It's a Good Day to be Happy

Hey girls - I'm finally uploading some non Design Team projects. Believe it or not, I had some time to just play. OK, granted, I should be working on wedding invitations or baby shower invitations or DT homework, but instead I decide Birthday cards and Wedding cards were more important ;)

I'm starting off with this challenge inspiration from Mama Elephant

I was also determined to finally join this century of crafters and try embossing paste. My incredible teacher was no other than the expert Joy Ott herself ;) She's a natural at walking me through this and I had a lot of fun playing.

Here is my finished card...



My starting point was this cute little Mama Elephant set. I needed a birthday card and these Cosmic Stars needed to be inked up!

The glass inspired me to play with clear embossing paste. But before we get to that, I wanted to create a soft but contrasting water-color background for the starts. Turns out that I was being to soft smushing down the Distress Ink color on the Tim Holtz Watercolor paper. The way to get a nice bold application is to really smush the blender with lots of color really into the paper. Yes, smush is a technical term ;) A little bit of water spritzing and some help with the heat gun, and the background was ready for some embossing paste.

For someone who bakes a lot, applying the embossing paste reminds me like frosting cakes (or cupcakes). First there is this palette knife (hello: icing spatula)

Photo Credit: Simon Says Stamps

vs.

Then there is this paste, which just looks and feels like creamy vanilla icing.

Photo Credit: Tami Spencer

vs.

Photo Credit: Betty Crocker

Just remember not to try to lick your palette knife. I'm sure your taste buds would be sorely disappointed. The good news is that the embossing paste goes down very smoothly. Joy gave me the hint to tape down the stencil to make sure it's flushed against the card stock and won't move while you are applying it.



I also played around with Distress Markers for the first time. It only took me 4 tries to color this wee little Aries before I liked the outcome. For me it's easier to start out with a water brush and pick up color. But this time I wanted to use the markers first, then push the colors around with the water brush. Maybe a bit more practice and I can go both ways.

This little cutie also has some Wink of Stella applied to his horns, to give him a little bit of a celestial look. Unfortunately the camera didn't pick this up, so you'll just have to take my word for it - HA!

Since I didn't want to cover up the cute little starts in the front, I decided to stamp the sentiment into the card. This one from the Mama Elephant Up & Away  is one that I find myself grabbing a lot. It's just so fun & versatile: birthday, pick-me-up, random hello.

So who is this amazing Joy? She's the gal on the right chilling with another of my all time favorite gals, Christy. If anyone can make you into an embossing paste fanatic, it's her ;) And this pic makes me smile...



After all, it's always a good day to be happy, right? Happy Saturday.

*PREORDER Mama Elephant Clear Stamp COSMIC STARS Set ME1301-013	*Mama Elephant Clear Stamp UP AND AWAY Set ME1306-035	*Simon Says Stamp Stencil FALLING STARS SSST121332	*Wendy Vecchi WHITE EMBOSSING PASTE Studio 490
*Ranger Inkssentials Ink Application & Blending Tool Blend Blender 23616	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD SALTY OCEAN Ranger SUMMER	*Hero Arts Water MIST SPRAY BOTTLE Mister	*ZIG Wink of Stella GLITTER CLEAR Brush Tip Marker 025320
*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS WORN LIPSTICK Ranger TDM32779	*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS TUMBLED GLASS Ranger TDM32717	*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS WILD HONEY Ranger TDM32762	*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS ANTIQUE LINEN Ranger TDM32434
*Bazzill WHITE Double Thick Cardstock 15 Pack	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS WATERCOLOR CARDSTOCK Ranger Ink TDA39549	*VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink Pad Pigment

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