Thanks

Hello crafters!  This card was another request, this time by a lovely lady and her daughter that I met at Ally Pally.  It is a really simple card, designed that way in fact, just to show off the micro beaded bow.  I started by simply stamping my sentiment in black in the upper corner of a piece of coconut white card and then embossing the card using my Art Deco Fanfare embossing folder.  That is the background sorted!  Next I cut two of the "ribbon" die that comes with the Classic Bow die set out of periwinkle blue card.  I demoed this card to show not only how to micro bead the bow but also, how to make the ribbon stretch to cover a longer card.  It should be mentioned here too that I have had several people ask me why I didn't just make the die longer so it would work easier with larger cards?  The answer is that it increases the costs of the dies and I was really trying to be as thrifty as possible.  Every extra millimetre raises the cost so it is always a sort of balancing act between getting them the size you want to do some nice things with and also keeping the price as reasonable as possible.  With this ribbon I felt that it was easy enough to cut the die and lengthen it underneath the bow so it looked longer and that is just what I have done here.  I cut the vertical ribbon and put the larger part to the top of the card and the smaller end to the bottom of the card, then I ran the horizontal ribbon through the space and covered the cut lines with the actual bow.  You can't see it at all this way and it accomplishes what I wanted it to do,so I was quite happy with that.  Now for the bow, first I stamped the matching Floral bow stamp using a clear Perfect Medium pad and heat embossed it with white powder.  Next I used the "waste" from a previously cut Classic bow die to make a template and taped it over my stamped image, centring it so that it was nice and even all the way around (it does not fit snug to the stamp because the stamp was designed not to cover the piercing holes in the die).  I taped only one side of the waste, creating a hinge and then folded it backwards and creased it.  Next I covered the stamped area with a sticky self adhesive sheet cut to size, then I folded my "waste" template back over the area and taped the other side down.  I slotted the die back into place and cut out the image.  I peeled the backing paper off and dipped it in my micro beads and covered it.  I did this for both the bow and the tails.  I used Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue on the ends and centre of the back of the bow and let it get good and tacky, then brought the ends around, creating the loops of the bow and glued them to the centre.  I added the die cut (non stamped) wrap piece to the bow, then glued the tails to the back and attached it to my card.  I added the double white pierced mat with a thin periwinkle edge to finish the card.  Finished dimensions are 6 3/4" x 8 1/2" in size.  All for now, Sue x