OWH Pizazz Blog Skip

Welcome to the Operation Write Home Blog Skip.  If you arrived here from Sheila's blog, you are in the right place.  If not, you'll want to start at the beginning of this 'little blog hop'.  Please skip back to the Stars & Stamps blog.

Our challenge was to create cards with pizazz.  When I want to add pizazz to a card, I think about adding texture.  On this first attempt, I added some texture with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a Spellbinders butterfly die.

This card has a bit of texture with the embossing on the background and the butterfly, but there isn't much contrast.  It really lacks pizazz. 

front and back of embossed cardstock

I decided to dress it up a bit.  The cardstock I used for the embossing is made by Core'dinations and has an orange core, so I used sand paper and removed the top layer to show the core.

I also added some green velvet ribbon for a bit more texture.  The gold bling on butterfly body and the gold vinyl outline stickers added a bit more pizazz.  Can you see the difference?



I popped the butterfly wings with dimensional foam tape, but glued the body directly to card.  I learned to use these nice sentiment stickers from this video & this video.

 

This was pretty good, but I wanted the orange pumpkins to show up a bit more.  I decided to make another card and add some ink to the embossed areas of both pumpkins and butterfly.  I like a firm, not too wet ink pad for this that dries well.  I used Brilliance Pearlescent Orange.

I think the ink adds a bit more pizazz to the embossing.

You may prefer to stop with the sanded card.  It's difficult to capture all the changes with a camera.  Since I used a dark cardstock for the base card, this card needed to be lined with a lighter color so it is easier to write a message inside the card.  I cut the lining slightly smaller than the base card, then ran it through the Xyron to add adhesive.  I burnished (rubbed firmly) over adhered layers to make the adhesive more secure.  I scored the center of card base after lining it with my Scor-It board, then folded the card.

Lining card

Scoring lined card

Now, you can press on to see what Shannon has to show you.

 

More colored stickers

The roses and the sentiment started out as gold metallic stickers.  I colored them with Sharpies before putting them on the card.  It's nice to be able to change the color instead of always using gold or silver stickers.

Coloring stickers

On this card, I colored the rose stickers with a Sharpie before removing them from backing page.  After allowing them to dry, I placed them on the patterned paper and added the oval sticker frame, then cut it out with a Spellbinders classic oval die.  The corners are also stickers.

More eagles and trees

When I bought the sheet of eagle stickers from Pop-Ups, each sticker is different.  Some are the same except in reverse and some are larger than others.  I made more cards like the ones I posted in the previous post, except these face the opposite direction.

For those who have asked, I purchased the tiny stars embossing folder from Hobby Lobby Online.  The trees are cut from a very old original Sizzix die called Tree, Pine.