Scarlett shares her Happiness!

Hi There!  Scarlett with you today to share a card as my first guest project here on the CropStop blog.  As I shared in my introduction post I really love mixed media and thought it would be fun to try out something a little different with one of the Couture Creations embossing folders sent to me.  Let me show you my card and then I'll give you a few tips and details of how I came to this result.

   This card features the Couture Creations embossing folder, Happiness, from the Ho! Ho! Ho! Limited Edition Collection.  Totally right up this tree loving girl's alley.  Now I know what you're thinking, its meant to be used as a seasonal folder with the snowflakes and all that jazz but as you can see it need not be tucked away once the snow has melted.  Think of all the possibilities this folder has in store - I know I am.  Now let us take a closer peek at how this all came together shall we? 

 This shot was taken right after I embossed my cardstock.  To achieve this artsy background blended look I dabbed paint ( Claudine Hellmuth Landscape Green and Claudine Hellmuth Sky Blue - both available in the store) on the debossed side of the embossing folder before running it through my Cuttlebug.  Did you follow that?  If not - please feel free to ask any questions and I'll be sure to follow up in the comments section.  I immediately washed the folder with luke warm water and a bit of dish soap after to ensure it would come clean and not be ruined.

Here's a peek at my clean folder after:

 See that? All squeaky clean and ready for the next use.

Of course I didn't want the tree itself to be blue and green so I grabbed my gel pens.  I have a variety of these from Sakura brand to ones I find at stores like Target in the school supply section.  I started coloring away at the embossed sections - yes patience is involved - lucky for me coloring is in my blood being a former early childhood teacher and all. 

Another detail shot.  In this one you can really notice the two shades of brown on certain areas - this is a huge difference in saturation of paper.  The area of lighter brown has less paint coverage from initial embossing therefore the pen soaked through the cardstock.  The darker brown sits on top of the paint and provides a richer color. 

 I brushed some Crystal Stickles over the painted grass to give it a bit of shimmer and then stamped a few flowers over the top once it was dry using the Tsukineko Memento ink in Paris Dusk - lovely color.  I was also sent some beautiful ribbon to work with and while I love to collect ribbon, look at it on other people's projects, and so on -  it is typically not my thing to gravitate toward. I decided to challenge myself right away to use some and I love how this particular piece of green organdy swirl gathered up so nicely across the bottom of the card.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you enjoyed taking a peek in to my creative process and I look forward to sharing with you again next Thursday, in the meantime take good care!

The following products are available in the CropStop Store

Couture Creations Happiness Embossing Folder

Claudine Hellmuth  Landscape Green Acrylic Paint

Claudine Hellmuth Sky Blue Acrylic Paint

Ranger Crystal Stickles Glitter Glue

Tsukineko Memento Paris Dusk Ink

Creative Impressions Dark Green on Dark Green Organdy Swirl Ribbon

Visit Scarlett's Scrapoirs for more of her fab creations!

Visit the CropStop Store for your crafting needs!  Use our CropStop Blog discount code, BLOG, for 10% off your total purchase of $30 or more.