Totally Techniques - Playing with Paste

I love this month's techniques with the Totally Techniques Design Team. I hope that you are having a crafty time and that all is well in your world.  I always love Nadine's projects and hope you do too.

Because we are showing "Playing with Paste" this month I have included a few of my projects. You know I love texture and you layering so this is the perfect brief for me to have a little fun.

Here is my first project:

A very simple card. The base is Lemon Lime Twist and for a change it is a standard C6 size card. I mounted the base card with a rectangle of Basic Black and stamped on Shimmery White card stock.

The flower from Birthday Blooms is heat embossed in Black Stampin' Emboss and coloured with an aqua painted in Berry Burst, Lemon Lime Twist and Old Olive.

I smeared the area around the flower with Embossing Paste and the diamond shaped spatula. I wanted to add texture and draw attention to the flower.

The paste adds depth to the card which I know sounds funny but I wanted to copy the painting trend of layering gesso, oils and pastes on the background of the card to add a complexity that the simple flower loses without this little extra.

My next project is more Christmas oriented and is a 6" square, Thick Whisper White card stock base, lined with a square of Basic Black and stamped on Whisper White:

Again I am doing something a little different, I used a Foil Snowflake from the Holiday Cattie as my template and spread the Embossing Paste over the snow flake using it as a stencil. 

I then sprinkled the Embossing Paste with Dazzling Diamonds and allowed it to dry. This is the hardest part as you just want to get on with making the card and need to be patient!

The Sentiment is from Snowflake Sentiments and stamped in Black Tuxedo Memento Ink. This set has some beautiful sentiments that are heartfelt and beautiful ~ in fact I think its my favourite set this season. Seasonal Lantern is another set which will get a lot of use both over the Holiday Season and beyond especially if you like vintage cards and steam punk style themes.

Here I have used the Lantern Builder Framelit Dies to cut out the black lantern, I lined the lantern with a piece of vellum card stock and stamped the candle on a separate piece of Whisper White card stock. I coloured the candle with Soft Sky, the flame in So Saffron and the area around the candle in So Saffron but a lighter hand. . . I wanted the candle to be subtle. I then added just a touch of Wink of Stella clear to the front of the vellum. The lantern is built using the Foam Adhesive Strips which sit off the cardbase just that little bit more.

My final card that I will share today is using the Embossing Paste in the manner suggested in the catalogue, in conjunction with the Pattern Party Decorative Masks:

This is an easel card, its 6" square Blushing Bride layered with a square of Old Olive and mounted with a square of Whisper White for stamping.

I used the brick wall mask and like to leave the edges a little half hazard. I think that the texture is much more fun when its not uniform.

The sentiment is from Layering Love, stamped in Garden Green on Whisper White. I cut out the oval using the Layering Oval Framelits, I mounted this on a oval cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits in Blushing Bride to pop the sentiment off the page. It is stuck down with dimensionals.

The pine leaves were cut using the Pretty Pines Thinlits and Garden Green cardstock. The Old Olive Leaves are punched out using the new Leaf Punch from the Holiday Mini and the larger flowers were cut out with the May Flowers Framelits in Whisper White and daubed with Blushing Bride. The smaller Blushing Bride flowers were cut out using the Bloomin' Heart Thinlits. For the added touch of glam I added Silver Faceted Gems and Rhinestone Jewels.

For the easel aspect I added a pice of Whisper White card as a liner and the additional flowers for the "stopper" wedge.  I love that the texture of the Embossing Paste contrasts with the smoothness of the oval cut sentiments and complements the dimension of the flowers.

Hope that you are feeling inspired and excited to break out the Embossing Paste - its lots of fun and provided you replace the lid tot he jar immediately post use it will give you hours of enjoyment.

So a recap of the different styles of cards:

And don't leave us just yet. . . you are going to love Zoe's gorgeous projects!

Until next time, add some glitter, its the spice of creativity!

Shanni xx

Order of October Blog Hop

Patrice Halliday-Larsen (New Zealand)

Nadine Weiner (Germany)

Shannean Moncrieff (Australia) that's me!

Zoe Tant (United Kingdom)

Barbar Meyer (Austria)