Blue Skies, Gold Accents, and an Easel Card to Match

carogeo2
Jun 18
2 min read

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today’s card was inspired by the AECP class Impressive Heat Embossing — along with my love of biking and the gorgeous Tranquil Trail stamp set.

“Tranquil” immediately brought the color blue to mind. So I began by ink blending a panel with Sea Glass and Desert Night Crisp Dye Inks (to be completely accurate, my ink pads had been re-inked with the newer Fresh Dye Ink counterparts). I let the panel dry overnight — a must when you’re planning to heat emboss. Alternatively, you can speed up the drying process using a heating tool.

Once fully dry, I prepped the surface with a powder tool — an essential step to ensure crisp embossing. Then I stamped the bike image in embossing ink, added gold embossing powder, and heat-set it using a pre-heated tool (another important tip from class: give your heat tool a 60-second head start).

For the background, I stamped parts of the floral image from Tranquil Trail using the same Sea Glass and Desert Night inks to create soft visual layers. A few die-cut flowers from Brushed Gold Cardstock, cut with the Zero-Waste: Wildflower Meadow Die and embellished with a few light blue pearls added delicate shimmer and dimension. With that, my panel was complete.

Since I wanted to make an easel card, I turned to the inside of the card next. I dry-embossed half of a white panel using the Organic Linen 3D Embossing Folder, then ink blended over it with Sea Glass and Desert Night to echo the front. While this was drying, I stamped the sentiment “ride more, worry less” in Desert Night on white cardstock, backed it with another layer for added lift, and adhered both to the inside of the card base. This sentiment panel serves as the easel stopper.

To complete the card, I scored the front of the card base at 2.75 inches and attached my ink-blended panel to the lower half only. And voilà — my tranquil easel card was ready!