Paper Seedlings: SUNFLOWER THANKS

This card features a few old techniques -- floating reinkers and a tent topper card -- and lots of new products. Let's jump right in.

First of all, the lovely sunflower is from a new set, Celebrate Sunflowers, found on page 13 of the new Annual Catalog. Isn't it wondrous? Knowing I was a lover of sunflowers, this one literally jumped into my shopping cart! You should have seen that!

Two of the new In Colors are also featured: Cinnamon Cider (this delicious-sounding color is the darker one) and Bumble Bee.

The bit of embossing on the Bumble Bee piece is one of the new embossing folders, one of a set of two folders called Greenery, page 184.The other folder in this set features a floral pattern. The embossing folders in this double set each measure 6 1/4" x 3 3/8".

The last new item I used on my card is the darling Bumble Bee Gingham Ribbon, found on page 161.

Because the sunflower is so large and lush, I decided to use it in a tent topper card. As a tent topper card, this simply means that a portion of the card extends above the main body of the card, giving it a bit more importance. I love the look of tent topper cards, and forget too often to create them.

The cute, perfectly sized "thanks" sentiment is from the Inspiring Iris set, to be found on page 118. Not only is the iris inspiring, but so is the whole set.

The idea that was the instigator for this card was that I wanted to try an old technique, Floating Reinkers, with the large sunflower image. I thought it would be perfect for this technique.

Back in the day, when the Floating Reinkers technique was so popular, it was usually done with the image embossed in white. This time though, to add to the earthy feel of the sunflower image, I embossed it in gold. Unfortunately, the embossing subdued a lot of the detail in the center of the flower. More on that later.

I stamped the flower image onto SHIMMERY WHITE cardstock with VersaMark ink, then sprinkled the sticky flower with gold embossing powder. I embossed it with the heat tool.

To do my Floating Reinkers (only relying on my memory), after embossing the flower, I used an Aqua Painter (now called Water Painters, and you can get THREE different sizes in the set for $12.00, and is found on page 147 of the new Annual Catalog) to completely moisten the flower area.

Using retired reinkers, I put a drop of each color I wanted to use in a separate well of a palette. With the larger of the Aqua Painters, I dipped into one of the yellowish colors and dropped it onto the moistened image here and there, not being careful at all. I repeated the process with the other yellow color, blending them a bit so all of the flower portion was filled in. I didn't have a brown reinker (!), so mixed together two really old reinkers, True Thyme and Creamy Caramel, for my brownish center.

I let the colors dry naturally. Doing it this way allows the colors to penetrate the cardstock a bit more for more vivid coloring.

Once it was almost dry, I did flick it with the heat tool to make sure it was completely dry.

My next step was to fussy cut the flower, which I did very carefully so as to not trim off any of the gold embossing.

I die cut a circle almost exactly the same size as the fussy cut flower from a satin metallic gold cardstock. The flower was mounted onto that.

Once that part was done, it was off to the math table, my least favorite part of cardmaking. When I run into a situation such as this, I wish I had paid more attention to any of the math they tried to teach me in school. Yuck.

After some trial and error, I came up with a good size for the card base, so it wasn't overpowered by the size of the sunflower, but yet was a good complement in size. The card base ended up being 3 3/4" x 7 1/2", giving me a 3 3/4" square card. It is important when making a tent topper card that, once the focal point is added, the card still remains within the 5 1/2" size so it fits inside an A2 envelope. My card is just a smidge under 5 1/2" tall. Whew.

Because I lost so much detail in the center of my flower as the result of the embossing, I needed to do something about that. I tried so many ideas, none of which I liked at all. Almost ready to give up, I suddenly had a welcome aha moment! I colored with the Bronze Stampin' Blend a few of the Basic Rhinestone jewels and added them willy nilly to the center of the flower. Voila! I liked it!

I embossed the 3 1/4" square piece of Bumble Bee cardstock in the new embossing folder and added it to my Cinnamon Cider card base before adding the big sunflower.

Since the embossed background was so cool, I didn't want to cover up just too much of it. So, I chose the small sentiment from the Inspiring Iris set and embossed it in gold onto Bumble Bee cardstock, then cut it out with the small oval from the Stitched Shapes dies (page 183 -- the BEST $30 you'll ever spend!) and mounted it with Dimensionals to the card with a few snippets of the Bumble Bee ribbon crisscrossed behind it. I also added one more bronze-colored Basic Rhinestone to the sentiment.