Paper Seedlings: FAUX ECLIPSE CARD

One of the big phenomena in the cardmaking world lately -- really for some time now -- has been the Eclipse Technique.

A couple months ago, one of my Stamp-In girls asked me if I could create an eclipse card for the girls to make at one of my monthly Stamp-Ins.

Not possessing the Large Letter Framelits (page 218), which is what most of the eclipse makers seem to use, and preferring to spend that money on other product, I ended up using other large letter dies that I'd had.

With not-quite-the-right-letters, this is the card I eventually came up with:

In researching for this card, I checked out lots of tutorials and videos on the Eclipse Technique. I decided to do a few modifications on all the variations out there, and I came up with my own take on the technique. Thus, my name "Faux Eclipse".

And, yes, I did notice -- after the card was completed --

that I'd done my "S" upside down. Grrr.

My simplified version of the Eclipse Technique is quite easy and lots of fun to do!

And, to me, the nicest thing about a card is when it turns out to be perfectly flat -- wonderful for sending through the mail without fear of needing to pay extra postage. Yay!

If you keep reading, I will present to you my tutorial on making this Faux Eclipse card.

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Basic Black cardstock

Large Alphabet dies

Painted Harvest (page 139)

Soft Seafoam ink

Flirty Flamingo ink

Mango Melody ink

Big Shot

Tombow Multipurpose Adhesive (Green Glue)

Post-It Tape

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

YOU WILL BE DOING MOST OF YOUR WORK ON A 3 3/4" X 5" PIECE OF WHISPER WHITE CARDSTOCK:

Stamp three of the flowers on the cardstock. (Try to do a better job of spacing them than I did in my sample. Several of the girls at my Stamp-In stamped the flowers randomly all over the cardstock and filled in with the little green dots. Looked great!) Stamp the larger, more solid flower first, followed by the smaller flower atop in Flirty Flamingo ink. Add centers in Mango Melody.

Add a few of the dot clusters in Soft Seafoam ink to the rest of the background.

Once you are satisfied with your stamping, line up the dies to spell "hugs" pretty much centered. (Another change a couple of the Stamp-In girls made was to add the letters in a less than straight line -- much happier and less formal looking!) Once you have the letters spaced the way you want them, you can hold them in place with some sticky tape.

At the Big Shot, run the piece through.

Mount this piece with the letters missing onto a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of black cardstock. Using miniscule dots of glue, add the letters back in, but shifted just slightly to the right.

Adhere the finished piece to the card base.