Gilded Cards {by Jo Firth-Young, Signature Designer}

Hi everyone Jo Firth-Young here, joining you this evening with a post about creating cards using a simple masterboard, stamping and gilding flakes. Christmas is finished and we're about to welcome in a new year- I wanted to create a batch of 'simple' cards to use as 'thank you' notes or plain 'just in case' cards...

I created quite a simple masterboard - a sheet of painted blended colours - that could be cut up and decorated as required - rather than a fully patterned traditional masterboard.  I chose 2 translucent colours (Blood Orange (a firm favouite of mine), Pumpkin Soup (a nice bright but warm yellow) and Amethyst (from JOFY Limited Edition set 1 - I know many of you have this set so I hope this board inspires to use it in a different colour scheme- away from Dolly Mix and Dusty Teal also in the set).

I created the masterboard by painting a sheet of Smoothy with big bold stripes of the colours, overlapping and blending until I had the effect I wanted.  I dried and smoothed it out ready for cutting up and stamping.

I really like the effect of gilding - the shine and lustre of gold leaf.... or gilding flakes as I'm using here. I'm happy that, with the use of stamping, we are now able to create a delicate fine gilded image (as opposed to all over gilding on big surfaces).

All the cards I made here were created with similar techniques and using the same products; embossing Ink, Stamp 'n' Bond powder and gilding flakes (of which there are many types on the market). You could also use sheets of traditional gold leaf (Dutch Metal) available from art shops.

I stamped the image with embossing ink and covered with Stamp 'n' Bond, heated until melted and sticky.

Cover in gilding flakes - pressing down (carefully as it will be hot) and gently rub away any loose flakes - I use a sponge stamp cleaner ('Rub it scrub it' by Ranger), Cut 'n' Dry foam and then buff with a piece of kitchen towel to create shine.

Here is the finished effect:

I treated each of the cards I created slightly differently so here are the cards and a brief instructional 'how to', and the stamps I used.

My initial plan was to create a batch of 'thank you' cards... and while doing so (while gathering everything up that I planned to use) I realised that there isn't a 'thank you' stamp in the JOFY range!! Why! I asked myself! I think I'd better do something about that! (adds it to a list...)

Card 1: This is a small card (9x9cm), I cut the panel of masterboard so the colour is horizontal across the card, stamped and gilded circles using EEVO6 .  It is then mounted onto a kraft card blank and tied with a white tag and string (I tied this on as it would be nice to put the recipients initial here). The double line of stitching is a stamp from JOFY26, stamped in Jet Black Archival ink.

EEV06

Card 2:  This card (10x10cm) also uses EEV06 - a really versatile stamps set - great for backgrounds and abstract cards. I sewed on  a button, and tied some string around the fold.

Card 3:  This card (12.5x12.5cm) uses images from JOFY26 . I stamped the images first in black, dried the ink, and then stamped the same images and gilded these - I like the contrast between the black and the gilding.

JOFY26

Card 4:  This card (12.5x12.5cm) combines several of my favourite elements - book text, dots and stitches (from JOFY26, as above)

This is what I called the 'thanks but no thanks' card because it didn't go to plan... I planned to spell out 'thanks' using the alphabet I designed for JOFY 21 but decided against it... maybe a different colour used for the word thanks would've been nicer... sometimes designs work better in your head than in reality but its good to try them out...  So I'm showing you both options so you can compare the two..

JOFY21

Card 5:  Another small card (7.5x9cm), the panel mounted onto kraft card with colour blending vertically to work with the gilded lines of stitches an the dried seed head (gathered in the summer), same greeting as used on card 1.

Card 6:  I like creating cards on a 10x15cm size. I used stamps from JOFY14 - I created a small gilded 'washi tape' effect using the border design and the flower stems to create central motif (in both black and gilded finishes).

I wanted to carry the gilding through to the black stamped images and so used a cotton bud pressed into embossing ink to add powder and flakes to the 'buds' on the design (because the cotton bud head is circular its the perfect applicator) ... and to tie the images together more I added black pen detail to the gilded stems.

I sat back and looked at the finished cards, as you do, and decided to try out some ways of adding the greetings.  If I don't have a suitable greeting stamp (as I didn't here) i like to create a strip of greetings on the computer that I can cut into strips and add to cards - really simple to do.  I create lines of text with a spare line in-between with a dash at either end - these dashes act as a cutting guide.

Here are the cards shown in the 'how to' section with added greetings created with the text above.  The first two cards have the text cut into little 'ribbons' with a single phrase, the first using the button that was added previously.

On this card the ribbon has been added near the line of stitching. I would draw the line of stitching over the ribbon (with a black pen) to make it look as it has been sewn onto the card.

These final two options show the text strips in different colours. It is simple to create and change the colour of the font and background - any font can be used... I used 'another typewriter' in a 14pt, I  alter the font and size depending on requirement.

I really enjoyed making these cards - relatively quick and easy but the gilding flakes give the cards a special twist. The gilded effect is so easily achieved with the flakes and can be used for many occasions and used as little or as much a you like on a card's design - or just use them for part of stamped image.  A really versatile technique - don't just use it on cards - it can also be used on objects, ornaments, scrapbook and journal pages (the list is endless!) - give it a go!

Jo

Wow, what a lovely sparkly end to the year Jo, thanks for your card ideas! This looks like a lot of fun to do, and the painted paper would look good in all kinds of colour combinations!

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