Foiled Ribbon How -To in Support of Lyme Disease

Hello -Kathy here with my first post as a ScraPerfect Design Team member -woohoo!!! I have been having so much fun playing with all the new ScraPerfect products that came in my design team kit and can't wait to share my creations with you here and on my blog @ create.365 . 

Today's card was designed in support of May being Lyme Disease Awareness month. For those of you who may not know, I went undiagnosed with Lyme disease for over 30 years but began treatment early in 2015 with hopes of someday reaching remission. My young adult daughter was also diagnosed with Lyme within 6 months of me and so we travel this hard road together. This card is for her in our support of raising awareness for Lyme Disease - with hopes that in the future all will be tested, diagnosed and treated properly for this devastating disease that has no cure!

So let's get crafty, shall we? I used sketch #63 from the challenge over @ Your Next Stamp, but I flipped it vertically instead of horizontally. As you can see, I also went with a monochromatic theme (Lyme green), so I will also apply this card over at the Dragonfly Dreams Challenges blog for the month of May.

Gathering supplies is always a work in progress -as you just never know how a project will evolve -changing your mind several times along the way is just a given as a designer, right? The main stamp set I used is called "Fight Like a Girl" and is from Amuse Studio. While it is a stamp set designed for supporting Breast Cancer, (like I did in this card here) I love that it will also work for supporting any cause of your choice, just by changing the ribbon colors. The wooden ribbon stamp is from Stampin' Up! 

After trimming my cardstock layers to work with the sketch for my A2 sized card base, I cut the long tail off the small ribbon stamp and used it to randomly stamp a background strip in Twisted Citron Distress Ink. (Don't worry, the stamp is not ruined and the line will be barely noticeable when I use them together to get the whole original image. But after having had this set for 2 years and never using it the way it came, I decided to make the change!)

Using a scrap piece of acetate as my palette, I inked it up directly with the ink cube and sprayed it with water...carefully flipping it over, I then repeatedly applied the diluted ink to my watercolor panel until I got the look I wanted for my background. Once it was dry, I then spritzed it with some water droplets to lift some of the color off in random spots. As you can see with my first go around, I didn't add enough water and you can see the distinct square shape of the ink pad -no worries, I'll just cover that up with my layers later anyway...no one will ever know! (except for you all, lol)

While waiting for the watercolor to dry, it was time to get messy and experimental! I had an image in my head of what I wanted to do, but we crafters all know that our visions don't always work out the way we had imagined they would...this is one such instance. The idea I had was to sponge the Best Glue Ever onto the stamp with a make-up sponge, stamp it onto the cardstock, let it dry until clear and tacky and then apply the green Transfer Foils to it...in theory, it was a great idea -in reality, it was still a good idea, but took some practice to get it right. My first try I added too much glue and after I stamped it down, I went to pull it back off the paper and it brought a layer of the paper with it, lol. UGG -take two -lesson learned that this glue is really strong stuff and you only need the tiniest of bits to get it to work! So I tried it again and this time used the thinnest film of glue across the stamp's surface and it worked perfectly! 

While I waited for the image to dry, I immediately used the Best Cleaner Ever to take the left-over sticky glue off of my stamp...worked like a charm and removed every last bit with no sticky residue -YAY! Once it was "dry", clear and tacky to the touch I laid the green foil with the colored side facing up over the top of the stamped ribbon and rubbed it down to adhere the foil, pulled it away and enjoyed the "magic". Then I fussy cut my newly foiled ribbon out and set it aside. (If you want more specifics on using Transfer Foils, there are some great videos on the ScraPerfect website)

For the "hope" diecut sentiment, I wanted it to stand up off the card a but, so I cut it twice...once from Lyme green glitter cardstock and once from white fun foam.

I then simply used tiny dots of the Best Glue Ever to adhered the 2 layers together...if you've ever worked with fun foam before, then you know that it can be ornery to glue...problem solved when using the BGE!

To make the center panel of the card, I broke out a retired stamp set from The Angel Company to stamp the words that would be behind the foiled ribbon in lyme green ink, sponged that same ink along the edges and then used a distress tool to rough up the edges and add some texture to them. The foiled ribbon was adhered with mini foam dots.

Since the sequins were a last minute designer decision, I completely forgot to take a photo of them being applied, but with the help of the Embellie Gellie "magic wand" and the Best Glue Ever they were a quick and easy addition. (find video details on how to use Embellie Gellie here) The layers were all assembled using the BGE and the small ribbon stamped on the lyme green cardstock was inked in white pigment ink and then heat set to dry.

Inside I stamped the Amuse Studio sentiments and one more small ribbon in the same Lyme green ink. This card is now off in the mail to my daughter and will hopefully bring a smile to her face later this week!

Until next time ~Happy Crafting with ScraPerfect~