How To Make 3 Cards For Spring

This card is so pretty, and with its pastel colors, it could be used for Easter. To create it we’ll do a little coloring with colored pencils. And we’ll hot foil the outline images. And then we’ll step it up by using the hot foil plate to emboss the image for the background.

Foiling for the 3 Cards for Spring

Here we go. We’ll start by hot-foiling the floral image with gold foil following the directions that come with your hot-foiling machine. A couple of hints though, to help improve the quality of your foiling: 1) use a shim (a piece of cardstock) between the Spacer Pad and the Thin Shim. 2) Make sure your machine and hot plate are very hot – I usually wait for at least 5 minutes after the timer light turns green. 3) Only run the sandwich through your die-cutting and embossing machine once.

While we’ve got the machine heated up, let’s go ahead and hot foil the sentiment also. And, we’ll use the coordinating shadow die to cut it out. And then we’ll cut the shadow three more times from the white cardstock.

Coloring the Pastel Tulip Card From the 3 Cards for Spring

OK, once we’ve got that done we’ll go on to the coloring. Select a number of colors that mean spring to you. I usually use a light pencil and a dark pencil of each color to help add shadows and dimension. And next, we’ll use a little trick I learned from @KathyRacoosin in the Coloring Challenge Road Trip provided by Online Card Classes. I strongly recommend her class, it’s wonderful! Select a couple of colors that might be opposites on the color wheel to take your coloring up a notch. Make sure your pencils are sharp and that you use tiny little flicking motions as you add the color in.

Now, to create the background we’re going to emboss the same floral image as our focal point by using the hot foil plate to do so. And to demonstrate, we’ll follow instructions provided by the manufacturer of your die-cutting and embossing machine. For this example, we’re using a Spellbinders Platinum 6. So, our sandwich is:

• Platform
• Hot Foil Plate (foiling side up)
• Blue cardstock
• Tan Embossing Mat
• Embossing Plate

Just be sure to spritz the cardstock with a little water before you add it to your sandwich.

Pastel Tulip Card Assembly

Putting this card together is easy. First, trim down the embossed piece to 4″ x 5 1/4″. And, we’ll use a tape runner to attach it to a white A2 card base. Next, we’ll die cut the floral image and pop it up with some foam tape or a foam sheet trimmed to just smaller than the image.

And to finish it off, we’ll layer the shadow pieces together with liquid glue. Make sure that the one with the sentiment on it is on top.

• Cardstock: Card base – Neenah Classic Crest 110lb Solar White; Card panel – Neenah Classic Crest 80lb Solar White; Color Accent: Spellbinders Raindrop
• Hot Foil Plate & Die: Spellbinders Wonderful Tulips Hot Foil & Die Set
• Hot Foiling Machine: Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System
• Foil: Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil Gold
• Colored Pencils:  Prismacolor PC 1008 Partma Violet, PC 956 Lilac, PC 921 Pale Vermillion, PC 993 Hot Pink, PC 995 Mulberry, PC 1027 Peacock Blue; Derwent Intense – 0320 Scarledt Pink, 0400 Poppy Red, 0200 Sun Yellow, 0210 Cadmium Yellow
• Diecutting and Embossing Machine: Spellbinders Platinum 6
• Spray Bottle: Distress Sprayer Vaporisateur
• Adhesives: Spellbinders Tape Runner; Scrapbook.com Double-sided Foam Sheet; Bearly Art glue

3 Cards For Spring: Embossed Floral Card