Happy Birthday from the heart

Hello Everyone, 

how did the first week in 2021 go for you all?

I had 4 days off work last week, which was wonderful and desperately needed at that. I am not much looking forward to having to work again next week, but at least everyone will be back from their Christmas holidays. The last two weeks of December were very stressful...

Today, I'd like to share some die-cut inlay cards I made, with the is very intricate hearts die. 

 

I started out by inking a card panel to get some nice gradients. Then I cut the die from the inked panel and white and inlayed the coloured pieces three different ways, to see what worked best. 

For the first card, I stacked up the white harts, so they have dimension. For the second card, I didn't cut the coloured panel, but only made an impression with the die, thinking that might be easier, so I could just glue on the hearts. Did work too well. It was the first time using my embossing mat and I messed it up, so the cardstock cracked slightly in some places. It's not very noticeable, with the hearts adhered, so I still used it for a card. 

For the last card I went back to regular inlay, but this time I inlayed it flat and added some dimension behind the whole piece, not only the hearts.

I love how they all turned out, I'd love these in all kinds of colour combinations, but the intricate inlay is just a little much for mass production. 

Have a beautiful day

Ela

Happy New Year 2021

 Hello Crafters, 

I'd like to wish you all a happy and above all healthy new year. I sure hope 2021 will turn out better than 2020 did. 

I don't send out extra New Year's cards myself, since December is always a busy time. But my friend does and we have the (still new) tradition of me giving her a set of new year's cards for Christmas. 

This year I wanted to make an early start, while she still hadn't given me the latest count. So I decided on 25, assembly-line style, since the year before she had needed 20 cards.

First, I stamped each of the balloons individually with the main colour. I left the stamp in place in my stamping platform and stamped each balloon again, with a darker shade blended around the edge to achieve the shading. Then I set out to die-cut all the individual numbers and stacked them up for more dimension. After they were all ready, I blended on some yellow ink from the bottom and adhered them to the card base, using a straight edge to get them straight.

Next, I stamped, heat embossed and cut out all the sentiment strips. They read "healthy new year" in German. Before I adhered them, I loosely doodled in the balloon strings. 

Normally I would have put glossy accents on all of the balloons, but since they were so many I didn't do that this time. 

I was very glad to finish these cards in mid-November because I knew that would be the most involved Christmas present this year. 300 die-cuts, I must be losing it... 

Stay safe and healthy and a happy new year!

Ela