BIRDS ON A WIRE

I'm sure you all know how tricky it is to work with vellum. It is a <lovable> beast all its own.

This charming sextet of birdies on a wire is one of the vellum sheets that comes in the Graceful Glass 6" x 6" Designer Vellum pack found on page 188 of the annual catalog. Just check out the wonderful array of designs in this pack! So diverse.

Even though I recently added a few more duos to my selection of Stampin' Blends, my collection is still not huge -- at least, compared to the colors that are now available! Even in the new Holiday Catalog. So many to choose from. 

So, to color these birds I didn't have all that much to choose from. The stripes in the background  alternate between the Light and the Dark Crumb Cake Blends. One thing that I did notice about working on vellum with the Blends, especially when using the darker hues, is that they streak and produce darker areas in splotches. I tried to even them out, but to no avail. I simply embraced this phenomenon and went with it. 

Now, if you take the time to color one of these sheets, you are going to want to use it. Right? I decided to use mine on the front of a card. In the first place, the sheet was 6" x 6", too large for an A2 size card. So I trimmed off the top and bottom of the design so it measured 4" x 5 1/4". 

 

A common vellum problem is attaching it to anything. If you use any of the traditional ways of adhering it, it will most certainly show through. I have tried all the specialized vellum adhesives out there -- that I could find -- but have never discovered one that does the job the way I would like it to. 

Thus, you need to get creative.

Since I was placing my birdie vellum over a Poppy Parade card base, I needed to first attach it to a matching size piece of Whisper White cardstock. The way I opted to attach it was to use a very thin -- 1/8" -- gold metallic washi tape. I simply wrapped it around each of the four corners, securing the ends on the back of the white cardstock. I then adhered the Whisper White as I normally would, with my fave green glue.

 

In the photo below, the splotchiness of the Dark Crumb Cake ink is apparent. 

You can also see how I put the washi tape over the corner.

 

Since the design outline had a very subtle embossed look, I echoed that feeling by embossing my sentiment in black. To tie things together, I secured a bit of the matching washi tape across one end of the sentiment before attaching it to the card.

The past few days, I have used the Blends to color in four of the sheets that are background designs. I plan to cut them into 3" squares and use them on cards. I will be sure to share them with you when I have something to show!

Have any of you gotten this beautiful vellum set -- and used it yet? What are your thoughts?

Blended

Smiles.