It's QKR Monday . . .

I don't know about your corner of the world, but here in northeast Ohio, we had a beautiful Fall weekend (certainly to be one of our last), which inspired me to make this card. I used the QKR Stampede Leaf (#3901) and Hope Forever (#22801) stamps to create this card. The background of my card was stamped with the Leaf stamp and a Kaleidacolor stamp pad. For the focal image, I again used the Leaf stamp with foil and QKR Stampede's new line of Sticky Powder (some of you may recognize this product as Sticky Embossing Powder, or Heat-n-Stick powder). Being that Fall is quickly leaving us, I decided that the Cherish Yesterday sentiment, from the Hope Forever stamp (which is actually a collection of four sentiments), was perfect for this card.

Here is a close-up of the foiled image; as you can see, the result is absolutely stunning!

If you go to the QKR Stampede website and click on the Supplies tab, you will find directions on how to use the Sticky Powder, as well as illustrations of various craft mediums that were used with the Sticky Powder.  If you follow my blog, you may recall that I did a photo tutorial using foil, which can be found here.  I don't know about you, but I'm hanging onto these last few Fall days we have and enjoying the last of the colors of Fall ...  Grab your hats, mittens, and scarves because this Friday, November 19, we will be having the QKR Stampede Christmas/Winter blog hop. We had a Christmas in July blog hop to get your creative juices flowing, but just in case you're looking for some ideas for Christmas cards or gifts, you'll want to be sure to put this Hop on your list of things to see! We have a very talented group of ladies on the design team, and the projects will be amazing and inspiring!! I'll be providing a sneak peek later in the week, so stay tuned . . .

Foiled Again!

A question came up on a group about how to use gold leaf -- the kind that comes in sheets or flakes. I thought I would post a card that uses gold leaf and quick instructions on how the card was created. This particular technique works best with bold image stamps. Using a detail stamp image (depending on the amount of detail) can lose the effect of the foil. If you have various colors of foil, have fun mixing your colors. I have gold leaf that I have bought in flakes and in sheets.

Once I open a bag of gold leaf, I store it in a tin.

Here is a close-up of a stamped and foiled image (the stamp used in this project is from the Fabulous Flowers set by Stampin' Up!):

How to do this:  Ink your image with VersaMark or an embossing ink, stamp onto your card stock, cover with heat-n-stick powder (also known as sticky embossing powder), and heat emboss just until sticky (the stamped image will appear shiny; if you overheat, the image will appear dull and will have lost its tackiness). Firmly press the gold leaf flakes into the heat-n-stick and make sure that the entire image is covered.

It looks like quite the mess, but with the fine mesh scrubber pictured above (found at your local stamp or craft store; a kitchen scrubber can be used, as well), you will scrub, or buff, away the excess foil, gradually revealing your stamped image. Any large pieces of foil can be put back in your "stash" (I scrub holding my card stock directly over my storage tin so that all pieces go right back in for future use). Your beautiful stamped/foiled image is revealed.

Use the piece in your project, be it a card or a scrapbook page. I made this card:

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day!!