Always Subtle

This card was interesting to make. I don't normally put this many steps into a card--especially when I'm making 20+ of them, but this design had to be professional quality. I started with Very Vanilla and trimmed it down to the size I wanted, then stamped the berry branch from the Always set in Versamark. Heat embossed with white embossing powder. That was stunning by itself, the white-on-vanilla look, but I wanted to increase the contrast a bit. So I used a stippling brush to swirl Creamy Caramel ink over the cardstock for a subtle emboss-resist effect. I punched the corners with the ticket corner punch, then matted it to a piece of Creamy Caramel (after punching those corners as well).

Those pieces sat around for about a week while I decided how I wanted to finish them. When I finally narrowed it down, I sat down and stamped out a bunch of hearts from the Always set in Mellow Moss on white. Then I carefully cut them all out, leaving off the dots around the outside edges. Though you can't really see it in this pic, the edges of the center heart are distressed with a sanding block. It's mounted on a dimensional. The others are just glued directly to the vanilla piece. Tied hemp twine around the vanilla/caramel piece. Tied a bit of Mellow Moss around the twine knot, trimmed the ends, then glued the whole thing to a Mellow Moss card base. One of the small sentiments from the Always set can be stamped inside.

So here's a summary:
Stamps: Always
Paper: V. Vanilla, W. White, Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Versamark, Creamy Caramel, Mellow Moss
Accessories: White embossing powder, stipple brush, heat gun, sanding block, Mellow Moss ribbon, natural hemp twine, dimensional, liquid glue