Aloha, all!
Those of you who are on my newsletter mailing list or who attended my Valentine class last week have already seen this card. But, for those of you who haven't, this card is made using what some call (and I prefer to call) inlaid embossing. The "inlaid" part really is NOT inlaid. Those hearts in this photo just look like they're inlaid because of the way that the card front is embossed.
What I've actually done here is just to adhere some punched hearts to the top layer (a piece of Real Red Cardstock) and then just run the entire layer through the Sizzix Big Shot with one of Stampin' Up!'s embossing folders, in this case the Square Lattice Embossing Folder. Here is a summary of the process for this project, though I have prepared a one-page tutorial with more photographs.
- Punch some hearts of varying sizes with a variety of Designer Series Papers. For this project, I used some Pretty in Pink and Real Red Patterns Papers and the Heart to Heart and Full Heart Punches.
- Arrange the hearts on the Real Red Layer (which for this card is 5" wide x 3-3/4" high. Be sure to have some hanging over the edges to give the whole picture a bit of an artistic look to it.
- Once you have the hearts laid out as you'd like them, adhere them to the Real Red layer with the adhesive of your choice. For this project, I chose to use Stampin' Up!'s Anywhere Glue Stick, because I could apply the adhesive up to all the edges and points. However, my class participants used SNAIL adhesive, and their projects turned out just fine.
- Once your adhesive has dried, use your paper trimmer to even up the edges of this layer by trimming off the pieces of the overlapping hearts.
- Place the card front into the Embossing Folder of your choice. One of my class participants used the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, and that was very lovely.
- Layer up your card and trim with embellishments of your choice. For this card, I tied a piece of Pretty in Pink 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon around the embossed layer that had been adhered to a 5-1/4" x 4" Pretty in Pink Cardstock layer, before adhering the whole element to a 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" card made with Real Red Cardstock.
A quick note: Steps 4 and 5 can easily be reversed.
Here is a close up of one of those embossed hearts and the bow that I made using fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Mary Brown's, tutorial, all held in place with a Stampin' Up! Antique Brad.
And here's a shot of the ladies in my class concentrating really, really hard on getting those hearts laid out the way they wanted them!
Overall, this is a really simple technique that looks oh so pretty. Think about using other punches or images cut with Sizzix or Sizzlit dies. Flowers, butterflies – even just circles and squares! All it takes is your own taste to make a card that is uniquely yours!
Whatever you decide to use on YOUR card, have fun with it!
