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Clean layered card with tonic crystal drops

Hello, it is so good to see you here! Today I want to highlight to you how easy it is to make a card by using several different layers to create visually appealing cards. In addition, clean layered cards are easy to tailor to any occasion or style from modern to masculine.  

I have used a few different techniques for some of the layers however, these could be paired back even further. Simply swap these layers for printed paper if you don’t have the equipment or time for these techqniues. 

One tip I would give when creating a layered card like this, is to not over complicate the colour scheme. Here, I used varying tones of blue accompanied with gold accents. The gold allows you to build in interest, whilst the varying tones of one colour can help give depth without over shadowing details. 

Materials required

  • Various pieces of paper – I used plain blue and teal paper, but you can use patterned paper if you prefer.
  • Watercolour paper, paints and brush – I wanted to add in a soft Ombre look to the card but you can skip this if you want to and substitute with alternative paper in your stash. 
  • Patterned vellum – this helps to soft bold layers. The vellum used is from: docrafts.om – A4 Ultimate Die-cut & Paper Pack (48pk) – Capsule – Geometric Mono
  • Circle die and die cutting machine (alternative you can draw a circle and fussy cut)
  • Embossing ink (Versamark Ink)
  • Gold Embossing powder
  • White embossing powder
  • Heat gun
  • Sentiment stamp
  • Foam tape
  • Double sided tape

Optional:

  • Tonic Nuvo drops – Caribbean ocean

Clean layered card project details:

To create to watercolour layer, I adhered a piece of smooth watercolour paper to a non-stick mat with masking tape. I mixed 5 tones of blue on a palette – the colours I used were: Viridian Hue, Ultramarine and Intense Blue (Phthalo blue).

Once I had wet the whole paper with water with a flat brush I added each colour in turn from light to dark. I gently blended each colour in adding more colour where need to enhance the tone. I allowed this to dry completely. Remember, as watercolours dry the colour will even out and a smooth finish is seen when all areas of the paper are saturated the same. Therefore, if you notice one area has far more water than its surroundings, try to mop some of this up. A paper towel works quite well at soaking up excess water. 

I had initially cut my watercolour paper in half before I started painting as it was a A4 in size. Once painted, I again trimmed this down creating two slim strips and used this to make two cards. 

embossing tip

For the ‘Hello’ card I created an embossed embellished sentiment die cut. The inspiration and method for this came from Jennifer McGuire. 

After die cutting a plain circle on white card stock, I covered the card with embossing ink and then with gold embossing powder. To heat set the element without smudging the embossing powder with tweezers or without burning my hand, I used a nifty idea of Jennifer McGuires – a handle! By using a scrap piece of paper and temporarily adhering this to the back of the die you can heat set the embossing powder. No more burning you fingers or ruining the finish of the embossing powder! I repeated this twice more to get a nice smooth and even finish to the embossing. 

Once cooled, I used versamark ink to stamp the sentiment onto the embossed die cut. I covered this with white embossing powder and heat set. The trick here is to ensure you heat gun is good and hot before you bring it to the embossing powder. You need the gun to be at its hottest so it melts the white embossing powder quickly before it starts to melt the already set gold embossing. 

The finished look:

The trimmed slice of watercolour card was offset to the left hand side and adhered this down with double sided tape.  I cut two further circles out of complimenting shades of blue paper in two different sizes to help layer the colours. The darker colour circlce was sandwiched between the watercolour paper and velum to soften the strong bold colour. I didn’t want the adhesive holding the vellum down to show through, so I cut the strip of vellum down to slightly longer than the card. Using a bone score or pair of scissors, fold over the vellum around the edges of the card. Adhesive can then be applied to the inside of the card. 

To finish the look off, the sentiment die cut was foam mounted onto the card, and several small drops of Caribbean ocean were added to the bottom right of the card. 

For the second card, I used a ready-made sentiment die cut instead, showing how easy it is to use items within your craft stash. Finally, I stamped and heat embossed a ‘Happy Anniversary’ sentiment in gold surrounded by a few Tonic Nuvo drops. 

No matter what you have in your craft draws you can easily make a clean and modern layered card by sticking to a few simple tips:

  • Stick to one colour scheme but use different tones to add depth.
  • Compliment with a one accent colour – metallic colours are good for this
  • Soften strong bold colours with vellum
  • Keep embellishments within the colour scheme

Have a go and why not post your clean and simple layered cards below, I would love to see them!

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Till next time,

About Me

Hi, I am Verity and I live in the UK.  I love to create beautiful projects whenever I can. My main passion lies with Papercrafting, however, I will always turn my hand to a new project or craft any chance I get.

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