stamped the Christmas sentiment included with the set there. Very pretty, very simple but elegant...hats off to Sandi for the inspiration!
Before I close, I just want to make a comment about creativity and "caseing" cards (that stands for copy and slightly edit). I know that I am not a talented and artistic person BUT with the help of rubber stamps and my very talented friends who share freely, I come across looking ok. Isn't that amazing? There is an old saying that "imitation is the most sincere form of flattery" so I want everyone to know how easy it is to create amazing cards and flatter the talented folks at the same time! I do occasionally come up with an original thought however the wonderful thing about sharing within the Stampin' Up! community is that you don't have to be artistic to make great cards! The wonderful artwork of the Stampin' Up! design artists makes it very easy and the inspiration of those who ARE creative and enjoy sharing their work makes it even easier. I try to always give credit where credit is due because I want my creative friends to know how much I appreciate them but I also want my customers and friends who think they aren't creative to know that it's ok to just get ideas from others. Sometimes they come out exactly the same, sometimes they are just a starting point and you can go on to create something entirely different but either way, it's all about creativity, right? So I challenge you to go out there and create something today!
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