Stampin’ Up! Softly Falling

Good Thursday morning to you all! Here it is almost the end of another week, and the end of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. However, the work of recovering from the devastation wrought by Harvey will just be beginning.

My nephew and family finally had to evacuate yesterday..two boat rides, a truck ride and a walk through flood waters later, they are safe with a family friend. When he tried to return to their home today to see the situation, he was turned back by law enforcement. They are trying to prevent looting and other crimes against persons. Prayers continue for the situation down there. Makes me want to get in my car and go do something to help, but I would probably be more hindrance than help. Donations to churches in the area would probably be the best way to help at this point in time.

OK. On with today’s card, a pretty simple one, but one that also uses a new-to-me technique.

Did you know that you can use your dies to stamp and/or emboss a design? You can! The front of my card is embossed with the Softly Falling TIEF AND the little snowflake dies in the Seasonal Layers Thinlits set.

To emboss with dies and your Big Shot, you will need the Sizzix Emboss and Transfer set accessory which includes a Silicone Rubber Mat (squishy) and a hard Impressions Pad. You will actually only use the squishy mat for this process.

Using your multipurpose platform on Tab 1 (the one you use when using an embossing folder) layer as follows: cut plate, die, cutting side up, paper, squishy, cut plate. Run this through your Big Shot. It will go very smoothly and you might think nothing is happening. However, your dies will emboss your paper. Cool! I would suggest doing a test run to make sure the embossing is embossing the correct side of your paper instead of debossing it.

I see all kinds of possibilities for the dies that I already have. It is more effective with detailed dies.

After embossing, I rounded the corners of the embossed panel and the corners of the card base, using the 3/16″corner punch. This is a good time to also round the corners of the inside sentiment panel.

Using a length of ribbon from my ribbon stash, I wrapped it around the embossed panel, taping it on the back, and liquid glued the panel to the Garden Green card base.

Using the tree dies from Card Front Builder die set, available tomorrow from the Holiday catalog, I cut one of the double tree and one of the single tree in Always Artichoke card stock. These were liquid glued to the embossed panel as background trees. Next, I cut two of the double tree and one of the single tree in Garden Green card stock. The double tree on the right hand side was liquid glued to the panel and the others were adhered using Mini-Stampin’ Dimensionals and Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The sentiment is from the old Wonderland stamp set. I stamped it in Garden Green on Whisper White card stock and die cut it with the number 2 (numbered from smallest to largest) die in the Lots of Labels Framelits. I also cut one in Garden Green using the Number 3 size to use as a mat and adhered it with Stampin’ Dimensionals. The scene, to me, is reminiscent of a still, silent, nighttime snowfall and I wanted the Silent Night sentiment.

It looked a little bare, so I die cut two small deer from Early Espresso card stock using the die from the Card Front Builder Thinlits, tucking one back into the trees and adhering both with Glue Dots.

To finish the card front, a white gel pen made some snowflakes on the trees and piled up snow on the tops of the letters of the sentiment. A few tiny pearls from the Pearl Basic Jewels complete the front.

Inside, I used the dies that cut the trees for the front, only I used them to emboss the trees on the inside. Then, using my Garden Green Stampin’ Write marker, I colored them in. The photo does not show the embossing, but it is there. There was no tree stamp to coordinate with this die set, so the embossing technique allowed me to use the trees on the inside without the bulk of die cuts.

The sentiment at the bottom is also from the Wonderland set, while the main sentiment is from the Holly Berry Happiness stamp set.

The envelope front received a pine bough and pine cone in Garden Green and Early Espresso using the marker to stamp method of inking. The flap is embossed with the Softly Falling TIEF.

I encourage you to try using your dies to emboss and/or stamp. To use them to stamp, just tap, tap, tap your ink pad over the cutting side of the die and run it through your Big Shot as detailed above. I love to be able to use products I have in unexpected ways.

Thought for Today: If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. Vincent Van Gogh

Card Cuts: Garden Green: card base 7″ x 10″ scored at 5″, trees 2-1/2″ x 7″, sentiment label mat 1-3/4″ x 3″; Always Artichoke: trees 2-1/2″ x 5″; Whisper White: (2) 4-3//4″ x 6-3/4″ inside sentiment panel and front panel, sentiment label 1-3/4″ x 2″; Early Espresso:  deer 1″ x 2″.

Products used not listed below: Retired Wonderland Stamp set, Sizzix Big Shot Accessory Emboss and Transfer set.

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