New Cardmaking Technique (for me)

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I went to a rubber-stamp festival and learned (and bought) a lot. One of the things I learned was a very cool technique for using glitter. It starts with super-sticky, double-sided adhesive. Cut it to the size you want and stick it on the paper. In my case, I was making a birthday card for my mother:



Next, remove the backing from the top side of the sticky paper. Soap the back of the stencil (this allows for easy removal from the sticky paper) and place it on the sticky paper:



(You can see my pretty pink camera reflected in the stencil. Good thing you can't see my hair. I hadn't fixed it yet, or even brushed it, for that matter!)

If you're using more than one color, place tape over the parts of the stencil that you don't want colored just yet:



Sprinkle glitter on. I found that I needed to press it on a bit, as some of it shook off when I initially removed the excess glitter. Pressing it solved that problem:



Remove tape as needed to glitter the rest of the stencil:



Remove the stencil:



Fill in the rest of the sticky paper with whatever color you choose. In my case, I used white. (The colors showed up a bit better off camera):



I inked the edges of the card and stamped a "Happy Birthday" sentiment inside. The card turned out nicely, and my parents seemed impressed by it. However, I would change a few things next time:

1. Darker glitter. The pastel stuff, which is all I have right now, just didn't make the color impact I was hoping for.

2. White paper, rather than pastel yellow. Actually, I think the yellow would have been fine if I'd just had darker-hued glitter.

3. I don't think I'd mix fine glitter (colors) with a chunkier glitter (white) again. I have a couple of bottles of finer white glitter and didn't use them. I should have.

4. I think it needs a border. More impact.

And now when my mom reads my blog, she can read all the ways I could have done this better! That's the danger in giving away a first attempt. Good thing moms are forgiving!