Birthday card with embossed foil

I created this card for my brother who has a birthday in early January.  I started by gluing foil to a 4.25" x 5.5" piece of heavy cardstock using a glue stick and folding the edges to the back and gluing those down as well.  I embossed it with a gears embossing folder and then applied several layers of ink, paint and permanent marker.  I wiped off the excess in between the colours/mediums and also sanded the high spots a couple of times.  I found this ART stamped image in my stash and embellished it with several layers of watercolour and stamping before I embossed it with the same embossing folder and then ran a brown stamp pad over it to highlight the embossing.  It was too bright so I toned it down with another layer of brown colour wash which resulted in more the look I was going for.  I glued it to my embossed foil layer using double sided tape.  I trimmed and watercoloured the coffee cup image and layered it onto black.  I cut two flags to layer onto the back - one from wood decorative paper and one from the same cardstock I used for the card.  They also seemed too bright so I toned them down by stamping them with a background stamp and some brown ink.  I applied this focal element to the right hand side of the card and added my layered greeting to the left hand side which allowed the large wheel in the embossing to show.  Very happy with how it turned out and will be sending it on it way today!

Therese

Twig wreath

I have finally finished my twig wreath!!!  I started more than a year ago when I designed the wreath and had DH create the substrate - a donut cut from thin wood.  I collected the willow twigs after the trimming of the willows in the early spring and cut them all to size - small, medium and large. They had been sitting in the back garage drying for more than a year so this summer I took the time to glue them all to the substrate with hot glue.  I was very happy with how that went and trimmed all the hot glue strings in preparation for painting.  I had wanted to paint it light gray but others liked the very earthy colour of it in its natural state so it sat yet for a another while.  About a month ago I decided that I would paint it light gray as I had originally planned so went looking for paint.  I had thought mat finish but could not find anything besides primer that was matt finish and it was too dark a gray for what I wanted.  So bought light gray enamel paint in a spray can with the plan to spray it with clear matt finish.  I sprayed the wreath 4 times over the course of one day - one coat on the back and three on the front.  I used a produce crate to support it while drying which worked really well.  I am very happy with how it turned out as it still has lots of texture and depth which may have disappeared if I had continued to add layers of paint.  While I was out buying paint I found this burlap poinsettia discounted in the Christmas aisle of Peavy Mart.  I bought one red - all they had - and one beige.  I dismantled the beige one and applied a colour wash of green acrylic paint to the largest petals and then dismantled the red one, removed the spacer and added the green one to the back!!!  Perfect!!  I wired them together and then added them to the wreath with the wire once I had positioned the flower where I wanted it.  It was ready in time to put up for Christmas!!  I have felted wool roses in three sizes (Thanks, Suzanne) which I will do up to add to the wreath for the rest of the year.  It looks exactly as I had hoped it would!!!

Therese