Shimmer and Shine!

Hi y'all!

I've been in resting mode this week, recovering from a little surgery.  I haven't been in the art studio all week and it was fun to be there for a few hours this morning!

I have 2 new cards I created for the AECP class Let It Shine.....remember you can take this class too!  hit the link.... This class is TOTALLY up my alley!  I love to add glitter and shine to anything I can.  I'm just 'extra' that way....at least that's what my teenage daughter calls me....  My first card has MEGAWATT shimmer and shine to it!  The second is more subtle...

I started off with my favorite background die from Altenew, Layered Plaid.  This is such a versatile die for backgrounds.  I find myself grabbing it often.  This time, I decided to create a background with a monochromatic scheme, but with some glitter paper.

I first die cut a piece of plain card stock with the die.  Before I removed the paper from the die, I firmly pressed Press and Seal Glad Wrap paper to the back of the paper still in the die....following me so far?....  After I had the wrap well adhered to the back of the die cut paper, I then carefully lifted the metal die off the front of the paper.  What should be left for you is the entire die attached to the wrap paper, negative and positive pieces....some may fall off, just set them aside to add later....  I then carefully peeled off the positive part of the die cut and set aside the wrap with the negative pieces still attached.  I repeated the process with the glitter card stock.  I then swapped the positive pieces with each other and ended up with this fabulous background paper!!  I just trimmed the wrap paper edges off with my trimmer, but its still under there, holding it all together.

Next, I got to creating those fabulous flowers from the Fantasy Floral 3D Die set.  I water colored 2 pieces of Bristol paper, one in a contrasting color to my background, the other in green for the leaves.  I assembled the flowers, but added some gold embossing powder to the final layer for some extra shine.....'cause I'm extra.....

I finished off the card with a die cut sentiment that I added some glitter glue to since the plain white seemed so lacking.  Don't you think?

This second card, had me cursing for a while today.   Backstory, I have a laminator I was given 7 years ago that was probably already 15+ yrs old when I got it from a printing company.  It's been in storage for 5 years.  This was the first time it's seen the light of day since going into storage.
Fast-forward to today....

I've never used foil on a card before, but after Jennifer Rzasa's and Carissa Wiley's tutoring, I thought I'd give it a try.  Using my 22+ yr old, hasn't been used in 5 years...laminator.  AND....it didn't work.  First, the paper got stuck.  Then it was too hot and the image smooshed.  Then, it was still too hot.  Then, the foil wouldn't stick.  So, I scrapped the foil.  I think I need to use a laminator that isn't professional grade and perhaps invest in a new one.  I WILL conquer this!!!

BUT,until them.... I have these fabulous little place cards with gold foil around the edge I thought I would add to this card and then used more of the fun gold mirror paper I have on hand.

I continued with the Layered Plaid die for the background, but just as a dry embossed panel.  Using the Garden Picks 3D die set, I created these flowers using vellum.  I cut them out, and added ink to the backs of the first 2 layers, I left the 3rd layer clear and the 4th layer is done with the gold mirror paper.  The leaves are water colored and I added splatters of the green, pink and some gold shimmer watercolor paint to the background panel.

And then I was on to my next class.....

Have a colorful day!