Using up leftover foil

The idea behind this card was to create a loosely St. Patrick-inspired card. Mostly it’s the greens and the sentiment that give a nod to Ireland in the end result. I was inspired by the sentiment “Lucky is a state of mind” and by the expressive bird shapes in the Sizzix Silhouette Birds die set.

Background

For once I started with the background. I clear-heat embossed the darkest color from Recollections Garden Greens 110 lbs cardstock with the Tim Holtz Floral Outlines stamp set. It’s a trio of wonderfully blousy bouquets that I’ve watercolored many times. To get better coverage I stamped one of the bouquets twice. The clear heat embossing creates a tone-on-tone effect on the green cardstock.

I finished my card front by cutting it down to 4” by 5.25” and lining it with Accent Opaque for stability and dimension.

Birds

The cardstock I used for the birds is the palest blue in the Recollections Ocean 110 lbs packet.

Just as I have a box with backgrounds, I have a box of used foil and foil snippets. To give my birds shine, I foiled the gold foil that I had previously used with the Spellbinders Hypnotic Background Foil Plate. The Hypnotic Background only foils little dots, so there’s lots of gold left in the used foil. This pattern also has the advantage of being radially symmetric, so there is no specific direction to the pattern.

After foiling I cut out lots of Sizzix Silhouette Birds.

As an aside, this die set will be retired soon. Tim Holtz said it in the YouTube Live that launched his new From the Vault series with Sizzix. It will be replaced by Lovebirds. Lovebirds only includes three birds, while Silhouette Birds includes nine. Lovebirds includes a branch for the birds to sit on and a couple of hearts.

Sentiment

I foiled the largest circle from Sizzix Vintage Labels in gold on pale blue cardstock. I’ve foiled this and other dies from this die set many times. If you’re going for a distressed look, it works great. Just don’t expect them to foil as well as plates that are intended for that purpose.

Then I heat embossed “Lucky is a state of mind” from the Noteworthy stamp set in the middle. To tie the label together with the green background I ink blended the center in Distress Oxide Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles.

I added another die cut behind the label and a smaller layer under that one for dimension.

Composition

I composed my card with the sentiment in the middle and all three birds turned to look at it.

When the decorative elements “look” at the sentiment, it signals that the sentiment is important. That’s why the direction critters face is an important consideration when designing a card. Their gaze directs the viewers gaze, so use it to your advantage.

If you can’t make your critters look at the sentiment, try to have them look at each other or at the viewer. Definitely avoid having them look at something outside the card that isn’t the viewer. It gives a confused impression, because the viewer doesn’t know what to look at.

Once I had decided which birds I wanted to use, I added two layers of Accent Opaque behind them. The birds all have delicate feet sticking out from them and I wanted to adhere them with foam tape. There’s no foam tape skinny enough to support these feet and tails, so I needed to make sure they don’t get mangled.

Assembly

I glued the sentiment label in place. Then add green shading to the feet and lower parts of the birds and buff off the excess with a micro fibre cloth.

Pop up the birds with foam tape and adhere the card front to the card base. I finished up with some flat Gold Fever Confetti by Studio Katia.

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