Let It Shine! - A shimmery, shiny floral birthday card

This birthday card for my dear friend Adrienne was the perfect project for the Let It Shine class with Carissa Wiley.

I tried to get some shine in using as many variations as I could.  I started out by heat embossing some flowers and leaves from Altenew's Flower Garden stamp set on some watercolour paper using Altenew Platinum Crisp Embossing Powder.  I then added Nuvo Shimmer Powders in Catherine Wheel, Green Parade, and Solar Flare to the dry images.

I then misted the panel with water and used a small water-brush to break up any clumps of powder that didn't disperse.  

I just love the way this allows different colours to pool in every segment of the images!

I then fussy-cut out all of the pieces and arranged them in a sort of "triangle" fashion, creating one triangle with the flowers and another with the leaves.  I used some low-tack tape to keep this arrangement together, flipped over the whole stack of arranged images, and used the fine tip of my adhesive to sneak in some adhesive between each of the layers.  Once that was dry, I removed the tape and adhered it all down onto my card panel.

That panel, by the way, is another little nod to the idea of 'shine'!  That's the Kaleidoscope Texture Fades 3D Embossing Folder from Tim Holtz, and the repeated circular images with sharp angles remind me of crystals or diamonds.  The shadows they create help to enliven the highlighted facets.  It's not real shine, but I feel like it adds a similar sort of effect without making this over-the-top glitzy.

I then added a few sequins, again in a triangle.  These are Pure Sheen Sequins in Pink Tutu by Nuvo.  

Check out that shimmer! 

My sentiment is from a pre-printed toner sheet by Simon Says Stamp.  Adrienne is one of my favourite sassy friends, so I knew I needed a sassy sentiment for her!  I used my laminator to foil the sentiment, and then embossed "Happy Birthday" with that same Platinum Embossing Powder on the inside.

I'm really happy with how this card turned out.  Carissa's explanation of using varying triangles and how to place embellishments led to a card that I'm really happy with!  This is one of the elements of cardmaking that has been challenging for me, so I was excited to get some insight into the design theory behind cards that look cohesive.

Thanks for stopping by!