Let me just preface by saying that part of the time I was working on tonight’s card, I was watching Project Runway.   And, since the making of the card was, shall we say, an adventure, I felt like Tim was talking to me when he was encouraging his designers, “Make it work!”

So I’m experimenting with embossing and sponging and thinking about what I want to do for my own personal Christmas cards, so I decided to do some experimenting tonight.   Here’s the final outcome, then I’ll explain the process.

Can I first  just say the picture doesn’t really do this card justice?  It’s much prettier in person, and I joked with Julie recently that I should make that the subtitle of my blog.  But it is.  Trust me.

About the card:  Ok, so the base of the card is Whisper White card stock.   I cut another piece of the WW (4×5-1/4) and stamped the stars from the In The Sky stamp set in versamark.  Then I embossed them in clear embossing powder.  So the embossing on the stars is not white embossing powder, which I probably will try next time, because what’s the difference when the only thing showing through is white, right?   Ok.  Then I ”sponged” on (actually it was ink pad directly on the paper) Next to Navy ink and wiped off the excess.   Honestly I was pretty “meh” about it at that point.   I’d have gotten almost the same effect if I’d just embossed them in white on NtN card stock.   Ok, so I stamped the moon on a piece of WW card stock with Basic Black craft ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder, then sponged Barely Banana on it.   About the time I was looking at the moon against the starry background was about the time Tim said “Make it Work.”   I thought, “You know what this needs?  It needs sparkly embossing powder!”  So I grabbed a stamp from the Itty Bitty Backgrounds and inked it with Versamark and stamped it allllllll over the background.   Lots.   Then I poured out the sparkly embossing powder, and saw how pretty all the glitter was in the light of my faux-sunlight lamp, and realized “KATE!  No glitter on Cards for Heroes cards!”  Honestly, I don’t know where my brain went.    But, no crying over spilled glitter, so I tapped off the excess and started heating it with the gun, and Project Runway is still playing in the background, and I’m thinking to myself as I’m cussing myself under my breath about the glitter, “This is a hot mess.”  Literally, it was, because heat embossing.   And I thought that might be the name of the post for tonight if I ended up not liking the card.  But once all the embossing powder did its magic, I started to like it.   Then I got the idea to Versamark the entire surface of the card over the top of the glitter and cover it with a solid layer of clear embossing powder, so maybe the glitter will be ok for CFH.   Then I heated up that whole layer.   I stuck the moon on with pop dots, and decided it needed something at the bottom, so I added a ribbon and a star-shaped clip. 

So it has three layers of embossing - the stars under the ink, the glitter on top of the ink, and the clear on top of the glitter.  Plus the moon.   Here’s a more accurate representation of how it looks in person.

I like it.  I really do.  I like it too much to call it a hot mess.  So, “Make it work!”