Hello, Spring!

Winter is officially over, and I am SO ready for warmer weather, aren't you?

I know most of the country still needs a little thawing time before the blooms and bugs appear for the year, but here in Texas the bluebonnets and firewheels are already sprinkled over the open grassy spaces. That means the chill is gone for good and spring is full steam ahead!

Today, I wanted to show you why I love Curious Metallic Cardstock. It’s gorgeous when it’s dry embossed. Here’s a photo of one folder I tried before settling on the final embossed pattern for the card. You can see the detail and the sparkle… isn’t it amazing?!

Looks just like a soft quilt, doesn’t it? I knew you’d like it. 😉

I chose a more wavy pattern for the background of my card, though, and trimmed 1/8-inch off the left and right side of the A2-sized piece of Cryogen White cardstock. Cryogen White is a little more off-white than a pure bright white. It was perfect for what I wanted to do with heat embossing today.

I matted my embossed panel with a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4-inch piece of Lime cardstock and set that aside. Then, I picked out another rectangle of Cryogen White (I precut all my cardstocks to fit A2 cards - it saves time!) to stamp my design.

For the outline, I used Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Soft Vanilla.

This stamp set is from Altenew, and it has all the pieces you need to “color” the flowers. I used an ombre green ink to stamp the stems and leaves, and my trusty MISTI for alignment.

I wanted to do bright white flowers, so I stamped about three thin layers of white pigment ink and then heat embossed them with white embossing powder.

 I couldn’t get a good photo of the heat embossing under my work lights, but you can see how the flowers came out in this one. A little less than smooth, but I liked the look with the sparkles in the cardstock.

Full disclosure: I was going to trim the flowers with a rectangle stitched die originally but changed my mind at the last minute. I chose oval because I didn’t want to cover up all that lovely wavy embossing in the background! So, with a little Post It Tape I held the die in place and ran it through my die cutting machine.

To finish up the oval, I stamped my sentiment in black ink.

And to finish off the card, I attached my wavy embossed panel and mat to an A2 card base, then centered and adhered the oval with foam squares.

Thanks for exploring the blog today! Follow CutCardstock on Facebook to stay in the loop with monthly specials and lots of beautiful projects from the lovely ladies on the CutCardstock Design Team.

❤️  Niki • cardstoq.com • @cardstoq (on Instagram, Pinterest & Twitter)