Engagement Card (inspired by Manja Nelan)

We received some wonderful news a few days back, that our younger son and his girl are now engaged.  We are absolutely thrillled for them.

I am really not in crafting mode at the moment, due to packing up for a house move.  My crafting mojo seems to have been replaced by all things moving!  So I was really struggling with ideas for a card to make.

I remembered seeing a card on the Lavinia Stamps facebook group that I thought was very clever, so I searched for it and found the one I was looking for, it was by Manja Nelan from 2021, so I decided to give it a go.  The card above is inspired by Manja's card.

Using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink, I stamped the two Lavinia Stamps trees, they're called "Tree of courage" and "Tree of hope".

I then found my Visible Image "Love is love" stamp set, with two profiles.  I stamped them on to a piece of card and then fussy cut the face profiles. I used a pencil to lightly draw around the profiles on the edge of each tree.  I then used the central area between the stamped face image as a stencil, colouring and blending the face with "Fern Green" Ranger Archival Ink.  I've shown a photo of what I mean.

I used the same ink with a blending brush and a Lavinia Stamps "Hill Mask" to create the land that the trees are based on.

Next, I used a fine liner black pen to add extra branches to fill in the empty areas of the faces. I  then used a brown Derwent Inktense pencil with a paint brush to colour the tree trunk and some of the thicker branches. I added gold coloured dots within the tree branches too.

Finally, using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink I stamped the word "love" between the foreheads, using part of one of the "Heartfelt Verse" sentiment stamps from Lavinia Stamps.  I used the same ink to stamp the word "Congratulations" which is part of a Clarity Stamps stamp set called "Entwined Sentiments".  I mounted the card on to a piece of dark green card and then on to a 8x8" card blank.

Funky Fossil Engagement Card (using Sweet Hearts and Diamond Trio Stencils)

Was love in the air this Valentine's weekend?  Do you need to make an engagement card?

For this card, I have used two Funky Fossil Design stencils.  In the background, I have used the "Sweet Hearts" stencil and the Wow! Embossing pad with a Wow! embossing powder called "Love Is The Drug".  

Now I found something out about this embossing powder, in the pot it is a hot pink colour, so naturally, I assumed it would heat to that colour on the black cardstock, in the same way the sentiment heated in silver.  But I was mistaken, when heated it turns clear with just a tiny hint of pink.  I then tried it on white card and it heated to the pink colour, so I will need to remember this when I go to use it in future. As it turned out for this card, I think it was a happy accident as the card has a more classy feel than it would have had it gone to plan.

For the central diamond, I used a stencil called "Diamond Trio, again using the Wow! clear embossing pad but this time I used "Wow! White Twinkle Embossing Glitter".

For the congratulations sentiment, I used a stamp that I've had for ages, heat embossed using "Wow! Metallic Silver Super Fine Embossing Powder"

Lavinia Stamps - Star Gazing Engagement Card

Friends of ours have recently got engaged, so I made this card for them using Lavinia Stamps.

I used a piece of Shenandoah patterned paper and enhanced it with Distress Oxide Inks in the shades of:  Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Abandoned Coral.

For all the stamping, I used Versafine Clair "Nocturne" ink. I stamped the "Star Gazing" couple, then masked off a circle and edged it in ink to create the sun.  I then stamped the "Dandelions".  

I tore a piece of paper and used that to create the landscape that the couple are seated on, by dragging a blender across the torn edge.

I then stamped the "Lunar Buds", the "Meadow Grass" and the "Wild Vines".

Finally, I stamped the sentiment using stamps from a Spellbinders set (ref STP-002).  I used a gold shimmer Sakura Gelly Roll pen to add highlights to various areas.

Engagement Congratulations Card

I've been going through my magazines today.  Pulling articles out for keeping and putting the rest in the recycling.  While doing that, I came across a number of freebies, so with some of them, I made this card.

The trellis background, the birds and the sentiment were all free with issue 186 of Simply Cards and Papercraft.  The trellis was a stencil which I put Distress Inks through.  

I stamped the birds onto the trellis and also onto a piece of plain card.  On the trellis piece of card, I coloured the branch that the birds are sitting on in a brown Promarker.

Returning to the stamped image of the birds on the plain piece of card, I coloured the birds using a moist paint brush and water colour pencils.  I then cut the bodies and heads of the birds out (I didn't cut the branch or the bird feet).  I then went around the edges of the cut out birds with a black felt pen.  Using foam pads to elevate the image, I stuck the birds on top of the earlier stamped bird image on the trellis to provide a puffed up 3D body effect.

I then punched a little heart and added it above the birds and mounted the image onto the same pinky/red background, trimming to size.

I found an embossing folder which came free with and earlier issue of Simply Cards and Papercraft (issue 170) and ran it through the Big Shot and trimmed to size.  I mounted the bird image onto the embossed background. Digging around my pre cut die cut box, I found the two green foliage pieces that I thought would work and added these to each side of the card.

A Congratulations Wedding/Engagement Card

This card is 8x8 so I was working totally out of my comfort zone, as I prefer to create smaller cards.

I used a piece of patterned paper for the background of this card.  I then sprayed the back of the skeleton leaves with adhesive, sticking them to the patterned paper.

Using two dies from the Spellbinders "Decorative Fancy Diamonds" set I cut the decorative central panels, sticking the large one down.  On the smaller one, I stamped "Congratulations" using a stamp from Stampin' Up "Flroal Phrases" set.  I then elevated that by using sticky foam pads to add dimension.

Finally I added ribbon and sticky pearls.

Sunshine Wishes Engagement Card

This week I received some Stampin' Up goodies.  Part of that order was the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits die set, which resulted in this engagement card I made today. (The patterned paper is by Crate Paper).