If there’s one crafter that is the epitome of CAS (clean and simple), it’s Susan Raihala. I’m an avid reader of her blog (even though I shamefully have to admit I’m not commenting nearly enough) and she blows me away with her super simply yet striking designs. I regularly stare at her cards and think, ‘I wish I could do that’, but then I’m too much of a coward to work with that much white space.
Quite recently, Susan created this card using actual gold leaf. It looks stunning, and even though my crafty brain immediately started craving this stuff, I wondered if I could recreate this card using my much cheaper supply of Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes.
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I’m not entirely sure how the application of the real gold stuff works, but from Susan’s description it seemed like it might take quite a bit of work. My card took all of 10 minutes. Seriously. All you do is stamp the image in Versamark, then sprinkle Judkins Sticky Stuff embossing powder on it and heat set it. The moment the embossing powder turns sticky, stop heating it – it’s sticky now and that’s when you apply the Gilding Flakes.
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Mush the flakes onto the sticky surface while holding your breath – this stuff is super light, so heavy breathing (darth vader style) or sneezing (heavens forbid!) will make the air around you sparkle Image may be NSFW.
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" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> Once you’re done, use a scrubby tool to get all the excess flakes off and reveal the actual shapes you’ve covered Image may be NSFW.
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I’m also very impressed by the fine detail I got; even though the Sticky Stuff is pretty coarse. You might want to heat it from behind to make sure you are not blowing off the embossing powder.
And because it was so easy, I wondered if I could use another medium to create a similar card: once more, I used Versamark and Judikins Sticky Stuff, but then sprinkled it with Elizabeth Craft Designs glitter. After carefully pressing the glitter into the sticky surface, I rubbed off the excess and made the glitter shine.
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You might see here that I didn’t get the finest details as well as I did with the gilding flakes, so I’d recommend this technique for images which are not quite as detailed, but I still like the effect immensely. I’m not sure how well it translates to the photos, but in person, the sparkle is just stunning.
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Add to it the stark contrast of the black sentiment, and you have one clean and simple card. Only fitting to use CASual Fridays stamps for it, I’d say Image may be NSFW.
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Hope you enjoyed the cards and you also try to be brave with your white space. I don’t feel quite comfy with it yet, but Susan as my guiding light, I hope I’ll get there someday Image may be NSFW.
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In the meantime, I’m submitting these cards for critical peer review to the Altenew February Challenge which calls for gold and glitter (score!); and CAS on Sunday which wants us to use flowers on a card yet keep it CAS.
